Help with feeding

[Blueberry1990]

My baby was born 5 days ago at 34+1, she has been in NICU (medium care) since and will be coming home tomorrow (she has had zero health problems they just wanted to keep her in until she gained a little bit more weight).
She weight 5lb 6oz at birth and now weighs 5lbs 2oz.

In the hospital she has been getting bottle fed now I'm really nervous about how to feed her at home, I'm thinking about trying to express feed so she can stick to the bottle as it's what she has been taking. I'm worried about breast feeding as I can't moniter how much she drinks which is why I'm hoping to express.
I've bought an electric pump that will arrive tomorrow.

Any tips? Anything I should buy to help me?

My second was prem born at 34+2 and fed through an NG tube then bottle in hospital.

I expressed to begin with them started breastfeeding at 7 days.

Honestly breastfeeding is far more effective and you will produce more milk than expressing.

You said

I'm worried about breast feeding as I can't moniter how much she drinks which is why I'm hoping to express.

There's no need to monitor how much a breastfed baby drinks. That is only important for bottle fed babies.

How you monitor a breastfed baby is nappies and weight. Is baby having wet and dirty nappies? Is baby putting on weight? (Although it can take 2'weeks at the start). If the answer is yes then baby is getting enough.

Expressing rather than breastfeeding is much much harder for you and more work. I'd really encourage you to try breast.

You can still express though and your DH can give a night feed to give you a break.

I would suggest trying both and doing whatever brings you the most peace. I was not able to breastfeed my 35+6 baby for 8 weeks due to her having to have all of her milk mixed with a powdered carb to keep her blood sugars up, so ended up exclusively bottle feeding breast milk and I still am (11 weeks in)

Pumping is a lot of effort in the sense that you can’t really be effectively comforting/holding your baby whilst pumping so you end up taking the time to pump, and then taking the time to feed via the bottle as opposed to just popping on the boob. There is also of course a lot of sterilising involved which is a faff

But personally, even though now I do have the option to breastfeed, I find bottle feeding is still bringing me the most peace despite the effort. I know exactly how much she is having and her weight gain has been incredible.

I occasionally put her to the boob now between feeds for comfort and connection which is beautiful, but I also have managed to avoid the cracked nipples/supply stress involved with breastfeeding and I don’t feel sad about that at all!

Try both and do whatever works for you. x

Worth noting that pumping round the clock does tend to give you a bit of an oversupply so I was pretty engorged for a few weeks but this did calm down about week 6 and I now have a freezer full of breast milk I can use anytime.

Good luck whatever you decide I’m sure your baby will flourish!

Also- it might be worth just asking for some breastfeeding help before you leave if you’re worried. The NICU staff are incredible with bf support. x