[ready4Family]

Just wondering if others have chosen to breastfeed, bottle feed or both?  I'm mostly breastfeeding but do suppliment with bottles.  Dh gives him the last feeding at night with a bottle so I can get a head start of sleeping (plus the baby sleeps better with a bottle).  Also, sometimes I top off with a bottle if he still seems hungry after breastfeeding.  The last time we use a bottle is if we're out or someone is over and I don't want to go into the other room with him for an hour.  The only problem I've found with doing both is that he doesn't latch as well anymore on the breast.

What about everyone else?

 

[Jayne]

With Jack I breast fed and then dopped up with formula for the bedtime feed. I found exclusive breast feeding day and night exhausing and my supply definitely suffered with a baby feeding every 2 hours, and me needing to do all the night feeds.

So when pg with Ben, I made a decision to do things my way and not the way the books say or the way the midwives/health visitors say and what I did was this .............

From birth I gave a b/f in the day and then used formula at night.  Then when my milk came in on day 3, I gave a b/f in the morning and then expressed, continued to b/f through the day and then used the expressed milk in a bottle at night.  This way, my boobs never made milk at night as I never gave a single b/f at night, so didn't get engorgement and was able to sleep through when it wasn't my turn to do night feeding.  But it meant Ben was exclusively having breast milk.  It also meant that when I came home from hospital (24 hours after Ben was born), my dh did the night feeds for the following 3 nights whilst I recovered from the birth.  After that we took it in turn to do alternate nights of night feeding, meaning that every other night we had a good night's sleep

I continued to b/f through the day and used expressed milk from a bottle for night feeds right through until I stopped breast feeding at around 4 months.  My supply was plentiful as I was getting plenty of rest.  I chose to stop at this point and am positive that decision was down to PND that I developed around that time.  It became an effort because of that, and I'm sure I'd have carried on for longer if things hadn't become distored by that.

I wish I'd thought of this way around of feeding the first time.  It was far less exhausing as I got loads of sleep in the early weeks, but everyone says about nipple confusion, not expressing before 6 weeks, etc.  Personally I had no problems with either of those things.  Both boys switched from breast to bottle easily enough too.  Although Ben did have to think about it a bit in the morning when offered the breast after a few bottles through the night.  He soon got used to switching back and forth though   

Jayne x

 

[ready4Family]

THanks for your response.  I actually haven't tried expressing milk yet (didn't get a breast pump since I didn't know how breastfeeding would go and now, who has time to go out?).  I do like using a bottle at night though since it's a lot faster than breastfeeding (plus I know exactly how much he gets).  Was expressing milk very time consuming?  I've heard that you get very little milk each time.

 

[mini]

Hiya to answer your frist question

i am breast feeding exclusively and have no plans to bottle feed formula or EBM

i know what jayne is saying about feeling exhausted but i think i have a fairly good baby who at least feeds quickly in the night and will go straight back down again

except for the first week and his growth spurts when we were on the boobie all day and all night he quickly went 4 hours in the night and now goes 6-9 hours with the ocassional 3-4 nightly feeds

i have never expressed properly - only to take off the engorgement

good luck

Mini xx

 

[Kas]

Hi
I exclusively b/f for the first 3 weeks then started to express so that dh could get involved with the feeding, but most of the time I still fed Callum myself until he was around 9 weeks old when he started to get more and more hungry so we introduced a bottle of formula as last feed at night, which help take him longer at night.  I still carried on b/f at other times until he as 13 weeks old when I decided to stop as he starting fighting me when feeding him and I also felt that my milk was not sustaining him enough as he started to feed more often.  Like Mini, I think I had a very good baby, regular feeds apart from growth spurts and he fed quick, 10 mins, if that,  each boob.  Even now he takes his bottle in a matter of minutes  
Hope this helps
Love Karen X x

 

[*Kim*]

Cant help with the breast feeding as Joe was exclusively bottle fed. I was going to try breast feeding but by the time i came round from the anaesthetic Joe had already had one bottle and was on his second. He was a really hungry baby and used to drink all of the small bottle they give you in hospital and then want more from another one. So i decided to stick with the bottle. He was feeding every 2-3 hours at first i was told to let him drink as much as he wanted as he had slight jaundice and apparantly it helps ?? But once we got home i eventuall gave him a dummy and he then went every 4 hours and slept 6 hours at night from 12 days old.

Love Kimx   x

 

[ready4Family]

Wow, are you gals ever lucky.  Our son feeds every 3-4 hours or so, but since dh gives him a late bottle, I'm up once around 3 or 4am and then up for the day at 7 or 8am.  Our little guy though takes so long to feed...about 40-45 minutes or so (he also falls asleep midway so it takes awhile).  Last night dh offerred to take the entire night but I refused.  I felt that (a) I'd get too engorged if my last feed was at 9pm with the next one not until 7am or so, and (b) I felt almost guilty not doing a feed.  Is that silly?  I don't even know why but just felt as though it's "my job" to ensure that our little guy is well fed (who knows..it was probably hormones kicking in)

 

[Jayne]

I think I was lucky with expressing and managed to fill 9 oz bottles in about 5 mins flat.  Had a really strong (almost painful) let down reflex and think that helped. 

Jack was a nightmare with night feeds (he was exclusively breast fed except a formula feed before bed when I was totally empty and too exhausted to work on supply and demand - I tried to express some out and got zilch! so knew I was empty).  When I then did feed him at night he'd feed and stay awake for about an hour and a half to 2 hours after the feed!  It was just mind numbingly exhausting.  Sure that's why I made the decision to feed Ben differently.  Of course he was a completely different baby and went 3-4 hours between feeds and passed out immediately they were over be they breast or bottle.  Maybe things would've been easier with him, but I'm glad we did it the altnerate way with expressed breast milk from a bottle at night.  It worked very well for us and it was lovely having a full night's sleep every other night whilst dh and I took it in turns    and of course not having the engorgement to worry about (which I did with Jack and had to express in the middle of the night if I wanted to get more rest and let dh do a night feed) as I never had a supply at night because there was no demand for it. 

Can understand that guilty feeling for not doing a feed    I felt like that with Jack too, but didn't with Ben!   

The thing is, daytime naps weren't an option with Ben as I had Jack to take care of, so couldn't sleep when my baby did.  That's why this alternate way of feeding worked so well for us I think. 

Jayne x

 

[mini]

Engorgment

i must say for a while now we are paddling in the morning and i wonder how dh and i havent managed to drown in all the breast milk !

i cant beleive at 10 weeks + i am still leaking every where !

i have so much milk that i could fill a bottle with the leakage whilst feeding from the other one !

ok ok not that much but i can overfill a breast shell and get soaked anyway !


ready4baby your litle one is still very very little this sleeping for 6- 8 hours in one go by my little man only started to happen sporadically at around 6 weeks

my dh gets up with me change the nappy and wakes me to feed the milky boob kid - on the odd occasion he wont go back down immediatley then dh takes back over - i found that helped

Love Mini xx

 

[KT]

Hiya ready - how are you, dh and Evan doing??

Just thought I'd let you know what I've been trying with the twins. Up to 8 weeks they were exclusively breast fed. It was tiring but seemed to go well and we had them about half an hour apart and going between 3-4 hourly (with lots of occasional blips). Then James started feeding for about 45mins and still wanting more 10 mins later which was just killing me - I don't know if my supply/quality was poor or if he was just being a piglet! Anyway we have just introduced bottles as top ups if needed and the 10pm feed is exclusively a bottle. I express just before to keep my flow up - takes around 10mins no bother really. Have been storing expressed milk in freezer for times when I'm out of the house or if friends call round and I don't want to disappear for ages.

Have found the use of bottles and b/f far easier and I am more relaxed now. The boys do sometimes find it difficult to latch on but if they do I just use a nipple shield (we had to use these at first anyway as the boys were so small and had trouble latching on for the first few weeks). I will try to keep the b/f going until they get to 3 months and then consider my options.
I do feel it is important to do what you are comfortable with and not beat yourself up over decisions. I am very impressed with jaynes routine.

Anyway that's what we're trying - hope it works!!

love to you and your family
Kerry

 

[alwayssunny]

I b/f my dd for 8mnths.  Although when she was born she was given a bottle as I had to hve a c section and was out of it..... .
I don't understand why you have to hide in another room if someone comes around your house to feed your baby. So you give him a bottle instead??......It's the most natural and healthy thing to do, you should never have to hide away to feed your baby, especially in your own home.  I fed Kia wherever and whenever she needed to, on the bus, at the beach, pool, at a bar, resturant. Why hide?? I was not doing anything wrong.
But that's just me I do understand that different women feel differently about b/f ing.
Could you not cover your babies head and your boob with muslim cloth so that you can still feed him/her whenever you need to if you are uncomfortable?
My dd did not want a bottle after 8mnths of feeding and in the end went straight to a feeding cup.
We did try expressing so my dh could feed her but she was having none of it.lol.
But I had to have the breast pump at the side of my bed as when I got engorged which was at night I could just pump some off . lol. I loved having the big boobs though as I'm normally only a 34b....
Good Luck with whatever you choose to do.
As long as it works for you and your baby that's all that counts.
Luv Sunny.x