[nataliel]

from very early on i used to express during the day and then give it to baby as the "last" feed of the night ... what i mean by that is that it was the last feed before bedtime. at a very early stage he was taking a full 6 oz bottle at 9pm then would sleep untilll at least 3am. i used to find that i just didn;t have enough milk at that time of the evening so the bottle meant that at least i knew that baby had a full tummy before bed.

i know that experts will all tell you that it is possible for a baby to sleep through the night consistently on nothing but breat milk but my experience was that as soon as i moved to formula at 7 months baby started sleeping 12 hr nights and hasn't looked back.

[mary_spc]

Dear natalie_leila,

Your advice sounds like good idea.
How old was your baby when he was taking 6oz bottle?

[nataliel]

4 weeks. I remember this because when i went for the one month checkup the doc found it hard to believe... (read that as "i think he thought i was making it up !")

Having said this my baby was born 3 weeks early and did had a big apetite.
i totally recommend the medella double electric pump... when you first use it it seems like its not working but wait some time for your body to gte used to it and you will be pumping out an 8oz bottle in no time...

[Sandrine]

I believe every baby is different. Mine started "sleeping thru the night" when she was about 5 weeks. I remember the last feed was usually around 11pm and she didn't wake up till 4 or 5 am. I guess it had something to do with the routine during the first few days at the hospital after my baby was born when I was waken up every 3 or 4 hrs to feed my baby and she sort of established a routine afterwards. Besides, my baby had a small apetite. It may be tiring for awhile but once your baby gets older, he probably will sleep in longer stretches of time and so don't worry, you'll eventually get your sleep.


About getting my husband to help during the night, it didn't work because my baby wouldn't take the bottle until when I returned to work and she had no choice. I breastfed her till she was 18 months. It was hard when I returned to work when she was 3 months but I continued expressing and saving the milk so that my helper could give it to her while I was at work. What I did was I pumped during lunch and took it home for her for the next day and any extra was put in the freezer right away. I tried the medella manual pump but I liked the Avent pump better. It was cheap ($300) and efficient. I went for manual pump because I didn't like the noise of the electric pump but of course electric pumped faster. I used to express milk the same time when my baby was nursing on the other side and so I didn't want the noise to distract her. Good luck.

[mary_spc]

Hi sandrine,

Thanks for advice on pump.

I am very impressed you were able to breastfeed for so long, even when you returned to work after 3 months. All the working mums I have spoken to were only able to keep it going for 1 - 4 months.

Wondering whether milk flow becomes reduced when BF-with-baby gets replaced with more expressed & pumped milk???

[Sandrine]

Hi Mary_spc,

It's best to put your baby on the breasts but I also got a friend who expressed her milk and let her baby drink from the bottle till her baby was 8 months old. She could have continued, I suppose.

I'm not sure whether pumping alone would reduce the milk flow but what I did was I breastfed my baby and expressed the milk at the same time, in the morning and in the evening. And I pumped during lunch hour. At weekends when I was available all day, I would breastfeed more frequently and saved the remaining milk for use during the week. I think if I emptied my breasts, it actually increased the milk flow. It worked for me.

I started introducing whole milk to my child when she was 14 months. I continued breastfeeding but was limited to mornings and evenings only and, I didn't pump anymore. Soon, I noticed that the milk flow did reduce quite a bit. By 18 months, she was completely on whole milk.

[mary_spc]

Thanks everyone for the great advice.

It has only been a week or so and my baby (now 6.5 weeks old) has started 'magically' sleeping 4-5 hours stretches, which is pure luxury for my husband & myself. We are so grateful that we now only need to get up once in evening. Just praying it will continue....