Would like to BF and bottle feed baby from EBM from word go - how do I do it?

[Liz]

Great advice here re establishing the breastfeeding first.

Couple of things I wanted to add..

Avent bottles have BPA. Passes our safety standards, but as someone else pointed out, BPA is banned in other countries, so may be worth researching.

Was going to mention about not needing to sterilise if you're only using breastmilk, but that's been covered!

And also wanted to say it isn't a big deal if bub doesn't take to a bottle. Neither of mine ever did, never needed to.. I did all the feeds in those early months, and they can move onto a sippy cup quite early.. 6 mths-ish when they start solids. So there's really no need for a baby to accept a bottle.

I agree that you may find just sitting up in bed (or staying lying down!) for a quick 10min feed and then getting straight back to sleep is much easier on everyone (and your boobs!) than having to warm up a bottle (bub can wake up waaaay too much and be harder to settle. Babies settle so nicely on the breast and lovely sleepy hormones are produced for both mum & bub during the feeds so everyone remains fairly rested. I can vouch for that, as both my babies fed 3-4hrly (or more) around the clock for many many many months and I didn't suffer too much sleep deprivation with breastfeeding & co-sleeping.

We never did DH doing a feed for the reason Tenar mentioned.. that I would really need to get up and express that missed feed anyway.. so it's much easier to just feed and get back to that precious sleep

All the best with your plans and your bub. Just remember to do whatever works.. while something may sound like a good idea, your bub or your boobs might have other ideas!