Hi,

Just wondering if anyone can offer me some hints with when to express.

DD (2weeks old) is not thrieving on the boob. At this stage its not confirmed what the problem is but basically her suck is very weak and she doesn't drain milk from me. She attaches beautifully but sucks on me like I am a dummy. She doesn't have those long drawing sucks with the audiable swollowing. We are currently waiting on a paed review and scan of her heart as the concern is she has a cardiac condition which is tiring her out so although she demands to be fed once she gets on she appears to be sucking but is not actually getting anything. This has lead to me usually massive supply dwindling to almost nothing. DD is still 140grams below her birthweight and if she hasn't gained by tomorrow she is been admitted to paeds for further tests. Trying hard to prevent that due to the risk of germs, they will want to put an NGT in etc.

Anyway although Im not exclusively expressing (as I'm hoping to get her on me full time eventually) I express with every feed usually. The problem I have is say I express at 7am this morning, DD woke at 9am (had EMB and boob for about an hour) so I expressed again at 1030. She then woke at 12 and had breast and EBM then. I don't know how I can express every 3-4hrs when I'm demand feeding her and she doesn't usually go the 3-4hrs before she wakes for more. Expressing everytime she is due to be fed seems extreme and I wouldn't get much but it seems silly to feed her and express, then she wakes and I feed her, then express 1-2hrs after that. Does anyone have any suggestions? I am also currently trying to increase my supply. 48hrs ago I was only able to express 15mls at a time and now 48hrs later I can get out about 60-70mls so no where near as much as I want but a huge improvement from when I first started expressing. I'm also on motilium.

Also I feel a let down every hr or so. It feels like this is when I should express but if I've only expressed an hour earlier obviously I shouldn't go express again so soon. What does everyone else do about this? Just ignore it as I do have a letdown shortly after I start expressing when I do. What I am currently doing just seems so disorganised and wasting alot of time. 50% of my daytime hours are taken up BF or expressing but I'm determined to get my supply back and I want to keep DD on the breast so if she is able to start sucking effectively one day I can reduce the EBM (which is given in a squeezy bottle as she can't drink that effectively either without help) and let her get more from me. She seems to love the boob over the bottle despite her loosing a substancial amount of weight. Weigh in is tomorrow and FX she is up a minimum of 50grams.