How much should I express?

[MoanaofMotunui]

DS is 4.5mths and BF. I'm due to go out for the day next weekend (10am-7pm) and have been building up a supply of frozen milk for DP to feed him.

I'm just stuck with trying to work out how much to express as, although DS happily takes a bottle from time to time, I have no gauge of how much he takes each feed.

He will usually have approx 3 20-30minute feeds and then a handful of 5-10minute shorter feeds in between. With his big bedtime feed starting at 6.30/7pm (DP May need to start him off)

I was thinking along the lines of 7 feeds of 8oz, but have been freezing them in 4oz batches so DP will need to use 2 to make up a larger feed, but can just use a 4oz bag if DS has not long had a big feed.

Does that sound about right or should I aim for a bit extra just to be on the safe side?! Does anyone have a rough idea of how many ounces a baby could get through in a 30minute breast feed? I can express about 4oz in 10mins, but if DS does that, then he'd need 12oz for a 30minute feed and that sounds too much 😂

So lost with it all!!! Any help would be very gratefully appreciated!!x

How much do you have saved? Do you have enough for a practice run where you feed him a bottle and express for each missed feed that day so you will know how much he gets through

8oz per feed sounds like a lot of milk.

My LO is just about to turn 4months and gets 4-5oz expressed in a bottle and he doesn't always finish it.

The usual guidelines are an ounce per hour, so from 10-7 you would need nine ounces... but for me that wouldn't necessarily work. I work it out as 24oz a day divided by the number of feeds he has. At the moment that's around six feeds so 4oz per feed.

He would potentially have at least three feeds in that time if not four though, as he has a long stretch without feeds between 7/8 and sometimes 2/3am.

Kellymom lays out the ounce per hour/day stuff in more detail.

kellymom.com/bf/pumpingmoms/pumping/milkcalc/

I gave expressed BM when I went back to work and DD never took more than 6 oz per feed up until 14 months when I stopped. BM isn’t like formula, the volume doesn’t continue to rise as the baby grows.

I used the Kellymom calculator, it’s great!