Hey chicky,

Glad to hear you are feeling better about everything. I wont comment on anything 'direct' bf wise as i don't know. I think i very much had the same prob (small, flat nipples) and every time we tried - with or without the LC - she would just scream her head off, i would end up in tears and it was just a very very stressful situation...

anywayssss you were asking how you may go about it if you choose to exclusively express. Basically i made sure i was always a feed ahead. So i would express every time DD wanted a feed. I hired an electric pump from the chemist and luckily i already had the attachments, however i think to buy a double pack will set you back about $80 - 120. The hire was $20pw but if you can afford to buy one i would (however there pretty expensive!!!). So pretty much i would feed her, burp her, put her back to bed (if night or if during the day do whatever was next) then express. Like i said previously i would express for 10 min and completely drain both breasts at every express. At first this was pretty tedious as she was feeding every 3 hours but as her feeds spread out to 4/5 hourly i would express at whatever interval she was feeding as i figured that this was when she would have drained my breast anyways. I don't know if this was 'right' as no one ever told me what to do i just did what i thought was right. Whenever we went out i would take the machine with me (it came in a carry bag) and just borrow a spare room wherever we were to have a quick pump. If we were going out i just made sure i expressed before hand and then as soon as i got home - it's not like we ever went out for big late nights at that time!!! Most the time i always had enough EBM for her, however from about 6 weeks i gave her one full formula feed a day as by the end of the day i didn't have enough milk for her bedtime feed - she is a BIG girl though and was taking a lot by this time.

Not sure if this was the info that you were looking for but i hope it helps in some way.

xo