Would love to bf but not sure I'm up to it!

[Cornishblues]

Ds1 is 4 days old Would love to establish bf at least enough to combination feed - dd1 was mixed fed after shaky start (weight loss, bf/express/ff regime) but this time expressing not an option, not enough hours in the day!

Feeding at mo is pretty much constant especially at night. Would a small ff at midnight to get at least a few hours sleep really be a bad thing? When do you get to that point of feeding every 3/4 hours and knowing you're not in for all nighters??

[ExBrightonBell]

It probably wouldn't be wise to miss a night feed (sadly) as apparently your hormones at night really help with milk supply. So to drop this one might mean a drop in supply, especially as it's early days. However, some women can do this without it adversely affecting their supply.

As for when feeds settle down to 3-4 hourly, there's no single answer to that! It depends on your baby - it could be early on or it could take till 12 weeks plus. I'm sure the same is true of formula feeding though.

[deepinthewoods]

I agree. It's best not to use formula while you are establishing breastfeeding, it can adversely affect supply= especially at night. Prolactin levels are highest at night so skipping a night feed has th e biggest impact on the quantity of milk you will produce, especially in the early days.

[AnythingNotEverything]

If I were you, I'd give the new baby a month of exclusive breastfeeding to get your supply set up first. You could express and go to bed and let DH do a feed with a bottle of that saves you any work.

After a month most babies sleep a bit more at night than they do during the day. It'll get easier around then!