BF Gurus - Expressing tips please!

Hi ladies,
From next month DS is going to be with a nanny 2 days a week while I ease back into work. (He'll be 8 months) He'll be with another wee boy at my house, and, for the first while at least I intend to be working from home, so I'll be there too.

This means that I'll be able to continue with BF'ing as usual for the beginning. At the moment he's still feeding 3hrly (9am, 12pm, 3pm, 6pm) with the odd top up. I'm also doing BLW, so solids are still a wee bit haphazard at this stage.

Eventually, when I need to go into the office for one, maybe both days, I will obviously need to express enough to cover at least a couple of feeds. (Looks like the nanny will be here 9am-4pm)

So my queries are:
- How much do I need to express? Is it as simple as weighing DS before and after a feed to get an idea of how much he's drinking?

- Is it worthwhile to take a supplement (blessed thistle or something?) to increase my supply a bit to get a stockpile of milk in the freezer?

- I guess I'll need to express the missed feeds when I'm at work to keep my supply up. Once I do this, will it provide enough for the next day??

Any tips / advice would be most appreciated. I'd really love to keep BFing for as long as possible, but am feeling pretty nervous about this

Good on you for wanting to continue while back at work
I can't really add to what Mamma2N has said. A supplement definitely wouldn't hurt (and good thinking about stockpiling now).
If you are able to express the missed feeds while working then great, but if not your supply will adjust. Try to relax while expressing - some people find having a photo of their child, or visualisation (waterfalls etc) helps them.

Thanks for the advice everyone!

Melnel - good tip - that's what I reckon I'll do. He's still slightly iffy about the bottle too (loves playing with it, not so efficient at actually drinking out of it yet)- so it will need to be bit of a gradual process.

Oh, and your baby will always be able to drink more from you than you can get from a pump, which is why it is quite good to express from both breasts rather than just one. THen you know you will have enough. And whatever you express, your body will get used to making that amount.

I just want to add that all employers now need to provide a place for women to breastfeed or express milk while at work as well breaks for this purpose.

I don't know how feasible this would be for you, I did have a boss once who would express milk while at work and her nanny would come pick it up half way through the day, it worked well for her

http://www.ers.dol.govt.nz/factsheets/infantfeeding-for-employers.html

Also, feed baby then express while your still at home, this way you start the stock pile and you also up your supply.