Is it to late to reestablish BF?

[TootsieBootsie]

LO was slow to gain weight in early days so was told to top up pretty much from.the beginning. I really.wanted to EBF but never got the chance really and felt unsupported. Now she's 13 weeks, gaining heaps and is still feeding once or twice a day from me.
Is it too late to start BFF and reduce FF?

No not too late. But you will need to work quite hard to bring back a full milk supply. It will help to speak to a knowledgeable person in real life. But yes you can do it. Biggest plus is your baby is still happy to come to the breast. That, and a commitment to round the clock expressing, will be a huge help :)

Note: this is what happens with early topping up. Without long term support for getting back to Ebg, mothers lose confidence in bf and the formula starts to replace it. But it can be reversed.

Ebf not Ebg, sorry.

Thank you for replying. The medela bottles helped I think but I've just moved onto Tommee Tippee ones which may be a mistake.
I've never been able to express much so concerned I never had enough milk in the first place hence the slow weight gain...

The amount you can express is in no way representational of what baby takes.
Babies are good at extracting milk. Pumps less so.
A lot of women can feed a baby exclusively but only manage to pump a scant oz.

I get hardly anything when I express but that doesn't indicate supply. I was advised to do two formula top ups from 4 weeks as dd hadn't regained her birth weight. In hindsight I wish I'd held out a little longer. We did eventually drop to just one formula feed as I quite like getting dh to do her before bed bottle. She did have a few very grumpy days when I was cutting down! I know it's not the same as you're giving much more, but maybe you could try and replace one feed at a time by just offering breast then if she gets fussy give a bottle. I made sure I drank a loads of water, ate oats and I did buy lactation tea (no idea if it helped!).

Yes - I was in a similar boat! I didn't manage to exclusively bf, but we got to the point of only 1 bottle of formula at bed time.
It is HARD - like the previous poster said, night time expressing (even if very little comes out)! I was awake with the baby anyway, but when she went to sleep (or before she woke up) the pump came out - be prepared to be extremely sleep deprived!
I pumped every 2 - 3 hours I think around the clock.
Please do not put pressure on yourself to bf. I did and it took took over my life for the 1st 6 months of baby's life. I felt a failure and so miserable and TIRED. I know all new mums are tired, but I was especially so - especially with the extra 'pressure' of trying to bf.
I'm not sure why I persisted, but I ever have another I'm positive I won't beat myself up so much if it doesn't work out!
Saying that - managing to regain my milk
(after a traumatic birth, a major factor in my struggle) and getting managing to bf her is genuinely one of my proudest achievements (because it IS the TOUGHEST things I've done).
You highlight the lack of support which is TOTALLY my experience as well, I got extremely poor advice and little help. My advice (for what it's worth) do you want YOU feel right for your body and baby!
Good luck!!

O previous poster just reminded me - I also bought/took EVERYTHING to help my milk, lactation tea, fenugreek tablets, jungle juice, oats, bf biscuits - you name it!

Thank you for all the advice. I have been so sad about it all as I feel like a failure. In hindsight I wish I'd given it more of a go but it's so hard when there's pressure from people just to give bottles.
I'm still doing a sort of night time feed (before bottle) but I really dont' think I've got enough for a 'full' feed. I'm just keeping it going as it's a great comfort for baby and she settles really well. I'm sure most people would have told me to pack that in by now also!

Take it from someone who has been there - do not waste your beautiful baby's early days feeling sad about how you are feeding. I had lactation failure with dd1. I have managed to bf dd2. You know what? There is very little difference in terms of my experience as a mum. I've bonded just as well with dd2 as with dd1. The hard bits are hard, the wonderful bits are wonderful. It's the same really. I needed to bury my deamons and master bf as it beat me last time. Now I've done it I'm a bit underwhelmed. It isn't the magical experience I thought it would be. It's the optimal nutrition, but ff comes very close. Enjoy your baby. No more sad feelings. Check out the fearless formula feeder for a bit of moral support.

The best advice I was given by a midwife was that the most important thing was to enjoy feeding my baby whether breast or bottle. Your baby is healthy and happy; you are in no way a failure.

That's true and thank you all. I do just need to bury my demons.
I would ideally like to take advice of above and give it a go but it's going to be hard work and probably impractical for someone with other children.
Thank you so much everyone for helping me gain some perspective, both sides