Breast feeding routine??

[Baby160P]

So I have a long way to go yet but wanted to get some ideas on routine. I don't have my own children but am a nanny for a living so know how important routine is.

I had a idea and wanted opinions.

I want to breastfeed for sure but the other day I thought I'd maybe do a bottle just before bed. So bath, pjs and bottle to
A: fill baby up before bed
B: always have a bottle introduced for later when I stop BF
C: that's time with daddy when he gets home from work.

Mixed emotions... but wanted to do it from newborn if I was to.

-I wonder if baby would reject BF.
-Have a tummy reaction to it.
-Am I better introducing it later?

I know every baby is different I just wanted personal experience or opinions?

Good idea in my opinion.
I bf'd my now 3yo and am currently bf 3mo twins. You will hear a lot of talk about nipple confusion and interference with milk supply, but honestly I think that bottle refusal is a much more common issue and it's a nuisance.
I would start a daily bottle of either formula or expressed milk from about 2 weeks and definitely before 6 weeks. I would introduce a soother at the same time. The only thing wrt timing is that you might find that evenings are fussy times and not ideal for introducing new things, plus evening clusterfuck sorry I meant cluster feeding is important to build milk supply. So for the first while I would give that bottle much earlier in the day but after a bit it will probably suit perfectly to go with your current idea.

@villainousbroodmare thank you!

I wondered if it was one of those good idea v reality things! 🙈

We did this for the first few months as DD would scream unless constantly fed in the evening and it was the only way I could eat and have a bath. We stopped when her evening cluster feeding became less intense and we felt guilty about buying huge tins of formula and throwing most of it out.

I had a lot of issues getting my DD to be EBF. Literally weeks of combo feeding with a bottle before she figured out how to latch properly. There was zero nipple confusion and more than one lactation specialist told me it was uncommon and not to worry about it. I’m considering having on bottle too this time, we’ll see if this baby can figure out bf better than it’s sister!!

I'm pregnant with my third. My first two, we never introduced a bottle. With my first I didn't feel the need, and with my second I regretted not having done it when he was tiny as I felt really trapped, and at 4 months he just would not take a bottle. This time, I want to introduce a bottle a day early like you are thinking of doing, so that I have some flexibility/ability to leave a five month old child for more than an hour or two.

I know people who it has worked for - go for it.

I started to introduce a bottle of formula at evening feeds and then night feeds at 5 months old. (My reasoning was, it would fill baby up and sleep longer...)
But I found my supply decreased so drastically that during the day I had little milk and baby screamed and got cross
So I ended up switching only to formula by 6 months.

Do it, but be really careful to protect your supply (your body produces the most milk in the night and early morning)

Interesting everyone!

Maybe breast pump bottle the evening is a option.

How long does breast milk last once you pump? Can you batch it whilst your boobs are full?

It's about 5 days in the fridge.

What ever you do plan to do, don't be surprised if you have different feelings (either way I guess) once baby is here.

When pregnant I had a pump and planned on using it so OH could do the odd feed once baby was 6 weeks old. I also had a few bottles.of ready made formula in the cupboard in case we needed them.

In reality, though we had a bit of a tricky start with feeding (baby was getting enough milk and gaining weight but I was very sore and my nipples were a bit of a mess for a few weeks) I had this overwhelming need/desire to provide everything that he needed myself. So we did not try expressing and bottle feeding until before I went back to work at 11 months.

OH spent plenty of time with baby when not feeding and used to spend good chunks of time with him in the house so I could try to catch up on sleep.

We fed on demand and I didn't/don't have a child that needs a strict routine.
We had more of rhythm, so yes we did them same things in the same order , but don't have then need to be bound by the time/a clock, which works really well for us all.
He's 4yrs old now

Oh, and when the time comes it's really worth checking out what local support there is for bf, I went to a group a couple of times when I was near the end of pregnancy and it made going for support much easier when we were having problems.

IME routine is not remotely remotely important in the early days of breastfeeding and trying to stick to strict feeding routine can be detrimental to the BF relationship in many ways. Tiny babies (breast or bottle) should feed on demand.

That being said, there is nothing wrong with combi feeding from birth, if you wish to. Just consider first how you would feel if it had an impact on the length of time you are able to breastfeed for? It doesn't with all babies, but for some introduction of a bottle can lead to flow preference (I don't believe in the term "nipple confusion" personally) due to the different way milk flows freely from a bottle, compared to the breast, which is much harder work for them. Do some research (from evidence based sources!) into how to minimise the impact of bottles (paced feeding and pumping during the missed feed being the most important IME) on establishing breastfeeding. The early days are really important, which is why such a fuss is made about introducing bottles early, but that doesn't mean that you can't do it. My DC1 had some bottles in the first month (for myriad of reasons - mostly health - mental and physical - related) and we were able to go on to exclusively breastfeed, but presumably we could have carried on with the bottles indefinitely if we'd chosen to do so.

Ultimately there's no right or wrong, so do your research and work out what's best for you and your situation.

Kellymom is an American site but an amazing resource for breastfeeding mothers.
The Breastfeeding Network is also very useful.

Good luck!

With my first I did this but with expressed milk rather than formula. Every night I pumped while DH gave a bottle of the milk I’d expressed the night before iyswim. It worked well for me but just a couple of things to be aware of:

Until you try pumping you won’t know how receptive your boobs are to it! I was lucky that I could pump enough for a full feed (about 6oz I seem to remember) in about half an hour. But some people don’t get that kind of volume and can take a long time to pump enough for a feed

Also, once you get into a regular pumping routine you are pretty tied to it. So you’ll need to do it at the same time every day or risk mastitis etc. Again this was fine for me but if you’re hoping this will be a tactic to make you less tied to the house etc it might not work out that way.....

I’m now expecting number 2 and intend to combi feed with formula and breast from as early as possible this time as exclusively breastfeeding totally stresses me out last time and I can’t imagine doing it while trying to look after a toddler too!

I found pumping utterly exhausting so don’t just think you’ll produce a ton of milk and leave your DH to it.
In my view, there’s no such thing as routine with an ebf baby. They feed all the time and randomly day and night for the first few mo this at least. In my view, putting up your feet with a cup of tea and a box set is the best way to manage it! It’s all so fleeting.
I wouldn’t get too hung up on routines with a newborn... they tend to cr@p all over them