Mixed feeding

[Pippinsqueak]

Pros and cons of mixed feeding.

My six week old takes the boob well most of the time and will have both each feed. I am planning on expressing so my husband and parents can take a feed every now and again.

My problem is at night she is only sleeping for two hours at a time and waking around 4am for 2 hours. I'm shattered and heard that formula fed babies sleep better and longer?

Is this too much change for baby? To breast feed, take breast milk from bottle and the odd formula feed at night?

Looking for advice/experiences please as I'm a first time mum

I'm a first time mum too, but we fed our 8 week old both boob and expressed feeds from a bottle from day 1, he was amazing with it and guzzled it all. Pumping is hard work though and you need time to not bend when pumping or milk leaks out.

Since he's had awful reflux we've just started occasional formula feeds (2-3 a day as well as 6-7 breastmilk feeds) and he doesn't seem to like it as much but will eat them. They don't seem to have made a difference so far with his sleep but I'm hoping. You have my complete sympathy for wanting more sleep, it's hard work.

I hope this helps and good luck xx

Thank you for replying. I just feel guilty about wanting more sleep because it's just sleep after all, but at the same time lack of sleep is affecting everything.

Also I want her to get proper rest too as she's fighting sleep constantly during the day, so you think she would sleep more at night. But nope, not on baby time lol

Whilst there's nothing wrong with combo feeding, have you tried feeding lying down when she's feeding in the night? It might help you get more rest

I mixed fed from day 1 (combination of breastfeeding/ expressed breast milk / formula). It worked really well for us although it did affect my milk supply. I managed to breastfeed morning and evening until 8.5 months when baby decided no longer interested in boob.

I used MAM bottles.

Expressing was really time consuming though so I stopped expressing after the first few weeks and either breastfed directly or gave formula

My baby still wakes every 2-3 hours and occasionally for 3 hours overnight and she's 11 months... Sorry to say!!! She is breast fed too.

Pumping is an absolute ball ache. I completely hate it but if you're keen to try it then do so, it won't confuse baby now you've established BF! Also try introduce some forumla early on. That's the mistake I made and mine has never had a full forumla feed in her life. She just wouldn't even try. Would happily take breast milk from a bottle tho.