At my wits end with expressing

[BeetlebumShesAGun]

I decided I wanted to express milk to give my 6 week old DD one bottle a day. We also have a few events coming up where we will be out for the night so really need to express milk for this. I don't want to move on to forumala yet.

A friend works at Boots so got me a Medela mini electric pump for cheap. I used it in the very first days to relieve engorgement and stupidly didn't store the milk but poured it away. Then when we decided to try her with a bottle and lo and behold the pump had lost it's suction. I couldn't take it back as friend had got it for me from the staff shop.

I went online and bought the Tommee Tippee electric pump as we have the TT bottle/breastfeeding kit. I couldn't afford to spend more than £70. I used it once, found the suction poor but it improved once I removed the cushion thing. Now switched it on and tried and no milk is coming out whatsoever.

Does anyone have any recommendations or advice? I can't afford the more expensive pumps and to be honest am loath to spend money on something else that doesn't work!

Take the TT pump back.

Or call their helpline and explain what's happening, just in case there's something you should be doing.

OK. Try gently stroking the breast first to stimulate let down, and if possible do it when near your LO as this can help too. Try and relax and take it easy. Switch from boob to boob as this sometimes works better than persevering with one boob.

Have you tried hand expressing? I personally found that more effective for my boobs and each of us is different. I know my friend has more success with a cheap hand pump...

Also different times of day work better for different people - when do you tend to try expressing?

Is there an option to send the medela back to the manufacturer? Or at least contact them for advice?

Currently expressing at least once daily which means dad can do the bedtime feed & I can just about scrape together enough over the week for the two days he's at the CM.

I do find volumes produced depend on how rested & relaxed I am - appreciate that's not easy with a young baby!, when & how well I last ate, whether I'm drinking enough fluid etc.... I'll generally get more volume in the morning.

Breast compressions help - look at you tube.

Chin up & for you, keep going, it's worth it.

using avent natural electric pump btw

Thanks for the replies. I tried stimulating let down and it did work. I also just tried again while feeding DD and that helped a lot! I will continue to experiment with times etc!

I express daily between 40 and 100ml - I find I get much more in the morning. DS has one side and I pump the other (he's not a 2-boob baby unless on a growth spurt I've found). Massaging quite firmly (yes.. milking like a cow!) seems to help me a lot too, there was a video on an earlier thread about expressing that demonstrated how to massage really nicely actually..

Being consistent helps - ie doing it everyday - as it takes a while for your boobs to respond to pumping.

I also found switching to a good quality double-pump helped up my yield massively when I went back to work at 9 months. I bought the Ardo Calypso, which was pricey, but totally worth it - I got about 200mls out in 20 mins at work the other day! You can get pretty good deals on them used on EBay and because it's a closed system pump you can safely share/ buy 2nd hand and not worry about contamination.

I'm using a medela swing so could be wrong but guessing the assembly is the same for all the different pumps. I spent half and hour trying to get suction from my pump one day and tried everything,nothing worked. Eventually I realised I had forgot to attach the small valve with the plastic membrane (no idea what it's called) and that was the problem. Don't mean to sound like I think your am idiot,I don't honestly, but you've definatley assembled it correctly?