expressing milk for going out

[1stbaby]

Hi
I'm sure someone has written this question but I can't find it.
I want to go out and leave milk for my 3 month old son. Last time I weighed him 3 weeks ago he was just under 5 kg. How much milk should I leave?
Also I'm having a hard time expressing. It takes me a whole day to get enough for a whole feed. I can only get about 40 mls at one time. Is this normal. I am not having trouble with feeding him as he seems to be getting enough (putting on weight )etc.
I was hoping to start work in a couple of months and the nurse said if I can't express enough(she said some people have difficulty expressing)< I might have to give him formula. Is that true? I dont want to do that as I want to feed him for as long as I can..at least 6 months.:fingerscrossed:

[misskittyfantastico]

I used to leave between 150ml-180ml per bottle. When I started expressing, I could only get about 20ml at a time....but it gets easier - now I can practically fill a bottle in one go! I found it easier to express from one boob while DD fed from the other.

Keep trying...it does get easier and if you're getting 40ml at a time, I reckon you'll be fine:thumbsup:

[Jinx]

Are you using a breat pump or doing it by hand?? I had (and still do) all kinds of trouble expressing milk for my boys. I had plenty of milk but just couldn' t get it out for some reason. I didn't have to do it that often for DS1 so I never invested in a pump - I only ever did it by hand. With DS2, on the rare occassion I go out without him - I leave some formula. I was against it at first but find that it doesn't interfer with my breast feeding at all. If you are planning on going back though - maybe try an electric pump - if you are not already??

[xkwzit]

Hi

One thing that I found useful was expressing after a shower, I would ALWAYS let down anyway, so I could express off at that time too. It would often take me a day or two of expressing to make up a full feed, so don't worry about that.

A LC told me that a good time to express to build your supply (not really to get lots though) is about 20 minutes after a feed. So if you could get into the habit of doing this, even if only for a few feeds a day, you'll boost your supply and keep up with the expressing.

Cheers