Giving a bottle a day

It gets much easier once they’re over 6 months and eating too! EBF two babies neither of who would accept a bottle. Personally I’ve never wanted to be away from my babies while so tiny for long periods anyway but once they’re a few months old if you time it right you can leave the house without them in short bursts! X

I’ve been EBF for a month too now and I have started to pump in the morning to start building a small stash for when I’m out and to add a bottle a day so dad can feed him too. I haven’t introduced the bottle yet, I’m still pumping a bit more and I’ll add the bottle around 5-6 weeks I guess.
I pump in the morning when the supply is the highest and when I’m usually engorged so around 5-6am depending on when baby wakes up to eat, sometimes I did it at the next feed. I started by pumping only on one side as baby eats on the other but I read it can confuse the body thinking there’s 2 babies to feed and increasing the supply .. so I now wait until he’s done eating and I’ll pump the side he wasn’t on and if I used both breast then I adjust the time to pump on each breast. I don’t go over 15min and it takes me 2 pumping sessions to get around 120mL which is more or less what breastfed babies would need in a bottle apparently. I could pump for longer but again, not sure about the oversupply.

The lactation consultant in the hospital said it’s a good thing to start with occasional bottles by about 3 weeks because bottle feeding is a skill just like breastfeeding. My baby is also pretty much EBF besides these occasional bottles… we don’t do one every day… maybe 2-3 per week and we haven’t had any issues with the bottle or breastfeeding after. We use a Lansinoh extra slow flow nipple. I don’t use any mechanical pump… just a Hakkaa once or twice per day which keeps just in case milk in the fridge then we freeze if not used so I have a pretty large amount frozen for if needed

Afraid I never convinced my EBF baby to take a bottle and we’re at 4.5 months now. I’ve added a tiny bit of flexibility by having my mum come on some outings so I can feed her and then my mum can take her for a walk and a nap while I have a haircut/go to the dentist. She’s nearby if any issues but I get that bit of hands free time for as long as my baby can be without me.