clueless mom to be!

[FarmersWife5]

Hey ladies!! This is DH & I's first child, and I am pretty clueless on breast feeding. I do know however, I want to give it a try!

I will be meeting with a lactation consultant later on, but wanted some advice before hand too.

I want to breast feed, but I also want to bottle feed breast milk as well... Is this possible? DH plans on helping with the baby during night time wake up calls.. and want him to be able to feed baby, when he gets up for them. Could I pump bottles, for during the night when he feeds baby?

Also... if we go somewhere and grandma watches baby etc.. Id like to be able to provide bottles of breast milk for them to feed baby.

Is it too confusing for me to breast feed, but also bottle feed the milk at times? This is all new to me.. so Im not sure if its possible, or how things work.

Thank you!

 

[Marie000]

congrats on the baby!

Of course it is possible to breastfeed and give breastmilk in a bottle on occasion. However, it is better to wait a few weeks before introducing a bottle to make sure the baby does not get confused.

From my experience, once you start giving the occasional bottle, make sure to keep giving bottles regularly. I gave my girl bottles starting at a few weeks old and didn't have a problem. Then I stopped for a few months and after that, she never accepted a bottle again. (to be fair, I didn't try very hard)
It is possible for babies to dislike bottles. There are some things you can try if that happens. Others might be able to help you with that.

 

[kassiaethne]

I had problems with latching and had to express and bottle feed in the beginning, and then went to breastfeeding when we got the latching down, he did fine with the transition between bottles and breastfeeding. other babies i've heard of nipple confusion but I never had problems with this.

one thing is dont get discouraged or frusterated. I mean you will, but just take a break and breath. it's not the end of the world if you can't get a good latch at first you can always express. I didn't want to turn breast feeding into a giant negative experience, that's why I did bottles for a while with expressing and just kept trying each time. by 3 weeks he had a perfect latch and we could ditch the bottles except for the night ones where OH would feed him. worked out well for me

 

[_Lexi_]

This is exactly what I wanted to do. It didn't work out though. However much my oh promised to help during the night, it didn't happen. He'd sleep through her crying (not intentionally, it just didn't wake him however loud she was). By the time I've woken him up and he's gone downstairs to warm a bottle, we're all awake and stressed and I could of fed her in half the time and had her back to sleep. Milk production is at its highest overnight, so if your oh is giving a bottle, you'll need to pump. Especially in the early days. Again, seemed pointless to me to have us all up and awake, especially when he was getting up for work in the morning. They say its best to leave it about 6 weeks before pumping so you don't create an oversupply. I had to pump from day 2 due to lo needing nicu treatment where I couldn't bf her, oversupply was pretty uncomfortable. If you do start using bottles, don't be discouraged if she won't take the first one. Lo was fine when in nicu, then we didn't use bottles again until 3.5 months. It took trying about 8 different bottles/teats/flows before finding one she'd take without too much of a fuss!! x

 

[FarmersWife5]

Thank you so much for all the great advice!

 

[Mrs Bee]

Hey... I wanted my hubby to help out with the night feeds.... For us we gave it a go with pumping but it was too much of a fuss with hubby heating the bottle up and needing instructions for everything.... So we were all up and I could of had her fed in much faster time....

Other advice on breastfeeding.... Expect it to be hard...(this is the attitude I went with, so when it was difficult at times I knew it would happen)...and read up about all things breastfeeding... Knowledge is power

Feed on demand, don't worry about the clock or if baby is getting enough, as long as baby is on the boob your body works the rest out.... Babies are weighed so much at the start so as long as your baby is growing dont stress over mls/ozs

All the best to you guys... Breastfeeding is a beautiful time...I didn't realise how much I'd love it, but when we stop I'm going to miss it

 

[J22]

Hi, here's my personal experience on this; I introduced a bottle of expressed milk once a day pretty much after a week as a regular thing. That worked fine until about week 5 when all of a sudden she decided she hated the bottle because it was breast the rest of the time. After 5 weeks we're now managing (more or less) to get her on 1 bottle a day again but it's taken a lot of work!! I reckon I may have to do a couple a day so we don't go back to the same situation, I'm not sure!

 

[SarahBear]

Perfectly possible. I went back to work when Violet was 2 months old and my husband bottle fed her my breastmilk while I worked. I now work from home and am able to take breaks to feed her. I would be careful with the night time bottles though. One thing to be aware of is that many people who pump, end up weaning off breastmilk early. Pumping is a pain and breastfeeding is easy (establishing it can be difficult for some though). If things swing out of balance in the wrong way though, you can easily find yourself on formula. What you're looking to do, certainly can be done. I would just suggest that you continue your research so you can avoid common pitfalls.

 

[noon_child]

I think you need to remember that until your supply regulates you need to pump/express every time someone gives LO a bottle so it isn't that convenient.

For me the occasional bottle was a lifesaver when I just NEEDED to be away from LO and give my boobs a break from a bad latch (so I didn't mind pumping).

However I found the same as the others, night feeds are so much more stressfull when you have to wait for the milk to be warmed an LO is screaming the whole time. Plus my DH lost his interest in 'helping' pretty quick so I had to beg him to feed her!

 

[Pielette]

The occasional bottle is a good idea. I pump so that I can go to the gym on a Saturday morning, it's three blissful hours to myself So he has bottles once a week, which I find is enough to keep him accepting of bottles but not preferring them. I do use a specific bottle which mimics breastfeeding, the medela calma, which makes baby work for dinner like they have to on the breast

Having said that, the night feeds thing - we tried that once and to be honest, waiting for the milk to warm up was a pain and it is so much quicker to pop him on the breast and be back to sleep within ten minutes. You need to give it 4-6 weeks before pumping as well, your supply needs to regulate and skipping night feeds can be dangerous. Your prolactin levels are highest at night, so to successfully establish breastfeeding night feeds are especially important in the beginning.