thinking about breastfeeding

[heverhoney1]

I am only just getting into the second trimester but looking forward to having my very first DC.

So I have been thinking about pros and cons of breastfeeding.

Ok I know all the benefits of babies getting breast milk but I have several (mostly total irrational) fears. 1 of which is that my boobs are HUGE!! and I am scared of being exhausted and falling asleep while BF and suffocating baby. Also not overly keen on the thought of getting them out in public!

So I have been thinking - is there anything that I am missing that is blindingly obvious which means that I cant solely express breastmilk and feed baby it with a bottle???

I am scared I am being REALLY dumb and there is a really obvious answer to this question but I just cant think of anything right now in my mush brain phaze!!!!

Ha ha ha re being a deep sleeper! I'm sorry, I'm not laughing at you, but honestly, it's just not like that when you have a baby. I slept through the great storm too. Means diddly zilch. Mothers are very sensitive to where their babies are, and babies wake you up. You won't really get this until your baby is born, but take my word for it.
You start with breastfeeding at home, then maybe in a cafe with another breastfeeding mum, and before you know it you are breastfeeding in Starbucks, on park benches, in shops, anywhere! It does seem really strange when you are not doing it, the thought of doing weirds me out a bit to be honest now my kids are older, but when they were babies, it just seemed natural. Try not to worry so far ahead. Enjoy your pregnancy.

Hi Heverhoney1,

I expressed for ds for 7 months after giving up direct bfeeding at 3/4 weeks. Here are my thoughts.

1. Don't think that expressing gets you out of night feeds - you have to express at night to keep your supply up - if you don't you will not keep up with your child's demand.

In the night my dh used to feed ds and I would get up and express . It was hard work and probably more tiring than bfeeding.

1. It was really really really hard work and pretty stressful as I didn't just need to think about feeding ds but I also needed to think about when/where to express.

1. It was hard to keep up with his demand and I didn't manage it even though I used to express 5 or more times a day.

1. My supply dropped and it was hard/impossible to get it back again.

1. I would not do it again!!!!

Direct breast feeding is much much much much easier than expressing/bottle feeding.

I would suggest that if you don't want to feed in public you either express off enough to feed by bottle, or you ff in public. As for big boobs - this was def part of the problem for me, but why not give it a try and get some help/support (literally and figuratively!) before deciding to express.

In my case I didn't feel I had a choice but to express but I look back on it as a truly horrible experience and one I would avoid like the plague if I could.

Sorry to sound so negative but I have direct experience of this.

Hey I slept through an earthquake while on holiday once - do I get a prize

I must admit I was scared of breast feeding first time round. I know it goes against the grain but to me it just didn't feel 'right'. My boobs weren't for feeding, they were for fun!

However (and I know I was lucky here) DS latched on first time and within a few days it felt 100% natural.

I never did get the hang of breastfeeding in public though and always expressed if I knew I was going to be out and about. So I totally understand your concerns. But expressing all the time as others have said would be effectively doubling your workload and believe me you don't need that!

Hi,

Another one here who expressed and fed for 7 months (exclusively for just over 6). I would have BF directly in a second but just couldn't. DS was prem and starting to lose weight and his nappies were dry. I would not do it if I could directly BF. I would chage and feed him at say 10am (for example) and that would take till at least half past (he had reflux so sometimes longer if he was sick all over). Then I would put him straight down (luckily he was a good baby) and get to expressing for half an hour. Then I would detach the horns, decant into a bottle and then wash and sterilise all of the equipment ready to start again. I would then be left with approx. 90 minutes until he was due another feed.

I would however disagree that your supply always goes down. You just have to do our research and express as often as 8-12 times in 24 hours at first (not leaving it longer than 6 hours during the night), then later on (when the baby has passed 12 weeks) you can slowly bring it down by one express at a time until you are expressing maybe 5 times a day. Some people past 6 months get it down to 3 times a day (I did but then my supply started to slow a bit as well).

However, as I said before, it's something I would not contemplate if I was able to bf directly.

You will be permanently tied to the pump if you manage to successfully do it. When you're not on the pump you will cleaning and sterilising. Not many people can succeed at it and it will take your time away from your new baby.

Public feeding is not as bad as it might seem now. You probably won't be up to it at first so you will get plenty of practice at home. Maternity shirts and jeans are great for keeping you covered up and H&M do some nice nursing tops. You will soon be getting the glowy confidence boost from people coming up to see your "cute sleeping baby" then apologising because they didn't know Your baby is due at the beginning of the year when you will be well wrapped up anyway so you'll find keeping covered isn't really that hard and by summer you'll not care.

I remember the first time I put Tink to the breast, she was a week old /32 weeks and not even 4lb, she was tiny and seemed to get smaller the closer she got to my 34H breast! Babies noses are specially designed to help them breathe when breastfeeding, so you don't have to worry about suffocation, even if you co-sleep (as long as you're not overly tired).

Hi heverhoney, I too have big boobs and it really wasn't an issue. At the beginning it was a bit tricky (but I suspect it is for most at the beginning regardless of boob size) but I used the rugby hold position which was great while I got the hang of it but then just went to the normal position and held my boob up a bit with my hand. I still do this now. (The midwives and HV showed me how to do this which was great.)

I was also a bit anxious about feeding in public at first. But then one day I was with a mate and she just did it so casually and then I started and then we were chatting away in our little bubble (in Starbucks LOL!) and I have never looked back. If I'm honest because of the size of my boobs I found it harder to be discrete but not impossible and at the end of the day very few people (none in my experience) are so rude as to stare.

I personally found expressing a total faff but I know others had more time for it.

For me breastfeeding was the most wonderful experience and I really recommend trying to get over your initial fears (which are totally normally) and persevere if you can.

Best of luck to you and your babe!!

PS. I think one major thing is that in order to be able to go out for more than a few hours at a time (difficult to organise as it was with a young baby) I had to take a hand pump with me and express in nursing rooms. I was ok with it but if you're saying you don't like the idea of feeding in public then this wouldn't solve your problem!

I have big boobs and never had any problems BF - I am fairly sure I never exposed anything when out and about and had no problems with latch or anything - you should be fine :

If you give formula in the night you have to get out of bed, go to the kitchen, make the bottle up, (I'm assuming it's already in the steriliser) wait for it to cool and then take it back to your bedroom. If you slept through a storm then how awake will your baby be when you get out of bed to go and make the bottle? Imagine how your baby will be when you actually get back with the bottle.

If you were to cosleep you would adjust your sleeping accordingly and would feed your baby without properly waking up before they start getting upset.

I used to brest feed in a comfy armchair that was in my bedroom. At least twice I fel into a deep sleep for a couple of hours while DS was breast feeding. (Also 34h) I never suffocated him and dont think it was ever an issue. Although I did nearly drop him off the bed when he was 2 days old when we were sleeping(not bf)! I would recommend BF at night even when tired as unless baby has breathing problems chances of suffocation are v. slim.

With regards to public feeding I often did it in a toilet or mothercare feeding rooms in the early days as found it hard to be discreet (Blazing hot summer and very skimpy tops!) However once I got the hang of it it was fine. Only problem I found having bigger boobs was that you can't bf one handed as you do need to support your boob otherwise it falls out! Hated that as it meant I couldn't eat biscuits/talk on the phone/change channel etc!

I also found that feeding in front of male friends and family was difficult. Used to dissapear to bedroom if at home. If out it was very difficult remember a friend giving me a dummy because I didn't want to breast feed in front of her boyfriend. It worked for about 20minutes but then I had to feed him so her OH left the room .

This time I have bought sterilisers and bottles and a breast pump so that I can express for the times I will be around DP family and out in town. I will still breatfeed as much as possible as it is so enjoyable but for those times when I just can't bring myself to bf (such as standing in the queue for half hour in the council office) I can just whip the bottle out. Far less stressful for mum and baby.

I would not solely express. I plan to express occasionally and aim for a bottle of expressed milk per day, however if I find this too much hard work I will substitute expressed milk with formula.

Sorry this is a bit of a ramble but hope my experience can help you make an more informed choice. Might be worth asking your mw the benefits of expressing vs ff. The go through feeding options with you later in pg. Good luck, try not to worry too much and do whatever work for you in the long run!

Sorry just posted and didn't realise was that long!

Give it a try. I wish I had.

You will find with a newborn that expressing then feeding is nearly impossible. They wake every 2 - 3 hours at first. 1 hour to express, about 45 mins to feed, you are going to be sleeping about 30 minutes a day!