anyone else not bother giving bottles to breastfed babies?

[tassisssss]

My third is 15 weeks and for the 3rd time I've not bothered expressing or giving formula.

Far too much hassle. The thought of finding and attempting to build my breastpump is too much for me.

I mentioned this to 2 lots of friends on Thursday/Friday and was made to feel odd. Was out on Friday night without dd2 and of course hadn't left dh a bottle. Friends seemed v surprised. I was 5 mins away and not drinking so could nip home if she needed me. She didn't.

Anyone else with me?

well, good luck, i hope all goes well.

Thanks for the link Pidge, I've added it to my favs list and will have a chat with my mw at next appt. All the best for the coming week as you wait for number 3 to arrive - we've got number 3 due in Dec.

We eschewed bottles, to the chagrin of my mother and sister

My DD is now 18 months, I half heartedly tried to give EBM a couple of times. When she was about 6 months we just used a doidy cup and from about 9/10 months a lidded cup. SAved a lot of faff.

Twiga - good luck likewise for your #3 in Dec. We're still awaiting any baby action here.

I contacted the breastmilk bank woman, and she said, get the feeding established, then get back in touch to organise the blood test, then all systems are go. I'll probably get the expressing routine going from as early as possible.

Apologies again for the thread hijack!

It's nice how we are all so different

From about 2 weeks I used to express so DH could give DD a bottle of EBM and it helped me keep going when breastfeeding was painful and relentless and made me cry.

I kept it going after that because DH liked to feed her and I knew it would be handy for her to be used to bottles when I went back to work.

I've always found expressing easy and my supply plentiful, so that obviously helps a lot.

Weird that people would care that you didn't do it. I can quite see that it would seem like a lot of faff in different circumstances to mine.

Sometimes I think that as a parent you can take other people's choices as implied criticisms of your own, e.g. when I read this thread it makes me wonder whether I did right to express so much even though I know it was the right thing for me.

Laziness was a big motivator for me with BFing, so it's nice to know there are people for whom the way I'm doing it is just too much effort

dd just turned 1 and has never had a bottle. I did vaguely try expressing at one point but it was such a faff, couldn't be bothered to continue! She slept all evening from 3.5 months (not all night but all evening ) so we could still go out. Now I plan to very slowly wean her onto cow's milk from a cup. I finally threw the emergency box of formula away!

Lots of friends express shock and awe that she is still bf and never had a bottle but it is pure laziness on my part, rather than the wholesome dedication and fortitude that they imagine!