Expressing advice

nettie1

Hi, I've exclusively breast fed for 7 weeks, all's well so I don't want to mess it up. I've two weddings coming up to which I'm bringing baba but I'm not sure how welcome she'll be and I don't want to miss the whole day if she's fussy so I want to express some milk and store it for the occasions.
What part of the day should I express? Should I express before or after feeds and on which side. How long for? How do you store it?
Thanks for any advice.

tinkerbell

Well you'll need to express on the day as well while at the wedding so that your supply doesn't drop. In my honest opinion, a wedding is not worth the effort required to express enough milk to ensure baby has enough and then having to express throughout the day. You'll spend the day pumping and maybe leaking. I've had to skip a couple of weddings as I was told my breastfed baby wasn't welcome. I didn't miss much!

dekey

I've been to weddings with and without baby while breastfeeding. I brought some expressed milk in a bottle to the church to feed during the ceremony and sat near the back in case I needed to bring her outside. At the reception the bride and groom sat us near an exit in case I needed to get in and out without too much trouble and there was plenty of space for the buggy without being in anyone's way. I went to our room for feeds (or someone's room if we weren't staying). For the weddings I didn't have her with me I just expressed to relieve engorgement and was fine. I bought a small nuby manual pump that quite easily fit in a clutch bag and went to the room/disabled toilet to pump. For expressing in advance the best time i found is morning straight after a feed from one side I could get a decent amount from the other side.

nettie1

dekey wrote: »

I've been to weddings with and without baby while breastfeeding. I brought some expressed milk in a bottle to the church to feed during the ceremony and sat near the back in case I needed to bring her outside. At the reception the bride and groom sat us near an exit in case I needed to get in and out without too much trouble and there was plenty of space for the buggy without being in anyone's way. I went to our room for feeds (or someone's room if we weren't staying). For the weddings I didn't have her with me I just expressed to relieve engorgement and was fine. I bought a small nuby manual pump that quite easily fit in a clutch bag and went to the room/disabled toilet to pump. For expressing in advance the best time i found is morning straight after a feed from one side I could get a decent amount from the other side.

Thanks. I know baby is very welcome at the first wedding and it's such a close friend it might as well be a family wedding so I really don't want to miss it. The bride has organised the seating arrangements for us and has even offered her room to have the baby minded since it's very local and we won't be staying. I'll have to suss out the second wedding as it involves more travel plus they're my husband's friends and I don't know where they stand but I really so I don't mind so much if I can't make that. That sounds practical though. Must invest in that pump, it sounds ideal. I'll have to get pumping!! Oh how do you store it??

a_noodle_jenny

Hotels are very accommodating. They will give you a place to express - I went to the changing room of the golf club and I enjoyed the break away from all the standing around and talk. Just ring a week or so in advance. Baby was 15 minutes away, I had 1.5 glasses of wine over the whole day and even got my hair done! I had a medela freestyle double pump, it's brilliant but if you're not going to express regularly and feed directly this pump is expensive. I brought hard plastic bottles and ziploc bags and gave the milk to the receptionist. We just collected the milk when we l left (about 1am) it's over a year ago but I think baby fed at 3am and 7am
We have another wedding next February and baby will be 8/9 weeks - I'm not committing to anything but I know last time I was only dying to get glammed up! I would not be able to bring baby to either of those weddings as they were/are hubby's friends...
Whatever you do don't waste the milk, I found the plastic milk bags tended to leak if transported and then stored, they also get "knicked" easily off other items in the freezer - I got loads of bottles from the hospital - our baby was premature so I was an expert at the expressing! I got him fed directly by exclusively by 3 months. Hoping this baby will stay put until due date in December 2015 so I can feed baby myself from get go... Instead of building a relationship with my pump... You will be very tired after the wedding but it was worth it for us... We took some nice pics of our new family at front door with baby... A vast improvement on zip up hoodie and greasy hair up in pony attire that I was used to! X

bovril

First thing in the morning is best time to express. Each time you express you are telling your body to produce milk for a feed are this time. When I started expressing once every morning I kept it going. You run the risk of engorgement or the likes of mastitis if you were to say express a few times a day and then stop and then express a few times a day later. For storage you'll need either sterile bottles or sterile bags. You can get the bags in boots or Mothercare etc. You can't use normal ziplock bags as they are not sterile. You'll also need to keep the milk refrigerated.

madeinamerica

I second bovril's advice on the timing. I started off that way, just pumping once in the morning after feeding him. You get a little bit anyway and it built up my supply a bit. I froze it in the lansinoh milk freezer bags.

Tip for freezing them: get as much air out as you can, seal it, then lay the bag flat in a tupperware box or something. Put the box in the freezer and the milk will freeze into a flat shape that is easy to store/stack.

We recently had to travel with milk, so I defrosted some overnight and put straight into bottles the morning of. It was easier than messing with freezer bags on the day and the milk will last the day if you keep it with a cool pack.

Another point - try out your baby with a bottle beforehand. Our guy took a while (and a couple of different bottles) to get used to the bottle.

Have a great time at the weddings!