How long did you express for?

[AussieMum28]

Hi all,

So I had a premmie baby and found he struggled to latch so ended up bottle feeding him expressed milk. He's now 5 weeks and I think my milk is drying up. I sometimes miss an express (either sleeping or dealing with baby) but noticed a a little less each time I express. If I do dry up, it's not the end of the world and I won't hate myself for it, but just wondered how long everyone else just expressed for and is there a way to stimulate more milk? If I tried to breast feed him again, would that up production again?

Thanks x

First DC expressed a bit for 10 weeks and mix fed. DC2 for 5 weeks as they got ill and I didn’t have the time to express in hospital.
You can increase production by expressing more often. But it is difficult to have time to express enough. I felt happy that I’d been able to give them the colostrum from the first few weeks. They were both fine on formula at the same time and after that. I can’t advise on breastfeeding. I was only able to do this with a nipple guard and found it emotionally very difficult.

7 months.

The main thing is to express more often if you do want to increase your supply. It can be a total pain in the arse as you just want to sleep. I can remember waking to give my DS breast milk from a bottle and then afterwards having to express, so it all took twice as long and I was doubly tired! But those night time pumpings were all important in keeping my supply up.

You could ask the Health Visitor about getting support to reestablish breast feeding?

Do you have a good pump? I had a super swish double electric pump that made it all so much easier. It made my supply so good I had a few months of breast milk frozen when I stopped pumping so my DS got breast milk until 9 months.

But it is a lot of work and you’ve done brilliantly to make it to 5 weeks! If that’s the end then so be it. Like you say it’s not the end of the world and don’t let anyone make you feel bad about it!

Congrats on the super squishy 5 week old! 🥰