Struggling to express much milk!

[ColdTeaAgain]

So DD (4 months) has finally decided to accept the bottle which is great for giving me a break in the evening as she is EBF.

Anyway, I'm finding it hard to express much milk. For the time it gives me off in the evening when DP gives her a bottles I'm spending way more time in the day to express enough to fill said bottle! Just spent half an hour (15mins each side) with the pump and only got just over 3ozs

A friend of mine said she could always express as much as she needed and always had to wear breast pads as she leaked so much. I have barely had to use breast pads since DD was born!

If i express in the morning it flows a lot better and can get 5ozs in a lot less time but it seems a more watery consistency and I wonder if the milk from the morning is satisfying enough for her to have in the evening? Or am I just talking nonsense? Help!

Being able to express 5oz is allot.

And yes it should satisfy her in the evening.

The best way to get express is to tandem feeding (baby on one boob, pump on the other). That was your child stimulates milk flow (although it involves a bit of multitasking). Have you massaged your boob before hand to stimulate the milk? Or some women prefer expressing after a shower

Remember the amount you express is never a clear indication of the amount of milk you have. Even with the best pumps on the market

Hi,
Expressing is a skill and takes time to develop and get breasts use to exopressing milk that way. Baby is more efficient so will be getting more milk from breasts and quicker than you will by expressing.
Morning is the optimal time to express (not sure why but have read this and found this myself too). I try to express every morning but if i miss for a few days when I start up again amount expressed has dropped. When I first started expressing some times I would only get 10 - 20 ml but through regular use of expresser and through natural increase in milk through feeding baby this increased to approx 200ml every morning. But it drops to about 100ml if I miss days. I store it all in freezer for future use.

So try expressing in morning and also I try and express anytime LO has expressed milk so that I do not get to full. I also express on throughout the day if needed for comfort as LO has been under it recently and not feeding.

I have an electric expressor _ tried with my hands and and with a manual pump i borrowed - Both were a nightmare but electric pump was monely well spent.

Good luck x

It's always easier for me to express instead of missing a feed - so while DH gives a bottle, you could express milk ready for the next day/ to freeze. You might have more milk then, rather than trying to express while feeding during the day. Also, my MW says milk from an evening/night contains the right hormones to help baby sleep.