Help on if I want to express one bottle for evenings ....

[chocolate]

Hiya, Im exclusively breastfeeding my 12 week old DS, to begin with it was easy, he would feed easily and be settled, not much wind, but 12 weeks on I have to avoid chocolate, fizzy drinks, a lot of vegetables and salad etc. He will feed for maybe a minute and then need winding, at night he will just feed no problem and not be bothered by wind, but in the day it can be a struggle to get him back on to feed for the remaining 4 or 5 minutes, and it can take up to an hour to get him to complete his feed.
Evenings are a bit hit and miss, some times he will be really happy and just feed and let me put him down to sleep and just wake for feeds, but recently he is un-settled until around 830pm when he will finally have a bit of a feed and then go to sleep. After a colicky evening he slept 8pm till 330am, but then on nights where he doesnt seem to fuss as much he will wake every 2 hours but thankfully feed fine. He used to do about 5 hours at night every night, but this hasnt happened for a while and I cant figure out what the issue is. Maybe it is something else Im eating, but its hard to pin point!

Anyway, evenings are so frustrating as I have DS2 to try to read stories too before bed, its a case of offering the breast every now and again to see if thats why DS is fussing, then he refuses so I try to settle in crib, doesnt have any of it so pick up and re-offer breast which he will then probably take, if not, its him drifting to sleep in my arms and squirming every 15 mins or so.
So I want to try to express around about 6pm and give it to him in a bottle over the evening instead of having him fight at the breast.

How long can I keep re-offerring that bottle for if its expressed straight into the bottle at 6pm and not refrigerated? Will this cause milk supply problems? Anything else I should know?

 

[- Butterfly -]

Sorry hun I dont have any advice but would be keen to know how you get on xx

 

[Worrisome]

Hi Chocolate, sorry your having a tough time
I found this recently https://www.kellymom.com/babyconcerns/fussy-evening.html as Millie has a fussy/colicky time in the evening, I know its not much help, but explains it quite well.

When you put lo to feed, you could try pumping the other side, but I wouldn't do this prior to feeding as your lo will probably get more than the pump at least if you do it over a number of feeds, so every time you offer boob express the other, you will know you have a bottle for evening and doing it this way, it shouldnt affect your supply.

Have you checked for teething, any white dots? Millie has 2 and its driving her and us bonkers

Not sure on the timing, I always thought about 2 hours if the baby has drank from it, but if not about 4-6 hours. Actually it may say on the website I have given you, loads of info on there.

 

[lynnikins]

i would express in the morning as your LO feeds the other side then if you need more get it from small pumping sessions following feeds during the daytime, i express every morning one side as he feeds the other hes normally a 2 boob boy but theres too much in the morning for him to have both and then im freezing that milk and donating it or keeping it for use ourselves if im going to be out one evening etc... breastmilk will keep for quite a while at room tempeture if it hasnt been chilled and reheated and you can keep reoffering it for a while i tend to change the teat on the bottle before reoffering it though

 

[hinkybinky]

If I wanted to feed a bottle over a longer period of time, to do it totally safely I'd keep it in the fridge and decant an ounce at a time into another bottle and heat it. After 2 hours you should discaed that bottle and swap to a fresh bottle which you can then use for another 2hrs, but obviously the one in the fridge will be ok for the last bit. If you heated the whole, say, 4oz you'd have to throw it all away after 2 hours (even if you change the teat there is a chance some of LO's germs would have got into the milk... ).

I express one bottle for LO to drink before bed - I do it at the same time every night (about an hour after he has the feed, ready for the next night. It works well for us x

 

[chocolate]

Thanks everyone, I expressed 2 hours after a feed and only got out 3 oz's between both sides to try to give to him in a bottle to see if it stopped the wind, but first I offered both breasts but he fussed as nothing there!

Today I am expressing 1 ounce before each feed to take away the really fast let down, so far so good, he has fed much better and for longer, then taken the ounce of expressed. Think Ill leave the evening expressed bottle for a while until my evening supply is better and then like you say, ill express first thing from one side and store in the fridge. Fingers crossed the expressing the first bot solves the problems

 

[hinkybinky]

You probably know this anyway as it says it on every expressing list of tips, but I always find sitting down, taking a few deep breaths to relax and looking at some of my favourite pictures of my son - those ones that particularly make you go "awwww!" - makes a real difference to the amount I can get when pumping. I didn't really believe it would make much of a difference but it really does. Feeding on one side while pumping on the other has the same effect (but I found this a bit tricky with a manual pump...).

 

[Worrisome]

I was shocked at how much more milk I got, by letting lo feed at same time. Only sad thing is I cant do bnb as much