Bottle and breast?
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I’m having a good experience with combo feeding. I only had trouble in the first few days for a number of reasons. I had an emergency c section so when I did skin to skin for the just time & BF, I wasn’t able to do it long and wasn’t able to let him get enough colostrum as I was still under all the medication they had given to me; we had to give him a bottle so I could rest. This however made it hard for the next few days in the hospital at he would get extremely fussy about not being able to get milk fast enough or easy enough. I broke down and cried to my nurses about it, had lactation consults come in, they all came to help. Thankfully on the last night, with a help of one nurse I was able to get him to latch without help. Since then it’s been a journey, he has gotten much better at latching except on the times where he’s extremely exhausted. But I breastfeed 2-3x then bottle feed 1-2x now then rotate, I pump on the times I bottle feed most the told but I skip sometimes.
I pump because I’m storing for when I go back to work and want my mom or partner to bottle feed him my breast milk. He also has a tied tongue so it makes it harder for him to latch, he gets frustrated so he tends to get fussy every time I try to BF. Again, it has gotten much easier. Now I can get him to latch with little fussiness, hopefully over time he won’t feel the need to do it anymore. But I’m also getting his tied tongue looked at. Overall I’m happy and proud of him to be able to adjust at such a young age. He’s currently 11 days old. :)
I have been combo feeding from the beginning. BF during the day and bottle at night. Did this because it helped him sleep longer hours, so that my husband & parents can help, and my mental load decreases. Also, I have bigger chest and I find breastfeeding in public to be difficult. HOWEVER, We struggled with nipple preference a lot in the first few weeks - him wanting the bottle ofc. But during the day I breastfed him, followed by bottle top off and then and slowly started reducing the top offs to 0. It was exhausting and draining but if you take one week at a time and Lots of support from family, you can do it. Now he’s three months and learned both and knows his schedule and can switch well between bottle and breast well. Now Sometimes he prefers breast over bottle!
I had a really positive experience combi feeding, baby fed directly from breast and had formula from bottle from a young age. At times she only wanted the bottle from me but overall there was no nipple confusion or breast rejection.