in the early days of expressing i found it a help to have a photo of lo at hand to look at so i could imagine him feeding

as said below, it's not recommended to express until 6 weeks when your milk supply is "established". Having said that, i was encouraged to express from 5 days old when LO was having major problems feeding due to tongue tie (bottle feeding is easier for them). And then again at 2 weeks when my HV told me to express so DH could give a feed and let me sleep for 4 hours in a row as I was exhausted. So... you CAN express earlier.

I found that it was hard to train your boobs to get used to expressing at first and it really was just an oz if I was lucky. but keep at it coz it does improve and ceratinly, after 6 weeks is easier.

BTW, one thing they never seem to tell you is how much to give: it's about 1oz per kilo of baby per meal. So 4kg baby will take roughly 4oz milk per feed.

regarding staoring your milk i used to store mine in lota of 4oz so that i could defrost 4 or 8 oz for a feed

you can add to already expressed milk just make sure that you chill the milk for atless an hour before adding it to aready refridgeted milk always cold to cold never warm to cold, you can even add chilled milk to frozzen milk untill you have built it up to the amount needed, always date it from the first milk

throw away any milk that you don't use once warmed never warm twice

i used a hand operated expresser so can't give any tips on that

if storing in fridge don't keep in the door 

room temp use within 6 hours

5-10o fridge within 3 days

0-4o fridge within 8 days

-18o frezzer within 6 months

if defrosting in fridge over night use within the next day

if defrosting outside (on work top ect) use straight away

you can warm ebm up in hot water or give at room temp

sorry about itbeing so long but this is almost eveything that i know and it was a great help when i started 

Hi,

my son in now 11 1/2 weeks and has been soley BF.  I hd to express when he was 1 week old as my nipples were bleeding and it was too sore to feed him.  i never had any problems as i had a really healthy mik supply.

i would agree that it would be more hassle trying to express to cover public feeding as your milk supply could be affected.  I didnt like the public feeding to begin with, but it will get easier as baby learns how to bf properly and you dont have to faff about getting them on anymore.  public feeding doesnt faze me at all anymore.

i freeze the milk i express and use a seperate bag each time.

Hi.

I agree with being careful with expressing in teh early days. I exprssed at 3 week with dd1, I expresed and went for an early night - but unfortunatly my milk supply didn't undersatnd this and I woke in the morning with hugh breasts and blocked ducts and this led to mastitis - so take care if expressing eraly on and make sure that if you miss a feed you express instead to avoid this.

Expressing for every public feed will be hard work - you will need to express, sterilise the bottle and pump and then express, store the milk and then you will need to express shortly after the feed you missed.  So alothoug expressing is good if you can't be with your baby or need to some time away - direc feeding is always best.

You do get used to feeding in public - day by dy it gets easier and your confidence grows.

YOu shoudl freeze the milk form each expressing session seperatly as adding the warm milk form your body to cold milk could cause issues.

Hope that helps

Donna

Hi, congratulations!

First of all you shouldn't start expressing untill 6 weeks as this is when your supply is fully established. I started at 4 weeks and didn't have any problems.When you first express you don't get much out. It does gradually increase with time. I store mine in boots freezer bags. You can put it all in one bag as log as you date and tim it from the first lot you put in.

Have a look at this -

http://www.kellymom.com/bf/pumping/index.html

hth

Claire

hi ladies,

ollie is 2 weeks old tomorrow and have been solely BF and he feeds between 2-4 hours during the day and the same at night but has gone 5 hours before.

sometimes i feel like a milk machine and with a toddler sometimes its hard. especially when we're out as i dont like feeding in public. dont mind sitting in the car and doin it.

so am thinking of expressing so the DF can do some work too. ive got a medela electric pump which i havent used yet, so am wondering on tips on expressing. can i store it all in one bag or do i have to put each session in a different bag. and any other tips as i didnt bother expressing with my dd-bf for 2 weeks then gave up and went to bottles.

Ellie & Ollie