Help me with breast and bottle mixed feeding please

[mamaLou13]

I am going back to uni to complete the year within about two weeks of having my baby so i desparatley need to do things differently to DD1 (who is 22 months and still breastfed at nights and whenever we are together). This baby needs to take a bottle straight away but i still want to ensure she ahs as much breastmilk as possible so was hoping (in an ideal world) that i could breastfeed her at night and gie her bottle through the day (of expressed breastmilk). How do i start this from when she is born? E.g. Do i put her on the breast straught away then express for her next fed in a bottle? I just don't know how it is going to work and bottle feeding is going to be such a faff.

anybody please?

To get your supply up during those 2 weeks, you could express the other one whilst feeding. But depending on your supply, it may be difficult to build up any "stock" to give to baby when you go back.

I'll be honest, it will be difficult to keep your supply up if you haven't got the baby with you and/or you don't express whilst at uni (you haven't motioned this). Are you able to express at uni every 2/3 hours?

Is it possible for the baby to come to uni with you, so you can feed in a sling? At that age, they're very content with a feed- burp-sleep (I've been on a peer support course recently and several newborns have been there and haven't disturbed the classes at all and you barely notice that they are feeding either).

Alternatively, can your baby's caregiver come to you at uni every couple of hours?

Didn't want your post to go unanswered, I'm sure others might have better advice

Thank you for the advice. Very helpful. Uni is 2 hours away so can not really have Dh there but i could express whilst i am there.

Try to express as much as possible throughout the day. It can help to think of your baby, look at a photo or hold their clothing. The difficulty will be storing the milk as it should be in the fridge at all times.

Are you in uni full time? It might be good to get some professional advice from a breastfeeding counsellor. It actually sounds very difficult and I'm worried it puts too much pressure on you. You would spend every waking hour expressing or feeding, which doesn't leave much time to sleep or study.

I would introduce the bottle as early as possible. DD had it at day 2 with mixed feeding and took to it fine, no nipple confusion.