Expressing

I found expressing in the morning the best time for me as I had so much milk then, and once I had one feed that could be given by someone else then I always expressed while they were giving DD that feed and I found being near baby when they were being fed helped with my letdown. I never mastered BF and expressing at the same time but a manual pump is a bit hard with one hand I find.

I also noticed expressing in the afternoon was the worst time for me as I hardly got anything. Also when DD started to refuse a bottle I stopped expressing and then when I decided to try again when she was approx 3 months I got nothing as my milk seemed to have settled into a routine and there was never any left after a feed or in between.

Good luck

Initially I only expressed in the morning but because I wanted to express enough milk while I went to work I built up to expressing at every daytime feed.

The easiest way I found to stimulate letdown for expressing was to latch Michaela on one side and express the other side. 

The gremlins were taking between 80-120ml at Elias' age.

When I was expressing for lil miss, I'd express after the first morning feed, and then again in the evening after she went down I'd express to empty both sides seeing as she wasn't going to need to feed again for another 3 hours or so.

i have too much milk so express anytime.............i tend to do it after last feed at night which is about 8pm wait an hour and then i do it...................or at 10pm (usually have mummy brain and remember then) this is the only time i can get a breather without my son hanging off me.

seems to be a common theme to express off one side in the morning.

I express off one side while Jake is feeding on the other, took a bit of practise but now its second nature. I can usually get 80-100ml that way. I also express before I go to bed as its usually at least 3 hours before Jake will feed again. I normally get 60-80ml so the 2 combined are a enough for one feed with some left over usually.

I try to remember to express after each feed (to help my supply when I got back to work) and it can vary from 20-50ml each time.

I find thinking about jakes feeds from the day help get a let down. Or being on Facebook LOL, i have no idea why but for some reason if I pump while on facebook I seem to get a letdown quite quick. Random and weird i know.

Babykatnz wrote: I'm beginning to think I dont have much milk after all (after being so proud that I made it this far, I was only able to exclusively BF for about 3-4 weeks with DS) cos when I express in place of a feed, or the 2 hours before/after a feed, either way I never get more than 50ml... but apparently she should be having 100-150mls by now per feed?

Pumping output is NOT indicative of how much milk you have, your baby is the most effective "pump" out there and can get milk when no fancy man made pump can. 50ml is above average pumping output; normal output is between 20-50ml per session from both sides. Not everyone who has plenty of milk gets on with a pump. This link talks about what is normal for output and how to increase it and this one about how much ebm your baby might need; which is usually a lot less than you might expect. DS2, when he had them, only ever had 2 bottles of ebm over 100ml, even at 4.5 months.

I am back at work now and I express using a double electric breastpump in the morning at work - it is way quicker than a manual one, and you can really SEE (and kind of hear actually) when you get a letdown. I have been doing it for nearly 6 weeks now, and still one or two days a week I have a bad day and can't really get any milk out, which is why I think it is important that I am doing both sides at once, so that that will make up for the days when I hardly get anything. I have tried heaps of things, mostly concentrating on my baby, but at the moment what seems to work is to try and relax before I do anything first, so I start reading a random women's magazine, then I do some breast massage and kind of a hand-expressing motion to get the juices flowing as it were, then put the pump on and keep reading the magazine (which is on a chair or table closeby). I have a photo of my baby handy but I think concentrating on something ELSE actually works better for me. My baby is 6 months old. I usually get around about 100ml from each breast with the electric pump, and that is from about 2 letdowns. Interesting thing is though, my baby only has 50-70ml from the bottle in the morning, but stocks up before I go to work and then at lunchtime, with another bottle in the afternoon, so in a way I am probably expressing slightly more than she needs, but to make up for the days when the expressing doesn't go well, it works well I think. If she is feeding from me I reckon she would have between 200-300ml each feed (from both sides) - so when she drinks from the bottle she is just quenching her thirst. So I don't really need to express a 'full feed' in a way, but that is just my situation.
Remember that if you want to feed from a bottle you probably need 20ml more than what your baby will drink because you don't want them swallowing air near the end of the feed -unless you can tip the bottle almost vertical.

I found that if i express one boob after Travis has had a feed and is on the other one at the same time i get more and it doesn't take as long as if he wasn't on the boob. It is a bit tricky trying to hold it and hold a baby at the same time but you find a way. I am trying to have a supply of millk so if i am away from him DP can feed him. Plus drink lots of water and eat lots of protein.