What do I need when expressing?

[HollyFP]

Hi all, am due with my first in late July, and trying to get my head round the whole BF thing. I definitely want to give it a go, but also thinking about expressing after a while so DH can help with feeds a bit later.

But what do i need in order to express? What kind of bottles? Do i need to sterilize the bottles? What's the best way to sterlize?
Advice on which kind of pump would also be great!

Thanks

all the stores have a variety of pumps and bottles, really it depends on taste. I found manual pumps very effective, I think electric/battery ones are probably faster but a lot more expensive.
Expressing should ideally be left until breastfeeding is well established, so give it a few weeks.You will need to sterilise the pump , and the bottles before expressing. Mum's milk can be stored for 24 hours in the fridge and I believe up to 3 months if frozen. Most stores will do little bags for storing the milk.
I find steam sterlisers good value, electric , or microwave- asda recently had a microwave one on offer for £10- we got one .
I think the most important thing is to get the right teat - people have recommended tommee tippee to me , but shop around , get a slow-flow teat to begin with , then gradually increase the flow as baby grows.
Breastfeeding is wonderful, a lovely experience for you and for baby, try not to be put off if it doeasn't work first time , give it time. If you , or baby are anxious or there are lots of people around take yourself off into a quiet room and relax- the baby will instinctively know what to do, even if you don't, before long you will be a pro, good luck, Tracey

Great thanks for the advice. I'll start shopping around

You can store breast milk in the back bottom shelf of a fridge for up to 8 days, in a freezer for 3 months or in a deep freeze for 6 months (i.e. if you go into your freezer every day then up to 3 months but if it is a freezer you only go in weekly then it's up to 6 months). Once a bottle of exp. bm has been 'started' by baby you have 6 hours to use it in before throwing it away - it's 1 hour for formula. Kellymom.com has some great advice on expressing bm.

I would always use a newborn/slow flow teat as baby can become used to the faster dripping flow of a bottle vs having to work for their supper with breastfeeding. Some babies don't care where their milk comes from but some are canny little wotsits and soon work out that it's less effort to feed from a bottle

I would say that as some babies prefer one type of teat over another it's not really worth stocking up on a whole 'system' of bottles/pump/steriliser before baby is born. I'd be more inclined to just get one or two standard neck bottles, a few different styles of teat, a manual pump like Medela Harmony/Lansinoh manual/Avent Isis, a packet of sterilising tablets and a large plastic tub with a lid. Or if you have a dishwasher you can just put the equipment in that on a hot wash.

Pumps don't have to be sterilised each time you pump just once a day (you can put the pump in the fridge or rinse with hot water in between pumping sessions). I personally would sterilise bottles as baby will put their mouth on the teat but there is a thread rumbling on here about not sterilising anything so if you have a healthy full term baby you may not need to sterilise.

You can get standard neck bottles in Tesco/Poundland/Boots/Asda and they will screw straight onto a pump so once you have finished you can screw the bottle neck back on to feed baby. Silicone (clear) teats don't have a taste but latex (brown) teats do.

Hope some of my ramblings help and good luck with your new baby!

just my experience, but I got a cheapo manual pump which came with a bottle, teat, and microwave steriliser box - it was 20 quid all in, and although I only used it occasionally for the 1st 6 months, now I'm back at work and express every day, and it's absolutely fine. I got a few more small bottles with newborn teats so I can express one day, and just hand over that bottle to the childminder the next day whilst I express into another bottle. However, my DS seems totally unfazed about what teat is used, temperature of milk, type of milk etc etc, so I may just have been lucky!

My advice would be:

Don't buy anything until the baby arrives. The first few weeks are usually too knackering to express anyway.

Don't express so that your DH can feed the baby. You will have to express, label the milk, sterilise the bottles, sterlise your pump. Warm it up, give him the bottle and then wash up the bottle and sterilise it again. That's too much work for me.

If DH wants to help out he can cook Dinner, hoover up, bath the baby, take it for a walk or a multitude of other things. My DH got his baby time by bathing DD and getting her ready for bed.

If you do decide to express you can usually pick up cheap secondhand pumps. Your nearest NCT may hire them out so that you don't have to buy.

Mine is an Ameda Lactaline which I thought was great and even took it to work with me when I started back.

Oh and take a look here

I'm planning to do the same Holly - and my main reason for wanting husband to do a feed is so that I don't have to wake up for the late night feed (not sure which one yet!).

This should mean i get four or so hours unbroken sleep - worth the time spent expressing, labelling and sterilising that one bottle, in my opinion!

I have a question too though...if I express a bottle's worth before going to bed, at say 10pm, into a sterilised bottle, can that milk just sit at room temperature for a few hours, until say, 1am, to be given by my husband at room temperature??

hattie - yes it can, it's ok for 6 hours at room temp

be aware though, you might find you need to express several times to get enough for one feed. if i'm at work i can express 3-4oz twice a day, if i'm at home & feeding DS as well it's more like 1-2oz - you might find expressing easier, but you might not.

i found an easy expression bra a good investment if you get a double pump - they are quite expensive but i got mine from the us via eBay & it was a bit cheaper than buying from a uk stockist

I have a medela mini pump and 2 tommy tippee closer to nature bottles. I use lanisoh bags I buy cheaply on ebay to freeze milk.
Good luck, breastfeeding has it's ups and downs and I have found expressing to be very useful. It helped me through mastitis when it was too painful to feed and allows me some time off when someone else can have DD (3 months) for a few hours.

I don't sterilise. I wash the bottles and pump bits in the dishwasher and then tip boiling water in them when I want them. DD has not suffered any ill effects.

And the information Lilysmemohas given you about storage is slightly wrong -

Room temp = 8 hours
Fridge = 5 days (from the NHS breastfeeding information booklet)

And I'm sorry to burst your bubble but don't bother planning what you're going to do before the baby arrives. Everything I thought I would do I have ended up doing completely differently. You may find that your baby totally refuses a bottle when you are nearby and will only take it when you aren't there.

And the chances of you not waking up whe the baby cries in the night, even if your DH does the feed, are a big fat nil. You will wake up at your baby's slightest whimper ime

I'm already a massive insomniac, and the lightest sleeper in the world - I can't sleep without heavy duty earplugs as the smallest sound (cat padding across the floor, husband turning over in bed) wakes me up and I find it really hard to go back to sleep.

I've been warned about how you become super tuned-in to your baby's every sound at night, and I think the only way I'm going to get any sleep is if I keep on wearing my earplugs and let my husband tune into baby night time noises - at least for part of the night anyway. (The part when he does one of the feeds!) Although I guess it'll be hard as sure I'll want to know that baby is breathing and sleeping soundly....

I dunno - its going to be interesting whatever. I'm not trying to make a firm plan, just can't help worrying and thinking about how I'm going to deal with it all, especially with my my preexisting sleep issues!

oops! well it has been 12 years since I last breastfed- and the goal posts keep moving. I always found it easier for DD in the night to bring her into bed for a cuddle and a 10 min feed at the breast , she would fall asleep and I would pop her back into the moses basket - no bottles , no lights no steriliser,no DH, but we are all different

Oh, and I've also bought Tommee Tippee closer to nature bottles, Holly, they are supposed to mimic the nipple, and are designed for babies who are mainly breastfed.

"thinking about how I'm going to deal with it all"

You will - that's the extraordinary thing about being a Mum. Things you couldn't deal with before suddenly are OK because you will do anything (and I mean anything) for that little scrap of humanity. Just take one day at a time is my advice.

As previously mentioned not all babies will take a bottle. DS never did and DD only when I was at work.

I fuund co sleeping much, much easier. They slept with me following the WHO guidelines. I barely even stirred when they latched on and then rolled off, fast asleep again. And we all got a good night's sleep.

It might be worth reading up on co-sleeping as well as expressing.

don't worry about an expressing bra- much better option here:
www.kellymom.com/bf/pumping/hands-free-pumping.html

Personally I don't bother sterilising, just hot soapy water and rinse well (DD started life in NICU and if thats what they do for special care babies including mine then healthy babies are fine!) but I do have a microwave steriliser brought at bargain price from tescos which I use now and again (breast milk dont need to worry about sterilising as much- formula more so). Also the hospital told me Milton is now frowned on because parents weren't washing the bottles properly before soaking them in milton, that said I still have two boxes of the stuff which I now won't bother using- can post it if you wanted to go down the milton route.

Also pump in morning for feed at night- you get so much more that way and tanking baby up before bed (when your boobs havent had as much chance to refill) means bub may sleep longer.

Good luck.