Expressing full time

TanyaR and Nams, Thank you so much for your thoughts and experiences. I can't tell you how much I needed It! I totally agree with everything you said. whilst I was using expressing to avoid stress during BFing, I can now see how stressed expressing was making me! Oh so much thought, calculating and planning, sterilizing... And the time taken to express after bubs has fed, that is when I could put her down.... I had to fight my inner dialogue of is bubs really hungry and hesitating to warm up the next bottle of EBM to avoid wastage. It really is liquid gold here too! I do have good news, since I wrote to message I bit the bullet and said 'no more bottles!'. It meant a few stressful feeds and also convincing DH and myself that bubs was getting enough from the breast. I could easily express 80 ml, sometimes more from each breast at alternative feeds and this was exactly how much she would take, give or take). Every time bubs cried at the breast it took my every strength not to go to the fridge and get some EBM but now I realize these were sometimes other cues in addition to the flow being too fast, like that she was finished or tired or just wanted a rest. A few days prior, in desperation, I tried bubs on a faster flow test and as she grew accustomed to that she started to tolerate my fast flow at the breast better. We have now gone two days without a bottle. I expressed yesterday once and this went to storage for when I have to leave bubs w family in a few weeks for work. Bubs is not latching well on the left so I have booked an appt with Dr Delphine next week to work this out. Right now I don't feel it changes the level of bonding as bubs is so new and she seems to just mean business when she is feeding, in fact bottle feeding meant we could make eye contact etc and did also allow others to bond with her liek you said. For sure though I am more at ease, which will have many unseen benefits. We are not out of the woods due to the latching issue and I still feel pressure to ensure she has had enough since losing that control from giving up the bottle. I am a bit scared to leave the house without either EBM, formula as back up and have even considered taking the pump with me in case we do not feed well but this confidence will improve every day and I think once we have seen Dr Delphine things will get better and better. and of course this introduces a new issue that bottle feeding did not have and that is will there be somewhere I can feed her while we are out (new thread perhaps). Currently I am only comfy going to Dubai mall! I am so much happier and even though we still have a way to go, I think definitely we are going to get there! Thank you a thousand times for sharing!

Hi ladies, I'm having some BFing issues as a first time mum; flat nipple w poor latch on one side, possible nipple confusion after having to feed EBM out of necessity at birth. I also have painful letdown and fast flow if bubs does not nurse often, such as when she sleeps at night for 5 hours on occasions. I am afraid this might lead to rejection if it continues. I have an electrical pump and more so to avoid stress at nursing time for bubs and myself, I have been expressing and feeding bubs by bottle a lot more than BFing over the past few weeks. It's a long story with many factors involved but i am trying to BF more and more to replace the bottle when I can because I do actually want to BF exclusively when I am with bubs and express only when I have to leave her with family. Despite all the issues, we can actually BF for a full feed, but night times are a bit of a struggle when she is tired. If problems do continue with BFing, I wonder whether anyone else has ended up exclusively feeding EBM to bubs and how long for? Did you have problems with supply due to the different type of nipple stimulation that BF and expressing? This is just a hypothetical question for now and arose after reading up online. Any experience shared would be appreciated!! :-) <em>edited by sparkly on 01/04/2012</em>