bf with other commitments-how do you do it?

[Shellywelly1973]

Im expecting dc 6.

I have bf 3 out of 5 dc but only for 6/8 weeks.

I had intended to bf this baby but im beginning to wonder how I will fit it in. Dp works shifts. 2 Ds have SN. No practical support. Im just worried how I will actually do it all.

How do others manage?

I honestly think you did the hard bits with your others and didn't get to experience the easy bit. If you can get through those first few weeks I personally think it is a lot easier than bottle feeding. No faffing with bottles and sterilising etc - leaving the house doesn't need such planning and effort and feeding really does get pretty easy when they get the hang of it after a few weeks. If u

I was going to day if you can have some support for the cluster feeding in the first few weeks you will not believe how much easier it gets.

Not quite the same, but I've just had my 5th surviving child. Although DC1 no longer lives at home, I usually have a 12 year old, a 9 year old with Downs Syndrome and a two year old at home, plus the new baby. My DH is in the army, so we have no family near and he works long hours/is away a lot. We also have 3 dogs, a cat and four rabbits.

I only managed to successfully BF my none 2 year old, who finished a few months ago, so I've FF too. I am BF the baby and wouldn't have considered anything else. DH went away for a week and was uncontactable last week when our newborn was a week old.

It just means being fairly organised, realising sometimes other things will have to wait a bit or most of the day (children's dinner maybe the prior, housework the latter) but I don't think that would really be much different if I was bottle feeding a newborn. I have a sling which I use if we go out and around the house so I can get things done. I've got a slow cooker to do meals if I need to, a few filling soups in the freezer I can do for dinner and I have to admit, I've resorted to using easier things that can just go in the oven for a bit like chips, fish fingers etc which we don't normally eat.

The house is quite child proof downstairs so I don't often have to leap up to rescue the DC... I bedshare with the baby for maximum sleep. I do though, hold the baby pretty much all the time, although I have a swing in the kitchen so I can pop him in there while I get breakfast, load the dishwasher, cook dinner etc if I need to.

I can't imagine bottle feeding now tbh, it seems such a huge faff.

I was going to say if you can have some support for the cluster feeding in the first few weeks you will not believe how much easier it gets.

Thanks. No support unfortunately.

I've seen my sister struggle especially with the amount of times a bf baby needs to be feed in comparison to a ff fed baby. Night feeds are another issue. I have never co slept & my ds 8 still wakes so that's another worry. I always made bottles once aday so not tbat big a deal.

I was very positive about bf but recently the house has been mental. Dc are all over the place & I realistically don't know how I am going to cope.

Im very organised. Slow cooker, meal planning, etc but even so its still very hectic!

Im beginning to dread the arrival of the baby & the weeks are passing too quickly.

I only have 2 DC so hardly feel qualified to comment, but nevertheless I was worried about how I would look after my toddler while BFing. While I have definitely found aspects of having two difficult, feeding has not been an issue - DS2 is super-efficient, and fed in 5-10 minutes from birth. Once my milk came in, he would regularly go 3 hours between feeds. I confess his sleep is pretty rubbish, but given that he will refuse to feed if that's not what he wants, I am just grateful he will feed back to sleep when he does. I'm not saying this to show off especially not about his sleep and I would certainly say he's at the extreme end - most new babies will feed for longer, and more often, and that is very normal. I am just suggesting you don't spend this time worrying about what might happen, as you don't know yet.