Difficulty expressing - any tips anyone, PLEASE!?

[Egypt]

I have a 14 week old dd (dd2) and have exclusively bf her from birth. she has had 5 or so bottles of ebm, no problem, about a month ago and now i'd like to try giving her a dreamfeed to try and improve her sleeping. preferably i'd like to let dh do this, so that i can get some early nights. he'd love it too. i don't really want to use formula. problem is i can express but only when dd is feeding too. otherwise i can't get a let down. i have tried and tried; visualised her feeding, squeezing, massaging, nothing works. but it's too difficult to express when feeding simultaneously. dd gets angry because i cannot hold her properly, although she is propped on pillows in a rugby ball hold....

any tips on expressing effectively? have the avent isis. also tried the medela electric but i just bled! i like the avent, it's not that - it's me!

or should i just give her one formula a night?

[chopster]

have you tried doing it in the bath? I used to fine my let down always came in the bath, whether I wanted it to or not!
Also, do you start pumping really gently, to stimulate the let down. I use to gently squeeze the handle, applying steady pressure for a few seconds then releasing until let down came. You shouldn't be pumping like mad and making yourself bleed.

[Notyummy]

Is there any way at all you could hold dd in a normal hold with one hand whilst expressing with the other? It does take practice, but I had the Avent electric pump as well, and it work for me, especially as once its started, all you need to do is hold it in place. I managed 7 months of expressing that way...perhaps dd might get used to it if you kept trying??

Good luck!

[mistlethrush]

I had avent hand pump and found that it could take sometime for let-down - lots of tiny pumps until suddenly there would be reasonable suction and then let-down would come suddenly - but sometimes this would take several minutes. Strong pumps and long pumps did not help at all and just delayed things happening - and the worst thing to do is to worry about it. I suggest get Dh to look after her for a while, find a nice comfortable, warm place where you can be undisturbed and don't worry how long it takes. I also found it best in between feeds, or near a feed but on the side not going to be used...

Hope it works

[Egypt]

thanks for your help everyone. i'll give it a go tonight once all are asleep! have also bought some formula and may try this tonight as i managed a max of 1.5oz today! with let down

sigh

[moondog]

Egypt,it gets easier as time goes on.

Best time for me was first thing in the morning when breasts were pretty full.
Fed from one and pumped from the other.Started with small amounts but gradually built up to about 120 ml at a time.

Another tip is to pump a few hours before the baby wakes up (early hours) and switch back and forth from each breast which helped me as flow seemed erratic!

[2Happy]

Hi. I found hand pump better than electric. Also bath/shower during/before expressing. Also if you express during the night/early morning this is whem one of the hormones that stimulates milk production is at its highest so it should stimulate your supply best. HTH