Breast/formula/colostrum milk questions

[OnNaturesCourse]

I'm nearly 35 weeks and it's dripping out of me already (enough to make me stick to my bras anyway)

Out of curiosity I hand expressed a bit the other day and was surprised at how much I got.

I know it's not advised to hand express this early so I'm not doing anymore but I have ordered some breast shells that claim to collect any that drips - and hopefully save my bras.

None of my babies have taken to breastfeeding (and to be honest I've never pushed it) but with my last baby my milk came in floods so bad I was soaking pads compared to my first when my milk just didn't come in at all.

I now wonder if I should maybe give it another try, or atleast try and store the colostrum and feed baby that in the early days. As my body seems to be giving hints at now knowing what to do a bit better.

I'd prefer, if possible, to feed baby primarily, if not exclusively, through bottles (or syringes?). No real immediate reason, just preference to start but there will be times after the first few weeks where I will be away from baby with my older DCs commitments.

I understand that if I continue past the colostrum stage I could combo feed (right term?) where I express milk for bottles but that is a lot of work in terms of needing time to express and sterilise etc. Or there is the opition of formula feeding alongside some expressed milk but assume this has the same issues in terms of time and effort. Also that it can cause tummy upsets in babies.

All that said the combo feeding is something I would like to explore more so I wonder if there is anyone out there that has experience of it?

Edited to add : if I do express milk/colostrum how do I store it and then use it? I've seen online people expressing throughout the day and adding it into a big mason jar but then I've read the milk shouldn't be mixed so it's a bit conflicting. In terms of the colostrum I understand that needs to be frozen, can it be done in the syringes used to collect and how do I defrost/warm up?

I will speak with my midwife about all this at my next appointment in a few weeks but trying to sort things and options out in my head in the mean time.

I would suggest take it one feed at a time and don't put yourself under any pressure. I personally wouldn't recommend pumping and feeding breast milk from a bottle. I know women do it however it's very time consuming and you have 3 other children to look after. I suggest you treat it like an adventure and see where it takes you. I would say if you decide to give breastfeeding a go do let the hospital and community midwives know it's your first proper attempt at breastfeeding. Midwives are busy and in my experience they tend to assume the woman knows about breastfeeding if it's her 2nd or 3rd or 4th child. This is not always the case. Good luck with whatever you decide

Thank you - I appreciate your help and support.

I'm just going to continue with the shells, not express, and see what I get over the next few weeks. I know not a lot of colostrum is needed but if it's leaking out anyway seems a waste not to catch it.

I'll take BF as it comes just like I did with my others. Tried with my first but no milk ever appeared, and my second wasn't interested despite my milk coming in floods (plus was during peak covid so support etc wasnt as readily available) I never pressured myself and always had bottles, formula etc ready in case. The only pressure with this one will be they need to accept a bottle of whatever milk I am feeding them.

In terms of storage/mixing, you don't wanna add it to one big jar for a couple of reasons. Firstly you are going to want to date/time each expression because the milk will have an 'expiry date/time' based on when it was expressed. Secondly, in the first couple days they won't drink a massive amount and then once the milk is defrosted it has to be used within 24 hours (I think, in hospital they say 24 hours ...the at home rules may be more relaxed) so you don't wanna have to defrost a massive jar, then they don't drink it all and it goes to waste.
In terms of defrosting it, the little syringes defrost so quickly in your hands/left out of the fridge for an hour or so so another good reason to only freeze a small syringe at a time rather than a big jar.
Check on the NHS website for what they recommend for how long you can store milk in fridge/freezer etc but definitely in freezer it's at least 6 months, so for now you could wear your shells and after an hour or two collect what you have into a syringe and pop straight into freezer for later.
When you go into labour you can take all your syringes in a freezer bag with an ice pack to the hospital and ask them to put it straight in the freezer so it keeps fresh until you deliver. Just make sure to ask your midwife for some of your hospital labels with your name/date of birth etc.
Trying to find info on combo feeding from birth is much harder, you may have more luck on American based sites where it is more commonly done. The thing to know about breast milk is that your body will make as much as it thinks your baby needs, and in the first 2-3 days of babies life an exclusively breast fed baby won't actually drink that much volume of milk (much less than a formula fed baby), that's perfectly ok and normal, they come out with a great reserve of fat. What it does mean is that they will feed a lot more little and often. This helps them to get those drops of colostrum that they need, but it also helps your body to know that you want to use your milk, and so it will kick start your milk supply to come in. So if you want to combo feed that's absolutely fine, you could either just exclusively breast feed for the first week or so to get your milk supply kick started, or else you would probably need to do some quite regular pumping to get enough of a supply (the advice for mums who want to get a full supply of breast milk is to pump 8 to ten times in a 24 hour period for example). Having said all that, if you just want to go with the flow and see what happens, you could just continue to collect the milk in your shells for a couple more weeks, then start to hand express when safe to do so, then when baby is out you could give them the syringes for the first couple of feeds, see how many expressing sessions you can/want to do and just give them bottles of formula alongside your syringes until you start to get more milk from expressing to fill a bottle. Just with the knowledge that if you are only expressing once or twice a day you might not ever get an awful lot of milk.
I'm not aware of much by way of tummy upset in using a mixture of milk, and have met lots of babies who have had a mix of formula and breast milk so shouldn't worry too much about that.
God sorry, I hope some of that makes sense. I can't sleep (pregnancy insomnia is a bitch isn't it) so I'm rambling a load of crap 🤣

I'm combination feeding my 6mo daughter. She was born by emergency section and spent time in scbu. My milk didn't come in straight away (I didn't get any colostrum), and she was being tube fed formula whilst in hospital. No one noticed her tongue tie and she wouldn't take to breast feeding at all, so I started pumping as soon as my milk came in as she would take a bottle.

Midwife told me to pump 8 time a day, which I did initially but it was just too much to keep up. The added time spent washing up and sterilising, it's much more time consuming than breast feeding when you factor in the bottles as well, so I dropped to six pumping sessions a day, and settled around 4x after four months. This was enough to give her several bottles of breast milk during the day, and at night she has formula. She's never had an upset stomach through using both types of milk.

You can collect milk from several pumping sessions over one day but it needs to be the same temperature when you mix it, so don't add freshly pumped milk to a storage bottle of refrigerated milk. It's not advised to mix different days. I built up a stash of frozen milk over time as I will be returning to work soon and wanted to stop pumping. I have enough frozen now to give her one bottle of breast milk every evening until the end of January, so I'm happy with that .

Pumping is really hard work. It restricts you a lot!

Even if you are leaking do not start hand expressing now. It could start labour which is why the midwife says not to before 37 weeks. I'd go with the in bra cups and freeze what you catch.

Long term I'd just breast feed as having combi feed my eldest it was a right pain having to express and feed and sterilise everything and that was just having DD to focus on no other kids needing my attention. With my others I breast feed and if I was away for a feed for whatever reason they had a bottle of formula with whoever was looking after them.

Is there no way you could take baby with you to these commitments you have? Newborns are usually easy to have in a sling and if you were ebf you don’t need anything except you? I always thought bottles were such a faff…yes bf can be difficult but once everything g settles down it seems so much easier. Two of mine had a mix of bf and some bottles due to weight gain issues and did fine they both ended up ebf from 4months-15months. You could try ebf with 1 or 2 bottles a day of expressed milk just so baby can take both? Whatever you do it’s great to have colostrum to give baby. Sometimes the hospital will have a fridge/freezer for your milk so it’s best to label them with your name, nhs number and date.

Thank you again for the replies
(yes they all made sense despite the one coming from insomnia lol)

I won't be hand expressing until given the green light by midwife, and even then I might not as I seem to be getting quite a lot without it. For example my shells got 4ml last night - which I believe it quite a lot?

Baby could come with me to my DCs comminitments but there is a lot of times I will be sat in the car, in winter, for up to 90 mins at a time, or needed for quick change help. Also some times will require long drives. All in all baby would just be more settled being watched at home, and my DCs usual routines not upset. Gives me one on one time with them.