Bottle feeding expressed Milk

[lorza03]

So I am due to return to work in January. My son will then be 8 months - he will go to nursery one full day and with a family member the other day. I never express milk and tried the other day I got 7 oz in 24 hours and it was hard work! Any suggestions. I really really don’t want to give formula if I can help it. Thanks all

I went back to work when my son was 8.5 months and I had this same dilemma, but it turned out not to be an issue. When I weaned him onto solids his milk consumption dropped pretty rapidly and by the time he started at nursery 3 days a week (at 8.5 months) I was just breastfeeding in the morning and at bedtime. He's 13 months now and is still just nursing in the morning and at bedtime. Maybe don't overthink or worry about until a bit nearer the time?

It sounds like your pump, maybe experiment with a few? My first pump took ages to get anything. Then I got a new one and could express 8 oz in under 15 minutes, which was excellent if I was going out unplanned.

That’s for both the comments ! @waitingfortoto I think your right best not to over think until closer to the time.

Expressing milk is a skill that needs to be learnt. It isn't easy straight away. You need to make sure the funnel on the pump is the correct size and that you are using the right pressure.

Your child will only need 1oz per hour between feeds. When my 8 month old started at the childminders I only sent two 4oz bottles a day and he didn't always finish them.

Bear in mind that the 7oz in 24 hrs is in addition to what your baby is getting directly from you- if baby is 8mo in Jan he's approx 5 months now? So most if not all of his food is milk, and 7oz extra is pretty amazing really I think. But yes, it hard work.
As pp have said, check your flanges fit correctly; check pump is working properly; if you can try double pumping; check out Stanford uni's videos on hands free pumping.
The baby you have in front of you is not the baby you'll have in 3 months; by then he'll be getting solids in any event for some of his calories, and as others have said, you may find he drops feeds anyway (though mine didn't until later). Or he might not bother with bottled milk during the day and make up for it at night...
Don't overthink it now though.