9/13/11

Feeding

Because of our latch issues, we couldn't get the hang of nursing, so I am exclusively pumping and giving him breast milk from a bottle except for 3 feedings in the middle of the night of formula.  Pumping exclusively is very tedious with constant pumping, part cleaning, bottle cleaning, storing, dating, etc... but it's totally worth it to give him all the wonderful benefits of being breast fed.  I am reading up on ways to make this easier (buying extra pump parts, special bra to make pumping hands free) so, soon, I should have it all down to a science.
The reasons he's getting formula at night is because it (supposedly) sticks with them longer and the breastmilk takes forever to get to room temp from the fridge.  During the day, I warm it up by putting it in a glass of hot water, but this takes a while as well, or so it seems so when I have a screaming, hungry baby to feed.  I am thinking about getting a bottle warmer for this so he'll be on a diet of breast milk only.  And we wouldn't have to buy formula, another plus.  I never thought a bottle warmer was a good idea because what do you do when you're out and don't have it, etc... but I didn't anticipate pumping and not wanting to give him freezing cold milk straight from the fridge.
I think this will be a good solution.  I'll know soon.

2 comments:

Brooke said...

Hanna,
I also pump and bottle feed Ellie...I have found that when I finish a feeding, I will pull her next bottle out so that its room temperature by the time the next feeding rolls around. I also warm breastmilk by placing the bottle in hot water and it's ready in a couple of minutes (if I forget to lay it out)...hope this helps!

Jill said...

my sister in law pumped after the night time bottle and then just left that one out for the next feeding since you can leave breast milk out for several hours... just a thought!