Questions about expressing breast milk

[amijee]

My 1st baby is a little over 3 weeks old and I am breast feeding and expressing one feed a day without problems. My concern is that the amount I express ( using a very good electric pump) is approx 20% less than he takes. In other words, I usually express around 2.5 oz and he normally feeds a little over 3oz in one feed ( we've often had to combine two expressings) I'm not sure whether he extracts more from my breast than the pump does or whether he just feeds more from a bottle becaause it's so easy. The reason I'm concerned is because of going back to work and not being able to substitute all his feeds with expressing.

Also, when are the good times to express if I need to do it 2-3 times a day to get one good feed stored up for him?

bobble

bizarre but works

If your happy to give LO formula for some feeds now... why not keep giving them breast milk now while you can and use formula for some feeds when you go back to work. LO will be older then and you would be keeping them exclusivly breast fed for longer than if you start mixed feeding now in order to build up a stock of frozen b milk.