Like anything with becoming a mother, this is a skill that has to be learnt. Patience is the key. When I first expressed I didn't get that much milk. I thought two things:
I now know that neither of these things are true.
Although it took some time to master, I now express everyday. I realized that there was milk going to waste through leaking. I didn't want this to happen. I noticed that the fullness feeling mostly happened at night, especially when my son started sleeping for longer periods of time through the night. I now express before I go to bed and once when my son wakes up for his early morning feed. It isn't much, between four and five ounces each night, but it's enough to stop the leaking. This expressing of excess milk also means that I have a bottle of breast milk in the fridge if it's needed.
Expressing is useful, but it will never be a measure for the amount of milk that you are making at any one time. My son gets far more milk than I can express simply because his suction is about ten times that of any expresser. I'll never know how much milk he gets, but he is happy and healthy and doesn't cry for food, so I must be making enough. Period! There is worry, especially at the start, that maybe you aren't making enough and should bottle-feed. I say that we need to have more faith in our ability to provide food for our children. But, this is a whole different topic altogether.
Expressing works for me. I don't worry about how much I get, but I know that it'll provide a meal the next day instead of being wasted. Thinking about doing it is harder than actually doing it. I promise.
- it's just something that I can't do,
- I mustn't be making enough milk for my son.
I now know that neither of these things are true.
Although it took some time to master, I now express everyday. I realized that there was milk going to waste through leaking. I didn't want this to happen. I noticed that the fullness feeling mostly happened at night, especially when my son started sleeping for longer periods of time through the night. I now express before I go to bed and once when my son wakes up for his early morning feed. It isn't much, between four and five ounces each night, but it's enough to stop the leaking. This expressing of excess milk also means that I have a bottle of breast milk in the fridge if it's needed.
Expressing is useful, but it will never be a measure for the amount of milk that you are making at any one time. My son gets far more milk than I can express simply because his suction is about ten times that of any expresser. I'll never know how much milk he gets, but he is happy and healthy and doesn't cry for food, so I must be making enough. Period! There is worry, especially at the start, that maybe you aren't making enough and should bottle-feed. I say that we need to have more faith in our ability to provide food for our children. But, this is a whole different topic altogether.
Expressing works for me. I don't worry about how much I get, but I know that it'll provide a meal the next day instead of being wasted. Thinking about doing it is harder than actually doing it. I promise.
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