I really want to be able to fit expressing a bottle of milk a day into our routine but I just don't know how. After a feed my lo may be awake for up to an hour and a half during the day by the time I'm done with winding, playing, settling, putting washing on, emptying the dishwasher etc etc there doesn't seem to be time to express a bottle before the next feed. When I have found time I can get 100 mls from one side or 75 mls from the other, I don't double pump as I never have 90 mins spare to refill before the next feed. That isn't enough for a full feed so I would need to pump twice a day to get one bottle.

How do people do it? I feel completely lost and more than a bit stupid about this.

How old is your baby and how much milk are they currently on?

Also why are you expressing? Just asking the question because, as you might have gathered if you've seen my other post, I stopped expressing because I found I just didn't have time for it and actually realised I found just feeding her myself far easier. I'm not saying you shouldn't express I'm just saying don't feel obliged to do it - I felt almost like I was doing something wrong by not excpressing as all my breast feeding friends were, but I was so much happier when I stopped.

But I do know many women rely on pumping - like if someone else does one or more of the daily feeds, or just to get a break and go out every so often - and I know lots of women who do manage it so don't lose heart it can be done. I haven't expressed for a long time so I can't really rememeber what I did but hopefully someone will be able to advise you who does regularly.

And don't feel lost or stupid - we're all just finding our way the best we can, there are no worng or right answers and we all feel stumped at sone point about so many things!

Rx

I don't have time so I generally don't bother unless I know I'm going out and have to leave some ebm. I end up putting lo in his jumperoo or in his chair so I get 10 mins to do it but only get about 3oz out so need to do that twice for one bottle. He doesn't nap in mornings at home either so can't do it then. So I don't have any advice really but I would love to know the answer as I really need to build up my freezer supply which is currently empty!!

Just last week I have started to express 1 bottle in the morning to build up a bit of a supply when I'm out and hubby needs to feed our little boy...
Jakob sleeps pretty well at night and only has 1 feed then so in the mornings I am quite full. As his night and morning feed are a good few hours apart, I feed him from the same side he had in the night and at the same time express the really full breast into a bottle. This way I don't need extra time and I can get a decent amount of milk without repeatedly pumping throughout the day. I stop pumping (manual avent pump) when he finishes his feed and then either just pop the bottle in the fridge if we need it soon or freeze the milk in a little pot (once it's cooled down of course).

Hope this helps a little!
Jana & Jakob 11+2 xxx

That's what I used to do Spring when LO only woke up once in the night, now he wakes up 3 times I wake up feeling rather empty so that doesnt work either..(can you tell I'm sleep deprived and grumpy???)

I read up about this because I wondered the same thing. It's best to express first thing in the morning because you do most of your milk production at night so your supply is more plentiful in the morning. I only fed from one side until DS got to about 4 months so I used to feed him from one side and express from the other side at the same time or straight after which meant the milk flowed much better and I then had 3 hours to produce more milk for the next feed. I would completely empty the side he had fed on and express from the other side and I usually got around 4oz so it took me 2 goes to get a full feed. I read it's very rare for people to be able to express more than 3 or 4 oz in total from both breasts although people who express regularly or exlusively can obviously get more.
You can keep it in the fridge for 7 days and add to it which is what I did to build up a supply!

Just reading this as am in the same situation.
Miss Impatient, I didnt know you could keep it in the fridge for 7 days. And I thought you could only add to milk that had been expressed less than 24 hours ago. But please tell me Im wrong as im seriously struggling to get anything significant to store!