Urgent Expressing advice and/ or reassurance please.

[GruffaloPants]

I previously expressed with both DDs when they were tiny and had no problems with pumping.

DD2 is 8mo and I really need to have a couple of feeds worth for Tuesday and Wednesday as I need to go out for 7h both days!

Bought a Medela mini and tried it out tonight. Got about 10ml! Is it because I've been feeding both sides this evening (my breasts didn't feel particularly full beforehand)? It seemed to be working ok, could see nipple being drawn well in rhythmically etc. I'm a bit worried I won't get much more tomorrow!

Are you massaging and compressing the breast whilst pumping? I find this makes a huge difference to the amount I can pump

You could try expressing from one breast while feeding from the other. Bit tricky at your baby's age as they are so nosey! Or (sounds a bit random) try breaking the seal round your beast every 20 secs or so. Someone gave me this tip and I went from producing nothing to gushing 10ml or so each time I did this. No idea why it works!

If you've not been expressing recently, your supply will have adjusted to how much milk the baby is taking. You can increase your supply by expressing more often, but it may take a couple of days to catch up with the increasing demand.

Lots of short sessions will boost it more than one or two long ones. Does she still have a cup or bottle occasionally? Or take water from a cup?

Also if she eats well and takes water, 7h is doable without leaving any milk but you'll probably be in for lots of night feeds to catch up

Try pumping again a little later (just before you go to bed) so you'll have had a chance to refill, it'll also help you to make a bit more for tomorrow too, as your body will respond thinking your baby is hungry.
Also it can help to look at pictures/videos of your baby whilst expressing to encourage the letdown. Good luck!

abm.me.uk/breastfeeding-information/expressing-breast-milk/

kellymom.com/hot-topics/pumping_decrease/

An option is to try Human Milk 4 Human Babies on Facebook. You might have someone nearby with milk in the freezer you could have.

Thanks everyone.

Unfortunately the pump is really noisy, I started off trying to pump while feeding DD but she broke off and stared at it looking highly affronted! I moved on to looking at pics if her on my phone but it just wasn't happening. Will try all the tips here, thank you everyone.

She hasn't had a cup but I think she will be ok with a bottle or cup. Fingers crossed...

I highly recommend Kellymom (Facebook and web page etc) for top notch expert breastfeeding and expressing advice.

For 7 hours, at 8 months, I wouldn't worry too much - especially if LO is taking food and water. My first daughter refused all the carefully expressed milk I left for her while I attended a wedding while she was 3 months, until evening when she glugged a whole bottle. I wouldn't recommend leaving a baby so young and with hindsight I wouldn't do it again 🙁 but she was ok.

I always found that if I hadn't used the pump for a while, my yield was rubbish. If you do a couple of pumps s day it'll build up quickly.

But at 8m I reckon you could manage 7hrs away provided they drink water with meals?

I get my biggest yield first thing in the morning. I tend to feed dd from one boon through her night then pump the other.

I'm expressing 100 ml every morning at the moment, but struggle to get more than 20ml in the evening so Id definitely try again in the morning. Whatsernames advice of trying to feed more from one side at night so the other side is full in the morning is what I do too.

Thanks everyone. I only fed from one side over night and got 60ml from the other first thing, before I had to give up because DD kept grabbing the power cable!