Hiya FG. It does sound like a great system, and I was going to give it a go with my firstborn but my DH wasn't as motivated as me to take part.
I'm going to suggest you wait a couple of weeks before you start because that's valuable time for you and baby to learn how to breastfeed. Feeding from the bottle is much easier for bubs than the breast, so beware that you may have a baby who doesn't transfer from bottle to breast without a fuss.
I have a hand pump that was passed on to me from a relative. I have found it sufficient in the past for getting enough milk for when I needed it (when going out or whatever). If you are only giving her one feed of ebm per day then you'll probably find the hand pump sufficient. You could even try hand expressing (without a pump) first to see if that works for you before shelling out for a pump.
I've heard that the TT bottles are great. I've also heard that Pidgeon make a teat that's got a cross-shaped hole in it that aparently imitates the flow of milk from the breast pretty well.
Don't know anything about sterilisers though, sorry. I have always just used milton.
GL!
I haven't done this myself, just wanted to pass on some info about this approach I got from a lactation consultant. Basically she said even if you don't BF for that 1 feed a day, she suggested you still need to express then and not skip that 'feed' altogether. Her reason was supply related i.e. if you skip the feed entirely your body will adjust and produce less milk. So she kind of said yes, you can get your hubby to do the feed but you will want to get up and express at about the same time anyway. She was talking about taking over a 3am feed though.....if you are talking evening you may be able to express a bit earlier than the feed to still give you a block of sleep.
As I said I haven't done it so this is purely from a theoretical perspective
I did this and it works well, especially if you have a nipple injury that needs a rest or you need a sleep.
Be mindful not to over pump because you can end up with sore engorged breasts for longer than need be. But also be careful not to go too long between expressing off either.
Taking a bit extra off after every BF over a day should work out enough for a feed. Newborns have really small tummies so about 50mls or so would do for the first week or two.
My DH would do the night shift. I'd feed at about 10pm then go off to bed. He'd do the next feed (midnight-ish) and put bub to bed then I'd do the next one whatever time that came about.
I have the Avent isis pump and microwave steriliser and it is great. When I lost mine in a move () I had to get another one the same! I was also lent one for a while and they are up to lasting the distance!
Last edited by ~Raven~; June 22nd, 2009 at 04:21 PM.
We are doing this some of the time, and it's working great. Here's what I learned when I was researching it:
- between 4-6 weeks is the ideal time to introduce a bottle, because the baby has (theoretically) gotten good at breastfeeding by then (some won't have), but they are not yet so set in their ways that they won't take to a bottle. Note that it's really important that your baby be good at breastfeeding before you try a bottle. This is because the bottle is easier to get milk out of than the breast, and it requires a different jaw action to do it. So if you give the baby a bottle too often or too early, you risk them deciding that the breast is no good, and then you have a problem.
- you have to keep expressing to maintain your supply. I found I had to gradually build up the amount I could express at a time.
- you should choose the lowest flow teat you can find. This is because faster flow will be too much for a young baby anyway, and you want to make them work for their milk, to reduce the difference between the bottle and the breast.
We first gave DD a bottle of expressed milk at about 4 weeks, but only because she was (and is) a very good feeder. If we'd been having trouble with the breastfeeding I would have waited longer to try that. She took to the bottle easily. I've let DH give her all the bottle feeds, because we figure that will confuse her less than if I do it. Getting DH to give her a feed late at night was a lifesaver for me at first, but remember that most babies change their sleeping habits quite fast anyway. Now, at 8 weeks, DD Is sleeping for 5-6 hours overnight, and I am not so desperate for the sleep that I need DH to give her a bottle any more. So we are still doing it occasionally, when I have to go out, but not for the same reason.
I bought the Medela Swing Pump before DD arrived, and we are using Medela bottles. I find they work well, but I don't have any comparison with other brands, so can't comment. We have:
- one pump
- two bottles (one is 150ml, one is 250ml), but I've just ordered more bottles, because it seems that 150ml is a convenient size for me to pump into to store in the fridge).
- 3 small teats and one medium teat that we haven't used
- a box of special bags for storing braestmilk in the freezer, that won't leach nasty chemicals into it, and so forth. You can't reuse these, but since I don't plan to be freezing that much milk, I think they will last a long time, which is good because they are expensive.
Have to say, the breast pump is one of the more useful things I've bought. Great for relieving uncomfortable engorged breasts!
Tenar - there has been thread in the past about those bags. Sometimes the 'proper' bags can be hard to find, and zip locs can be a good alternative.
Will ziplocs ooze icky chemicals?
You can freeze the avent bottles. They sell them as "freezer storage bottles" with 4 in a box and you can reuse them endlessly. I did the bags and they were an annoyance so I'm kind of glad with all this chemical leaching plastic bizzo that they aren't readily available anymore. Well where I live anyway.
Sorry, I cant help you with the whole BF thing (I formula feed) but I can tell you that you want to buy BPA free bottles and plastic storage containers.
I got regular bottles and then did some research and found out that plastics with BPA in them have been banned for use for babies in some countries.
The packaging on the "safe" ones has BPA free on them.
GL
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) I had to get another one the same! I was also lent one for a while and they are up to lasting the distance!
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