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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

Original poster

Ebf and NOT expressing. Anyone else?

44 replies

Bartimaeus · 13/12/2011 08:43

Feeling a bit odd-one-out atm. Chatting to friends last week, it turns out that I'm the only one in a group of 8 women who is not either mixed feeding or ebf and expressing...

Am I the only person still just breastfeeding? They (nicely) implied I was a bit of a mug as no-one else can feed DS for me, but it's not been a problem yet and I've always seen it as my "role" for the first months anyway.

To be honest I can't be bothered with researching expressing, buying the stuff, working out when and how to use it etc...I'm too lazy I suppose Blush

I will be introducing mixed feeding before I go back to work when DS is 6 months, but as I can't express at my work, I'll put him onto formula for the feeds when I'm not there...

OP posts:
daveywarbeck · 13/12/2011 08:48

I very rarely expressed when feeding DS, only a handful of times in fact. When I went back to work I changed to mixed feeding and found no probs with engorgement during the day - my supply adjusted. I continued to bf until he was nearly 2.

DD is 4 months and I have never yet expressed.

fraktious · 13/12/2011 08:51

I expressed but not sosomeone else could feed DS. I went back to work at 4months.

HappyCamel · 13/12/2011 08:53

DD is nearly nine months and I ebf. As far as I'm concerned that's what my maternity leave is for, to give her the best start in life. I don't get much "me" time, although I was out for 3 hours yesterday, but she's a very happy, healthy and secure baby.

Just relax and do what's right for you.

DazedDazzledandConfused · 13/12/2011 08:57

I don't express atm the moment. my lo is 5 months. When he's 6 months I'm going to start expressing but only so he can have bm with his breakfast cereal.

llamallama · 13/12/2011 08:57

My 11 week old DD is just ebf and I have never expressed. Mostly because I have found breast feeding very straightforward and have not had any prI lens but also because I'm lazy and can't be bothered with the faff of expressing, sterilising etc. I also love feeding her and selfishly like that it's something she does only with me.

Though I am starting to worry that DD might not take a bottle now as I have left it too late? I'm not going back to work till she is 12 months but I would like DH to be able to put her to bed once a week in the new year so I can resume some voluntary work that I do once a week. Maybe I will try her over Christmas.

hazchem · 13/12/2011 08:59

I first tried to express at about 8 months. I didn't like doing it.
DS is 9 months and i have now gone out a couple of times and he just has some water in a bottle.

For me i haven't felt the need/want to be apart from him for extended periods of time. The added work of expressing and preparing bottles turned me off. I'm the only one out of my antenatal group that didn't express.

emlim · 13/12/2011 08:59

I remember feeling like you, I never expressed for either of mine, just seemed easier to just breastfeed! Maybe me being lazy, seemed like a lot of extra faff. One bf for 10 months and the other for 6. With my first, he had the odd formula bottle when I wasn't around and we were all quite happy!

Ellefabulosa · 13/12/2011 09:05

Yep and baby is nearly a year now. As she got older it's been fine to go out and leave just water for her.

choceyes · 13/12/2011 09:12

I never expressed for my DD who is now 16 months. Just breastfed. Never tried her on a bottle either. She went to nursery at 12 months and happily (after a couple days of adjustment of me going in and feeding her)went 8hrs without a breastfeed, eating food and drinking water.

I exclusively expressed for 10-11 months for my DS who didn't/couldn't breastfeed. So by the time I had DD I wans't going to even go near a pump again!

Bartimaeus - if you want to express at work, your workplace has to provide you with the facilities to do so, it's the law I think.

Bramshott · 13/12/2011 09:16

Expressing is an unnecessary pain IMO. Although maybe that's coloured by the fact that DD1 was in SCBU and I had to express for her for a month rather than feed her. Feeding DD2 after that was so relaxing, we just got on with it.

tiktok · 13/12/2011 09:16

My experience talking to many bf mothers and observing things is that most women don't express - it's a useful thing to do for some, but for many reasons, the majority of bf mothers don't find they need/want to do it, and manage just fine without :)

No reason to feel 'lazy' or a 'mug' if you don't express Shock :)

Queenkongmerrilyonhigh · 13/12/2011 09:23

I tried to express when DS was about 6wo. Found it a total faff, not least because DS is one of those babies who hates to be out down. And I could hardly express more than an ounce each time. Anyway, I persevered for a few weeks and built up a little freezer stash. Then he decided he wouldn't take a bottle so have lots of (now out of date) breast milk cluttering up my freezer. Haven't bothered since, DS is 6mo now and might possibly take a bottle now he is older. But breast feeding is such a doddle, I can't summon up the energy to dig out all the expressing crap.

Also, I haven't had to leave him yet. People ask me if I want a night out and I look at them like they're crazy. I average 5 hours broken sleep a night, why would I possibly want to go out raving?! I went out every weekend for 15 years, I don't think one year of staying in is going to kill me!

My only big regret is that I wasted quite a lot of money in a pump/bottle/steriliser etc.

Alibabaandthe80nappies · 13/12/2011 09:26

Much easier not to bother IME.

I had to for DS1 for a bit but have avoided it like the plague with DS2 because it is a PITA.

It is all part of the 'you must not be tied to your baby' mentality which I don't buy into and actually find rather sad.

Sibling4 · 13/12/2011 09:27

No. Can't be arsed with expressing. I didn't withDC1 either

I don't find being the only one able to feed a bind, but then both are good sleepers and I took a full year maternity leave

Once DC1 got to 6 mths he would drink from a cup

BrianButterfield · 13/12/2011 09:41

I express every now and then but I don't see the point of that "express a bottle for the last feed" malarky - honestly I can't see how it saves any time or effort at all. I pump the odd bottle when I know I'll be out for ages and not sure where I'll be able to feed, but I've only done it a handful of times in 4 months.

fraktious · 13/12/2011 09:44

Bartimaeus are you in France or am I confusing you with someone else?

mumwithdice · 13/12/2011 09:49

I expressed when we were in the hospital struggling with establishing BF, but once DD got it, she got it and I didn't bother. She turned 1 on 4 December.

And I don't think you're lazy or a mug, OP. One of the things I love most about bf-ing is the quiet time where you get a brief rest while still being useful.

Iscreamtea · 13/12/2011 09:51

I can't be bothered. I've done it a handful of times but it's a PITA. DS is 5 months now. I did express so I could go for a girls Xmas lunch out. I spent all week pumping little 2 oz pots for the freezer as back up, then pumped 6 oz on the morning I went out. By the time I got home from the lunch my boobs were throbbing and then they went mad overnight that night and I had leaked milk, soaking through my breast pads, bra and nightie. This whole performance is not something I can be bothered to do other than as an occasional one off! DH keeps suggesting I should so he can feed and give me a break but the effort it takes it's just not worth it. Once he gets to 6 months he can have a FF if I'm not around and I hope I never have to use the pump again!

stuffthenonsense · 13/12/2011 10:00

I have never expressed, never felt the need and i didnt feel like i was missing out, although it did upset me when people would look at me like i had a second head or something....i now get those looks for continuing to bf my 18m old whilst being 7m pregnant...although im getting hardened to it and dont care about their opinions any more.

NotJustForClassic · 13/12/2011 10:07

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Bramshott · 13/12/2011 10:09

Would I be very cynical if I thought that all this emphasis on expressing was just another ruse to sell us stuff?!

BrianButterfield · 13/12/2011 10:12

Bramshott, I don't think that's cynical at all. I've seen, I think, Avent, sell a 'breastfeeding kit' which is all bottles, teats etc etc. Um...yeah, that makes sense. I think it all adds to the cultural conviction that Babies Have Bottles, too.

NotJustForClassic · 13/12/2011 10:15

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

GirlWithTheMouseyHair · 13/12/2011 10:16

As with everything I think do what suits you and your baby. I did express for ds, mainly because he had colic so by expressing it meant occasionally his dad could feed him in the late evening/early morning, allowing me to get more desperately needed sleep.
Am going to express for DD after Christmas, partly so she gets used to taking a bottle but mainly because DH works from home on west coast American hours, so he can do the early morning feed and I get enough sleep to get up with both baby and toddler in the morning, oh and pack up our lives to move to America.

Having said that I'd prob be occasionally expressing and bottle feeding anyway so I can go out to the theatre once she's a few months old, and to get her used to a bottle, having watched a friend have a nightmare when her children turned 6months trying to make them drink from bottles because they'd never done it before

VeryHungryKatypillar · 13/12/2011 10:19

No expressing here either, and DD2 is just shy of 6mo. I expressed LOADS with DD1, far too much. I ended up throwing away pints of the stuff as she went off the taste of frozen breastmilk by the time I came to use it (taste definitely changed the longer it had been frozen). I was such a martyr to it, I did loathe it towards the end and it interfered with our day.

With DD2 I feel liberated from the pump! We can go wherever we like at whatever time and I don't need to pump. Fair enough no one else can feed her bm, but small amount of formula as and when absolutely necessary isn't going to harm her. You do whatever you think best for you and LO, you are not a mug you're doing a great job!

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