Breastfeeding - is it harder?

[TallulahHula]

28 weeks pregnant and hoping to breastfeed this time around. I formula fed with my last dc and found that it was very easy to get him into a routine with bottles/volumes and he was sleeping through the night quite quickly.

I have heard that bf babies need feeding a lot more regularly and possibly won't be as settled. Is this the case? Either way I want to try but I am a bit worried. Ideally I'd like to move to combi feeding later down line but I'm aware I'll need a few weeks or months even of EFB to get fully established. I'd be grateful if anyone could share their experiences about what they found 'easier' thanks x

@Dogt17 I couldn't written that myself.

@Dogt17 could've I mean!!

@TallulahHula

Thank you, it's so helpful to read everyone's experiences. Books are great but nothing beats first hand experience from people who have done it.

I wouldn't say I'm out and about a lot but I do like to go the gym or have a few drinks out with friends occasionally so it would be nice to think I can express or combi feed so that I'm not shackled to the house/baby indefinitely! But that wouldn't be until they were quite a bit bigger anyway. I'm feeling really positive about at least giving it a solid attempt.

I was shocked to learn that in the first few days until milk comes in they can survive purely on colostrum, is this really the case or did anyone top up with formula just until they got a good supply?

Yeah the colostrum thing is incredible. My daughter wouldn't latch for almost a day after her birth so she's was barely fed until a midwife came and helped me express some into a syringe and feed her. So she didn't have much at all in her first few days. But when they health visitor came to weigh her she hadn't lost any weight... in fact she'd gained! I was amazed.

You can harvest colostrum and freeze, use this in syringes to top up if needed

Cooked freezer meals and side orders for popping in the oven every night, as breast feeding in early days is time consuming

My DD2 who was exclusively breastfed for 15 months was a much better sleeper/easier baby than my DD1 who was formula fed.

Similar to others here, it is entirely dependent on the baby. I've breastfed/feed both my babies -

First baby fed every 1.5/2 hours day and night for months. Refused bottles and dummies. It was hell and I swore I wouldn't so it again.

Second baby is 7 weeks old. Started off combi-feeding with an overnight bottle of formula so I could sleep. By three weeks, he was skipping that feed and sleeping from 10pm - 4am. He's now exclusively breastfed and is really easy and predictable with sleep and feeding, and still only waking for one night feed. I'm well aware that it could all go to hell tomorrow, but I never thought EBF babies could feed and sleep as well as this one does!