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moving to mixed-feeding?

Hi all....I hope everyone is well and enjoying their time with their giggle-monsters! I'm looking for some advice on mixed feeding, please, if anyone can offer some suggestions?



Mia is now 7 weeks old and has been exclusively breastfed since day 1, which is great but I think I could now do with a rest! I also go back to work full-time in just 6 weeks (argh!!! ) and so I need to have her on a bottle by then...whether with ebm or formula. We have tried a couple of times, but without success, as Mia simply does not suck on the bottle teat or if she does, she spits it back up instantly in protest..even though it's still my milk. I have not been around while this is happening... the routine for trying a bottle is as follows: my OH takes Mia up for her bath and quiet time, while I potter downstairs (or watch TV in peace!!!!), and after she is bathed and changed, he dims the lights in the bedroom and settles to feed her while propped up on the bed. I am nowhere around, but I am still in the house. We don't wait until she's starving, but neither do we try her when she's obviously not ready for a feed.



We are using Tommee Tippee closer to nature bottles and teats...size 0, slow flow I think....is this maybe the problem? My super-boobs are certainly not slow-flow...and Mia can get about 6 or 7oz thrown down her throat in a matter of 10 or 15 minutes...if she detaches too soon, the poor child gets jetwashed in the face with my milk!



Any suggestions would be gratefully received and tried!! Otherwise this child will be coming to work with me! (And I'd like to have my flat chest back, to be honest, so that I can get back to my running schedule...impossible with these mahoosive blobs on my chest!) image

Replies

  • I have no experience with this but maybe try giving your oh something that will smell of you like a T shirt you have worn and not washed if that makes sense. Or sleep with a muslin for a few nights so it smells of you.

    Just thinking she's only known you and your smell when it comes to feeding so it maybe an answer. Teat wise we switched to variflow so again this might be an option. Asda have them 2 packs for ??6 at the mo.



    Sorry can't be much help apart from that!!

    Can't believe you have to go back so soon that must feel awful!! I remember with my son I only had 6 months and that was bad enough!! Lol!!

    Take lots of pics and take them with you! Lol!!



    Take care Hun



    Xx
  • thanks mjc....good suggestion! Not thought of the t-shirt trick, but I'll be trying that tonight for sure. And I can pop to Asda in the morning and get some new teats...everything is worth trying!!



    I am dreading going back to work so soon, but financially I have to. My OH has been out of work since Sept, and has only just started on a temp part-time contract with the Census. I've already missed 2 mortgage payments while I've been off with Mia as I didn't qualify for SMP from work, and the bank (HSBC...hate them!!!) wouldn't negotiate an inch on a payment break or reduced payments while on mat leave....It's been a really rough time with the bank and trying to live on the ??125 a week MA....they just didn't want to know, and they're actual advice was "don't pay us, and wait for us to come knocking"...!!!! So we've had the most stressful time while trying to enjoy Mia :cry:



    I was advised (by the bank again!) that they wouldn't move on repossession proceedings for 3 months, so I'm deliberately missing 3 payments and then going back to full time to resume the mortgage. Catch 22...I want to stay home with Mia, but also need to secure a roof over her head :cry:



    Anyway...I shall take loads of photos to work with me, and at least the upside is that she'll be home with her daddy rather than a stranger.



    Thanks again for the suggestions!! x
  • Excuse the frankness but that sucks big ass!!! Lol!!



    My hubs is self employed and all his contractors ditched him in December!! Great timing!! He's been doing temp work for last month or so but it's been rubbish pay!! Luckily I registered as self employed too so I get mat allowance plus child tax credit but that's pretty much our income at the mo as hubs pay is clearing bills we've missed!!



    Not quite the same but just no your not alone in financial stress! We rent so not got that issue but that is a looooooot of money but hey ho!!



    You'll get there hun and once your oh lands on his feet maybe you can take some more time off.

    Variflow are good as baby controls how much they are getting. Aleia gets on so much better with them.



    Take care hun

    Xx
  • When i moved eloise onto bottles, i was really struggling to get her to take them. It turned out the bottles were not warm enough, as she had been breastfed, she was used to body temp, when we het them up a bit more she took them. Sometimes its the most random things!!
  • ooo....see what you've started....rant coming!!!



    You're in pretty much the same situation as us.....heartbreaking innit! It's mad how this country makes life intesely difficult for those of us that choose to work for a living, and when you need a bit of help when you're on your backside....all you get is an extra shove in the back and told to get on with it! If we'd been doley bums our whole lives and claimed off the state, we'd be rolling in the pennies, with the rent paid, council tax paid, etc etc ..... grrrrrrr! Ah well.....at least by my going back to work and paying my taxes like a good girl, another family can stay at home with their 10 kids, while I wonder how we'll survive if we want another child!



    Life may be tough just now, but we'll come through the other side eh? Your oh will get back to a full book of contracts and my oh will find a job (!!!) and we can be the kept women that we deserve to be!! :lol:



    I'll let you know how the hubby gets on with a feed tonight...I told him he'd need to wear something of mine, he instantly thought of underwear!! I married a pervert!!

    :lol:
  • Oh god ladies, us too! Sorry but can I join your rant?!



    Hubbie was made redundant on Xmas Eve (nice timing with our first bubba on her way). We also rented out my old house and the tenants gave notice the day before Lottie arrived. So we have just my SMP and two mortgages to pay! It's been a bit of a struggle as a result and OH has now openly declared that he loves being at home but bubba and hasn't applied for a single job since being made redundant. I don't think he realises how full on looking after Lottie is going to be without Mama-moo feeding him and her every day. And financially, although I had always planned to return to work, it means all the pressure is on me to come up with the income to run our home, for the repairs that desperately need doing, etc. To top it off his car has now given up the ghost!! Argh!!!



    Rant over, sorry about that, thank god I do have a job to go back to, and Lottie is so perfect, even one little smile makes it worthwhile. image
  • Hi ladies. Just wanted to say I know how you feel about having to go back to work early, when I had my second I got really screwed over with work but because I was the highest earner I ended up back at work when my little boy was just six weeks!!!!! It's difficult but knowing they're with family helps!



    Re the feeding. I expressed with my son even though I was back at work full time (workplaces by law now have to give breastfeeding mothers somewhere to express milk, not a toilet, like I had to). I would do as mjc says and try different teats and if that doesn't work maybe try a different bottle. Also, my son would only take expressed breast milk if it was really warm, a lot warmer than you'd expect to have it, think that was because it then comes out faster?! I think it's just trial and error really, experimenting with different things. Good luck.
  • heya,

    i cant really offer much advice because Megan was in NICU when she started getting better she was given a bottle at night when i wasnt there, and then i breast fed in the day....so apon bringing her home she could already do both...

    but i hope u get it figured out soon and let us know how u get on!!

    nice to know not everyone on here are really well off lol, me and oh are renting at the mo and god knows when we will afford a wedding!! at least he is in a secure job and making his way up, and i am due to go back to the same place oh works on 1st nov, as i have used up lots of my holiday entitlement too. couldnt imagine going back so sune!

    xxx
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