Not getting much from pumping ?

[CheshireDing]

Dc2 is 10 weeks and ebf. With DC1 I did express some but I always found it seemed to takes ages and by the time I had bf I couldn't often be bothered because DC1 bf so much.
Now with No2 I have tried again but the situation seems to be the same, unless I leAve one breast for about half a day I only get about 1oz, if I leAve it then pump I get about 3oz in the same amount of time - about 15 mins.
I do everything people have suggested relax, tickle babies toes etc. I just don't really understand how the pump can be so rubbish and take so long when ebf seems to work so well. I understand the electric pump is not as efficient as the baby but some people seem to get lots from pumping.

It's pretty normal to only get an oz or two at a time if you're pumping in addition to breastfeeding, IME. I only started being able to get 4/5oz in a short time once I was pumping instead of feeds when I was at work. I think anyone who's getting massive amounts from pumping sessions is either a)pumping instead of a missed feed, as above, b)has oversupply, or c)is risking giving themselves oversupply (which you do not want). If you do it at the same time each day you should get more consistent results, but again I wouldn't pump massive amounts because of the overstimulating your supply risk.

What are you expressing for? Is it just so you'll be able to give the odd bottle of EBM/practice bottles? You really only need to do a couple of oz a day for that (if that), it's actually more practical to save it in small quantity bags so you don't end up defrosting or heating up more than you need.

Thanks Leedy, maybe a good idea to try and do it the same time every day then like you said.

I am just trying to build some up in the freezer, yes if I do get 4oz I split it between 2 bags though.

It just seems other people seem to how loads when they pump to be able to freeze whilst still bf - but maybe they are the same people whose babies sleep through the night immediately ;)

If consider a different pump. I had an electric one back when I had DD and it was RUBBISH! I switched to an Avent Isis manual. The difference was amazing. I don't think the Isis is available much any more but the current Avent manual is pretty similar. I wonder if your health visitor or bf group might have access to some different pumps for you to try.

Have you tried expressing by hand? I've never been able to get on with a pump but once I got the hang of hand expressing I found that much more successful. That said as with Leedy I only started expressing property when I was back at work and expressing when I would have been feeding.

One thing that worked for me a treat was expressing while feeding. I would feed on one breast and then once baby latched, start to express on the other. Let down was immediate as baby stimulated and I had several ounces in no time at all. I was using a manual hand held pump so it took a little practise to manage the pump and baby at same time. Breasts constantly adapt to meet baby's changing milk needs so didn't worry about baby not getting enough and baby's weight gain continued encouragingly. Having said that - not enough sleep always lowered my milk production, so I would time expressing and feeding to happen after I'd had an afternoon nap or first thing in the morning.

Thanks ladies, I am going to keep trying to express in the mornings and then maybe after a rest too sounds like a good idea Ruaha (although not sure how often that will happen)

I never managed to express more than a drop or two, it was soul destroying. In the end I EBF for as long as was physically possible (3-4months) and then introduced the odd carton of formula for times when I had to leave my baby with someone else.

I would have preferred not to use formula, but it wasn't the end of the world and we carried on BFing until both DCs were around 10mths old.