Q about expressing for 'bottle practicing'

[MyBunnyRabbit]

we read in our baby book that if we want the option on a bottle at some point then we should let our 4 week old have a bottle every 3rd day just to keep the habit.

Has anyone else read this or have any advice about introducing one bottle feed.

I'm happy to ebf for few more weeks, then we want daddy to give bedtime bottle so he gets some special time when he's home from work.......would prefer to stick to breastmilk but i dont see how i'll have time to express during day when looking after baby all day....she currently feeds for an hour with about 2.5 hours between and also dont want ot make nips sore using pump then start feeling miserable about painful feeding.

also....what will happen to me if i miss a feed routinely every evening....will i end up affecting my milk supply so much that it will mess everything up?? if i have to express while dh gives bottle then im not really getting a break am i??

it s so confusing.

[lilham]

Your last sentence 'if i have to express while dh gives bottle then im not really getting a break am i?' is exactly how I'd answer anyone telling me to ask DH to give a bottle of EBM so I can have a rest! In fact after my milk settles down it took 2-3 times of pumping to get a full feed out. (And I'm talking about only 70-100ml). So it's more work then I'd have just fed her myself.

What happened with us is that at the start we were giving a full feed. Then gradually I wasn't pumping out as much and the bottles reduced to 50ml then 30ml. We kept giving a bottle every 2-3 days because we wanted DD to not forget about bottles. But I have to top up with the breast. I think that might be what eventually make her a bottle refuser with all the breast top ups. At around 4mo, she figured out poking the teat out and also bashing the bottles away.

With hindsight, I think if we wanted to stick with the bottle, we'll have to use formula. No expressing, no breast top ups. Oh and DH says he didn't like giving the bottle. He'd rather be bathing and even nappy changing! Mostly because DD never warmed to the bottle and every feed is a bit of a battle, despite us starting at 4wo.

You and your baby might be different though. He might love the bottle (and one of the mums doing the same in my group ended up with a baby that prefers the bottle, and she switched to FF at 3-4 mo), he might be good at mix feeding, and he might naturally space out his feed a lot so you have more time to pump.