Sorry, this is going to be quite long!
I failed to bf my first child (flat nipples/latch problems), so expressed for 3 weeks until I could no longer meet his demands. With my second child I ran into the same problems with latching, and decided against expressing because I didn't think I'd be able to fit in the time to do it with a toddler to look after as well. I regretted giving up bf, and tried to start again when she was about two weeks old, but she got confused and started fighting both bottle and breast.
When she was 5 weeks old I decided that I wanted to have a proper go at breastfeeding again, as I was still producing a little milk. She latched on reasonably well, and for the past week I have been latching her on (first with a nipple shield, now without as soreness has gone). She goes to the breast before every formula feed, and I also express a few times a day, getting about 1-2oz a time.
She's now 6 weeks, and I want to know how to move forward with this to my goal of exclusively bf. She latches on well, but only sucks strongly for a few minutes, then "nibbles" on and off for a while, going back occasionally to the strong sucking for a minute or so. However, if I take her off the breast she is clearly still hungry. I don't know if she has got used to the fast flow of the bottles and doesn't want to work for it. I'm also not sure how much milk she's actually getting - it's not gushing out, but I can squeeze some out if I try.
I spoke to my health visitor today, and she basically said that she'd never heard of anyone doing this, and if I'd told her I was planning to, she would have advised me against it because it wouldn't work. However, she told me just to keep doing what I'm doing and top up with formula.
Is there anything else I should be doing, and how do I know when to drop the formula top-ups and move over to bf only? I'm very keen for this to work.