Can’t breastfeed, Won’t breastfeed!

Babyhuddle recently approached me about trying out their fab new site and writing a guest blog post and I am very glad they did, the website is great and the idea of creating lists of products for other mummies-to-be and mummies is a ingenious idea. After a few moments thinking about what a good topic would be to write about, that would be a) helpful to other mums-to-be, b) relevant to Babyhuddle and c) easy to create a list of products for… I had it: Expressing!! It made me think back to Noah’s first two weeks, which in turn, made me feel very smiley.

I had no idea I was going to express, until a week into Noah’s appearance, he just used me as a dummy and didn’t feed properly from me. At 2am until 4am some nights, I would just have to stand by his cot rocking him, whilst he was attached to my breast. After a couple of weeks of no sleep, sore boobs and a very sore back I was advised to express, because I still wanted Noah to have my milk as I knew that would be better for him.

So what did I need to express my milk and make sure Noah had plenty of it? I decided to use the Tommee Tippee products as I thought the bottles looked comfortable and my mum had already purchased the electric steriliser for us which is designed around those bottles. So immediately I had the tools to clean and store the milk, I just needed a pump. Now I know the electric pump is a lot more expensive than the manual pump, but I cannot see how any new mum has the time to use a manual pump and the energy. The electric pump was so simple to use and set up, you literally hold it against your breast until you have the desired amount of milk from both and bobs your uncle! I even managed to sit in a position where the pump bottle rested on my legs, so I had both of my hands spare. Oh the things us mums do! When you had the desired milk in the pump bottle, you literally put the nib and lid on the bottle and either use it straight away or store the breast milk in the fridge, until your little baby is ready for a feed. If your baby is only drinking small amounts of milk to begin with, then I would recommend using some of the smaller Tommee Tippee bottles to store the milk in the fridge, as when they have started drinking from a bottle, it is recommended to throw the unwanted milk away (don’t keep it for a little later on!). I found separating the milk into many bottles of 4/5oz was a good idea as then I knew Noah would drink it all. This will be something you get the hang of around your baby, he/she might drink a whole lot more, or not that much.

Cleaning the bottles is so easy, especially if you have the special bottle cleaning gadget, getting into the ends of the nibs is essential and making sure the entire bottle is cleaned thoroughly. Then you place it all in the correct shelves in the sterilising unit, pour in the right amount of water, put the lid on and press the power button. 5 minutes later your bottles are sterilised and ready to go again with the next expressing session. The steriliser is so easy to use, there is a place for the bottles, nibs and lids and if you do not remove the lid after sterilising, the bottles keep sterile for up to 24 hours.

The breast pump comes apart in a specific way (after the first couple of times it becomes second nature and is a very quick process), wash this out with the same cleaning tool as the bottles and place it in the microwaveable steriliser that it comes with and that is then ready to go for the next expressing session.

Happy baby, happy mummy and happy milk!