Confused about when to express

[Heatherbell1978]

My LO is 4 weeks and ebf and we've managed to introduce a bottle (still early days though) so DH can do the dream feed with my milk. I've been expressing in the morning when I can (ie assuming LO is quiet) and last couple of nights I've expressed when DH is doing a bottle feed. But the whole point of DH feeding is that I have some time to sleep but surely I still have to pump when I would otherwise be feeding? I'm tempted to introduce formula for the dream feed else it seems I will be spending my life either breastfeeding or pumping?

This is the dilemma with expressing :)

There is no point in expressing to 'have a break' if you cannot sleep because you have full, swollen breasts, followed by a reduced supply....most women with a good, generous supply if feeding frequently other times, will manage to maintain sufficient milk with a single gap of a few hours (when the ebm, or formula, is given) but especially in the early weeks, they will have uncomfortable breasts.

This is less likely to be the case when the baby is a few months old, when things settle down and become more 'flexible'.

In the end, it's your choice - your breasts may be tolerable, and you may not need to express when the bottle is given.

Skip the expressing this evening, and see how you go :)

Up until recently I was expressing for a dreamfeed which my DH gave at 10:30pm. He would use milk that I had expressed the evening before at around 9:30pm meaning I could go to bed at 10pm rather than after the df. I am still giving DS a df but am back to boob for it as I didn't want to have to take bottles etc. on holiday with me and haven't bothered to go back to expressing since we got home.

Having said all of this, I'm pretty sure one ff a day for the df won't affect your supply and lots of people do this so just have a go. TBH this is what I would do in the future if we have anymore!