(Sorry this is longish)
I have been back at work part-time since DD was 18 weeks, and she's been having a bottle of formula four times a week since about 21 weeks. (She had been drinking EBM at the CM's between 18-21 weeks but then she got the hang of the bottle and wanted more milk than I could physically express, so we switched to formula for those feeds.)
She's now 28.5 weeks, on 3 meals a day and plenty of breastfeeds, as well as a 6-7oz bottle four times a week at the CM's. She has no bother switching from bottle to boob and loves both.
So doing great on food and milk, but still waking constantly at night. I fed her twice last night but she was awake many more times than that. I'm happy to feed her once at night, but any more than that I get a bit resentful, because I know she isn't really hungry - she only messes on the boob and dozes off.
So...The other night, I had a meeting and asked DP to put her to bed after her dinner and give her a bottle of formula. She drank a good 5-6 oz and went down for him like a dream. She slept from 7pm to 3.30am when I lifted her to feed her because of rock-hard boobs. Went straight back down and slept until 7am. Unheard of in our house.
If we made the bedtime bottle of formula a regular occurance, is that kind of a slippery slope to the end of breastfeeding, do you think? I don't want to breastfeed longterm, but I did want to get closer to a year. Was breastfed myself til a year and seem to have a bionic immune system so I feel I should give DD the same start. Could seriously do with more sleep at this stage, though.
Any thoughts? Thanks.