Mixed feeding. FF and BF? Anyone done it.

[PiggyInTheMiddle19]

Due dc 3 next month.
Both others have been FF. The main reason is I feel very embarrassed.. Please don't judge. Just the thought of my parents or inlaws or whoever being there when feeding fills me with fear.. And please I know this is really silly but I suffer with anxiety enough without adding them pressures.

But saying that I would like to try..
I was kind of hoping I could BF at home when we're alone just our family and FF when out and about or have visitors?

Has anyone done this.

And I do know that BF is best etc. I've read a lot on that sort of thing. But this is a personal choice. And any experience would be greatly appreciated

My other worry is whe I had a 4d scan. It looked like baby had a tongue tie by the heart shape at front and worry this would cause an issue. Obviously until born we won't know for sure.

Tongue tie can be cut quite easily as long as you look up support for that in your area - a lactation consultant through NHS or a private practitioner

Best bet to ensure you don't lose supply offering formula would be to express milk to bottle feed when out and about.

You can get very good nursing aprons though which may help. in the first few weeks when youre getting the hang of it there's nothing to stop you nipping upstairs to another room to get baby fed too.

My DS has a tongue tie and, once diagnosed, it was very easily fixed! I'm not going to prattle on about breastfeeding, that's obviously your decision to make all I will say is that the things that filled me with anxiety when I was pregnant don't even feature in my tiny niggles list these days (and I have anxiety too) You can't know what it will be like until you're in the thick of it, so by all means come up with some vague plans, but once you've been thinking about it for so long your thoughts are going in circles, it's just worrying, not preparing. I did just the same when I was pregnant, but now wish I'd been able to just relax a little more. I know it's easier said than done, but try not to let yourself get caught up in the worry! Good luck

I mix fed both of mine
Est bf - hard with first, easy with second - (like the births so possibly a factor)

Didnt get on with expressing at all

Introduced formula at about a month. Normal tommee tippee bottles . Just a little . First baby didnt take immediately but persevered. Generally only one bottle a day for a long time..

Was good to get them used to it. In theory other people could give a bottle but most of the time me anyway.
Good in case of an emergency!

Bf first for 10 months and second for 20 months (from one breast only but hats another story!)

I gave the bottle at bedtime - again it made them used to it if I wasnt there (ha ha. A rarity) but also made it less tempting to develop breastfeeding to sleep....

It can definitely be done so dont let people tell you otherwise! Good luck!

DD was BF only until 3 weeks, she struggled to feed due to being low birth weight. I was expressing a bit at the end anyway because I had to use nipple shields so DH tried her with a bottle at 3 weeks when I was shattered. So for a while she would take an expressed bottle from him or BF with me. We introduced formula at 3 months without any issues. I gradually reduced the BF, night weaned at 9 months and stopped completely on her first birthday.

My advice would be work hard to establish BF first and try to avoid using bottles until the BF and your supply are well established. But yes, mixed feeding suited us well.

I am doing this now with twins, I exclusively breastfed them for about 3 weeks and then introduced expressed milk in a bottle once a day to get them used to it, then added in formula once a day after that. I think it took about 6 weeks for them to be happy with either.
I kind of do what you’re hoping to in that I will take bottles out with me (restaurants, shopping etc) and breastfeed if I am home or at families house. I breastfeed in front of everyone now but I had the fear at the start too so don’t worry yourself, when you’re establishing breastfeeding it can become chaotic and I usually ended up with both boobs out fully so I could inspect the latch. Also with two it wasn’t practical for me to BF all the time.

If I was you I would stay home for a couple of weeks doing skin to skin and on demand feeding, then introduce a bottle of breast milk so they get used to the teat. I use the minbie bottles which are pricey but I only bought 4 of them because I knew they wouldn’t be having bottles regularly.
I now fancy myself a bit of a pro when double feeding them, however been able to pass them off to DH /MIL /FIL for a bottle whilst I have coffee or eat is amazing and I don’t regret it at all.

I combination fed until DS was 3 months old - then it kind of fizzled out. It’s hard to keep the supply up when mixed feeding but it’s definitely doable for quite some time. DS had a tongue tie and didn’t latch properly until he was 9 days old - so until then I expressed what I could and formula fed. He still struggled to latch quickly for quite some time after so I only breastfed at home in the end, having to deal with a screaming baby who needs a few minutes before latching properly, trying this position and that isn’t fun. He would be the same with the bottle sometimes too so to be honest I didn’t feed in public much full-stop, bottle or breast - as a first time mum I was really worried that people would think I’m an idiot who didn’t know how to feed her child. Second time around I wouldn’t give a shit though about what others think. So my main advice is to get a good breast pump.

I have with 3 out of my current 4 of varying degrees.

Introduced occasional bottles around 2 weeks with all 3 the probably mix fed DS1 from 6 weeks and stopped at 3 months.

DS2 and DS4 both had a night time formula bottle from around 6 weeks. They were both fully FF by 7 months.

DS3 never took a bottle, we tried everything so he was the only exclusively BF’d one.

I think it is totally do-able in my experience, you just need a couple of weeks to get breast milk supply sorted.

I mixed fed with both of mine but not until they were a few weeks old. I could hardly express a drop and wanted DH to do the odd night feed so gave some formula.

It didn't affect my supply at all but I think it will depend on how often you do it.

I combi fed. First 6 months with both, mostly breastfed but one bottle of formula per day, occasionally more. Then once they hit 6 months and had started on solids I gradually upped the formula to ween them off the breast. Worked great for us, wouldn't do it any other way. Would just say the first couple of weeks I would aim for breast only just to get used to it. Also breast feeding out and about is incredibly convenient - no need to take out sterilised bottles etc. Unlimited supply, if they kick off, just shove them on.
Formula milk is totally fine but any amount of breast milk is better than none so go for it.
One more piece of advice - stop giving a shit about what anyone - family, friend, member of the public, celebrity, social media poster - thinks of how you feed your baby. You do you.

Thank you. All very good points I will re read and take on board.
I'd love to stay in and demand feed / skin to skin. But have to do school runs for eldest and dd has a lot of groups. Altho dh will be off for 2 weeks
The toddler after 1 day in she has bad cabin fever and goes into devil mode. So that's unlikely to realistically happen unfortunately.

Mixed fed from birth. Worked fine.

I combi fed. Worked really well. Ex could do his fair share of feeds, plus when it was my turn for the grave yard shift feed I just sat up and BF. no getting up and faffing about heating bottle etc. Only had to get up for a nappy change. If I were t have another I would do this again

I mixed fed from birth and after a few weeks once we'd got past the constantly hungry newborn phase i moved to pretty much ebf. Saved my sanity to be honest. Someone else could feed when i needed them to but had the speed and convenience of breast feeding too.

Expressing went ok for me but such a chore