To formula feed and express? How does this work from birth?

[GHxx]

Pregnant with #2. I ended up formula feeding #1, although did try expressing in the first week, very quickly threw in the towel as I didn’t have a clue what I was doing and it just wasn’t working. I know from the last time that I definitely don’t want to breastfeed (as in directly from the boob) but would like to express so that a few of baby’s bottles could be my milk, even just for the first 6 weeks or so if I can.

What would I do in the hospital for example if I wanted to do this? I tried expressing colostrum into syringes before birth last time but quickly gave up after birth, as again, didn’t know what I was doing. Would I do this in the hospital alongside the ready made bottles of formula? On what day could I put the pump on and try expressing, would it be day 3/4 when my milk comes in? Would you get enough for a small bottle straight away? I know a lot of people are put off expressing due to the faff of cleaning pumps etc but I’m really hoping I can stick it out just for the first bit and see how it goes 🤞🏼 Any help would be appreciated x

No advice but I am hoping to do the same! every time I've asked for advice people have said just breastfeed which I dont want to do. I have 4 weeks left now and I am hoping to express some colostrum before going in, and I am taking in ready made kendamil. I have also bought a tub of formula for when were home incase I need it... the actual expressing with how often etc i have NO idea what to do!

No advice either, but also wanting to do the same lol!! So following to see if someone has any good tips 🤍✨

Hi everyone, congrats to you all!
I didn't have a plan when I had baby in September but we have successfully breast fed (mainly due to him as I had no clue!) But I have learnt that there is a thing called a lactation consultant if you have instagram have a look at a lady in the US called themilknest she definitely does helpful videos and I know she exclusively pumped to feed her first born. She gives tips and reviews pumps etc. Also I'm based in Lancashire so our local team is called F.A.B (families and babies breast feeding support) but there's a few breast feeding support charities nationwide who will also help with pumping. I'm not that knowledgeable to give advice about timings and when to start as I didn't colostrum harvest or anything but thought this might help. Have a look on IG searching breast feeding support as pumping is included in a lot of content 💕.

Hi, not sure if this will be helpful, but I mixed fed and fully express fed my DS2 for the first 4 weeks as he was premature. I didn’t do any prep or anything before he was born as he was so early, but from birth I tried to express (ask the midwives at the hospital to help/show you, but basically attempt to squeeze colostrum out of your nipple by hand into a small syringe) every 2-3 hours for 10-15mins at a time.
Don’t be disheartened if you get nothing/ very little to start with- I think I got less than 1ml in total in the first 24 hours and was ready to give up! But gradually the amount I was getting started to increase and by about day 3, he was solely having breast milk and no formula. I think the things that helped my production were; spending as much time with the baby/ doing skin to skin where possible (he was in an incubator so limited to start with), eating plenty of the “recommended” foods for milk production- can’t remember them all, but oats definitely on the list so lots of porridge, flapjacks etc. for me in the early days, staying as relaxed as possible about it- I had a couple of teary/ overwhelmed days but was v. lucky to have gently encouraging midwives around me (and ones who said I had done well and it was ok to give up if I wanted to).
When I was getting a bit more milk I started using an electric breast pump (was still at the hospital at this stage) and as I got more I might express for longer than 10-15mins (would do both sides until no more came!) but always tried to do every 3 hours at least (by this point I was tube feeding DS2 at 3 hourly intervals in any case so just got into a good routine of feeding, expressing, sterilising etc.) and was getting plenty of milk. The hospital also had a double electric breast pump which I started using to save time too. We went home when he was a week old and I rented a double electric breast pump at home for a month, sticking to 3 hourly expressing and feeds, but starting to stretch occasionally (with guidance from Neonatal team given his prematurity) and would say given your babies will be full term longer stretches are fine/ not to worry if you miss one/ a couple, though I do think consistency is important and it will
probably feel very relentless at times!!
The long term plan for us was for him to transition onto breastfeeding, so when he was strong enough (about 3 weeks old) I started doing boob feeds and by about 5 weeks, he just wanted that and no bottles lol, but think once established and in a good routine (and with good support around you!!) there is no reason why you couldn’t fully express longer term.
Sorry if lots of that is irrelevant to you, just wanted to share my experience as remember desperately searching forums for success stories in the early days!! Good luck with it all x

@Mum22boysJI thank you so much, that has answered a lot of my questions! It definitely sounds doable, although it will be hard work! Everything I find is always about exclusively pumping but I think I will take formula into hospital and try to do the syringes too then do a mix when I get home and just see how much I get

@OrangeSmartiesTasteDifferent thank you! Will go and follow that page now!

@Damsons @Izzie94x
I’m only half way but was looking at buying an electric pump so that’s what made me want to get organised! Last time I think I was a bit too laidback about it then when it came to it I didn’t really know what to do and had told the hospital I was formula feeding just so they wouldn’t be pushy with me but then ended up just giving up when I didn’t want to 🙈 everything always seems to be about exclusively pumping and I think you have to do it every 3 hours for that but I’m not sure if you could do it any less in case you ended up engorged 😕 Never getting to sleep through a single feed would be hard going too! But I’m hoping I can manage it for a month even

If you want to have a good supply of milk then the best thing to do is to express asap after birth. You can do this by hand or by pump, most of the time they will try and tell you to do hand expressing to begin with because for the first few days it will only be colostrum you produce, so if you use a pump there won’t be enough volume of milk to actually drop into the bottles if you see what I mean? But a good electric pump will get your milk supply to kick in better if you’re not putting the baby to the breast.
to get a good milk supply ideally you would pump around 8-10 times in 24 hours, and at least one of those times should be overnight because that is when your milk producing hormones are at their highest.
other things to help your supply would be drinking plenty of fluids, expressing while with the baby or at least looking at a photo or video of the baby and yeah just doing it loads in those first few weeks! That way you are mimicking what a baby would do when they breastfeed and that’s why they feed so non stop for the first few days/weeks is to get that milk supply going.
I think most mums don’t go into hospital with the intention to pump and bottle feed with expressed milk so the advice in hospital is not so much geared up for this, so if you plan to buy your own pump it might be best to just take it with you when you go in. You might need to explain more than one to staff that you do not want to actually breastfeed, if they see you expressing they will probably just assume that you want to.

The every 3 hours advice is just until your milk supply is established and then you can do it less, and to be honest you don’t need to do it every 3 hours. It’s just easier to tell people that sometimes so they remember to do it. Really what you need to do is do it 8 times in 24 hours so you can just do it more regularly in the morning so maybe do it at 8am and then again at 930am and again at 12pm and then just do it once overnight. You don’t need to do it like clockwork every 3 hours.
and to be honest if you only want to do it for a month or two and you want to mix feed then it doesn’t sound like you’ll be too disappointed not to have enough of your own milk to exclusively use?? So if you do it less frequently you’ll just probably not have enough for every single feed

I had my baby 4 weeks ago and when I was in hospital they lent me an electric pump to get some colustrum / milk, I then bought an electric pump to use at home and have the advice from the midwives & health visitors of pumping 8+ times a day and topping up with formula. It's really hard work. I would advise buying a hands free pump, I had a traditional one that you hold to your boob first and it's impossible to get anything done if you're using that all day!

@tfh thank you and congratulations! Glad it’s working for you, even though it’s hard work. I was looking at buying the double elvie as they seem to sell really well second hand so I could sell it soon after

@ChopsyDoesntDoFungus thank you! Really helpful 😊

It would be worth getting your hands on a copy of Mixed Up by Lucy Ruddle (it’s free if you have Kindle Unlimited). I was forced into a situation of needing to combi feed after birth as I was really unwell. Whilst the hospital were great at giving me a plan for the first week, I was very much left to my own devices after that and a lot of the info I could find online about combi feeding didn’t seem to fit our situation. The book was an absolute revelation, and so so helpful. I’m now 7wks postpartum and am now almost exclusively feeding breast milk either by breastfeeding or through expressing, with only a small bottle of formula on the odd day it’s needed.

The other thing I’d suggest is to hire a hospital grade pump if you can. I spent weeks beating myself up thinking I had a low supply as my elvie pump was hardly getting anything out, it was utterly soul destroying to be pumping after every feed and seeing so little in return. Now I can pump in one session what I’d have had in a whole day of pumping with my pump, which has done wonders for my mental health!

Electric pump!!!! If you want to express do not even consider the hand press ones or you will go insane! Get the ones that goes with battery so you can do it while you are on the move (cleaning, cooking, I even used it while pushing the pram outside under the winter coat). It might cost 200-300 pounds but definitely worth it!

Take it to the hospital with you and start straight away after giving birth. You won't see much coming out for about a week ( if I remember right) but it will slowly goes up. You can either mix it with the formula or do it separately. My baby prefered breastmilk during the day and formula for night; she also slept better this way.

Also, I know it might seem to be difficult to clean it in the hospital, especially as you propably will need to express ine very 2-3 hours.

I would bring a kettle with me (I know, people find it strange, but it really helps when you need to sterilise fast - most hospitals will allow it).

Or get a steriliser liquid- you can find them in Boots: also an easy and a quick way to do it!

I also took a bottle drying rack into the hospital.
Did they think I was crazy? YES.
Did I care? NO

My baby was well fed and happy!

Hi, I'm nearly 3weeks pp and doing a mixed of expressing and formula feeding. About the hospital, find out if they have a pump that you could use, it could save you the hassle of cleaning it; and don't worry if you can't give enough from your breasts, you can always complement it with formula, and increase your supply later on.
I pump while I have breakfast, lunch and dinner, so that it doesn't seem to me that I spend too much time doing it, obviously I have to spend 5 extra minutes getting everything ready.
Here are few tips I can give so far:

• In addition to an electric hands-free double pump, it's a good idea to get some clothes that hold the pumps on your breasts, so as to free your hands. You don't necessarily have to buy specific clothes, you can DIY them (for example a sports bra or brassiere that you cut holes in it). I have a nursing criss cross top that allowed me to pump discreetly while I had guests coming over.
• I recommend getting breastmilk collector shells. They help you "passively" collect breastmilk when you wear them without taking extra time to pump. I have the Haakaa ladybug ones and I'm happy with them. As they give a gentle suction, they collect more milk than ones without suction.
• Other breastfeeding equipment you need: breast pads, nursing bra and therapearl hot and cold therapy pads. Nipple cream (with lanolin) is probably useless (my impression so far but I might be wrong).
• Get some extra pump parts and bottles so you can wash them in batch or clean them in dishwasher to save you some time.
• Look into the website: exclusivepumping.com/ Even if it's written for women who exclusively pump and you prefer to do mixed feeding with formula, there are still lots of useful info and tips.
• Last but not least, make sure your partner is on board and supportive. Pumping is hard, and a lot more work than just formula feeding or nursing (as you need to spend time pumping in addition to feeding your baby and also clean, not just the bottles, but also pump parts). It's more doable if your partner understands and is ready to share the extra workload, rather than just seeing it as you thing.