Those that experiences excl breastfeeding AND exclusively formula feeding..

[Cocomandarin]

I’m due my second in October.

Im really conflicted on whether I want to breastfeed or not. I tried with my first, but after she screamed for hours when I was post blood transfusion in hospital formula saved my sanity. I tried to combi fees. But ultimately gave up after pumping aswell at 3 months.

I want to hear from those who had a child that was breastfed and a child that was formula fed. How bad did your sleep deprivation compare between the two? How much more stress did you experience in the long run with stopping breastfeeding etc?

Controversial but I know I will be a wreck if im glued to the baby 24/7 with no sleep 😴

I have only exclusively breastfed but I would say this depends on your baby and how good a sleeper they are. Ours slept for 6-7 hours a night from the time he was 6 weeks old so the sleep deprivation didn’t last that long. I wasn’t allowed pump for the 1st 6 weeks as I had an oversupply and MW didn’t want me to make my supply even larger. We used to work it that I would do the nights and then my DP would get up when he woke in the morning. I would feed him and then go back to sleep and DP would come back about 2 hours later when he wanted milk again. It meant that I was still getting about 8 hours of sleep a night.

I haven't FF either but currently EBF my 4th and I think the biggest factor is probably your baby's personality, sorry! Sleep deprivation is hard to predict. My oldest never slept more than 2 hours in a row til at least 6 months. My 12 day old did 2 4 hour chunks last night 🥳 I will say, your ability to deal with it gets better and you will be constantly reminded of how short each phase is by the fact that your first baby is running around in front of you! Good luck! 😊

Also... Combi BF and expressing is undoubtedly the hardest feeding situation, if someone suggests this to you they need to also be working with you to get to something more sustainable.

My first DC cried constantly for 2 nights in hospital and I was pushed by night staff into giving him a bottle. My milk came in the next day and then I breastfed exclusively. He didn’t sleep well until over 6 months. We brought him into our bed and I found feeding him at night less disruptive when I didn’t need to get out of bed. DC2 was exclusively breastfed and was a good sleeper from birth. As others have said, it depends on the child! I couldn’t express so they didn’t have bottles - both moved directly to sippy cups.
Don’t put pressure on yourself to decide now. You can try and see how it goes. I think breast pumps have improved considerably since I tried!

I have exclusively breast fed for 4 months and then fell pregnant (4 months post partum!!) and when my second one arrived just after my first baby started to walk and cause carnage, I opted to fully formula feed after a few days of liquid gold feeding. I found both ways of feeding had challenges, I would get shorter stretches between feeds with breast fed baby but no reflux or any digestion problems. My formula fed baby would guzzle milk down, so much so it couldn’t settle on his belly and he’d be sick, tried a few formulas, different bottles etc, still had reflux. Only calmed down when weaned and no allergies have come up since (he’s 3 now) so I’m not sure if it was that he was just a guzzler. Breastfed babies I don’t think can actually do that? They can feed a lot but the flow will suit the baby more?

It was nice my husband could do the 11pm late night feed though with a bottle as I would go to sleep about 8.30pm and then not have to get up with baby til about 2am. But you could do that with expressed milk or combi feeding I guess.

I’m not sure if I’d had another (I’m not going to) which way if feeding I’d lean to, as like I say both were different and challenging in different ways!