Give me an idiot’s guide to expressing please

[Babynumber2x]

I tried expressing with baby #1 but I was so out of my depth with everything else and didn’t seem to be getting anything out no matter I did. I didn’t ever have any interest in breastfeeding (just wasn’t for me) but thought expressing alongside formula was a good alternative. I know this involves a lot of cleaning/sterilising etc. In hindsight it was a manual pump I was trying to use and I wasn’t following any kind of schedule.

Now I’m more confident in the actual parenting part of it I think I should be able to give it a better go with #2. I’ve bought the Elvie and get the basic thing of trying to do it every 3 hours or so, the same sort of times as when a baby would feed if breastfeeding.

Do your nipples get as sore as they would if you were breastfeeding? Do you apply nipple cream before every time using the pump? Do you still leak milk if you’re sticking to a schedule of around 3 hours? How long have people managed to do it for? I know it’s going to be a major faff with all the parts as well as the bottles to clean but my aim is just to last until 6 weeks if I can, if I can do longer then great. Any tips would be amazing!

Ok so you're talking about exclusive pumping, just in case you want a term to Google (I love a good Google lol).
I EP'd for 7 months with DC1 because he had a horrendous tongue tie but you do ideally need to start off with getting the baby latched so they can bring your milk in. Do you think you can manage that? The usual advice is not to pump for the first 4 weeks to get your supply going properly. We introduced formula on day 3 (the tongue tie made BF agonising) and started exclusively pumping by week 3 because it was that or quit BF.

Here's a good guide from a website that has lots of great advice about BF in general: https://kellymom.com/mother2mother/exclusive-pumping/

Oh and I used lansinoh nipple cream but I took it off to pump and put it back on when I was done as it gunks up the breast pump.

Great thank you both 😊

It all depends if you’re looking to combi-feed with formula and breast milk or exclusively pump. If you’re exclusively pumping I’d say you should be able to get the balance right in terms of keeping up your supply as you’ll essentially have to pump for every feed which keeps up with baby’s needs.
If you’re going to top up with formula I’d still recommend you pump every time baby feeds otherwise there’s a good chance your supply will decline because your body will assume there’s less requirement. One tip for pumping is to look at baby or pictures of them while you’re doing it - I don’t know why it works but it just gets the milk out much quicker!
There will probably be a bit of soreness with nipples although I’ve never exclusively pumped so can’t say for sure (definitely recommend lansinoh even though it’s pricey). There will definitely be leaking so buy some pads in advance - breastfeeding will generally take 4-6 weeks before your supply is more regular and leaking less of an issue.
My SIL managed 6 weeks exclusively pumping the first time round but she only did it for 2/3 weeks the second time round as it really is a lot of extra work so huge respect for anyone even considering doing it!

@elliew818 thank you 😊 I’ve got some lansinoh in, bought some last time but didn’t end up using it although baby ended up with really dry lips so it came in handy for that! I think I’m planning to use formula alongside expressing from the start, hoping to have enough colostrum in syringes for the hospital if I can, if not I might need to hand express in there and take some formula as a back up. I think the whole faff of it will probably be a lot of extra work but I’m hoping I’m cut out for it 🙈 knowing at least what to do with the baby this time takes a lot of the pressure off so the only new thing is the actual expressing part this time

I had a premmie who was too weak to latch at first and then never got the hang of it so I expressed for about nine months.

The first few days were tricky - I needed my husband's help to catch the tiny drops of colostrum in a syringe. Then on about day 3 or 4 I started using an electric pump at the hospital and got small amounts of milk. When my baby left hospital I hired and then bought a pump for home. I also had a manual one to use when travelling and in the office once I was back at work.

I only briefly needed nipple cream for a crack. I did develop back ache though as I have small boobs and had to pump leaning forward to get the milk to flow. It is a lot of work but I managed to solely use my milk for 5.5 months when we switched to mixed feeding in preparation for me going back to work.

@eurochick thats amazing, glad it worked for you! Thanks