Help me introduce a bottle of expressed milk. What's the best way?

[redspottedfrog]

DS2 is nearly 20 weeks and has been ebf till now. I have a night out that I can't take him to in just over three weeks so I'm hoping I can get him to a point where he can be fed and be comfortable until we come back that night.

At the moment we have no kind of routine at any time of the day! I've been trying to introduce a bedtime routine but he's not really having it so he usually feeds to sleep on my knee in the lounge after many unsuccessful attempts to put him in his cot. Or, he falls asleep in his bouncer. There isn't really a pattern to how often he feeds so I have no idea how much he has over the course of an evening. He usually wakes every two hours, sometimes more often, through the night and gets fed back to sleep.

Tonight he fell asleep in his bouncer. When he woke DH took him into the bedroom and tried to give him ebm in a bottle. He took a little but then got upset (I also think he's teething, just to add to the complications!) so he gave up. He then fed to sleep on my knee and is now in bed. (and DS1 has had the milk so no more attempts tonight ).

Sooooooooo how should I introduce it? The plan will be that once he reaches 6 months he'll have a bottle at bedtime every night but I carry on bf for all other feeds. Like I said I need him to be able to take a bottle for a whole evening in three weeks. I'm expecting him not to be in bed when we get home but maybe asleep in his bouncer. It's getting the food into him that'll b the main concern that night (and of course making sure he's settled).

Should I keep feeding to sleep now and then get DH to do a "dream feed" when he has his first waking of the night? Or should I start by getting DH to give him a bottle for one of his day feeds for a while to get him used to it (this is doable for the next few weeks)? I'm using a medium flow teat, is this right? Also, tonight I popped the bottle in hot water to heat it up but really needs a bit of forwarning if it's going to be a dream feed, is there a better way of heating it up (you can't microwave bm, can you?).

TIA!

Get him used to a bottle by giving it in the day - don't introduce it at bedtime for the first time when he'll be tired and grumpy. Experiment with teats and temperature. I used to give DS his at room temp. Or you could try formula? I have to say though bedtime feeds might be the hardest to switch to a bottle if you're in the house and DS knows you are!

Also work on a bedtime routine. What do you mean by he wont have it? Can you try putting him in the cot asleep? That's how we got DS used to his - none of thsi self settling malarkey until he was 6 months So try bath, story, feed, bed. Don't bring him into the lounge - you;ve got to stick with it. For us that meant DS ended up on us for some nights but we'd try and put him in. You can always do what you usually do for subsequent wakings!

Thanks iggly. I'll get DH to try a bottle in the day tomorrow. I'm going to try and stick with ebm till he's 6 months. It's become a bit of a personal goal for me and tbh if I didn't have this party to go to (a v important birthday of a close friend) it'd be boob all the way till six months!

Re the routine. I've started bathing him with DS1 at about 7.30 (he has a routine etched in stone ) but so far he hasn't been happy to then feed to sleep at this time. I've tried, dressed, ready for bed and in a dark bedroom, but he just pings awake and there is no point in me sitting in the dark till he gets sleep as it'll be aaaaaaaaaaages. I'm going to persevere though.

Can you do him his own routine which fits his natural bedtime then pull it backwards?