Advice needed on introducing formula

[MrsEvs]

My little one (13 weeks) would never latch on, tried allsorts, midwives tried to help nothing worked, so I have been expressing every feed for my baby since day 1 pretty much. Up til now I have managed to keep up with her, but she is starting to want more than I can get around to pumping so I need to introduce the odd bottle of formula.

Any tips? The odd time I have given her formula (eg when travelling) she seems to throw a lot of it back up.

Have you tried using an electric pump - good because you can double pump (ie both sides together), which seems to stimulate letdown better.

As far as when with formula - usually when you have to - ie when you run out of expressed - at least in my experience. That tended to the mid evening.

I've tried a couple of different electric pumps and while they are certainly less effort I found that even double pumping it took me longer and I got less than with my trusty hand pump. I do still use one from time to time though, just to give the repetitive strain injury in my hands/wrist a break!

whatever works best for you. Make sure you massage your breasts before and during expressing. I got rsi in my thumb joint - took ages to go away .

Poor you - I can sympathise, I have a lump in my wrist that I think will be around a while.

Can't believe you did 9 months of it, as well as coping with twins - you're my hero!!!

I was chuffed to get to three months!

I was chuffed at the end of each day ! Actually I was often demoralised because I hadn't managed to totally feed them myself - nearly always had to resort to a bottle of formula. But I should have been chuffed - it was very hard work !

The pumpmoms site is inspiring (unless you get demoralised because evryone else seems to have oodles of milk and you don't ).

Seriously - if you manage for any time with a new baby to look after you are doing well - everyone who has done it deserves a pat on the back.

Can't believe you ever felt bad about having to give the odd bottle of formula when you went so above and beyond the call of duty with TWINS for so long - I hope your dp/dh appreciated your efforts!

I have checked out the pumpmoms site, there are some amazing stories on there. I was feeling quite virtuous before reading about the woman who has been doing it for 4 years! Now I feel guilty about thinking, maybe I'd done enough and I could gradually wind down! ;)