With DS1 I had absolutely no problems expressing milk. I have an electric pump (Phillips Avent Isis) which was great last time.

With DS2 I have tried a number of times of the last three months to express milk but I just can't get the let-down. I've mostly tried expressing after a feed (is this right??) but also recently tried expressing from the other breast while feeding DS2 so I could 'catch' the let-down. This didn't work either. DS2 currently feeds about 3 hourly around the clock - he was 2 hourly up until a few weeks ago.

I'm not sure what's going on but I'm getting a little stressed as I have a function to go to in the next month where I'm leaving the kids with DH so DS2 will need a feed. I'd prefer not to feed him formula but I'm thinking that I might have to.

Also, DS2 flat out refuses a dummy so I'm wondering if he will even take a bottle of ebm. What other ways are there of feeding? I've heard of cup feeding but not sure how it all works - DS2 is almost 6 months.

Any suggestions/advice welcome