Combi feeding

I have a question for the mummas that combi feed. I'm thinking of making this a permanent change after having to top up my little guy due to weight issues. I currently breastfeed most of the time but give 2 4oz bottles of formula a day, and pump when I give the bottles so my supply isn't affected. If I were to do this everyday going forward, can I drop the pumping sessions? As I won't need that milk anymore? Or will my supply gradually decrease?

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Following as I'm in a similar position. I'm still phasing out the top ups, doing 6 a day at 40mls, will go down to 30 mls on Friday, then will start taking bottles out. But think I might end up where you are, keeping two larger bottles a day and hoping my supply won't go, would be lovely if I didn't have to express any more. After all this faffing about with expressing and formula I don't want to end up losing my supply completely!

With my first I started weaning her onto formula and only feeding through the night if she woke, my body ending up making what it needed so I never needed to pump, it’s pretty clever and will only make what you need for baby, just need to be careful to begin with being engorged/mastitis x

I’ve done combi feeding for about six weeks now and I only pump if I give a bottle first thing in the morning.

I’ve been combi feeding for 12 weeks / my baby is 12 weeks old. I used to pump 4 times a day and I’ve reduced it to 3 times a day- my supply has significantly dropped to the point where I’m not even getting half a bottle from a session! I’m trying so hard to get my supply back up but so far nothing is working.

I combo feed, I aim to pump around every 3 hours but I'm not that strict on it, if I miss one then I might try and power pump at the next one if I've got time but I try not to stress as I just give formula if I don't have enough. But if I was to miss multiple sessions yes my supply would go down and once its down it would be hard to get it back up again. Just think about how important it is to you to continue giving breast milk. But don't stop pumping and have your supply drop just for you to regret it later 🙂

It depends.
I’m an exclusively pumping mama (due to prem babe/tongue tie/jaundice/anatomical issues) & I’ve just dropped from 8 pumps a day to 6. My output has only reduced by about 50ml (I make about 1L a day). It all depends on your breast capacity & whether your supply has regulated (which usually happens between 6-12 weeks).

7 years ago, I also used to give my son formula 1-2x day when he was 4 months old to give my nips a break (feeding him was painful for the first 6 months!) & did so for about a month. Then we dropped it & went back to EBF no problem.

It’s also not impossible to build supply if needed, just takes more work & patience after your hormones have settled ☺️

in our community

Why?

I am sick of my family telling me there’s something wrong with my baby.

She is almost 10 weeks old. She was born just under 1 month early.

She is my second child, my first born was a chilled baby. She is quite grumpy a lot of the time she does smile daily however. But she’s quite whiny and she has recently been really unsettled / fussy and been having some days where she has really bad crying episodes where she screams. For instance today she’s been fussy all day on her bottle, she did a poo mid way through one - so I stopped and placed her on her mat and noticed it had gone through the top of her nappy on to her sleep suit so I had to undress her and she literally screamed like I’ve never heard before to the point I wanted to cry! I proceeded to try and change her after picking her up to soothe her and again she screamed the place down and started sobbing. She’s quite a gassy baby she is always passing wind and has hiccups all the time also. But I am so sick of my family members telling me “she needs to be checked!” Or my mother saying “what’s wrong with her?” When she comes over and she cries. They said she’s more unsettled than settled always. And I can’t help but think why??? Is it something I’m doing? They are making me question everything and it’s making me feel like I’m heading in to a downward spiral. They make me question myself and my life. I’m just fed up.

Sleeping, not sleeping and safe sleeping…

I’m a FTM to a beautiful baby boy, who will be 3 weeks old tomorrow but sleep, or lack of sleep in this case, is a source of anguish in our house at the moment and it got me thinking about the information we are given as new mamas.

I get there are rules about safe sleeping to prevent SIDS, and I understand why we have them BUT why is other information that were given on sleeping a little contradictory to this?

1) We are told to nap when baby naps
2) We are told it’s ok if the only way baby will sleep is on us/cuddling us
3) Safe sleeping rules tell us we cannot sleep with baby on us, on a sofa or in a bed

My point is, if the only way baby will sleep is on us, how are we supposed to nap when they nap, if the safe sleeping rules tell us we can’t sleep with baby in bed or on a sofa with us?

If I’m missing something then please someone point it out for me but it seems a bit contradictory and confusing, does it not?

Anyone else's health visitor absolutely useless?

England obviously.

My health visitor is about as useful as a sieve for collecting sand.

Co-sleeping

Why do people make out co sleeping is almost child abuse? My baby is almost 3 months and we sleep in the same bed. It’s the only way he sleeps a decent amount. I have many family members telling me I shouldn’t be doing it. I love the bonding you get sleeping with your baby. What are everyone’s thoughts

Wake windows? Naps?

Can you tell me what your nap schedule looks like in a day?

And I say schedule lightly I don't mean it being the same every day I just mean what do most of your days look like.

When baby wakes up in the morning how long on average are they awake for before having a nap? After the first nap how long on average are they awake for before the second nap?

How long is each nap lasting?

How many naps a day are you having?

My health visitor has told me my baby should be awake 4-5 hours before her first nap... I don't feel this is developmentally appropriate for a 7 month old? My baby could never make it 4-5 hours without being extremely cranky and crying.

Please help?

Refusing to nap

Anyone having issues with getting their baby to nap during the day? Everywhere you look online and in books it talks about the wake windows being so short, but my 5 week old has literally been awake for 7 hours straight. Have done all the obvious feeding, changing, rocking.
He sleeps at night thankfully but just fighting it during the day.