The ins and outs of exclusively expressing

[Emerald87]

For a 2 hour gap at 2wks pp? That's fine honey! Your supply will build up. Don't stress

 

[Twinkie210]

2oz for a 2hr gap at that point sounds normal to me too! You may have to supplement a little with formula for a week or so, and if you do have to, don't give up. It takes time to build up your supply. And guessing how much your LO will eat in a bottle is hard too, so you may waste a little for awhile until you get the routine down. Try not to get frustrated because stress makes pumping 1000X harder. When I first started pumping I was overjoyed to get 2oz. If you LO was losing weight that means that he wasn't eating enough that first week, so it make sense that your supply has to play catch up some!

 

[Snow Owl]

I've actually got him to attach twice today! The relief is unbelievable

Pumped after both feeds and got 2oz on first one and 1.5oz on second one (2-3 hours apart).

However on his first one he begged for more food after and took the 2oz I just pumped! Lol

 

[pinksmarties]

Looking for some advice. I want to start expressing (but not exclusivley so hope its okay to ask in here!) I bought a medela electric pump yestersay. If I pump between bf baby how do I store the milk? ATM I am only getting about 1.5oz in total from both breasts so can I keep the milk in the bottle to pump again later? I have tried pumping whilst bf but find it very difficult to do with baby there and when I pumped before bay feeding seemed hungry as though he couldn't get enough from the breast I had just pumped.

 

[Twinkie210]

Looking for some advice. I want to start expressing (but not exclusivley so hope its okay to ask in here!) I bought a medela electric pump yestersay. If I pump between bf baby how do I store the milk? ATM I am only getting about 1.5oz in total from both breasts so can I keep the milk in the bottle to pump again later? I have tried pumping whilst bf but find it very difficult to do with baby there and when I pumped before bay feeding seemed hungry as though he couldn't get enough from the breast I had just pumped.

This is how I store milk (although I have to store enough for him to eat everyday, so it will probably be a little different for you!). I pump both breasts and combine the milk into one plastic bottle and store in the refrigerator. If I have partial bottles I will add milk from the same day so I have the minimum amount of bottle stored as possible (I just make sure that I am not combining a large amount of warm milk with a small amount of cold, so I am not heating the milk back up and then getting it cold again). I don't feed out of the medela bottles, I just use these for storage, so when I want to make up a bottle, I swirl and gently shake the stored milk to recombine the fat back into the milk and fill up the bottle to the desired amount. I try to only keep a max of two days worth of milk in my refrigerator and if I have extra I freeze it in plastic storage bags.

If you don't plan to use the milk in the next couple days I would plan on freezing it. You can just freeze small portions or you can combine milk and freeze larger ones, but the milk needs to be used within 24 hrs of thawing.

If you are feeding out of the medela bottles, I would combine previous pumps with the one you have and fill to the amount you think your baby will eat in one feed and store only that in each bottle, that way you can just grab the bottle and warm it without worrying about remeasuring the milk. I try not to pump into a bottle that has cold milk in it because I am afraid of warming it again, but I have done it in an emergeny (I ran out of bottles at work and only had a partially filled bottle to pump into, and it was OK still).

I am not sure if this post makes sense, LOL. Hopefully it does!

 

[pinksmarties]

Thanks twinkie. I am only expressing straight after a feed atm and only getting 0.5oz in total from both breast. I tried expressing before/during feed but then he gets seemingly frustrated that he isn't getting anything out of the breast just expressed. I have also tried expressing between feed but found the same that he seemed hungry. By the end of the day I might have 2-3oz is there anyway to increase my supply as at this rate OH will only be able to help twice a week!

I seem to have to have the pump on quite a high setting but worried this might hurt my nipples, is that normal/okay?

 

[Sproglet]

2-3 oz is probably not far off a full feed by the way! Most breastfed babies don't take more than 4 oz per feed. The milk changes as they grow so they don't need to take more.

Your supply will soon increase, in fact I'd say be careful you don't end up with oversupply if you're pumping after every feed.

As for combining milk, I used to pump then store my pump bottles in the fridge. At the next pumping session I'd pour the milk into a feeding bottle or storage container. Then pump into the pumping bottles again and repeat. That way I was always adding chilled milk to chilled milk.

 

[pinksmarties]

I am only pumping 3 times per day, after his first morning feed, lunchtime-ish and after his last feed at night.I looked into fenugreek but I got the impression I shouldn't be increasing my supply/oversupply -why?

Also the medela manual states I only have to sterilise once per day but wash inbwtwen uses, is that what others do

I am putting what I express into a bottle to cool in the fridge, then adding that (once cooled) to already cooled milk in bags for the freezer, thats seems to be what has been suggested.

 

[Sproglet]

If you increase your supply too much (by using fenugreek or similar) there's the danger that when your baby is at the breast he won't be able to drain it and get the fattier milk at the end.

When your supply has increased a bit you might want to try pumping one breast while LO feeds from the other, or pumping between feeds (I know you tried this already but after a few days of pumping you might have different results). This will help to make sure there LO gets both watery and fatty milk with each feed and in the bottle.

By the way, in the early days you need to pump more or less when LO gets a bottle to keep your supply up, once LO is 12 weeks you can relax a bit so long as you don't repeatedly give a bottle at the same time of day (this isn't as bad as it sounds, I mean if you want a bath or something you can pump before you go in and leave the milk for LO, it means you don't have to get put when LO needs feeding!)

For the pump- mine (Lansinoh) says you don't need to sterilise at all (only before first ever use). Breastmilk has antibacterial properties. Also the main reason you have to sterilise bottles is because milk gets trapped in the hole in the nipple, sterilising helps make sure bacteria don't grow there. My pump had no crevices where milk could get stuck.

 

[Twinkie210]

I second sproglet! I don't sterilize the pump parts at all any more. I just wash in hot soapy water. Here in the US we aren't even recommended to sterilize bottles (I did when little guy was really little, but I don't anymore I just use hot soapy water and a bottle/nipple brush).

 

[ShelbyLC]

How much and how often do your LOs eat? Just curious.

 

[Jessica1988]

I have been stalking this thread for a while. My DD wouldn't latch on when she was born so I have been expressing right from the start. I'm lucky enough to produce alot of milk, around 3 times as much as she needs so I have begun donating to chester milk bank as my freezer is full already.

Shelby - at 3 months my LO is having between 800-900ml per day, feeding around every 2 hours between 8am and 10am and not waking for night feeds anymore.

Question for the long term expressers - having made it to 3 months I understand that my supply is well established but how many pumps can I drop to now? I currently do 7 per day and have dropped to 6 to give me more sleep. I'd like to get enough stored to see her through to when shes a year old

 

[Emerald87]

I'm no longer exclusively expressing but I am still pumping. I do 5 pumps a day and get 1.5L (on top of LO's intake).
You're well established. Drop a pump for a couple of days. If you see a significant drop, pick it back up.

 

[Twinkie210]

My LO is a little over 4 months old and I offer him 5 8oz bottles a day (he probably only really drinks about 35oz a day) He eats every 4 hrs during the day and STTN most nights. We have also started him on food he gets some cereal with fruit for breakfast and fruit and veggies with lunch and dinner (We don't give him a ton of solids yet, just a small amount to get him used to eating off a spoon- he gets maybe one size 1 jar of food a day, plus a couple tablespoons of cereal).

I pump every 3-4hrs during the day and I will go 6-8hrs at night. So 5-6 pumps a day. I could probably drop a pump during the day, but it is not that much trouble to pump at work so I figure the extra pumps will make sure my supply stays strong. I am able to pump around 45oz a day (I usually average around 2oz per hr output) and I am offering little guy 40oz a day, so every other day or so I freeze a bottles worth of milk. I am hoping he drops another bottle in the next few weeks when he begins to eat more food so I can freeze a bottle a day. I would love to build up a few month's worth of milk in our freezer to have for when I finally quit pumping.

 

[Tweak0605]

My LO is almost 4 months old, and she's only eating between 18-23 oz a day. Her normal is about 20 oz. She takes 5-4oz bottles a day, sometimes we offer 4.5 oz and sometimes 4 oz. When we give her 4.5 oz, she usually spits up afterwards so we tend not to do that too often.

I pump 6-7 times a day, and only get 17-19 oz. On the occasion I can freeze a bottle's worth of milk, but usually not. We do supplement with 1 bottle of formula at night. Last week I was only getting anywhere between 12-15 oz of milk when pumping, so we did 2 bottles of formula.

 

[alaskagrown]

I haven't visited this thread in a while, but I just wanted to let everyone know I'm nearing my 9 month milestone of EPing and I've also applied for the Guinness Book of World Records for my attempt to beat the record for most milk donated by a single person. The record currently stands at 11,000 or so ounces and up-to-date I have donated over 5,000 and have about 750 more in my freezer ready to go. I don't plan on stopping any time soon and produce an excess of about 175oz per week. We'll see if I can make it

 

[pinksmarties]

I have started expressing this week so OH could give a bottle a night, I now have some stored/frozen but have no idea how much my 10 week old might need. Would offering 5oz be about right?

 

[Emerald87]

Yup start there. If they finish it offer more

 

[pinksmarties]

Thanks for everyone advice. We decided to give him a bottle this morning rather than last night. No my question for today is does frozen milk taste different?

My OH gave him warmed, previously frozen and defrosted in fridge overnight, milk this morning. He finished the 4 oz in the bottle so we offered him another 1oz that I had also defrosted. When I tasted the milk after wards it had a slight bitter after taste compared to the fresh milk I had just expressed after OH had fed him (nice and sweet). Was this milk off? He vomited LOTS up half an hour or so after finishing but I am not sure if this was due to the milk or him taking too much from the bottle. The throw up smelt more than his usual small possets he occasionally does. I was apprehensive about doing the whole bottle thing (even though it may only be one a day or less). Will he be okay?

edit I have just tasted the milk in the fridge that I expressed at 5am this morning an it tastes ok. We used a bottle warmer that seemed to heat it up too warm so we had to wait for it to cool it could that have caused the taste?

 

[Emerald87]

Frozen milk is known to smell and taste different. Some Mums recommend adding some freshly expressed or refrigerated stuff if bubs is fussy Just make sure if they're both at room temp you're going to use them straight away. You can mix at fridge temp but can only store 24hrs regardless of how much "fresh" stuff you've added - if that makes sense (I'm tired and can barely string a sentence together LOL)