expressing

[soozy]

I was wondering if anyone has expressed for their baby rather than breastfed?
I really dont like the idea of breast feeding (just my own personal opinion) and my mate has confirmed for me that i wont be doing it as her baby is 5 months old now and is still waking up every 2 hours during the night for a feed and is also using the breast as a pacifier, my friend is like a walking zombie and is close to tears nearly all the time cos she is soo tired. I feel so bad for her and she is doing her best for her baby but she does regret starting breast feeding in a way. I also know every person and baby is different but i honeslty could handle that and dont even want to risk it. I would love to give my baby the best start also with expressing but have never done it before and was looking for some advice or other peoples experiences as i dont know anyone who has done it before.
Any advice is appreciated. thanks

 

[serenitylove]

i expressed mainly although did bf a few times too to get flow going i found using pump easy but used powdered milk as main foood and topped up with breast milk or id have spent all day expressing but i feel i done best for her unfortunatly iv not been able to continue die to meds im on and im bit gutted but def worth doing

 

[flexilexi394]

think if breastfeeding fails for me im going to try and express! x

 

[soozy]

thanks. Im also not sure on what type of pump to use. Ive read that the electric ones are really noisy but some of the manual ones are quite flimsy, anyone have any preference?

 

[serenitylove]

i used closer to nature manual one it knackers your hand pumping as it took 15mins to get a 3oz bott off [or did for me] if id have been able to continue id have invested in a second hand electric one but everyone dif in what works for them make sure in hosp you mention you want to express as first few times it usually done by hand

 

[misscrazycooki]

I want to breastfeed but I can tell my partner is getting jealous over it because he wants to be able to feed our son. I have been told that you can't use bottles and breast because it confuses the baby.... so stick in the same boat. I have have thought about expressing as my sister gave me hers since she never used it.

 

[soozy]

Im sure its fine to use both formula and breast milk. the only thing the midwife told me was that i might not produce breast milk for too long as your hormones know it isnt the baby suckling and so will stop producing the milk sooner than if you were breast feeding. I didnt know this but i will be happy even if i can do it for the first few weeks to give her the best start then onto formula.
I used formula with my first and she was fine on it so ive no worries there.

 

[jennilisanne]

I would really like to breastfeed, and will do all I can to make it work, but would also like to express so that my hubby can be involved too, and it'll mean I can go out for a few hours without worrying about things.

I did hear that once you use a bottle, you can't go back to breast, but I'm sure other people on here have done both.., I do hear it's possible.

I'm a bit worried about the whole pumping thing though, scares the life out of my to be totally honest, and the thought of an electric one !!!! I'm sure it's not as bad as I think it is!

 

[Esoames]

Although I'm not expressing my husband is still involved, he helps me get my latching right, cuddles her afterwards and reminds me of the benefits of what I'm doing. I'm not sure I could do this without him.

I did try my hand pump (closer to nature) and its pretty good, when my milk came in my boobies HURT!!

The CTN range is designed to be like a breast and easy to swap between the two

Emma xx

 

[soozy]

i know what you mean about the electric ones, i can imagine blowing one of me boobs off lol
think i will stick to the manual one lol

 

[MrsK]

Sori hun didnt do any of this the first time, formula only and will be the same again this time, Sorri cant be of any more help x

 

[sexyamy2005]

i went to a breastfeeding workshop thingy, they advised to get the medela one

http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.205-4181.aspx

(they use the electric ones in my local hospital and rent them out to mums who are struggling with B/Feeding....

the midwife that did the workshop was fantastic, she said that if u want to just express thats fine, as much breastmilk ur baby can get sets them up for the future,

the electric ones seam to be faster and u can get dual ones so u can "milk" urself quicker than the manual ones,

i have allready got the tommee tippee manual one and she said thats fine, any will work and that babies can.. sometimes get confused between bottle and nipple, but will eventually go back to nipple if the bottle is taken away from them,

if ur expressing all the time and using this, i cant see that this is much different to baby sucking so im sure u will still produce the same level of milk..

good luck!
x

 

[flexilexi394]

its so hard to know what to do. i know someone who successfully breast and bottle feeds formula, and swings between the two so i guess theres hope lol.
I have the CTN TT manual breast pump which i quite like and lots of TT CTN bottles. so if all ends badly at least i can try and express. x

 

[megsmeadow]

My LO was a frenzied feeder so wouldn't latch on, we had to go down the formula road but I expressed as much as I could. The CTN manual pump took ages so I invested in the medela electric one (I had some vouchers I put towards it) and it really helped to keep my milk supply going, and actually increased it. I was eventually able to get my LO to latch on and conttinued to express which I was able to give him first, then top up with formula. It's definately a personal choice but remember every mother and baby is different. You'll get babies on formula waking often for a feed and breastfed babies sleeping through.

 

[Rayoflight]

My sister's baby is 5 months old and is purely breastfed. She has slept through from 7:30pm - 7am ish most nights since she was two weeks old. All babies really are different.

I'd really like to breastfeed, I've bought the electric Tommee Tippee breast pump and went on one of the workshops which was great. I'm lucky I've got my sister for tips and help and I've been fascinated with her efforts these past 5 months. She has the Medela electric pump and I'll admit it freaked the hell out of me when I first saw her do it but she says it's easy enough to get the hang of it. She freezes and stores her milk for us to look after baby whilst she goes out and baby's always been OK with a mixture of breast and expressed milk in the bottle.

 

[xxClaire_24xx]

im going to express only cause our baby is going to be in the neontal unit and tube fed, I have the tommee tippee electric pump and it sucks quite hard lol but its not so much noisy more a vibrating noise

Also I was told by midwife that if you give them breast and bottle to begin with it is sometimes the best way as sometimes when you are trying to get them from breast to bottle its harder xx

 

[kiki]

For the first 3 months I was feeding my son expressed milk only as he wouldn't latch on. It can be done but I found it to be very hard work. When he finally at 3 months figured our how to BF I was very relieved. I found it to be quite restrictging to use the pump so many times a day. I had the Medela Swing and found it really good, I also had a manual pump but my hand got very tired soon so only used it twice.

 

[JJ Mum]

I have the manual Tommie Tippee for quiet use anywhere and the electric TP one too.
I have never breastfed but know I can express happily as I did that for the neonatel unit before when my babies were in there, then moved onto bottle fed forumula. So this way I reackon there is every chance breat or expreess this time, or ideally both will work this time X

I would say keep an open mind and try what feels right at the time Hun X bottle is still a great way to feed your baby , you shouldn't feel under pressure to do breast if you don't want to. Expressing is a bit clinical tok start with , but great way to get milk out!