Expressing while DH bottle feeds

[mdatherton]

We have recently started having dh give our 12 week ds a bottle of ebm, and I go in another room, to pump for the next day's bottle. We do this between 5:00 and 6:00 pm, but ds cries and cries. Is this possibly because I am expressing and he can sense it, or is it just because he is not used to the bottle. For 2 days, we did a morning feed (weekend, dh home, able to), but the other three were evening, when dh back from work. Should I not express at same time, or do we simply need to persevere? Getting ready for work or occasional evening out, when not around to breastfeed. Advice appreciated from this first time mum. Thank you.

He can't see you expressing in another room, and even if he could, a 12 week old would have no understanding of what you were doing anyway!

Lots of breastfed babies don't like bottles though.

If he always cries you might have left it a bit late to introduce bottle. We did the same but at about 4 weeks. However sometimes dd was fine and other times cried and wouldn't take bottle but by 12 weeks was happy with either.

He probably knows you are nearby but not what you are doing.

Can you go out for a walk and express when you are back? Or try morning feeds when baby is less tired?

Is it during his witching hour? My DS would only settle with me between the hours of 4-7pm, with DD it was 8pm-1am. If so perhaps try at a different time

...this weekend?

I used to express when he was down for his morning nap, then DH would give this bottle at about 11pm so I could get a good block of sleep. I think that because I always did it at the same time I made loads of extra milk at that time, so could easily express 9oz after a week or so.

Does he take the bottle? I tried to introduce one to my ds at 8 weeks and he just screams and won't take it (although he did take the first ever one we tried)