Hi all,

Fleur - was great reading your update, so I thought I'd throw in mine.

Started off bfeeding, too painful, was expressing full-time by the 5th day. Got to about 7 weeks and tried breastfeeding again. Excruciating, cried through many a feed, mastitis 3x in 3 weeks, ended up in hospital - a few days later thought 'I can't do this', and went back to expressing full-time. Life is much more peaceful (although I really do wish bfeeding had worked)!

Almost 17 weeks and full-time expressing. 5 bottles a day, 4 pumping sessions (20-25mins). I am managing to stay ahead of LO, but not putting any in freezer atm. Get from 160-360 (total) each pump, depending on time of day and how long in between (like you Fleur I often get very different amounts from both sides). I find I get about the same pumping 5x and 4x, so 4x is much easier. Am now in a nice routine - wash and sterilise parts before bed, then put them in the fridge after each pump until the next time. I can go from about 9:30pm-7am without pumping, so getting some good sleep. Now just trying to get my head around when I can drop to 3 pumps and still be getting enough.

Have got a long way to go, but I would really like to get to 1 year. And then I'll have a big party - for me! Hahaha. It's all hard but worth it for my little one to be getting breastmilk.