views on expressing for last feed of evening

[vic891]

DS is nearly 4 weeks old and until now I haven't worried about an evening routine - his feeding pattern has been unpredictable and he's stayed downstairs with us in his moses basket 'til we've headed to bed. Am planning to start moving him upstairs one feed earlier, and am thinking about other ways of getting some structure around nighttime. A friend suggested expressing for the last feed to get a quick, big feed down to help go through for longer before DS wakes. What do people think about this - likely to help? Also - if I express, how long will the bottle be OK for out of the fridge?

Thanks ladies.

[Flossam]

I did this on and off. DS became really fractious during the last feed and I found it really stressful, he would bite, bob on and off and cry out. He seemed calmer on the bottle. Got him used to the bottle too. I don't know that it means he will drink more though. I didn't find that he necessarily slept for longer either. The milk should be ok out of the fridge for a couple of hours I think? Possibly even longer according to some sources. HTH.

[mears]

I posted on other thread

here

[elastamum]

I used to mix expressed bottles with breast feeding for both my babies as it let me get out occasionally and also gave my DH a chance to feed. With DS one we kept him downstairs a lot but I used to try and put DS2 to bed and go up and feed him. Not sure that it made any difference with how long he slept even if I topped DS2 up with formula. ( I used to keep milk in the fridge and warm it very carefully in the microwave - yes I know you arent supposed to)