expressing - how and when? And do I need to?

[LuckyC]

Hi all

Baby is a month old, born early at 36 weeks, took a while to put on weight but now textbook weight gain and feeding pretty well.

I used to express after every feed to establish milk supply but have stopped, as it's just so hard to find the time - she is quite clingy and sucky and hard to put down at the mo.

I seem to run low on milk supplies in the evening - breasts feel emptier and leak less at beginning of feeds. Should I start expressing again to increase supply? Or are these just new mum nerves and actually she's fine?

And also, I do want to express a bit so that I have some emergency supplies stored so I can hand obver to DH every now and then. How do I do this? Do I try and express a whole feed? And when is the best time to do this - it's sort of like adding a whole extra feed inm isn't it?

Sorry, long post, as you can see I am confused. Any comments will help. Thanks.

hiya - i am no expert but firstly dont worry about less milk in the evenings. thats totally normal and nothing to worry about if baby seems satisfied.

tbh expressing is hard work. i too wanted to build up a cache for emergencies. i tend to do it in the evenings when dd sleeps longer but its hard to express much - i use the breastmilk bags and freeze them but would need 2 i reckon to give dd.

the orher thing i was able to do when dd was smaller (7 months now) was give her to dh to take out in her sling. she would snuggle down and sleep in the sling for about 4 hours and give me time to have a rest and then express quite a bit. dh would just go and meet friends in town for coffee with dd in the sling

You certainly don't need to express to keep your milk supply going. You will have as much milk as your baby needs even if you don't leak in the evenings.

I always found expressing first thing in the morning best.

Your milk supply is quite flexible and responds to how much your DD takes so you'll get a bit extra if you express every day but that will soon settle down when you back off.

As long as she's putting weight on and having wet nappies you really don't need to worry.

I find it easier to express in the morning. Better supply and baby easier to pacify for ten minutes. Even 3oz a day quickly builds up in the freezer and it's great knowing you can have an evening off from time to time.

Hi Lucky C

Can I hijack your post as I was going to post something similar. How much would you need to express for say a 24 hour period, Can anyone give me an estimate?

DD2 is 6 weeks and I'm really struggling to express this time as DD1 is 20 months so my hands are a bit full and she is annoyed enough at me feeding without spending more time to express, so I'm not building up a huge supply. Was hoping for a night off next week for my sisters birthday but have no idea how much to have!

Thanks and sorry again for the hijack!