expressing breast milk- when?

[littlemonstersmum]

dd2 is a week old and i've been bf (which i wasn't able to do with dd1) and i'd like to be able to express some milk so i can leave dd2 for a while to do things with dd1. does anyone know when's best to do it? should i do both? surely if i express it there won't be enough when dd wants feeding if i choose the wrong time?!

Congratulations on the new baby and for breastfeeding her! People often say that you should wait until about 6 weeks to start expressing - I think this is to do with getting bf established first.

I used to express first thing in the morning - baby on one breast and expressing from the other. I found this was when I could get the best 'yield'. I have to say though I didn't get round to expressing until about 3 months!

Also the more you feed (or express) the more you produce so don't worry about there not being enough for her to feed from you after you've expressed.

Hopefully someone with more knowledge/experience will be along to give you more advice.