I am a first time mom, baby is still growing but I am trying to wrap my mind around breastfeeding and how it all works. Its a little overwhelming!! I guess was hoping that I could mainly bf and express 1 bottle per day to either store for if I am away from LO or get her Daddy to feed while I try to get some shut eye at night. say I feed her every 3 hours, if I slept through a feeding and got OH to feed her at her usual feeding time while i am asleep will that effect my supply? How long does it take to establish a supply? I feel so lost!

In the early days and weeks it is important you feed frequently to establish a supply. Generally it is about 6-12 weeks, but you may want to delay introducing the bottle until around 8 weeks to stop nipple confusion where the baby may end up refusing the breast and favouring the bottle. I don't think 6 hour sleep will affect your supply greatly when bf is well established especially since you will be feeding from the breast mostly.

A tip for expressing, you will get most your milk early in the morning and supply increases when you pump between the hours of approximately 2-5 am.

thanks lina that helps! so i suppose for the first 8weeks i wont be getting large blocks of sleep! lol. it worries me but i am sure i can do it!

Just wanted to say hi, and well done to all the exclusive expressors out there.

I'm on week 3 of exclusive expressing now, tongue tied baby, poor latch and suck- we were admitted at 24 hours old due to jaundice and low blood sugars and decided to express. After a week of mixing formula feeds with EBM while my milk came in we're now fully breast milk fed, yay!

Still trying on the boob sometimes and get a decent latch with nipple shields but she's got a rubbish suck so doesn't get much! Hoping this will improve as she gets bigger.

I've just bought the medela freestyle but can't hands free as I have very large breasts, hands free bra = much leakage! Am expressing 3 times a day for 30Mins a time, getting 6-8oz a go. I know this isn't recommended and I should be expressing more often...but currently getting enough for all her feeds....it's difficult to motivate myself to do more!

Is anyone doing the same?
X

Not to panic you but if you are exclusively expressing you need to pump more than 3 times a day, especially in the early months. The less you express the less your body makes and fast. Your milk may now satisfy baby but she will soon go through growth spurts and be needing more milk.

Like I said I know it's not recommended and I should be expressing more often.......sorry I didn't find your input constructive, motivational or supportive, and I don't plan to post here again.

At that rate you won't have reason to post in here. Talk about hormonal imbalances...

I have been expressing and supplementing with formula, I currently pump every three to four hours, I am only getting 1-1.5 ounce per 20 minute pump. My baby is 6 weeks, when I first started I was not consistently pumping and went from 3 ozs a pump to what I am getting now at this point is it too late to improve output? Been pumping the 3-4 hours since last week and started fenugreek today.

No it isn't too late. But, you need to spend some serious time pumping, try pumping 5min after your milk stops flowing. Also pump every 30 min to 1 hour continuously for a couple of days preferably whilst compressing & massaging the breast. Personally when I was pumping I found that oatmeal increased my milk supply and would eat it all the time. All the best,xx

hi, hubblybubbly, hope you read this and haven't been scared off. the previous poster has a point - by not pumping frequently you could be risking your supply - BUT the rules do not apply to everyone, and i wish i had realised that when i started to express. it was drummed into me that i MUST pump at least 8 times in a 24 hour period, at least once in the night. so, for weeks i continued to follow the rules, despite the fact that i was producing more than double the amount of milk hayden needed (yes, even in the early days). i fairly quickly cut out the night time pump once i was having to set an alarm to do it, as hayden was sleeping through () and did start to cut it down to 6 sessions a day. my supply continued to increase, and at it's height i was producing 3 times his daily requirements (i froze the spare). i was plagued by frequent, painful blocked ducts. even when one turned into an abcess which required draining and antibiotics i was so terrified my supply would dry up i carried on. eventually i just ran out of time in the days - hubby had been out of work, so was there to help me, but when he started a new job i found it too hard to continue as i was and slowly, slowly cut down the sessions. it was only when i cut down to twice a day that my supply noticably dropped. once it started, though, it kept on going - without changing my pumping routine, my supply continued to drop, although i am sure if i had upped the pumping at that stage i could have got it back again. it wasn't until i cut down on the pumping that i realised quite how much it had taken over our lives, not to mention our freezer and our parents' freezers! i stopped pumping when hayden was 7 months old, but he continued to have frozen ebm for a couple of months afterwards, and i still leak every night, almost 9 months down the line. of course, i am glad i had the frozen ebm so i could continue to give him breast milk for longer, but i would rather have spent the extra time with hayden in his early days if i could have. i had never even heard of such a thing as 'over-supply', so it never occured to me it could be a problem. of course, it is a much easier problem to deal with than low supply, but it can be a real, and potentially painful, problem.

i would like to point out i am not saying that my experience is typical - i know that for most people it is necessary to pump frequently to maintain their supply - but my point is we are all different, and we need to listen to our own bodies and do whatever is best for ourselves, our babies and our families. it is possible that you will be able to maintain a good enough supply by pumping 3 times a day, but i would err on the side of caution and try to have a buffer - do you think you could manage an extra pump a day? if you have some ebm in reserve, you won't have to worry about what to do when she has a growth spurt. also, if you try it it will give you an idea of how easy you will find it to increase your supply should you need to.

good luck on your expressing journey x