Breast Feeding

[smiley_one]

I'm only 20 weeks along and I still have planning to do, but I'm a full time college student and I don't get to be home all the time. I plan on breast feeding my baby once she is born, but I am unsure if I should pump my milk then put it in a bottle so that way she doesn't get use to feeding from my breasts. When I am gone for school I'm gone mostly during the day, so I know will have to use a pump. I guess my question is whether or not when I am home should I feed from my breasts or from the bottle? Would it confuse her if I switched up on her so frequently?

[MamaBear0612]

Yeah I have my own office that already has a mini-fridge in there, and my office door locks, so on that I should be fine. They might wonder what that weird machine noise is coming from my office, but I'm okay with that lol. :D

Really except for when I'm in class or have scheduled office hours, I'm free to do what I want, but I determine a lot of my schedule. It's just a matter of planning it right, I have to choose classes in early January for next fall, so although the baby's due in June I have to figure out a lot of this stuff ahead of time. So thanks again, don't know what I'd do without you guys.

[coffeebuzzedliz]

HAHA, don't worry you will figure it out, I had a really hard time the first couple of days and when going back to work and figuring out how to make it all work, but eventually you get into a routine. and it is tough being a single mom but its definatly not impossible, especially if your work is flexible and will give you time to pump. One of the challenges I had was where to store the milk as I didn't always have storage, but I got a bag with contained an ice a center thing that you froze. So it kept the bottles cold when I didn't have access to a fridge and it really kept them cold since the bag was made for it! You can definatly figure it out, especially since you seem so determined and thinking of it this early on :)    and once you are home you can breastfeed and that is easy just life up your shirt :)   but I really liked having the pump there when I needed it, like if she took a really long nap and I felt that I needed to be emptyed, or if she was sleeping and we were about to go somewhere I would pump so that way if she woke up and I couldn't BF her that minute I had a bottle for her until I could BF her.

[MamaBear0612]

Thanks for the advice, I could use all the help I can get. I'm trying to pull this off as a single woman living alone because I know it's best for the baby, but I've heard it's really hard to do without support. Luckily my job is fairly flexible - demanding but flexible - so I think I can make it work. I'm going to at least give it a good try. I figure all moms have to be superwomen, this is just my first challenge. :)

[coffeebuzzedliz]

It definatly does not take an hour. And the more relaxed you are the quicker it will go, if you are stressed and tense it can take longer for your milk supply to drop. Typically I would pump for about 10 minutes maybe 15 at times. How often you pump is going to vary on how often your baby eats because you want to mimic their feeding schedule. Typically I always pumped right before work and ideally would have pumped every 2-3 hours at work. I was clueless the last time, but its amazing what you learn from having your first, then all your friends are happy when they can come and talk to you :)

[MamaBear0612]

Thanks, that's helpful. I was thinking like an hour...you can tell I'm new at this. :)

[StephRox13]

My son was in nicu for a month and I did both breast feed and bottle. He had eating apneas cuz we was 7 weeks premature and didn't know how to breathe and suck at same time. So he was originally fed thru feeding tube thru his nose while putting a bottle nipple up to his mouth to "train" him. I'll skip ahead. He was able to drink from bottle fine & nurse just fine. I nursed for a year.

Now I had rented a double breasts pump from hospital and it took 10 min or less to pump both. Loved it. It was a plug in one Medela company I think.  

Good luck.

[MamaBear0612]

How often can I expect to have to pump, assuming you're talking about a 2-3 month infant at first? How long does it usually take for one session, if you have an electronic double breast pump?

I know it's only an estimate, but I design my own schedule (I'm a college professor) so I could space out my classes if I need to, but I have to choose fall classes in a couple of weeks so it would help to know what kind of schedule I need.

[coffeebuzzedliz]

I am a full time working mom and I took 7 weeks off with my daughter before going back to work. I breastfeed exclusively for the first two weeks, just too make sure she was fully established and things were going well. After this point I would have my husband feed her with a bottle at night so that way she would get use to switching. And when I went back to work I would breastfeed her when home and pump and bottle feed while at work. She actually did really well switchingg between the two and I know that is not always the case. If you do pump the thing you need to realize is that you need to pump as often as baby is eating. Which means if baby eats every two hours then you need to pump that often, this I was not able to do when working. The problem I had is that when her appetitie picked up around 5 months I was not able to pump enough so my body did not increase its milk supply with her increasing appetite and the only way it would is if my work would have given me 2 more times a day to pump and they couldn't. When that happened I continued to BF and pump until 11 months, but around 5.5 months I started to supplement with formula if we were out of breast milk. It is tough to do but it is worth it, my daughter is really healthy and I attribute some of that to sticking to breastfeeding even when it got tough. And also don't forget that you can get attachments for a pump so you can plug it into a car adapter, use batteries or plug it into a wall, sometimes you have to be creative and go sit in a bathroom stall or your car and I got really good at pumping both sides at the same time since mine was a double! Good Luck!!

[SiSi_]

I was a full time student while nursing my daughter. I definitely breast fed while I was with her. Your baby will eat no matter where it is coming from. It might be hard to give the bottle at first but breast feeding is amazing! Good luck!

[spade22]

Its entirely up to you.  I breast feed until my daughter was 6 weeks old and then had to go back to work full time.  My husband was a stay-at-home-dad and bottle-fed her breast milk when I was at work and I nursed her when at home.  Worked well for us.

[MamaBear0612]

How long will you be able to be home after the baby's home? I have to go back to work when the baby's about 2 months old (the baby will be in daycare after that) so I'm trying to figure out the breastfeeding process for working moms too.

[Clysta]

Using both of them can cause nipple confusion making it difficult for the baby to take one or the other. Bottles are a more lazy way to feed, as the milk just continuously comes out. When breastfeeding, the baby has to actually work a little harder to get the milk out, so when you use a bottle the baby will usually prefer the easier way. The choice is yours either way you decide to go. You need to do whatever works best in your own situation. I know many mothers who exclusively pump and feed the baby their milk from a bottle, but it's very demanding.