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We did that at first. I topped her off with formula as needed.

We couldnt continue because she lost interest in the breast at 8 months. I pumped exclusively for another 4 months until she turned 1

I do!

He nurses first thing in the morning (7 am), formula or nurse at 9 am, he gets oatmeal and nurses at 11 am, 1 pm and 3pm are typically both formula, 5 pm nurse, and finally 7 pm formula. Any night wakings are formula and then topped off with BFing if feeling full.

The schedule of nurse/formula varies during the day depending on our schedule. I always start BFing and end with formula though.

@daniellemybelle: 5 months. I always BF in the morning because my boobs are full. At night, I use formula because he can still be a lazy nurser and not get what he needs to sleep at night. To be honest, the rest of my day is based on what is most convenient for me. I try to nurse as much as I can, but DS takes forever to nurse (loves to comfort suck), so if we are out in public or I need to run out, I just use formula.

I used to WOH so I nursed a lot less at that time and had to pump. I HATE pumping so I started this loose schedule about 3 weeks ago when I became a SAHM. I

It took me a while to come to terms with the fact that I'll never be able to EBF, but when I did it was so liberating! I love the flexibility combo feeding provides. We still have that awesome nursing relationship and health benefits even if I can only nurse a few times a day.

@daniellemybelle: my supply started decreasing, but so did her intake, as she was eating more solids

We started out doing this - bfing then topping up with an ounce or two after each feed. It was exhausting and by 6 weeks I was worn out and became an exclusive pumper. LO was soooo slow on the breast though, taking about 45min-1hr. After bottle prep and feeding it was a good 1.5 hour process.

@daniellemybelle: total props to you for doing both...it is an endless cycle of nursing/supplementing and sometimes even pumping after that - exhausting doesn't even begin to describe it! You're doing awesome.

FWIW my supply didn't drop when I started pumping exclusively (if anything it increased). I sometimes wonder if she would be able to start nursing again now but I didn't really enjoy it in the first place so EPing is the perfect happy medium for us.

Good luck!

I did this for about 3 months until I returned to work. My supply at that point was pretty low that I didn't feel it was worth taking the time out of the day to pump. It worked really well for us! I found that I was able to bond really well for him - with the conveniences of formula as well (which was really great because I had a broken collarbone at the same time - so it was helpful for my parents to be able to feed him formula when I had doctors visits, etc.)