Is 3 weeks too early to introduce a bottle?

[McKayz]

DD is 3 weeks old and BF is going fairly well. No problems really to speak of other than a painful let down. But obviously I am shattered, I did the first 2.5 weeks on my own as DH works abroad.

I was wondering if 3 weeks is too early to start expressing so DH can try and give her a bottle of expressed milk either at bedtime or during the night?

I don't want it to interfere with BF so if it's too early we'll wait.

Also is it true that I don't need to sterilise everything for expressing?

Thanks

I did with DD3 at 3-4 weeks (can't remember exactly when but I started working again when she was 3 weeks and needed other people to be able to feed her from time to time) and she had no problems at all. She had a bottle a day from then on (usually milk expressed in the morning or at nighttime) in the evening. Worked very well. I used the "closer to nature" tommee tippee bottles.

Don't know about sterilising. Some people say you don't need to because the milk is a living substance but I steam-sterilised everything until she was over a year old probably explains the eczema.

I would wait till after 8 weeks as then you'll be closer to a 'routine' with the feeds.

You could try a bottle of formula first thing. Say if your dh did the 4am to 8am shift. Its at night that you make all your milk for the following day and the milk your baby gets from you at night is also the richest.

I always found that even if you got a slight break and dh did a feed, the baby would make up for it for the rest of the night by either having wind, or not settling or just wanting more breast milk. Ultimately its really hard to get a worth while break.

Hang in there though. Things do get alot easier when you get to three months.

They are the bottles I bought and the pump during a baby sale at Asda.

Did you have any problems with her latch at all?

No difference at all. She used the same technique to get milk out of the bottles as she did to get milk out of me.

Totally understand you need support and more rest/sleep, McKayz.....but expressing is not a magic cure all :(

To express means leaving a gap between breastfeeds. This means you are in the short term pretty uncomfortable. You might get a blocked duct, if you are unlucky, mastitis. If you don't, you are still uncomfortable - and you may well stay awake because of it. Your baby may still need you, desperately, at 3 weeks...she doesn't yet now your dh 'cos he has been away. Even when she knows him, she may need the close comfort of the breast to settle. So you don't get much rest....

Longer term, regular bottles of formula or ebm, mean supply may be compromised.

You can try expressing (probably two or three pump sessions to get a full feed for your baby - time consuming) and see if it helps.

But there are easier ways for your DH to help, IMO, which don't risk your comfort and which don't undermine your bf.

Shybairns - "Its at night that you make all your milk for the following day and the milk your baby gets from you at night is also the richest. "

Not true, happily :)

Milk is certainly made at night, but not 'all' of it for the following day. I have never heard the milk is 'richer' at night and can't see how it could be - the 'richness' of milk is governed by the volume of milk in the breast at any one time, and the breast does not change the 'recipe' by the clock. Prolactin - milk making hormone - is higher at night in the very early days - is this what you were thinking of, maybe?

I might leave it then. DH is being brilliant, he's doing everything except feeding her. I was just hoping if I could express a feed I could get a few hours before she woke up again.