Advice on expressing and breastfeeding please?

Question

It's a long way off but I'm expecting baby no.2 and desperately want to breastfeed. With my first I managed a week but it was excrutiating and I didn't seek help. I continued expressing successfully for a further week but my milk dried up when I missed a day. Despite buying an electric pump it arrived too late and I could not get back my supply. With this baby I want to breastfeed immediately but would also like to express and freeze milk in case. Also, I will go back to work at 6 months and want the baby to be bottle fed breast milk. Has anyone successfully expressed milk without it drying up and does my plan sound realistic? Many thanks for any help :)

Answer 1

Yes, your plan sounds very realistic.  But the key to it is BREASTFEEDING immediately.  The baby is far more efficient at stimulating your supply than any pump.  So it's important to start out by just breastfeeding.  Once your supply is well established, you can pump milk for bottles during your work day, and continue to breastfeed directly while you are home with your baby.

If you will be home for 6 months, this should be NO problem at all.  (Though you would want to intoduce a bottle at around 6 weeks, just to get baby used to it.  Most babies who are exclusively breastfed for more than 2-3 months will refuse a bottle if offered at that point. So nurse for about 6 weeks, then pump and begin to offer one bottle every 2-3 days for the next few months. You also pump a bit extra to build up a stash.  (So maybe pump once  every day, put half the pumpings in the freezer, and offer the rest to baby.)

Be sure to read as much as you can about breastfeeding before baby is born, and get help from the hospital LC's. Breastfeeding is not supposed to be 'excruciating.'  If you have more than minor soreness, that usually indicates a problem with baby's latch, and getting professional, hands-on help ASAP can keep the soreness from progressing to 'excruciating.'

Answer 2

I think your plan is totally realistic.  Breastfeeding can be a tricky thing - I have breastfed my three girls and my youngest is 6 weeks old now.  

My first daughter would not adapt to taking a bottle, she only wanted the breast.  I had to go back to work so I exclusively pumped until she was six months old.  The key was to pump frequently to keep my supply up.

My second daughter was a dream.  She came into this world knowing exactly what to do.  She never had any latching problems and was done nursing in about 5 minutes.

This last daughter was a different story all together.  We had terrible latching problems after delivery.  Even with the help of the lactation specialists at the hospital, we had trouble.  They finally gave me a nipple guard to teach her the right way to latch.  I was in terrible pain for about a week, but it went away gradually and things are much better now.  I continue to breastfeed but I also try to pump and give her about one bottle a day.  

I think it just takes lots of patience and realizing that each baby is different.  Hopefully, you won't have any problems this time around.

Answer 3

Call the office where you get pre-natal care and ask for a lactation consultant contact. I think they work under the "la leche league" where you will find some experts that are also great motivators. Do this sooner, not later so you are rushed at the last minute. My wife went back to work after a short break (with each of two kids) - she bf in the am and pm, and expressed at work 2x/day. We always had plenty of milk for the kids. It was a bit of an inconvenience for her, but the kids did really well with it and as a nice by product her weight came off quickly. I wish you the best of luck, this is a wonderful and generous thing you are doing.

Answer 4

My daughter never took to my breast. She was a "lazy feeder," and despite extensive work with a lactation consultant, never latched on properly. She was losing weight. I knew I was going to have go back to work when she was three months old anyway, so I got a good pump (I rented the double Medela Symphony from the hospital at first, then I bought a Medela Pump in Style backpack). I managed to pump and bottle feed breast milk for a full year.

Answer 5

I breastfed my baby as soon as she was born in the delivery suite.  My nipples were painful for a week and a half.  Bring Lansinol cream with you to the hospital for your nipples and breast pads.  After about 2 weeks your nipples toughen up and it is a real pleasure - lovely feeling.  Even now I get a warm glowy feeling think of it.  Now then - alot of women I meet have expressed from the start but on advice I breastfed exclusively for 4 - 5 weeks until my milk was really flowing and then I started expressing. Gina Ford's routines offer good advice on timings for expressing and feeding and also boosting your milk supply.  She also recommends topping up with the odd bottle of formula (don't worry it is not poison! it is also very nutritious).  At 4 1/2 months I started to wean my baby off breastfeeding - 1 bottle a day for 2 weeks, 2 bottles a day for 2 weeks etc.  This meant it was not a shock for my baby and my b*****s did not get engorged as they adjusted naturally to the reduced demand.  I would suggest not to nurse your baby to sleep with your b*****s but get your baby sleepy but lay them down awake as your baby gets too dependent on the breast for sleep and if you want to stop breastfeeding it gets awkward (controlled crying etc).   Hope this helps.