When to express 🤯.

[Learningdaybyday]

A typical day with my 7 week DS is waking between 7-8am and EBF every 1-2 hours. The feeds can last from 5 minutes to 40. Then after he is sat in an upright position for 30 minutes to minimise vomitting.
He doesn't really sleep during the day, longest stint is about 45 minutes, but I'm never sure how long the nap may be.
Between 5pm and 10pm most days he fusses and wants to be held and walked around.
Bed time between 8pm and 10pm, his first sleep is between 2.5-5 hours, then he wakes for a feed. After this feed is when I normally express.

My DH and I are sharing leave so I need to start expressing more frequently. Has anyone managed to or can anyone suggest a time that could work that won't leave me feeling exhausted due to lack of sleep or still have enough during the day for feeds?

The pump I use is a electric pump but still needs to be held while pumping. I have tried doing the other boob while baby is feeding but he just kicks at it.

Tyia for any help or advice you can give.

I never really found time to pump a lot when mine were this little. Maybe just one small feed a day to get them used to the bottle. However when I went back to work (although much later than you) I would just pump during the work day and give that to nursery the next day. I never stored a massive stash in the freezer or anything like that.

I tried SO hard to express for DH to feed DD but she was like your baby, feeding for up to 40 mins every 3 hours. Then if you factor in settling baby, pumping time, and maybe grabbing a quick coffee, you're back to baby feeding!

How long would you be separated from your baby during the day? I just sent DH off with formula when he was out for the day with DD. If you're going to miss two or more feeds in the day that becomes less practical and you would need to pump, but could you do it then, rather than pumping now while also trying to feed?

I pump every 3 hours starting from 11pm 2am 5am 8am etc. Or if i was tired in the evening 10pm 1am 4am 7am etc. I went to bed after my 11/10 pump. This maximised my sleep around when my husband went to work. It depends how long you can last between pumping sessions. Also is there a certain time you need to pump at work? You need to try to keep the same time between the pumping sessions.

I did alright with a hakaa pump around that age but you're right about the kicking! Feeding baby in football/rugby position helped with this. Once i got more of a routine I switched to a normal pump.

Make sure your milk doesn't have high lipase. Mine did so I lost a lot of my stash before I realised I had to scald the milk before storing.

I have been expressing once during the night most days, then we try baby on bottle the next day. Some days he takes the bottle others he doesn't. We are considering freezing them to create a stock until we get into a routine, but would need to find at least one more opportunity to express to keep trying baby on the bottle.

Yip for the most part I've felt stuck to the sofa feeding 🙈. Thankfully my DH has been making the tea 🤣.
Once back at work I would be doing 10 hour shift during the night, so baby would only need a 2-3 feeds, but unsure as to how much that would be in ml/Oz.
I'm just trying to work out a way to encourage milk production and how much would be needed for the time I'm not at home.

At the moment we aren't in a routine, it's more whenever baby is hungry which during the day feels constant and during the night 2-4 times. I express after first night feed as that tends to be DS longest sleep, also a decent amount of milk is produced.
The difficulty during the day is that my DH is sleeping for work at night and it feels like DS is either feeding, being sat up to minimise vomitting or he's fussing and wants to be held.

Pump when you would otherwise feed, that's it. 🙂

I tried a hakaa pump originally and couldn't get the hang of it. I may try that again during one of the day time feeds 🤔.

What is lipase? How would I find out if it's high? 😬

When are you going back to work? It'll be very different depending on whether that's next week, at six months or nine months?

They usually get more predictable/regular by 12 weeks and feeds get quicker and fewer (as they get more efficient at sucking).

Will you be back at work in a couple of weeks or a few months? If it's a few months away, i wouldn't waste time worrying about it now and causing yourself unnecessary stress and work. Babies change so quickly, and you don't really want to be increasing your milk production more than is necessary right now anyway, that's just going to cause you a whole other set of problems!
Will you be able to express at work? That would be the easiest solution really, to take one or two pumping breaks so you express when you would be feeding and then have milk for the next night.
Also, if you could get a decent double pump and a pumping bra when you need it, it makes such a difference to how fast you can pump.

Going back to work at end of October. So baby will be 14+ weeks.
I keep seeing these time frames, hoping it's accurate 🤞 and looking forward to it.

Back to work at end of October so baby will be 14+ weeks, as long as we can get him to take the bottle.
I will be able to express at work. My question was more aimed at how to begin the process to ensure DS will have enough when I'm not there.
Will look into double pump and bra, thanks.

It's fat content in the milk I think. It makes the milk taste soapy if stored. If you are feeding the baby on previously stored milk with no issue then it's fine. It's purely taste, high lipase milk is fine it just tastes disgusting.

Express when you offer a bottle. The feeds when your Dh does the bottle, you express. Honestly, unless your Dh is the one getting up doing the night feeds, night time isn’t the easiest time to express. You should be feeding quickly and getting back to sleep. Work out the feeds he’ll do each 24 hours and express then.

That said, if you have an existing stash, you’ll be fine when you start back to work as you’ll be expressing when you aren’t with your baby. Be careful though not to let the expressing and the jobs get in the way of spending time with your baby. If you only have 14 weeks at home, I’d be making the most of that time, not worrying about a stash. Your baby needs you more than breastmilk.

Honestly I wouldn’t even bother focus on building up a stash right now. I think what’s more important is you make sure your baby will continue to take a bottle, since you say they now sometimes do and sometimes don’t. Despite my best efforts in giving a bottle every day, both of mine started to refuse them at around 2-3 months old.

You really don't need to build up a massive stash then, just a couple of nights worth. I would honestly drop it for a few weeks and give yourself a break.
A good pump makes so much difference, I started off with a single tommee tippee and it was such a faff for such a small amount of milk. After a few weeks I got a double pump and bra (I think I actually cut holes in a crop top first!) and I could fill two bottles in less than 10 minutes, hands free!

And yeah, it is true that it all suddenly gets so much easier around 12 weeks. It's like some kind of amazing miracle when feeds go from a stressful 40 minutes to an easy 5!

Yes, feeding a newborn is nothing like feeding an older baby. The feeds get fewer and quicker so it's no longer taking up hours every day. So there's no need to build up a massive freezer stash - think it's a social media thing seeing those?! All you need is enough for the next day's feeds and it isn't the end of the world if they end up with a bottle or two of formula in there as well.

Mine was combi-fed due to milk delay/low supply but was BFing what felt like millions of times per day early on (was much better once supplemented), then had 3-4 BFs from 12 weeks (along with 3-4 bottles), 2 BFs from 9 months, 1 BF a day from about 18mo and a few times per week from 2.5 years.

What did you do when you're LO started refusing bottles?

Tbf we're going on holiday in 2 weeks, so atm I am focusing on trying to get him used to a bottle a day.
The expressing advice was for when we come back, just trying to get ahead of the game as once DS was born I felt massively uninformed.
I'm looking forward to this 12 week point 🤞.

I did try Google how much baby would eat but it gives a scope over a 24 hour period.
Initially we combi-fed but DS vomited a lot more after formula so went to EBF and it has calmed down, but yes definitely feels like feeds are constant.
I'm looking forward to the 6 month mark when we can begin weaning as the more he develops and eats the less I'll need to BF.

Well I just gave up because I didn’t have to go back to work until they were almost 1 years old by which time they were eating plenty of solids to make it through the work day without milk.