I am back at work in 8 days and planning to express but never can express as much as DD takes herself.
Currently during the day she has a feed around 10 and 2-3 so although I plan to express twice at work I suspect my boobs will adjust supply as not as much is being used. If I feed her during the weekend (am working mon-fri for 4 months), will I still have enough milk to feed as I normally do on the weekend or will this compromise my supply for morning/night feeds which I plan to continue as normal? DH is on LSL on we plan to just offer her EBM/cows/goats milk during the day when i am not there and i will give her a bf as soon as i get home. She already has it in cereal etc and shown no intolerance
I express mon- fri and have for about 3 years in total so far (16 mths approx for ds1 and now about 8 mths for ds2). I started trying to express about 3-4 times originally when they were <6/7 mths. Currently I vary between 1 & 2 express sessions a day to try to keep up with ds2's 2-3 x 90ml bottles a day. Lately I've been lucky if I get one in as school's been mad for me.
Sometimes I try to express a bit qon the weekend to build up a stash for the freezer in case I don't get enough fresh milk that day (I freeze in 30ml lots).
My expressing doesn't affect my weekend supply, ds2 still feeds well at 12.5mths overnight (sometimes I feel like he's making up for no mummy contact by ridiculous night feeding).
ETA I went back to work when my boys were about 4 mths old and made sure I had a freezer stash then already.
remember, supply = demand, and fairly quickly. Lots of working mums do this - express on the days that they work and just feed normally on other days. it works fine. You milk will not “just dry up” Even when you are feeding once per day, you will have enough milk for one feed per day. Toddlers don’t feed like newborns - they may only feed1 or 2 or 3 times a day and you milk supply adjusts to that.
Thanks Guys
So Barb, if I am feeding on saturday and sunday I am predicting that DD will drink more on those days from me than I am able to express Mon-Fri. Does this mean my supply over the course of the week would drop a little and then as she is bf more over the weekend it will increase in response to her feeds. Just worried that on a saturday after being at work all week I wont have enough for her. Hope that makes sense
Extra feeds on the weekend will support your milk supply during the week. so it will be all good! To be honest, with my little one I went back to work full time when he was 6 weeks old and by 10 mnths I was over it. So, I stopped expressing at all during the day and fed him morning, nights and weekends. When I was away he had food and water and he breastfed for a VERY long time (over 4 years) Babies have a knack of getting what they need
How will this affect my supply?
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