Expressing BM

[jacksmamx]

Please only positive replies to this as I feel guilty enough already being too tired to feed him from my breast all the time.

My son is 17 days old and I have been EBF since he was born. Im finding it hard to keep up with his feeds during the night so I'm wanting to start expressing so me and dad can share the feeds.

Advice on where to start? I've got a breast pump, bottles and storage. Just wanting to know how frequently I should be expressing. Any advice would be great!!!

Night feeding is really important, so even if you’re not feeding yourself you’ll need to wake up to express. (I exclusively expressed for my DD.)

I found the naturebond pump the easiest. It attaches to your other boob while feeding so it catches your let down milk.

When DH feeds using this, I use my electric pump to get some more. We usually have a couple of bottles in the fridge now so that DH can help :)

Hi @jacksmamx, I BF'd and expressed from day 3, as I knew I didn't want to EBF due to wanting to involve my DH with feeding from very early on. I also sing in a choir once a week which I see as vital for my mental wellbeing, so didn't want to 'have' to be at home all the time. I ignored advice about nipple confusion, and DD has been fine with both from the very start (and still is nearly 6 months on! Meanwhile, I have a friend who had to cancel her birthday dinner as her DD won't take a bottle unfortunately. She now wishes she'd started expressing earlier).

At the start, I pumped when I felt engorged, and this actually worked in DD's favour, as she has always found it harder to feed when my breasts are very full. I also used to pump when DD was asleep if I could be bothered. I still pump first thing in the morning before I BF DD, as I get a good yield of milk (she doesn't feed at night anymore) and it means DD isn't feeding from very full boobs (she has reflux, so boobs with loads of milk are too much for her!). What I would recommend is getting an electric pump (I have a tommee tippee one) and giving it a go ,whenever you have a moment, to see how you get on. Once you get familiar with it, working out when to pump and how much becomes easier. Please let me know if you'd like more advice!

@jacksmamx meant to say I was obviously still feeding DD at night when she was your baby's age! I usually breastfed, but if I was exhausted DH would do a feed with a bottle of expressed milk. That was amazing!

med.stanford.edu/newborns/professional-education/breastfeeding/maximizing-milk-production.html

Have a look at this- it's a guide to "hands on pumping" (breast compressions whilst pumping) to get more milk out.
The silicon suction pumps are amazing - at 17 days I was leaking all over the place when I fed (or pumped the other boob) and it was sad to see the waste. You get a surprisingly good yield.
The kellymom site is a good resource too.

If your pump has different size breast shields make sure you are using the right size for your nipple- I use medela stuff and was surprised when I got the right size how uncomfortable the standard size had been for me (too big, pulled too much areola in).
I try to express roughly at the time my baby gets her bottle (which is early hours at the moment). It works okish but isn't that helpful for getting lots more sleep but got me about an hour and a half extra a night.
Frequency is apparently more important than duration (I was told 15-20 mins max a time).

Wondered how you’re getting on? I found that using the silicone pump (Haakka) on the opposite boob when feeding, especially the morning and night feeds was great. I also have to express (supply issues) and I do it after a feed with an electric double pump. I was advised by a lactation consultant to express 3-4 times a day alongside feeding my baby, I have seen others who do it 2 hourly and throughout the night. Just be aware that lots of expressing can/should increase milk supply which may cause an issue if suddenly stopped. I personally don’t get much out of each session so throughout the day can only get enough for 1 feed - might be worth building a stash of frozen to help? Hope you’re getting some sleep!

I've been expressing my milk from the beginning with my son and giving it to him from the bottle.

I use the medela symphony and to build up my supply in the beginning I just pumped every 2-3 hours for approx 15 minutes. I found that the more I pumped the milk I produced. I now pump every 4 hours 4-5 times a day and am expressing around 24 ounces in total a day. I store the milk in the fridge and just heat it up. I also use the pump app which helps me record my sessions so I know how long it has been and how much I have expressed each session.

I would highlight that if someone is going to do the night feed whilst you sleep you will have to express, even if it's only for 5 minutes- just enough to relieve some pressure. The longest stretch I can sleep for without waking up to engorged breasts is 6 hours.

My son is 3 months old and I also give a formula top up as the last feed for the day before bed and freeze some breast milk as I just find that he will sleep longer with the formula rather than the breast milk. I think this is because formula is digested slower than breast milk.

Feed your baby how you want and do whatever is best for you. Whether it is breast milk or formula or a bottle the most important thing is that baby is fed and mum is happy.

Ive got a preemie baby (3 weeks old tomorrow but came 6 weeks early) realllyyyy struggled to latch on properly, she would do it for like a couple of mins before falling asleep or using it as a dummy.
I think longest i got was 6 minutes on one side.
She was in SCBU for 2 weeks and because she wasnt 'feeding long enough' they had her on a feeding tube and topped her up after, which meant the longer it took her to learn the longer shed be on a tube.
I decided to express exclusivley and bottle feed her, 4 days later her tube was out and now shes home (has been for a week) has gained 1lb while being home and takes either breastmilk or forumla.
I try and express after each feed (3/4 hours) and did notice my supply dwindle when i got home because I was falling asleep after her feeds (didnt concern me at the time as I had like 12 frozen bottles of milk)
I had to go a day with pure formula to catch up on expressing. I now express after each feed except her 3am feed. Im FARRR too exhausted and even if OH feeds her i cant stay awake long enough

If you can afford it- electric medella swing - I had double & expressed 10mins at end of each feed, so by end day had enough for DH to bottle feed BM at 10pm while I slept - used Dr Briwn bottles, no nipple confusion etc

Well my advice would be to check how your milk stores in the freezer before you create a huge stockpile. I spent hours and hours and hours pumping like a woman possessed and each ounce represented a little chunk of precious "me time". All those little pouches stacked up in the freezer were a thing of beauty. Finally thawed a couple to make up a bottle (DD had had expressed BM previously, but only "fresh" and not thawed from the freezer) and she wouldn't touch it. Couldn't convince her at all. I tested it and it had a very unpleasant metallic taste and smell. Apparently this is something to do with lipase in some women's milk and how it reacts to being frozen and thawed. Not harmful and still perfectly fine to drink, but some babies (mine included) will refuse because of the taste. All those hours pumping for nothing 😩

Oh Costa nightmare for you

I expressed from week 2 and dh did 1 night feed from then on. You don't need to wake up to express - you will still be feeding them the other feed! Pump 50ml more than you need and you will have some extra for the freezer too. I can't recommend expressing enough - a 3-4 he reliable chunk of sleep saved breastfeeding for me!