Im going to start expressing milk to store in the freezer from this week. So just a couple of questions, sorry if they're silly!
1) When should I express? After/before a feed? Or at a completely seperate time?
Milk is at its highest production *usually* in the morning hours. I feed Sharlotte, then pump off the extra on one breast, then pull a bit off the other... but that's me. If you need to have a steady supply, it wouldn't hurt to get your production up so you can pump your supply each morning.
2) How much should I express at a time?
Well, that depends on a lot of things. Some women can't pump AT ALL... and the average woman can pump 1-2 ounces at a sitting. So it might depend entirely on you and what your body will allow you to pump. If baby takes 3-5 ounces in a feed and you only produce 2 ounces pumping, you're going to have to pump a couple times a day depending on how many times you want to pump-supplement feeding per day. Breastfeeding via pumping is extremely hard to maintain especially beyond 6 months because at that growth spurt, it's hard to tell the breasts to make enough milk via pumping... Baby really needs to be doing all the production cues for themselves.
In my situation I don't really need a vast supply of milk lying around. I'm available for feeds 99.9% of the time. I do like having some on hand though if DH and I wish to leave for the afternoon or evening or whatever. It gives me, and the caregiver I leave her with (wether that's gramma or sister or whatever) some peace of mind. So with that said, 3-4 times a week I pump the extra off both breasts (leaving one breast half full or so for the next feed) in the morning. This amounts to a total of about 3-4 ounces. I currently have 3 bags of about 3 ounces in storage. I started pumping last week.
DH and I went to dinner this weekend, and we left her with my mother. Breasts do not come with ounce markers, so I had no idea how much milk to leave with her. I fed her well and we left... I gave mom 3-4 ounces of milk on top of that just in case we didn't get back and she needed to feed.
We were gone an hour. Sharlotte had raised hell to be fed in that time, and devouered the entire 3-4 ounces I had left. So that leads me to believe that my little booby baby is taking 5-8 ounces of booby juice at a time. Sometimes more sometimes less... so if I need someone to give her a 'whole' feed, I have to leave two bags of milk. (I'd better get pumping huh
)
3) Bearing in mind Seth is now 4 wks, and we might start using the milk from 5/6 wks in bottles, how much am I expecting him to take in each feed? I figured that if I stored 1 feeds worth in each bag, then when it came to defrost and use I wouldn't be wasting a couple of ounces if I did it that way. If that makes sense...
That makes good sense in theory, but our babies are too young to be storing food in anticipation of their appetite... it changes daily. Besides, I'm willing to bet you won't be able to pump an entire feed, statistics are against us on that one. So you'll be storing feeds in two bags, maybe three. I would think in the long run this makes more efficient sense anyway because your feeder can put the first part of the feed in the bottle Seth can eat, then burp (essential for bottlefed babies), if he's hungry for more, prep the next bag. It only takes a second to defrost in hot water, then it's up to temp too. Continue till he's full. You may have to save an ounce for the next feed (you can save BM for 24 hours refrigerated after pumping or defrosting).
Thank you
xxx
Hope that helps!
