When to start expressing?

[Riveted Rosie]

Hola

I'm exclusively breastfeeding DD4 who is 5 days old. I managed to do this with DD2 and 3 but I'm out of practice by 9 years so can't remember when I started expressing.

I can vaguely recall that trying to do it early was a mite frustrating because they're little and often so even a full boob didn't yield much whereas a couple of weeks in it has built up.

I need two feeds stored for when she's 7 weeks old as I need to leave her for around 4 hours. I was thinking of giving it 4 weeks of demand feeds, see if a pattern emerges and then look to building up some expressed.

I would be grateful for opinions/experiences though!

 

[EMSwife1124]

Hi there! Everyone is different but with my son I started pumping at around 2 weeks old so I could start building a stash for when I returned to work when he was 8 weeks old.

 

[Riveted Rosie]

That totally makes sense, do you remember how many oz you could pump at that stage?

I'm v lucky I don't go back until January.

 

[luz]

I usually waited until around 4 weeks, when my supply was more regular. Then I picked one of the feedings during the day and would pump for 10 minutes each side after my baby ate. This helped to build up my supply and also my freezer stash!

In the early weeks your baby is only taking in about 2 oz at each feeding, and then they will work their way up to 4 oz per feeding. If you are pumping after a feed, at first you probably won't be able to get very much... maybe 1/2 an ounce or so. But as your body adjusts and starts making more milk, you'll be able to pump more. Babies need about 1 oz per hour you will be gone, so that will be a good way to figure out how much you need to have pumped.

I would also recommend practicing eating with a bottle before you leave the baby. When I went back to work at 6 weeks after exclusivey nursing, my babies all refused the bottle for 3-5 days and it was torture as a mom knowing that my baby was crying and starving while I was gone because she didnt feel comfortable with a bottle.