How much EBM?

[Featherbag]

I'm currently ebf 19do DS2, thoroughly enjoying it and all is going well. However, I'm so sleep deprived it's not even funny, just sat and cried this morning with sheer delirious exhaustion. I've been expressing once every other day with a view to letting DH take over a feed at some point just so I can get more than 2 hours sleep in one go. I'm not going to do this for at least another week, but in hoping someone with some experience can tell me how much EBM I should defrost for a bottle? Don't want to waste it but don't want DH waking me because DS is still hungry!

What I do is freeze milk in 2/3 ozs so then not much waste if any, defrost one at a time, only takes seconds to defrost and if you dh stays at home should be no bother, hth

It depends how often your little one is feeding per day, though at 19 days his stomach is still fairly little and he'll be used to eating little and often.

Frozen ebm can be defrosted in a few mins using tepid water, so you could defrost 30-50ml (1-1.5 oz or so) at a time. Then if your ds is still hungry, your dh can defrost another one without keeping him waiting too long.

Bear in mind that expressing and offering a bottle isn't recommended when bf isn't yet established, but I well remember how the need for sleep in the early days consumes all else! Do take care not to leave it too long without removing milk if you swap a bf for an ebm feed or you'll risk blocked ducts and mastitis, especially if you get easily engorged. And there are ways to bottle feed that are more bf-friendly than others kellymom.com/bf/pumpingmoms/feeding-tools/bottle-feeding/

When he's 1 month or older, kellymom has some useful info on how to work out quantities of ebm kellymom.com/bf/pumpingmoms/pumping/milkcalc/

Thanks! I'm trying to leave it as long as possible before introducing a bottle, but he is going to have to take a bottle at some point as I'll be going back to work before he's weaned. And I really am desperate for sleep!!!