Mummy's who have breastfed!

[bek74]

The topic has sort of come down to bf verse ff, when the original poster actually wants to express her breastmilk and bottle feed it that way, she wants to combine her breastmilk with the bottle.
It has nothing to do with bf verse ff.
Just thought it was getting a little off topic.

 

[td1309]

Hi hun! This is my first baby and like you I want to give breastfeeding a go but I too was worried about doing so i public.

I came across this mamascarf: https://www.mamascarf.co.uk/index.html

Check out the 'gallery' page to see the different styles you can get, I think they're lovely and plan to pick one up from the baby show. I'd also like to say thanks to some of the ladies on here for the tips, particularly like the idea of wearing a vest top under another top! Hopefully it will be easier to be discreet than I first thought! xxx

 

[chocolate]

I breastfed and found it very easy, even the early weeks, ds took to it easily too.

If family or friends came round that I wasnt comfortable around I would just go upstairs, ds was an 8 min feeder and it also gave us quiet time and stopped the family taking him off of me all the time! Great for night feeds, also made me sleep better, id easily go back to sleep where as I struggled with that before and now.


I did a bit of expressing, but took longer, so I just planned trips and places around feed times, health visitor gave me a list of places that are breastfeeding friendly so there was always somewhere nearby.

The worst part was lifting my top up to get to my boobs and revealing my wobbly tummy and lovehandles! So this time Im going to use a bellyband to cover it up!

Take it as it comes, give it a go, try your best, but if it doesnt work out then just move on, you've tried your best.

Also vital to try to get something/someone that knows there breastfeeding stuff for advice.

 

[carrieanne]

breastfeeding is the best if you can take to it and the baby takes to it i feed all of mine foe nearly a year and no 5 will be the same i recomend anyone to give it a go ive fed mine everywhere you learn to be discreet so dont worry !

 

[Blah11]

It's hard for the first few weeks than bottle feeding because you are tired but after that it's super easy! No sterilising and making up bottles, just pop LO on the boob and thats it. + It's great for bonding. We're still BFing so obviously I love it lol

 

[chocolate]

I love breastfeeding. my son will be two in feb and we are still going strong.

it was really hard at first but i am so happy that i stuck with it even when i wasnt sure i wanted to. it is so natural and amazing and just..... ah, its what babies were born to do. I always think, if there was something we could buy in Boots or Superdrug to give to our babies that would protect them from illness, grow them big and strong, and was tailored to be exactly what they need from one day to the next, everyone would be queueing up to buy it! but we can get it for free from our own bodies!

I have been volunteering for over a year as a breastfeeding peer supporter for la leche league, and one of the best pieces of advice i can give is this: dont give up breastfeeding at the end of a long, hard day. Its like handing your notice in at the end of a rubbish day at work. If you think you want to stop breastfeeding, think about it for a while and make a thought-about decision or you may well end up regretting it.

Breastfeeding is so much more than just a way of getting milk into a baby.

I also agree about not giving up when you have had a bad day - my son was unsettled and male gp said babies can just have enough of breastfeeding and to change him to formula at 5 months or to wean - turns out it was a growthspurt and im so glad I kept going and got help online to realise this!

Sometimes its hard and you question if its time to call it a day, but a week later you could regret it, sort of what happened to me in the end

 

[3boys]

I also love the idea of breastfeeding but unfortunately it never works out for me. With my first two boys I only managed to do it for around 2 weeks before the pain was unbearable and i had to stop and on my third not enough milk came in and he was dehydrated. I know that its not like this for most people but i do be devastated when i have to give up so I'm hoping it will be 4th time lucky. Maybe this time it will work.

 

[vicwick]

I also love the idea of breastfeeding but unfortunately it never works out for me. With my first two boys I only managed to do it for around 2 weeks before the pain was unbearable and i had to stop and on my third not enough milk came in and he was dehydrated. I know that its not like this for most people but i do be devastated when i have to give up so I'm hoping it will be 4th time lucky. Maybe this time it will work.

Hi hun, are there any local support groups you can go to? Bf should not be painful at all, if it is it means baby isn't latched properly. I had pain for so long due to latch problems and found even the midwives tried their very best to help they didn't know enough about it to tackle the latch problems i was having, not to mention how pushed for time they are, so found that speaking to an La Leche League leader the best thing i ever did, also attended my local BF support groups. Total life savers i am so grateful to them for their help.

 

[avabear73]

I am currently BFing our son, he's 21 weeks and I love it I can't do BFing in public, but if I'm shopping I just feed him right before we leave and by the time he's ready for his next feed I'm either home, or just about ready to go home, and I BF him in the car.

If you want advice and/or experiences, feel free to come on over to the BFing forum here. Loads of really nice ladies who've done all sorts - expressing, BFing, preemies, relactation - you name it, it's been done.

My advice if anyone is thinking about it - keep an open mind. Even if you try it once and hate it, your LO has had benefits from that one feed. But if you try it and decide it's not for you, or for some reason you can't do it, don't forget that as long as you are happy doing whatever you choose, your LO will be happy too. BFing is just one part of parenting, not the be-all and end-all by any means

 

[cherryglitter]

Thanks for all your input ladies.
I really appreciate it. & like someone said, it all depends on the family and how they work things.
I think it's just a wait and see game!
I really want my baby to have all the benefits of breastmilk, of course! But I love the idea of OH also being able to feed baby, hence the expressing milk.

Can you not do a bit of both, ie formula and breastmilk?
[As you can tell, I have absolutely no idea!]

Special thanks to Bek too xx

 

[cherryglitter]

Thanks for all your input ladies.
I really appreciate it. & like someone said, it all depends on the family and how they work things.
I think it's just a wait and see game!
I really want my baby to have all the benefits of breastmilk, of course! But I love the idea of OH also being able to feed baby, hence the expressing milk.

Can you not do a bit of both, ie formula and breastmilk?
[As you can tell, I have absolutely no idea!]

Special thanks to Bek too xx

 

[vicwick]

Of course you can hun, you can mix feed, give formula at certain feeds through the day and BF at certain feeds, you can do whatever suits you best if expressing doesn't work out for you mixed feeding is a great solution

 

[lumpybumpy]

Thanks for all your input ladies.
I really appreciate it. & like someone said, it all depends on the family and how they work things.
I think it's just a wait and see game!
I really want my baby to have all the benefits of breastmilk, of course! But I love the idea of OH also being able to feed baby, hence the expressing milk.

Can you not do a bit of both, ie formula and breastmilk?
[As you can tell, I have absolutely no idea!]

Special thanks to Bek too xx

Quite a few of my friends found that bf during the day and formula at night worked well as it seemed to help bubba sleep longer. My LO would never take a bottle so I didn't try that way myself.