Combination feeding from birth?

[klh386]

I learned last time around that I can't handle not having decent stretches of sleep. I lose my mind and have uncontrollable crying/postpartum rage. This time I'll need to split nights with my husband - he will have ~8pm-2am, and I'll have 2am-8am. This will need to start somewhere within the first week.
Question is: do I have any chance of successfully breastfeeding within these parameters? He would be feeding formula while I'm asleep and will not be waking me until his shift is over.

I'm not trained but I think you have a chance, especially as you will be feeding from 2am.

As I'm really not trained though, and probably don't know very much, I'd talk through your plan with a BFC on one of the BFing Helplines, have you got the numbers?

I did this but not by design, so it must be possible!

I did this (almost!), dd was mix fed from her being 11-12 days old.

Your milk production Hormone peaks at that time so if you’re doing after 2am then that’s technically the best time. Will you be feeding yourself in the day too?

The only downfall I can fathom is if the flow on the bottle is too high it’ll make your boobs seem slow and they may get frustrated. If He does paced feeding and a slow flow test I don’t think you’ll have any probs at all with your method good luck, sounds like a great plan.

teat* not test

Totally possible. But have an open mind. Your baby might refuse one or the other or might take to both like a duck to water. Don't feel like you have failed if you have to go 100% one or the other. Seems to me the priority is making sure you get that essential rest so you can stay above water. Good luck. I hope you get a perfect sleeper / feeder.

If you are worried at all about the bottle feeding affecting BFing, could your DH try cup feeding instead of bottle feeding?

I can't do links right now but if you google "Kellymom cup feeding" it should come straight up

I combination fed for 6 weeks quite easily. I expressed some milk so she had some breast feeds from me , some expressed milk feeds and some formula - breast fed more in evenings. Baby was absolutely fine and loved it. Only stopped because I got very ill at 6 weeks and wasn't able to feed or express for a week and afterwards decided to carry on with formula. Babies can be very adaptable . All I'd say is that sometimes she wouldn't take one or the other and wanted breast when I offered bottle or other way round. I just followed her lead. Good luck ! X

Thank you, everyone! I’m pretty laid back this time. Last time I had preemie twins, so I didn’t get to experience breastfeeding, just some pumping (which I loathed) and formula. If this baby can latch, it would be really nice, but was hoping that my need for sleep wouldn’t completely throw it off. It looks like there’s a good chance it won’t. Thank you again!

I did this with my third. I had lots of issues with my epilepsy during pregnancy and I absolutely needed a solid chunk of sleep each night to cope once the baby was here. So he had one bottle per night from birth. All the professionals I spoke to in his early weeks said that it wasn’t ideal for successful breastfeeding to have a bottle until after 6 weeks and that if you had to give one then doing so in the day was best, as you produce more milk at night. BUT they also all said that, given my need for a chunk of sleep, it would probably be fine. Happily for us, it was. The only thing I’d say is that if you think about the early weeks of a new baby and their breastfeeding habits, all of mine would be feeding off and on pretty constantly anywhere from around six in the evening till about midnight to 2 am. So it made more sense for us that I did the first half of the night, got the baby to sleep eventually and then when they woke up around 3 am or whatever it might be, that’s when my husband gave the bottle. So that’s just something to think about, as a lot of babies feed a lot in the late evening, early hours of the morning, so if you can do that it might be more helpful for your overall breastfeeding success.

I’ve been combination feeding and it’s going well. Baby and I were in hospital for 5 days for various reasons and I didn’t get to hold him till the end of his second day of life. He was just over 5lbs at birth and tried breastfeeding but felt he wasn’t getting enough and my milk actually didn’t come in till about 4 days in. I breastfed then topped him up with formula. This amount varied depending on him. When he’d had enough we would stop. Now he’s 3 months and weight is in line with his percentile and nappies are going well. We’re in a more of a routine now so rather than a top up, the bottle of formula would be an actual feed as breastfeeding is satisfying him enough not to top up straight away. So now we would do about 4 formula bottles in a 24 hr period and breastfeed in between and all this is on demand feeding. Also, I don’t breastfeed in the night so I sleep unless baby needs a bit of a soothe rather than a feed. It’s working for us and the supposed nipple confusion has never been a thing.