Thanks everyone. A non boob squashing

Barb, I had just been expressing a little into a towel or in the shower, but have now just used the pump to do it, and it does feel better... I dont want to confuse poor DS by offering the breast, so expressing is the way it has to be. I had been checking for redness and if a duct was feeling tender I made sure to express a little from it...

So, how do I work this then? If I need to express to reduce the risk of mastitis, wont that just tell my body to keep making milk? How do I cut this down, and how regularly should I express, and how much? I did not do much expressing this time, but I know what I pumped this time was only just the surface of what was there...

I should have know that dropping the 3am feed as the last one was a silly idea... I know that is when the milky hormones are at the best, but it the the worst time of day (night) to prepare a bottle, and the feed I held onto... Oh well... weaning like this is so dang hard....