Breastfeeding

[19annie86]

This is all new to me and I'm every early only 10 weeks but I'm just curious. Is it ok to express breast milk with a pump for the baby instead of actually breast feeding

It’s fine of course but not as convenient.

I feel for night feeds etc it would be so much better, then we can both take turns at the feeding

Well, sure. It's fine. But it's arguably the worst of both worlds - you get to give breastmilk but have to put in a lot of work to extract and store it with none of the convenience of feeding direct, and you can't share feeding duties or pick up milk anywhere like you can with formula. Exclusive expressing is bloody hard work. Occasionally expressing so you can have a longer period away from the baby can be useful when BF, though.

Lots of people do that yes. Unfortunately you will also need to pump while your baby is fed or soon after or you'll be too engorged and your supply would not keep up eventually

@19annie86

I feel for night feeds etc it would be so much better, then we can both take turns at the feeding

It doesn't work that way. You would have to wake up and express at the time you'd be giving feeds anyway, which is a lot more hassle than just putting the baby to your breast. You'd lose more sleep.

Plus your partner may be up for helping with night feeds now but it probably won't last very long tbh. If you need a break why not get some ready made formula and stop one night feed for your husband to do instead? You might be uncomfortable and full when you wake up but it'd be one way of going about it

Do whatever daft thing you like! We all do. Ultimately, if you co-sleep and feed on demand, life will be easier for everyone.

Yeah as others have said it’s giving yourself more work of anything.

Yes it's OK to do this. But I am not sure it would get you as much rest as you're envisaging. You wouldn't likely be able to express enough milk during the day (alongside feeding) to do all the night feeds, without expressing at night as well. Which would sort of defeat the point!

You might want to look into mixed feeding from birth instead?

To be honest my best "hack" for handling newborn night feeds is just to co-sleep. I have a 2 week old at the moment, exclusively breastfed, and I honestly don't feel sleep deprived.

Expressing is work
I found my babies went back to sleep very quickly after being fed at night and I found the night feeds easy (I did not have easy babies)
You can get dp to do the nights when they are ill or teething because those nights are long.

To be honest my best "hack" for handling newborn night feeds is just to co-sleep. I have a 2 week old at the moment, exclusively breastfed, and I honestly don't feel sleep deprived.

Yup. By far the easiest way is just to have baby in bed with you, then you can literally latch them on as they lie beside you and then go back to sleep. Or roll over with them when it's time to switch boobs. Most of my night feeds I quite literally did while asleep, which really doesn't work with expressing.

Of course! I did this in the first few weeks when the nights were killing me! I expressed in the morning and then kept the milk in the fridge ready for night feeds. DH sorted out the sterilising. I'm doing it again at 6 months to help DD with drinking from a cup!

Is it not true that expressed milk can be refrigerated, so if I expressed during the day, it could be used that night.

Why would you want to do this? Best thing about breastfeeding is the continence of it. You're taking breast milk and making itbhard. Breastfeeding plus expressing is a good idea

Expressing is hard work. Also little output is not a bad supply , you need correct flange size and also babies are better at getting the milk out .

My little one wouldn’t latch but I wanted him fed breast milk so I bought a pump (not cheap!) .

I only expressed when I needed to avoid mastitis, it's awful. I know a few people who did exclusive pumping because of latch issues and I know for sure I couldn't have coped.

I had one bad sleeper, DH helped with nappies, winding, settling etc. We were both exhausted. And one good sleeper, he did the nappies overnight when needed. We were both fine.

Don't make plans now, what you need will depend on the baby you get and change week to week anyway.

@BuffySummersReportingforSanity

To be honest my best "hack" for handling newborn night feeds is just to co-sleep. I have a 2 week old at the moment, exclusively breastfed, and I honestly don't feel sleep deprived.

Yup. By far the easiest way is just to have baby in bed with you, then you can literally latch them on as they lie beside you and then go back to sleep. Or roll over with them when it's time to switch boobs. Most of my night feeds I quite literally did while asleep, which really doesn't work with expressing.

So easy, both sleep brilliantly. It's what nature intended which is why it works so well

@19annie86

Is it not true that expressed milk can be refrigerated, so if I expressed during the day, it could be used that night.

Yes it can be. But you'd need to express at the frequency the baby fed anyway. If you skip a feed then you'll have sore boobs and your body will stop making as much milk.

Plus you have so much hassle of cleaning the pump and bottles.

Best split for us was I did the feeds and DH did all the other night time things that needed doing. Nappy, clothes change, burping, rocking back to sleep etc.

You could put in the fridge for your husband to use at night but you'll wake up engorged and risk mastitis and your milk not regulating, especially if you do it from the get go.
Once established breastfeeding is so convenient, I bf'd my daughter & coslept and never had the sleep deprived zombie stage.

a) you won't be able to make enough milk if you don't express at night. Feeding at night is critical to establishing supply.
b) you'll wake up anyway when the baby is crying for their milk, leaking like crazy. And you'll still be lying awake when the baby has gone back to sleep. And then you'll wake again an hour or two later, with painful rock boobs.

Seriously, I'm sorry, but expressing during the day doesn't really work as a more than occasional substitute for a night feed, and will make your life harder, not easier.

Thanks everyone. As I said I have a long way to go yet but just curious

I’ve expressed a bit with two of mine and only bf one, being able just to bf was the easiest by far! Pumping is rubbish!!! Hoping not to have to offer top ups soon. To be honest if baby was awake so was I whatever husband might be doing to help....

Yes you can store the expressed milk. But the baby needs feeding in the day too! So you can either feed directly, which means you probably won't have time/energy/enough spare milk to express enough for a full night around feeding. Or you could express for the day feeds too - but then, again, you will likely struggle to produce enough for 24h of feeds, just by pumping during the day.

Plus as others have said, in order to establish a milk supply you need to be emptying your breasts (via pump or baby) at least once every 3-4 hours day AND night. One reason newborns don't sleep through is this milk supply establishing. You can skip the occasional night feed when they are bigger, but if you're used to night feeding (or pumping) your boobs will fill up and get sore.

As others have said you have to time pumping with when someone else feeds baby so don’t really get the benefit! What me and my husband did when I was really sleep deprived as my daughter had bad colic..after she was about 7 weeks old and my supply was a bit more established, he would be responsible for looking after her from 6pm till 11pm/midnight and then I would have her with me from 11pm till morning.

I would breastfeed her at 6pm and then go have a bath / chill out. I’d express at 8pm then I’d have 3-4 hours sleep which doesn’t sound like much but she woke crying constantly in the early months. Husband would give her my pumped bottle around 9pm. I would then get some broken sleep from 12-6am

Just to add this was at the start of the first lockdown so husband wasn’t working and was much more available to help!