Breast pump of formula for a few feeds?

[RattieOfCatan]

I have a while before I'm due (early November) but we're trying to keep and eye out for offers on things as they come up!

I am well aware that my plan may go horribly wrong, that I may have a bottle refuser or have issues breastfeeding! Ideally I plan to breastfeed mostly, but with two or three bottle feeds through the day. Likely one early morning and evening for DH to do and possibly one during the day for when I want to leave them with somebody for a couple of hours, I'd rather know that baby can be fed when I go out then worry about them getting upset whilst waiting for me to come home! This will likely happen 3ish times a week from a young age, whilst I know that they will very likely be fine it would alleviate worry to know that they can be fed by granny while I'm out!

What is the best way to go about this? Are we better buying a breast pump or buying formula? If a pump, what pump do I go for? How many expresses will be enough to express enough for 2-3 feeds? I really can't afford one of the super fancy pumps, £150 is probably as expensive as we can go, preferably less. I have issues with my hands sometimes so I'd probably be better with an electric but there are so many conflicting reviews and it's a lot of money to spend on something that cannot be returned easily!

Why not look into hiring an electric breast pump? I combination fed dd for 6 weeks when I couldn't breast feed. I expressed with a hand pump and topped her up with formula.

I have looked at hiring one but it seems expensive for what it is, the main one I keep finding is hiring the medela, but at £46 for the first two weeks and £46pm after that it seems a bit silly as within three months I've spent my entire breast pump budget! Even the others I can find are all £35+ per month after the first two weeks, which would still eat a massive amount of my budget and I'd run out too soon for when I'd want to stop breastfeeding. The rental ones I can find are all hospital grade ones as well, I'm not even sure if I'd need a double pump or a super good one?

For expressing 1-2 feeds/day, you would probably be fine with a more modest single-side electric pump (I used a Medela Mini for similar) - but there's no rush, and probably not much money to be saved - more likely to waste it by making the wrong choice - so why not wait until your baby's arrived and see how you feel. You probably wouldn't want to be expressing in the first few weeks (?) until BF is well established.
Have you got a local breastfeeding group like La Leche? You can go along to their meetings antenatally, maybe pick people's brains - the leader and also the other women at the group - about expressing and get some information (and they often also do pump hire/loan).

For expressing 1-2 feeds/day, you would probably be fine with a more modest single-side electric pump (I used a Medela Mini for similar) - but there's no rush, and probably not much money to be saved - more likely to waste it by making the wrong choice - so why not wait until your baby's arrived and see how you feel. You probably wouldn't want to be expressing in the first few weeks (?) until BF is well established.
Have you got a local breastfeeding group like La Leche? You can go along to their meetings antenatally, maybe pick people's brains - the leader and also the other women at the group - about expressing and get some information (and they often also do pump hire/loan).

There isn't a la leche league but there is a breastfeeding group in the area I'm moving too so I'll check that out in late September, they're happy to have pregnant women come apparently. There isn't a rush to buy a pump though but I don't want to miss any good deals that come up!

Sorry about the echo :)
Nice username. I tried to work in a pun (wait for things to settle down sort of thing) but gave up...

Is this your first?

I would suggest the same as above, join a Facebook group or go to a support group. There are good times to express and also feeding formula can affect supply. Not saying don't do it but I would do some research.

3 bottles a day sounds like a lot in terms of BF, (to me anyway) DS fed about 6 times a day only because he was alseep most of the time.

I'm also due in November and my plan is to give a bottle at tea time either formula or express milk depending how successful I am with expressing. My dd was a complete boobie monster and it took us a month to get her to take a bottle at 8 weeks. I'm planning on giving a bottle much earlier this time but no more than one a day. That said all babies are different so we may well be ok?! A friend did mixed feeds about 3 in a 24hr period and struggled to keep her supply up, she had to go on to formula and now regrets it. Try not to plan too much as you just don't know how you'll get on and what baby's temperament will be like. It's a good idea to get a pump even if it's just for if you need to be away for more than a couple of feeds (I found hand expressing hard!)

puddock It would have had to have been pointed out to me, I'm embarrassed to admit! I often forget my username on here

unimaginative It is indeed my first. It would likely be only twice a day, it'd be the first one in the morning and a late evening one. The third would be if/when I go out during the day and only if it's needed, IYSWIM? I plan to leave baby with my Mum or MIL for a couple of hours a few mornings a week to go swimming (once I feel up to it and am settled into a half decent routine!), so it would purely be there just in case baby starts getting upset and needs a feed. I'm hoping by that point that they should be fine to be left for a few hours without a feed so I could feed them before leaving and again when I get home, but having a bottle ready would be for my peace of mind. From my reading it seems that people who do express a bottle or two a day tend to do it whilst feeding baby at the other breast, which made sense to me.

Rainbow That's why I want to use a bottle from as early as possible, even if it's just the first morning feed. I am a nanny and have worked with a couple of complete bottle refusers, one particular Mum would get really upset by it and I know that for my mental health I need to be able to know that I can leave baby for a couple of hours and that they will be okay without me there if they need to be fed.

I don't want to knock your plan but if you want to breastfeed it's important to establish a supply. You sound like a lot is going on already! Your baby may not want to be routined for a while and more than likely you will need to be on hand for boob and comfort. In the early days you may be cluster feeding.

Maybe start with a bedtime bottle with OH of expressed milk (maybe will you rest/ get some sleep for night feeds/ have a bath). Then build up to the few times a week thing. You just don't know what sort of baby you will have or how feeding will go. (I mean this in the best possible way)

I don't mean a full routine, just a rough idea of when baby tends to eat/sleep! Which will probably go tits up at the 3 month point but I'll still have a rough idea by then. There's no way I want a standard "3 hourly feed" type routine, sod that for a laugh.

Probably a "drip feed" of sorts but I thought it'd be generally obvious as small babies tend to need their primary carer: I'm not talking about leaving child from the start (though I can see the confusion as I did say from a young age, to me 12 weeks is still very young), but I am not planning to start leaving them until around 12 weeks. But I know that I will need to have the bottle feeds there and established before that point to avoid panicking about them refusing a bottle. As I said, I'm a nanny with experience of bottle refusers, I really want to make sure that my infant will take a bottle and the best way to ensure that is to use a bottle regularly from as early as possible.

Cluster feeding is something that I'll work out when it comes to it. I'll be completely honest, if I have a baby who is a massive cluster feeder like I've known some to be, I would have to rethink breastfeeding at that point. Whilst breastfeeding is very important to me, my mental health comes first, which is why I'm going to need to be able to leave baby for a couple of hours in the first place. If there is one thing I can do to keep my mental health in a good place, it's going for a swim 2 to 3 times a week, I don't know why but it's my mental health magic remedy and I plan to use it to try to keep my mental health in good shape given the amount of change I have going on in the next 6 months. It's the only time I can see myself being comfortable being away from my child as well, I've spent so long caring for other peoples children that I want to be able to spend as much quality time with my own child as possible.

Pumping while feeding a baby is really quite hard (believe me, I've tried!). You need to have something to hold the pump in place as you could well need both hands for the baby (especially in the early days).

Re cluster feeding, I guess you just don't know. Some babies won't but a lot will. And it is an important part of the breastfeeding journey; yes it's a pain but it's what will build your milk supply.

I did start expressing to build up a stash from my daughter being a few months old as I went back to work when she was 6 months. I found the best time to do it was in the morning; I'd pop her in her bouncy chair for a few minutes while I did it. But - I guess you just need to keep in mind that it can take a while to build up a stash, and also that you don't know how you will respond to pumping. Some women can express loads, others hardly any. It's not representative of your milk supply but it can be an issue if you're trying to build up a stash.

Babies r us have the single lansinoh electric breast pump on sale for £49.99 at the moment (usually £100)