Breastfeeding and Expressing... HELP PLEASE!!

[Hope.Positive.Love]

Okay so here's my story..

I go back to work on Monday, and work Monday - Thursday. I work in child care so I can take DD with me and she will be in the nursery where I can continure to Breastfeed her YAY... BUT on a Monday she will be with my Mum so save on $$$... Therefore I need to express for when she is there.... Not a problem when I'm at work on the Monday, thats fine as I will have plenty of milk as I'm not feeding her.

But what about every other day, I breastfeed her and then I will pump but I hardly get anything!! I just pumped for 20mins 10 mins each side after she fed and didn't even get 10mls!! In the morning she is full after one boob, she sleeps through the night so the other side is full which is fine, I can get almost 150mls from the other side. But once our day starts and she is having both sides I can't express ANY milk!!!!

I need help on how I can increase my supply for the Monday she isn't with me. She takes the EBM great and has never had a problem with weight gain, she is 4mths old, so I'm guessing my body produces enough for her, just not extra...

I have a stock pile built up so I'm not in a panic, yet....

[studymum]

Expressing gets really hard as your are only making what your baby is requiring. Pretty much the only was to increase it is to pump more often. So as you are already doing, after feeds but also in between feeds as well. It will gradually increase and you will slowly find you start producing more but it can take a couple of weeks of routinely doing it. Also make sure that you pump just as much while she is away from you. During the night your body is super efficient at producing milk due to lovely hormones at play, so if you can try to wake and do a midnight pump, the extra stimulation can help increase supply. You can try natural remedies but it really just comes down to supply and demand, you just have to demand more.

[onthefly]

As studymum says, it's about demand - it takes time and persistence to get expressing working for you sometimes. I found that consistent pumping for a week or two gradually built up my supply so I was able to get a reasonable amount out between feeds.