Suddenly unable to express?

[PuppyMummy]

Hi, hoping someone may have some advice.

Baby is 4 months (just) and BF with the occasional bottle of expressed milk if I am out. I haven't expressed recently but have a night out planned so have tried to express this week.

I seem to be unable to. I used to get 3oz on a morning without much trouble. Now I am struggling to get 1oz. I have tried at other times during the day and got a few drops but nothing else...

Why would this happen and can I do anything? I feel like there is no let down when im trying to express.

I presume the general supply is fine as baby is not having problems feeding.

I have a phillips Avent electric pump.

I am worrying about it also as I am back at work at Christmas and wanted to express rather than use formula...

Any advice?

Try not too worry - I found the more stressed I was, the harder it was to express. I always struggled to express (although I had no supply issues). A few things helped... Have you tried:

Warming the pump up?
Expressing in a nice, warm bath?
Looking at pics/ films of your baby before and during expressing?
Drinking absolutely loads of water beforehand?

It can get harder to express as your supply settles down. As well as the other suggestions, feeding with one boob and expressing on the other at the same time sometimes helps.

I need to do a little relaxation technique to express. Deep breaths and visualising my ds. Distract myself from the task at hand.

thanks for the help.

I am trying not to stress but its tricky! not tried in the bath but I have tried the other suggestions but its not made a difference.

Tried this morning off a really full side and not got a single drop.

its upsetting because I presumed I would just be able to express for him, I didn't want him to have formula. (I know there is nothing wrong with it but I would rather he just had breast milk...)

Can you try expressing from one side while feeding from the other? It's a bit tricky but I found it was the only way I could express more than a few drops.

Definitely second expressing on one side while feeding from the other. Tricky (I needed help getting set up the first few times). I definitely also found it was harder to express in the evening when I was tired. If you want to use expressed milk I think you probably need to express on a regular basis to make it work (or that was my experience).

If your breast was full and you didn't get anything then I would be inclined to think there's something up with the pump. This has happened to me a few times and it was the pump suction. Maybe try cleaning all parts of the pump, take it apart, and put back together.

I'd second the suggestion to hand express a little before using your pump. Hope things improve!

This happened to me, and in my case it was a problem with the pump. There was still some suction, which was why I didn't immediately realise what was going on, but not strong enough to get letdown. This might not be the case for you, but certainly worth making extra sure!