How much do I need to express?

[pookamoo]

DH has just taught DD to take a bottle with a small amount of EBM we had previously frozen. She is 10 weeks old.
So this coming weekend DH is going to do a night feed so that I can try to sleep through. I am really suffering from lack of sleep.
My question is how much milk do we need to have ready for that feed? She weighs about 10lbs. She does take ages to feed from the breast, usually 45 minutes for a full feed and sometimes over an hour (but that's a whole other story!).
HV didn't know how much ebm would be appropriate for DD at this age and weight when I asked her today.

the amount of time spent on the breast is not really indicative as she does much more there than just feeding, eg cuddling, snuggling, going mmmmmmm nice here, snoozing.

helpful hv hey. If you find expressing reasonably easy I would say express 8oz. It will be more than you need but then you can sleep easy without worrying there is not enough. She will probably take more like 5-6oz.

Word of warning about sleeping through, your boobs in all likelyhood will not sleep through and may well wake you up being rock hard and/or leaking.

But here's hoping for a good night!

DS never really wanted more than 4oz of EBM at a time.

Have a lovely sleep

my dd, 11 weeks, will take six at a push.

thanks madmouse I was anticipating that!
But all things considered, I just really really need some sleep! Will have to give DD a super long feed in the morning!

That HV was nothing compared to her colleague who actually told me to give DD water in the night, and said I should give CALPOL to help her sleep
I know she doesn't need water as she's bf, and as for drugging my baby just so I can get some sleep...

My DD never took more than 6oz and more usually 4 or 5oz. I stopped giving EBM at +/- 10 months.

You'll probably wake up bursting with milk, but it'll almost certainly be just the right amount for a morning feed and the next bottle of EBM.

my 6mo DD usually takes around 4oz at an 11pm feed - she's not a big girl, between 9th and 25 centile. Very rarely she'll do a 6oz. She's been pretty consistent since we started the EBM feed round 4 weeks.
Hope it works out for you, having my DH do the evening feed made a huge difference when she was still waking up in the night.
If you're going to do it long term consider investing in a double pump, wish I'd done it earlier!

My only concern is that my body will think I don't need to produce that milk which I didn't use in the night, and reduce the supply for the next day. Is that likely, or would it be alright as norktastic says, for the morning feed and next ebm... ?

that may well happen if you do it every day and go many hours without feeding

I only intend to do it from time to time so hopefully it will be ok.

It's a supply and demand thing, so as long as you continue to feed as normal and express at least the amount she's taking from a bottle your supply should be just fine.

4oz was what I did. I used to express every morning from one side while DS2 fed from the other. He always used to pull away after 15 minutes, which amounted to 4oz. We then used this ebm for the last feed of the night.