alright you lot who are insisting om expressing. i think it is madness. this from a woman who expressed for a year after returning to work.
to me it is another chore when you may as well have a lie down and leave your dc attached and let them cluster feed be it 5pm or 5 am. (dd2 cluster feeds from about 4/5am till about 6/7) but then she has a good spell in the bouncy chair / rug and i can get in the shower or start bkfast.
if there is a time your baby reliably sleeps, you can 'build in' a feed. say, an hour after your baby has had his last feed, and is asleep, you can express.
it takes about a week to build it up.
the first night express for 30 mins even if you only get 10mls.
the second night, the same.
by the third night you should get an appreciable amount in about 20 mins. keep expressing for another 10 mins though for the extra stimulation.
by the fifth night you should get 2 letdowns. the second one may only be say 1/2 an oz but it will look different from the first letdown. (thicker and slightly different colour, the so-called hindmilk.)
by the 7th night you will probably get as much as you will get in any given pump session but in about 10 mins or less in my experience.
also, after the flow stops, go around your breast massaging out the last of the milk from your ducts. you can collect appreciable amts like this.
don 't worry if your dc wakes up during or shortly after pumping. just feed for a bit longer. breasts are never empty. honest. they'll make milk as long as they are being stimulated.
another strategy is to express while your baby is feeding from one side and you express simultaneously from the other. it means you are building a feed for the pump on one side and keep your lo feeding for longer on the other side so the body starts to increase production on the other side.
there. said my bit.