I am long been a champion of breastfeeding both my children, but I've dealt with insufficient supply with both kids. What ended up happening with my first daughter was that I just gave up, and she drank formula from 6 months onwards. With my second daughter, I want to continue pumping during the day at work, and breastfeeding at night. Have any of you had any success with successfully doing both? So far, it doesn't seem to be working for me, and I may end up exclusively pumping or going back to formula and bottle feeds.
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DD gets a least 1-2 bottles of BM per day. We've had no problems going back and forth.
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With my first LO I pumped at work and nursed at home for a long time (I ended up stopping because it was too time consuming at work and I was a teacher so I didn't have the flexibility to pump when I needed too). My first question would be, what kind of a pump do you have? I have heard of women who struggle with milk supply while pumping because the pump isn't strong enough.
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@mommykim: LO is now 8 months old and we have successfully been doing pumped BM during the day since 12 weeks old. I continue to nurse morning and evening when I am home and things have gone well.
What specifically are you having trouble with? Is it the transition for LO between breast and bottle, or your supply, or something else? If you are more specific I would be happy to help if I can.
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@MamaCate: @MamaBehr: Thanks for your posts. I have a Medela freestyle pump. My problem is that it's a struggle to feed with the bottle every night. It would be nice if I was home every day at the same time, but because I work and some days I am late, my nanny/mother ends up struggling to feed my baby. There was a time that we tried to feed only with the bottle, but I am just wondering if there is a way to do both breast and bottle feeding without having to struggle so hard. I cannot feed only with the breast because I work during the day, plus I think I come up a little short in terms of the supply. I suppose I could feed only with the bottle.....but I am personally having difficulty doing this at night specifically. has anyone gone through similar issues.
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@mommykim: so does LO only struggle with that evening bottle or is each bottle feeding an issue while you are working? I am assuming you are giving bottles of pumped milk?
For us, i have thankfully been mostly able to get home by 530 or so to do a feeding then and a bedtime one around 7. But there were a few times when i had late appts and DH tried to give LO a bottle at that time. Sometimes she struggled and sometimes she ate fine. I usually just tried to do.a longer bedtime or evenig feeding to make up for it.
How o,d iis LO? Ifbig enough, maybe you could do extra solids to hold over n the nights you are late and then extra milk?
BFing is so easy in the middle of tthe night that it would be a shame to switch to bottles entirely...
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@MamaCate: My LO struggles with every feeding. It takes anywhere from 1-3 hrs to feed her with the bottle. I tried to go exclusively breast pump and bottle feed and it was tough. Needless to say, I ended up just feeding her from the breast in the middle of the night because I was exhausted and it is so easy. But then when I am at work, my nanny struggles to feed her. I am trying to do exclusively pumping and bottle feeding....I am just wondering why I can't do both and why I must feel guilty whenever I breastfeed directly.
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@mommykim: So it sounds like the real issue is getting LO to take a bottle, period. Because she is so resistant, it sounds like you feel like you have to choose one or the other, so you are feeling guilty when you directly breastfeed instead of pumping...what a yucky situation!
I can't give you direct experience but I know there have been some posts on here about coping with bottle strike--the same kind of situation your LO is having.
Here is one from Mrs. Jacks:
http://www.hellobee.com/2012/04/20/what-to-do-when-your-baby-goes-on-bottle-strike/
It seemed like feeding outside when she was distracted helped her. I have also heard that sometimes it helps to offer the bottle before LO is super hungry so she is less frustrated..what else have you tried?
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