Wanting to stop expressing to have formula

[familygirl30]

My baby was born 5 weeks 2 days early and is now11 days old,I struggled with breast feeding so I've been expressing,but now finding it hard expressing 8 times a day,so wanting to formula feed.Ive been told to introduce a bottle a day but how I stop leaky boobs?

 

[Smanderson]

Aww i dont blame you hun, i expressed till last week and its bloody hard going, people made me feel so bad for giving up but in the end we are both much happier since i gave up the pump he has a happy mummy and i have about 3 hours extra in the day so i get more cleaning done which also makes me happy not having a total mess of a house as for stopping leaky boobs i just used johnson and johnson pads and hand expressed when i was in pain so i wouldnt get much out just enough to stop the pain, a week on and my boobs are normal size, no pain and they only leak when he cries now

How is your bubs doing? x

 

[familygirl30]

Aww i dont blame you hun, i expressed till last week and its bloody hard going, people made me feel so bad for giving up but in the end we are both much happier since i gave up the pump he has a happy mummy and i have about 3 hours extra in the day so i get more cleaning done which also makes me happy not having a total mess of a house as for stopping leaky boobs i just used johnson and johnson pads and hand expressed when i was in pain so i wouldnt get much out just enough to stop the pain, a week on and my boobs are normal size, no pain and they only leak when he cries now

How is your bubs doing? x

Thanks for the reply!well I've decided to express in a morn and a eve now so baby gets a couple of bottles of Brest milk a day,will feel so much better expressing twice a day then 8!

 

[Smanderson]

Good idea and when the time comes to reduce them down you will know you have done the very best for your bubs good luck with everything x

 

[JWandBump]

Your stories similar to mine , my LO was born 5weeks early and I struggled with breast feeding. My LO also had tongue tie tho and that makes if worse. So I expressed for about 2weeks but couldn't keep up with what he needed I also gave myself mastitis, or however you spell it lol
So i decided best thing for me and LO was formula, so i slowly weaned myself of expressing and my boobs stopped leaking after a few days now he's getting the milk he needs and gaming weight x

 

[familygirl30]

So glad its not just me x

 

[cupcaker]

I could write much of the stories above. Had so many problems BFing, constant pain, tongue tie and mastitsis. I gave expressed milk whenever I could, just to not have the anxiety and pain of him actually on the boob.

I was really upset and felt defeated when at 6 weeks, during the 6 week check with the doctor, I broke down and decided that was the day to begin introducing some formula (I had a VERY supportive doctor who actually would rather see me FF and be sane than kill myself with BF).

For two more weeks I expressed and FF together, introducing formula quite slowly by mixing formula and breastmilk sometimes and other times offering 100% of either BM or F.

I was all geared up to feel guilty and heartbroken when my son would inevitably start with bad poop, tummy aches and drama. Well he DIDN'T. Not at all. It doesn't have to be this awful, guilt rendering transition where your baby will get "ill" etc. Mine didn't bat an eyelid.

I don't think people really understand how demanding and difficult expressing is..even myself at the time. I thought it would be this lovely easy compromise to let my baby still receive breastmilk. I was wrong, it was extremeley difficult and I spent SO much time faffing about expressing and less and less time with the baby. My vision of expressing is me sat on the sofa being milked like a cow whilst frantically trying to use my feet to occupy baby in a bouncer chair whilst he got irrate.

Naturally as time went on I wanted to do luxuries like leave the house (!) so here and there, the amount of pumping I did each day decreased, my production slowed and it was a relatively easy swapover to FF. I'd say I only had 3 really uncomfortable days of waking up saturated in milk.