When is the best time to express breast milk?
| I want to pump & store breast milk so that I can feed it to my baby from a bottle. What would be the best way to do this? Right now, I feed her around 9pm, and then my husband takes the first nighttime feeding with a bottle of expressed milk around 12. Then I get up around 3am and I feed her on one side and pump on the other side. Is there a better way to do this?
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Responses:
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You're doing Fine! by: Donna the way you are doing it is fine. Expressing milk and storing it for later is a very flexible process. Different moms do it different ways - what ever is easiest for them and whatever works. Some moms like to express early in the morning when they first wake up because that is when they have the most milk. Some moms express their milk at about 5 pm, after they get home from work. Some moms express their milk right before their baby enters a longer nap so that they can have the extra hour to replenish their milk supply (assuming that you baby has a longer nap time!) Remember to drink plenty of fluids to replenish yourself. See all that wonderful milk coming out? It's got to come out of somewhere, so be sure to eat well and drink lots of fluids. I used to drink 2 cups of water at each breastfeeding session. Interestingly, if you don't eat well, your breast milk is still of superior quality, your body just takes the nutrients out of your body and puts it into your breast milk for the baby. It's nature's way of ensuring that the new generation has a good chance in surviving. Good luck! Donna
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