breast in day and bottle at night?

[ghso]

Is this possible? Does it work? I’ve read a bottle may encourage sleep for longer and I will be on my own.

You might be better posting this in the parenting section.

I think you'd be better off doing it the other way around if you want to mix feed. Feeding at night is important for supply and breastfeeding at night is way easier than getting up to make a bottle. Also if your supply is sufficient, you're likely to be kept awake by painfully engorged boobs if you don't feed at night.

In the initial stages of BF you really need those night feeds to maintain your supply. Basically milk production at the beginning is hormone driven until around 8weeks so you need to either feed or express (wouldn't recommend it as the worst of both worlds tbh). Milk production is driven by prolactin and that's at its highest over night which is why the night feeds are so vital to supply.

Learning to feed lying down is a life saver alongside co-sleeping if it's a possibility for you. You can look at the lullaby trust for safe co-sleeping guidelines.

Why, it's at night breastfeeding is particularly useful, no need to make up bottles!

I did it that way. I breastfed all evening and then a bottle before bed and in the night. Make sure you don't listen to anyone who says not to introduce the bottle too soon. If you leave it 6 weeks they will likely refuse it. I'm sure it's a fib that they tell to improve breastfeeding rates.

I fed lying down and by 3 month I didn't really wake, dd latched on herself

To produce enough in the day, you'll need to feed through the night, initially at least, to get your supply going. After a bit you can perhaps incorporate bottles at night, but breastfed babies (once used to night and day) will naturally fall into a pattern where they mainly feed by day and then just a few feeds a night and that gets less and less over time. By around 7/8 months, both mine just had one feed in the night.

I EBF until about 8 weeks and then started giving DD a bottle of formula before bedtime, and she did sleep longer.

Started getting her used to a bottle when she was about a week old - just an oz of expressed milk before doing the normal full feed on the boobs, once a day.

I would get DH to give a bottle feed at about 11 then I'd breastfeed in night lay down didn't have to get up was much easier

You could also try topping up with the bottle.

start with breastfeeding then end with bottle.

have heard other single mothers do this with success.

Breastfeeding at night is far easier. No making up bottles etc.
I don't think formula makes any difference to sleep.
DD was EBF and was a much better sleeper than DS who was combi fed.

I don't see a problem with it. I didn't bf at night after the first couple of months and my boobs grew used to it.
I expressed a lot though, always got a huge load from a pump first thing, them another pump late morning.
In the end I bottle fed her exclusively with expressed milk. It stays good for a long time out the fridge so I'd express before bed or, if not enough take some out the fridge to use for the night feeds.
When she started sleeping through too often I hated wasting milk so I used those ready made aptamil bottles if she needed it in the night.

Ultimately you will discover what routine works for you and your baby. Everything is possible and everything is fine if it works for you and baby is gaining healthy weight. Prepare for baby not to cooperate with any plans you make 😁