How often to express - not breastfeeding

[Belfa]

Hi

Long story short, LO is 4 days old and due to suckling issues is formula fed atm however, to encourage my milk I have been expressing with the plan to keep bottle feeding but to be able to offer breast milk to him.

My milks now coming in and I got 4oz tonight however, I can't give him any as I'm now on antibiotics for a uti so have to throw it away .

I'm wondering how often I should express as I don't want to overstimulate my breasts and produce too much if we're going to be combi feeding anyway? x

 

[kitten2014]

HI belfa, I had same issues as you and went on to formula within first week, I tried expressing 6 times a day but struggled with that. I then found 3 x worked until was recovered and then found middle of day inconvenient so now have opted for twice a day, qty is probably 60-70ml per day and she takes 30-55ml from me per day (I store in fridge and use within 5 days). with the qts you are producing midwives would tell you to try and maintain every 3-4hrs if you can to maintain your supply otherwise like me your qtys will decrease and it will take longer to express...this schedule works for me and my baby, you need to find what works for you. I do find it hard sometimes when snuggling with her at nighttime to pass her to my OH to hold for half an hour when could quite easily remain snuggling with her, usually express between 9 and 11am and between 7 and 10pm, the other day when it approached 10.30pm my breasts were telling me to express! Ouch! Our lil girl takes approx 800-1000ml per day atm so if was producing that myself wouldnt be able to take care of her I'd be permanently at the pump!

 

[Rose83]

I'm an exclusive express breast feeder. Long story short I got every problem possible (thrush was my major problem) so for first two weeks my little girl was exclusively breast fed but then I had to express as she wouldn't feed from me because of the thrush. I was determined I didn't want to use formula at all (just my personal preference) so I began pumping exclusively. She is almost 6 months and has only had breast milk. Her drinking peaked at around 980ml a day and the most I ever pumped in a day was just over 1000ml. Now she has some solids her consumption is down to about 600ml a day.

You have to be committed to do it but actually once your milk supply is in full swing and if you have a good pump you really won't be pumping all day. In the early days I had a tommee tippee pump and could only do one side at a time so was spending 40 minutes pumping maybe 7 times a day. Obviously that couldn't continue so I bought a medela double pump (plenty of cheaper double pumps on the market) so suddenly I could empty both boobs in 15-20 minutes and get about 300ml in one go. To maintain your supply you need to be pumping regularly and making sure you totally empty your boobs each time or you will stop supplying as much. If you pump more than you need then freeze it as you can use it later! I'm just reaching the end ofmy freezer stock which is worrying me as my periods returned two months ago and whenever AF arrives my supply drops for a week and I can barely keep up with what she needs without dipping into the freezer. By ten weeks I was only pumping 3-4 times a day but still getting 800ml out a day.

Good luck with it all - feel free to ask me any questions! X

 

[Belfa]

Thank for the advice ladies, glad I'm not the only one. I got given different antibiotics so did t waste too much milk. Phase only been managing to express 4-5 times a day but that gives him enough for his day time bottles. I got 6oz using my tommee tippee this morning and then my medela swing arrived today and it only gave me 3oz - typical!!

Is it normal not to get as much with the medela first time? x

 

[Rose83]

I would say it's normal to get much more out in your first pump of the day than in subsequent sessions so I wouldn't blame the pump. I get almost twice as much milk in my first pump of the day than any other session all day x

 

[J_Anne]

You will get different amounts at different times during the day. Plus it can take a few goes for your breasts to get used to the suction of a new pump. If you plan on feeding expressed milk for the foreseeable future, you should be expressing as often as baby feeds and until you're empty. You need to establish a good supply to keep it going. As Rose said, freeze any extra-you will use it!! I expressed for 5 months for my premature baby, he was discharged from hospital breastfeeding but wasn't gaining enough weight. We're now using my enormous freezer stash alongside formula so he'll continue to get my milk despite being unable to feed/express anymore. Good luck!x

 

[Aimee84]

I expressed each time she had a feed I had a great supply after doing that for a few days.