knowing in advance

[MummyMummy]

when i tried to bf my son (now 3) we didn't get very far. health visitors/midwives etc told me cause he was a big baby 9lbs 3.5oz iwasnt giving him enough and i was advised to give bottles and then breast feeding went out the window. when i was feeding him i never knew how long to feed for peoplesaid til he stops... sometimes an hourlater he was still suckiling away! it took over my life!

i wanna pump from the start, as i dont wana go out and have to whip my boob out haha although i know it's not recomended it'ssomething i'm pretty set on. same with giving a dummy, not recomended but something i want to do.

can anybody offer any advice? i'd like to be prepared before hand not like the 1st time when mothernature never took over, as its made out to seem happens!!

xXx

 

[Mervs Mum]

We have at least one exclusive pumper on here - Michy - I'm sure she'll give you some good advice. I know she got a mega pump hospital grade which she hired to help.

 

[Bearsbaby]

I've been expressing a couple of times a day since my DD was 5 days old even though I was also told not to do so until 6 weeks. I had to coz I wanted to stockpile some milk in the freezer for when I went back to work (I went back before my DD was 3 weeks old) to make sure I always had an emergency 'top up' supply for when DH feeds her. It hasn't had a negative effect as far as I can see - in fact it's been great to see how my supply has increased - I can now pump 5oz per session. It also allowed me to see how much milk my baby needed coz I was worried that my baby wasn't getting enough from me - she was 8lb 10oz at birth and 53cm long. She is already taking 6oz of EBM twice in the evening with just 3 to 4 hours between feeds (I'm out for a max of 5 hours so the rest is BF). I also take EBM if we go out coz we get stared at enough here without me breastfeeding in public too.

I must confess that I do give a bottle of formula a day too and my DD has no prob whatsoever switching between that and breastmilk and also between the breast and the bottle (I use Tommy Tippee closer to nature anti colic plus - they're great!)

Invest in a good pump - I brought a Medela Swing and it's fab!! Good luck whatever you decide to do, x