measuring breastmilk

I'm doing a wee experiment tomorrow (well, starting with tonight's night-time feed/s) to see how much milk Ella is really drinking.  This might help me sort out some of her feeding (or is it all feeding?  Methinks the girl just likes to suck loooong after she's done with dinner!).  So I'm expressing breastmilk so that I can measure how much she's drinking.  Only thing is, I have no idea how many mls of breastmilk a baby needs or typically has - anyone know? 

Call Plunketline or your Midwife/Plunket nurse should be able to estimate for you.
At 6 weeks my midwife reccomended expressing 160mls for a big last feed before bed to try and get him sleeping longer. So I'd think yours should be able to tell you what a regular feed would be.

Edited by caraMel

My midwife told me that no matter how much you express the baby will get at least another 10-20ml just from sucking alone so remember to add that on!!

My two are a couple of days younger than Ella and taking 120mls roughly each at a feed of expressed milk. When I give Mercedes formula I only give her 90ml as formula takes longer to digest and fills them up faster/more.

Well, I gave Ella 3 bottle-meals.  The first was 110mls and the second 2 were 80mls (as that's all that I had been able to express for each one - crazy because that was 80mls from both sides, but the 110ml feed came from just the one side).  She spewed near the end of the first feed, so I'd say that was a bit much for her, but after each feed still went on the breast for a little while.  So while I still don't know how many mls she'd need for a decent feed, it doesn't matter so much as I can't measure the breastmilk she takes during normal feeds anyway.  I just needed the reassurance that she was getting ENOUGH and that I was producing enough milk for her.  Plunket advised a feed for 10 mins on one side - 10 mins the next side, change her, and if she's still hungry, 10 mins on each side again and that's it!  Worked really well for her last feed.  They had good advice on recognising when she doesn't really want more milk too - Ella's a little sucker and seems to want to suckle but not always feed.    And the bonus is, now I have a decent meal's worth of milk in the freezer... guess who'se gonna leave baby with daddy for an hour or 2 some time in the weekend!

lolol.. ahhh, here's the prob andie.. pumps do not stimulate the breast as well as a baby drinking does.. therefore chances are the amount you get will be different to what she actually gets, babies are more effective usually, plus it depends if you are used to using the pump.. if you use it very infrequently then you may find you have trouble letting down etc.

depends on baby also. lol.

The main thing to look for with ella, if you think she may be sucking for long after she needs it, is to look for the suck swallow pattern, usually they start with the fast sucks, then once you let down its the long drawn out ones, and they suck and swallow frequently.. as there gets less milk they will suck suck suck suck and swallow occassionally.. so if you notice that she is all suck and no swallow.. that's the time to change over, but the main thing with that is usually they'll remove themselves from the breast once they are done..   hard to gage. lol

The other thing with ella spewing after a bottle feed, is that some babies do spill and mum thinks, ooh too much, sometimes if they have wind trapped, it comes up and brings up whatevers in it's way, then hello, baby is comfy again and is more than happy to take more.

but yeah, all the main things.. plenty of wet naps, good weight gains, settled after feeds (not necessarily asleep.. and no necessarily quiet cos there is a difference between pain cry and hungry cry.. but you get the drift) lol

Edited by mum2paris

How often are you expressing Kelly? and also when? If in between or after feeds then it would definately be less than what Blake gets. And some babies do get all their feed in a short amount of time if they are effective feeders.. funny how much it differs.