Please help! Can't express!

[liney80]

Hello, I've tried two electric pumps (avent and medela swing) - the most I got one morning from both breasts in about 20 mins was 2.5oz. Other mornings it's only 1-2 max. I've tried expressing around 8-10 times now so still quite new at it.

I'd like to be able to go out occasionally in the next month or so but at the moment my 5 week old still cluster feeds in the evening so such small amounts of milk aren't going to be enough.

I have two questions really! First, do I need to put off any evening plans til cluster feeding passes? (Some people saying it lasts for 12 weeks!) and second, has anyone had more success with a manual hand pump than an electric one? Sometimes I hand express to get things going and quite a bit of milk comes out so wondering if a manual pump might actually work better?

Really grateful for any tips to improve my yield!

I got similiar amounts to you expressing at 5 weeks. ds is now 8 weeks and I get about 4oz now (3oz on one boob and 1oz on the other). If you are desperate to get out you could try expressing twice in the day and adding both together to make a 5oz bottle. Or use formula for that one feed.

The reason babys cluster feed in the evening is to establish your supply. It won't to any harm to miss one evening but if you regularly miss those cluster feeding sessions it will likely impact on your supply.

At 7 months I've never been able to get more than 2oz out at a time, nearly every day it's 20-30 ml!

If the baby takes a big bottle then they may not need to cluster feed, try it one night beforehand to see what happens first x

My sister is encouraging me to try occasional bottles of formula, are there any issues I should be aware of with that? If it's very rarely then it shouldn't affect my supply should it? Will it have any other impact on my DS?

I've tried to express every time my baby had formula so as not to disrupt my supply. I don't know enough to advise about risks. Have you tried breast compressions when expressing? I find that helps. It takes me more than one session of expressing to make up a 5oz feed though.

I have an electric medals swing but never use it because I've had so much more success with my manual avent - I started pumping every morning 3 weeks ago and can now get a full 6 oz feed from just one side - have always had a lot of milk though. And it is tiring on your hand. I think it can just take a while to build up amounts - at first I could only ever get to 4 oz.

I was only able to express a worthwhile amount if I fed from one side and expressed at the same time from the other. Tricky but do-able!