Mixed feeding - planning ahead

[MeadowHay]

Hi! I am 34 weeks pregnant with my first. I am hoping to mix feed, but haven't decided whether that will be ideally breast + bottles of expressed milk, or breast + bottles of formula. I'm thinking only one bottle of either a day, so DH can do a feed and give me a little break. I'm thinking probably formula for that bottle as if I have to express for that bottle, then I won't really get the little break as I'll need to express for it anyway in which case I may as well just give it from the breast?

I am very anxious about feeding and establishing breastfeeding etc. I have an anxiety disorder so this is one of the things it's latched on to. I'm going to a breastfeeding workshop tomorrow at my hospital so hoping that will be vaguely helpful at least and going to be doing lots of reading about it.

Does anyone have any tips/advice about when the best time to introduce a bottle is? The NHS website recommends waiting 6 weeks or so to establish breastfeeding first, but I've seen plenty of women on here introduce bottles from 2 weeks or so with success. I've also anecdotally seen women say once they introduced a bottle, baby wouldn't take breast anymore. But then I've seen people leave bottle til later, and baby not take bottle! What do people recommend to mix feed?

My other question is re breast pumps. I don't know whether to buy one or not as I can't decide whether I want to feed via breast + expressed bottles or not. If I get one I want one that will make expressing as easy as possible, but we are on a tight budget and they are so expensive, I'm concerned about buying one and then virtually never using it and it being a waste of money. However I'm also worried in case breastfeeding doesn't go well initially and I don't have a pump so no way to try and feed baby without being forced to use formula if it was the middle of the night or something, if you see what I mean.

Any thoughts/advice appreciated!

I've mix fed 3 babies.
I introduced bottles between and 8 weeks with all three and it made no difference to any of them. If you're just doing 1 bottle a day at first then I wouldn't worry about nipple confusion or bottle preference and would probably introduce before 6 weeks.
I've always kept to just 1 or 2 bottles a day max.
Get a haakaa pump - it basically collects milk from one breast while you feed off the other so no extra time spent pumping. Young Bf babies only need 2 or 3 oz for an expressed feed.

Ooh I have another question too. Is it ok to just give a bottle instead of a breast feed, or do I need to do something fancy like a feed that is a mix of breast + bottle to start with? I read that it takes like a week for your breasts to adjust to one missed feed, I guess that doesn't apply if you've effectively expressed it though? But what about if I did one formula feed a day, would I be fine to just skip one breastfeed and do formula without hurting my breasts (e.g. engorgement or whatever) or milk supply?

I am finding that online there is loads of info about formula feeding, and loads of info about EBF, but virtually nothing about how to successfully mix feed.

It could help to spend the first couple weeks getting breastfeeding established then work on introducing a bottle if you feel you want to.

Having one or two bottles during the day probably won't affect your milk supply after you've established breastfeeding. Try to avoid giving a bottle regularly overnight though, as that could affect supply.

You may find expressing daily to be more hassle than it's worth - cleaning equipment, sterilising bottles, doing the actual expressing, feeding it to the baby... Over & over again.

I suppose my best advice would be to wait and see. See how breastfeeding works, what your baby is like, what your energy levels are like.

I mix fed my dd. I ebf for around 3 weeks then introduced a small bottle of f (1 or 2 oz)at bedtime. It took her about a week actually drink it. She had one bottle of f at bedtime (mine so 10 ish)until she was around 6 months when we switched the f feed to 7.30 ish when she started going up to bed rather than just sleeping on me all evening. I chose formula because I hate expressing (It made me feel nauseous when I did it with my firsetbaby)and I wanted to know she would take f. I'm really glad I mix fed. My breast never hurt at the time of the ff.

I had a Lansinoh double electric breast pump and tbh it was a waste of money for me. There are some pumps you can fully sterilise so you could look into getting one second hand?

I just gave a bottle instead of a breast feed if I was going out or sleeping. Your breasts will feel full/engorged once you've missed a feed.

When you first give a formula feed, do you need to express anyway so you don't get engorged/sore? But if you did that then your milk supply wouldn't adjust would it...? I find all this so confusing. I know if you reduce feeds your breasts will reduce your milk supply but I don't know how they do that gradually without it hurting you with engorgement and stuff?

I don't know, some people might but I didn't bother. Having full breasts can be a bit uncomfortable but missing one feed didn't bother me.

When I gave dd her first few ff they were tiny amounts. I never felt engorged or sore. Dd always had the same feed as a ff so I assume my supply adjusted accordingly, however the few times we simply forgot to make the formula up in time I just bf her and gave her a bit of a top up. I don't know if it was because she was my second baby but I never became engorged with her at all. My first baby was mix fed but in at different way. After a pretty horrific start to bf he needed topping up with f and we never really 'caught up'so to speak. If I gave him a full ff during the day and didn't bf at all for a feed I would become full after a few hours but it was never a problem.

Thanks everyone, sounds like general consensus is that if it's just the one feed a day then it's not a big deal doesn't become painful/engorged really. That's what I'm planning to do really anyway assuming breastfeeding goes well.

Hi I have been mixed feeding since day 2 never had any problems with supply . She mainly just gets one bottle in the evening and she sleeps well giving me and dh a break. I think it definitely helped us introducing it early on as it’s now part of her “routine “ she’s 7 weeks old so not got a solid routine in place but some things have just fallen in place because of timings with my other ds going to school.

Oh and it’s formula we use as I tried expressing but couldn’t be bothered with the faff.

Just go with to what you feel like is working for you and enjoy it x