Hi All, thought i would have a look in this forum as i am 7 weeks pregnant and just weighing up all my options for when feeding - a long way off yet i know!

Hubby is really keen on me breastfeeding and its something i really want to do too!

Just wondering whether you can answer some questions for me as you are all experts!

1) Do you feed on demand or have feeding times?

2) Is it best to feed from the breast or express and feed from bottle?

3) If you express, where do you store it? In bottles or bags? And if not frozen how long does it keep for?

4) When can you start weaning them off BF as i will be going back to work after 9 months and my mum will be looking after the baby.

5) What do you do when going out for the night etc and someone is babysitting? Do you express enough for their feeds? How do you fit in expressing when feeding? Is there always a constant supply?!

Sorry for all the questions! I know i have alot to learn yet and its early days but all of this is already going through my mind!!

Thanks

[Modified by: MrsHalls2010 on 01 July 2009 11:15:13 ]

1) Do you feed on demand or have feeding times?
- feed on demand, but roughly it is every 2 hours. So if I know the last feed, I know roughly which time his next feed will be. So no specific feeding times.

2) Is it best to feed from the breast or express and feed from bottle?
- for the first week I expressed and fed him with a bottle. This was because we had to monitor how much he was taking. (he was jaundiced and hospital was concerned about his milk intake) After that we just fed from the breast and to be sure he can have a bottle we feed him once a day with a bottle.

3) If you express, where do you store it? In bottles or bags? And if not frozen how long does it keep for?
- We store the breastmilk in breastmilk containers (avent ones) Hospital told us it can stay in the fridge for 5 days, but other sources say 48 hours or even 24 hours. In the freezer however it is good for a couple of months and it is easily defrosted. (takes half a day)

4) When can you start weaning them off BF as i will be going back to work after 9 months and my mum will be looking after the baby.
- There are plenty of people who switch to ff after problems, so if you need to go back to work you can always switch the day feeds to formula if you still breastfeeding. (or expressed beastmilk) You can still do morning and evening feeds from the breast after you went to work.

5) What do you do when going out for the night etc and someone is babysitting? Do you express enough for their feeds? How do you fit in expressing when feeding? Is there always a constant supply?
- I express the amount that is needed for the evening or day. I express twice a day and sometimes more. I express around 9 or 10 in the evening, that is the time Michael has a bottle from his dad. Than I express the first time after he wakes up in the night after his normal feed. (when he sleeps for around 5 hours I am able to get quite a bit out after he is satisfied) And than I sometimes express as well early in the morning after a feed, depending if I need the milk for something.

There is not always a constant supply. You have more milk in the morning (in general) and less in the evening. You produce enough to feed your baby, so I see it as what is taken out will be replaced. (not completely true, cause at some point your supply just dries out)

This is my situation, it is different for everyone.

Thank you so much Breighlin, thats really cleared a few things up for me! Like you say everyone is different but it just all sounds so daunting to start with but you have made it sound so much more straightforward!

Thanks again.

x

Just to reinforce Breighlin's comments about it being different for everyone, here are my answers.

1) I feed on demand but, at 17 weeks, I'm starting to get more of a sense of when he wants food. The only feed that his set in stone is his pre-sleep bottle of EBM which he has at 7 every evening. Feeding on demand is the only way to start. Most babies will settle into a bit more of a schedule by 12 weeks.

2) I find it much easier and more convenient to feed from the breast (no faffing about with sterilising bottles). But we decided to make sure that he could take a bottle so introduced one a day from when he was six weeks. I have to express twice a day to get enough for him which is a bit of a pain, but it does give me some more flexibility.

I actually found it really hard to express to begin with. I had to switch pumps (from manual to electric) and even then it took me a while to build up a sufficient supply. But that is just my experience.

3) I store the milk in bottles overnight and any excess gets frozen in storage bags. I have been told that refrigerated milk can be stored for up to 5 days in the back of the fridge (not the door) but I don't leave it for longer than 48 hours if I can help it. Frozen milk can stay in the freezer for up to 6 months.

4) I am planning to breast feed until I wean him onto cow's milk at a year because I work from home. As I say, he takes a bottle anyway which means I can take the occasional evening off. However, one of the mums in my mum and baby group weaned her son successfully on to formula at 3 months and I know another woman who his planning to wean her son at 4 months. If they will take a bottle of EBM from a reasonably early age, I think it is fairly easy to make the switch to formula.

5) I have yet to have night out (my first was supposed to be this Friday but it was cancelled). I will be going out in a couple of weeks, leaving him with my mother. The plan is to leave 3 bottles of EBM, one for bedtime, one in case he wakes before I get back (he still doesn't sleep through) and one for emergencies. I am currently freezing as much as I can in preparation.

As I say, I express twice a day, once in the evenings when my husband is giving Peter his bottle and once during his morning nap. I get about 5 oz in the evening and 2-3 in the mornings because it is between full feeds (rather than replacing a feed as the evening one does if that makes sense). It seems to work fairly well, although there are days when I feel as if I am an industrial milk cow. Expressing is one thing I won't miss when Peter is weaned!

One thing I would say, I found getting breast feeding established much, much harder than I anticipated. This was due to a variety of things, including the shape of my breasts, my son's temperament and the quality of the midwives on the ward when he was born. So I would say be prepared for anything. It is worth persisting - I really enjoy feeding him now - but it can be incredibly tough so don't feel that you have failed if it doesn't live up to your expectations.

Best of luck. And I hope you have a happy, healthy rest of your pregnancy.

1) Do you feed on demand or have feeding times?
On demand - and it was totally unpredictable when she'd want a milk feed until she was on 3 meals of solids a day (at 6 months). But that didn't matter to me as it was so convenient to just feed where and whenever.

2) Is it best to feed from the breast or express and feed from bottle?
I could never get much from expressing. I found it boring, clammy and demoralising - not to mention time-consuming, what will all the sterilising as well as the pumping itself - so I expressed enough to get a good store in the freezer for when we go out together without baba, and then banished the pump to the back of the cupboard! I know expressing means other people can feed - but just personally I'd rather do all the feeds myself than spend hours expressing.

3) If you express, where do you store it? In bottles or bags? And if not frozen how long does it keep for?
I store it in 4oz bottles, but that's just because someone lent me a load. I should think bags are more space efficient.

4) When can you start weaning them off BF as i will be going back to work after 9 months and my mum will be looking after the baby.
I'm in the same situation! Lily will be 9 months when I go back and I've recently (at 7 months) switched to formula for her 2 daytime feeds to prepare her for this. She still has a bf first thing in the morning and last thing at night and I intend to carry on with those until she wants to stop.

5) What do you do when going out for the night etc and someone is babysitting? Do you express enough for their feeds? How do you fit in expressing when feeding? Is there always a constant supply?!
Tonight's the first time for us! (Lily is 7 months.) As I say I built up a supply in the freezer (veeeery slowly, unfortunately) as I quite simply couldn't keep up with her appetite by expressing as we went along. I used to express whenever she was sleeping.

Hope that helps! I know I sound quite negative about expressing but not all women find it as demoralising and lengthy a process as I do - I hope you don't. I do definitely think it's worth doing - but in my situation, only to stock up for times it'd be impossible for me to feed her myself. As I have no worries about bf in public I found it a million times more convenient to feed her directly from the breast whenever possible.

Congrats and good luck!