breastfeeding

[zippgirls]

I am 36 weeks with my second child. With my DD she was a month early and had a very hard time laching on, plus my milk brley came in...so I decided to just go with formula. The stress was very hard on both of us.
I was al ready to just use formula with this baby also...but I am kind of just wanting to know what breastfeeding is like?
Can you just breastfeed for a few meals a day? I loved the freedom of the formula, anyone could feed her.
Any advise?
My DD is very heathy and Very smart....I have NO doubts about if one is better then another....I am just wanting to know what the experence is like...but with out the ball and chain!!!
Thanks :)

[taysmommy]

i think that breastfeeding is very convienient, anytime they want to eat, your just flop it out and your done=) but that doesnt mean no one else can feed the baby, if you pump and start her/him on the bottle of breatmilk early they will get used to it and then daddy can join in too, i made the mistake of strickly breastfeeding and not pumping out bottle, and now almost 12 months later, im still breastfeeding and she wont take a bottle,(im currently tring to quit but its veryyyy hard) but overall its great!

[lovefamily]

If you want to breastfeed I would not advise breastfeeding and using formula.  If you do not nurse as much as possible then you will not get a good milk supply established, and will not have enough milk.  Breast milk is so much easier on the baby's tummy.  You will find there is less gas, spitting up, and the baby get's the antibiotics from the breast milk.  Formula is expensive and sometimes a pain in preparing (keeping cold then getting warm, etc.) and keeping bottles cleaned.  I found breast feeding to be a wonderful experience.  The milk was always ready and very convenient.  I did not use a bottle at all and when it came time to wean them, I didn't have to fight with getting the bottle away from them.  Also, there is many benefits for you when you breast feed.  Your uterus goes back to where it belongs and you stop bleeding sooner.  Also, it requires more calories to produce milk and many women lose their weight and find themselves back in their pre pregnancy clothes sooner.  I didn't look at it as a burden to breast feed exclusivley, but a wonderful time for bonding and nurturing my baby. My baby and myself loved it.  Good luck!

[AnnieBrooke]

I am between the poles on this.  My baby had to be in the incubator for jaundice (under the bilirubin lights) once for 12 hours and once for 24 hours during his first 5 days of life, and the first time in the incubator he was still getting only colostrum from me, and got very dehydrated, so finally the pediatrician said we had to supplement with formula.  He is a good eater and so thankfully he will nurse, or drink formula from a bottle, or drink breast milk from a bottle, but ever since the supplementation I have not made as much (of my own) milk as he would like to drink, so I have had to keep supplementing.  I don't like doing this because it seems like the formula supplementation will keep my natural milk supply too low, but he gets frantically hungry if I don't.  I've been drinking a lot of fluid including "mothers milk" tea, taking fenugreek, eating oatmeal, and drinking nonalcoholic beer -- all the stuff that is supposed to help the milk supply -- plus pumping a lot, and I think it is working.  If you want to go to a combination of breast and formula, I think you really have to do that much to keep your milk supply strong.  (It would be less of a nuisance if I could do it "all breast.")  I have gotten to the point where at least I can breast feed him all night, so not have to get up and go downstairs to my kitchen to feed him.  I guess I'm saying that dh and I have experienced that if you do a combo of breast and formula, you get the convenience of the breast to some extent, and the convenience of the bottle to some extent, and the inconveniences of both to some extent. :)  Good luck!

[jd1419]

If you little one is a year old---don't try introducing her to the bottle now--go straight to sippy cups or open cups--(unless I read your post wrong)...it is so much easier to do this than trying the bottle and then having to take that away--I wish you luck with switching.

To everyone else,
I did the switch after 6 weeks to feed once in awhile with formula--as long as I was not around the baby would take a bottle but not from mom...I was going back to work and did not have a real good place to pump--did try just didn't work so you can do both if you try--I think with switching it is easier to let your breasts dry up it is not like cold turkey where they hurt all the time--it is moregradual process.

[anxiousmomtobe?]

I found breast feeding very convenient, no bottles to wash, no formula to mix in the middle of the night, nothing to heat.  It was great.  I breast fed my first for 4 months and my second for 17 months.  I did pump and my kids would take a bottle from anyone other than me.  I went back to work when my son was 4 says old.  I own a small company and he came to work with me everyday.  I had a helper and it worked out just fine.

If you want to nurse, nurse exclusively for 6 weeks to get your milk established.  Then you should be able to pump what you need for when you are not available.  I teach seminars and always had 2 days full supply in the freezer.

Take lactation classes, talk to the LaLeche League.  They are an invaluable source of info. Medical professionals are pretty much useless, you need women who have nursed to be your support.

Good luck.

Do what feels right for you and your baby.

[taysmommy]

oh no im not gonna try to introduce the bottle now, i was just letting her know how hard it is to introduce it late, i should have began to do that at 2-3 months, now since im trying to wean her im giving her the nuk sippy cups, but she likes the regular cup better(go figure) so everytime she wants to drink, i have to sit and let her drink, i think its a game with her tho, thanks for the advise tho;)

[cutiemama]

I do a combo with my dd of BFing and formula. It has definitely decreased my milk a little bit but it works for us. I BF about 6 times a day and she gets 2 bottles  each day. I love the freedom of the bottles and with a toddler I just don't have the time to pump. This system works great for us.