I am 27 weeks pregnant and Have been doing so much research on breastfeeding and babies eating/sleeping patterns, just to prepare myself.
I intend on breastfeeding , with the exception of pumping from time to time after a few months.
There are sooo many books on breastfeeding, But i haven’t found 1 that tells you anything about bottle feeding (because even though i wish to breastfeed you never know for certain if you can) so here are a few questions:
1: How many ounces does a newborn drink??
2: When you make a bottle up and take it on an outing with you and baby, how do you warm it up?
3. how many bottles/supplies do i need to buy?
4. if i am breastfeeding and decide to pump for a bottle feeding for later, when should i pump?? and when will my milk be replenished enough for the next feeding?
PLease help i am very grateful.
February 28th, 2010 at 4:41 pm
Hello,
When I was pregnant I too was planning on breastfeeding, but had numerous issues with it and it just wasn’t working out. After stressing and being so upset for 3 weeks while I tried to Breastfeed, I gave up. I was upset about it, but it was what was best for us.
My son was drinking about 2 oz every 3 hours as a newborn. At about 3 weeks he was drinking 3 ounces every 3 hours. I had about 12 4 ounce bottles when he was a newborn and used almost all of them everyday. Even with 12 bottles, I had to wash and sterilize them once a day.
I have a car bottle warmer that plugs into the ciggarette lighter. I love it. It takes about 20 mintues to completly warm a bottle though. What I have recently started doing was just putting hot water in the bottle and bringing the powdered formula with me. This way I don’t have to worry about keeping the bottle cool. I put the bottles of hot water into the insulated bottle bag and they stay warm enough to not need to be heated for about 6 hours. Then I just mix them as I need them.
My son is now 4 months old, and I have enough bottles to only have to wash and sterilize every other day. I have 9 bottles that I use for his regular formula, and I use other bottles for his night feeding which I put cereal in (I have to use different bottles, b/c my primary bottles have a vent system in them which clog with the cereal, so at night I use regular non-vented ones). So I have about 12 bottles in total (8-9oz). Congrats and best of luck. I hope this helped
February 28th, 2010 at 10:09 pm
1. It depends on their weight. The nurse will tell you when you have your baby how much he or she should be eating. My daughter was 7lbs and 9.6 oz. She was required to drink 2 oz per feeding.
2. There are car warmers. I bought one for about $14. You can buy them at your local walmart. Those are the best to use when you are on the go. I have actually forgot mine at home once and I had to use the heater in the truck.. LOL It was about 90 degrees outside and Im running the heater.. LOL It was a bad day. But I just did it enough to get the chill off of it.
3. I got one of those multi-packs. I think I got the playtex drop in bottles. there were 2 of each bottle I think in them.. or 2 small ones and then 4 big ones. I ended up with a whole bunch of bottles. But I didnt have to worry about running out.. LOL
4. I would pump then put it in a bottle. I would leave on a note on the fridge that the bottle with the pink lid got used first and when it was put in there. Your breastmilk keeps in the fridge for 24 hours. I usually pumped when my daughter was napping and when she had went to sleep for the night. My daughter’s doctor told me that when you pump it is helpful when you have a nice quiet and comfortable place to pump. Which it worked for a little while. Then I dried up.
Oh and here is a little advice for breastfeeding. It is a whole lot easier if you have a bottle ready when you are out shopping.. Because a lot of places dont have a comfy spot to breastfeed. I was at Cabella’s (like a bass pro shop) with my family and it took me forever to find a spot to be able to breastfeed. I ended up having to go and sit in a stall to feed my daughter. Talk about a royal pain. I was so uncomfortable and so was she. But the job got done.
March 1st, 2010 at 1:02 am
It’s actually extremely rare to not be able to breastfeed. You just have to be determined to do it no matter what. Just don’t let your baby suck on anything but the breast for a few weeks so they learn that. Once latching on is easy for both of you, then you can introduce bottles and pacifiers and all. And the more milk you need, the more you make. That another big mistake people make is they think they don’t have enough milk. But the more you empty your supplies, the more they will fill up, I promise you. Just nurse a lot in the beginning weeks to establish the supply. Anyway, newborns drink as much as they want. Sometimes more on growth spurt days, sometimes less. Just nurse on demand. Or if you end up bottle feeding, just write down how much they eat and you’ll notice a pattern soon. I haven’t yet discovered a good way to warm a bottle when I’m out. I try to find a place to breastfeed, but sometimes I couldn’t find a place I felt comfortable doing it and I have mixed her some room temperature formula and it didn’t seem to bother her. I have 3 bottles and 1 bottle brush but I only use bottles occasionally. I bring one when I go out in case I don’t want to nurse, I leave one with my mother is she’s watching her for a couple hours, and I sometimes let my husband take over for a feeding. But don’t skip more than 1 or 2 feedings because you can get a milk build up which can turn into an infection. If you want to wean, make sure to do it gradually. Don’t worry about waiting for your milk to replenish. I have pumped both breasts until they were empty, then let my baby nurse, and she got a let down of milk after a few minutes. They fill back up pretty quickly. Anyway, good luck!
March 1st, 2010 at 4:54 am
It is a good thing you are preparing, because I wanted to breastfeed and my son WOULDN’T no matter what (sometimes even the most qualified professional cannot help).
1: How many ounces does a newborn drink?? It depends. If I remember correctly it was 3 oz at first, increasing slowing from there. I would always make a bit extra just in case.
2: When you make a bottle up and take it on an outing with you and baby, how do you warm it up? Submerge the bottle in hot water. Most restaurants will give you a cup of hot water for this purpose (if they are cheap they may force you to pay for the cup, 10 cents they can’t spare from their pocket).
3. how many bottles/supplies do i need to buy? We only used 3 bottles/nipples at a time. We used the kind you’d place a plastic liner in (by Playtex I believe), that way we would only have to boil the nipples. It was much easier. Other then they you need tongs, a bottle brush and a pot (you likely have a pot, the tongs and brush you can get at the dollar store). If you use the liner kinds, the nipples need to be replaced every three months. You may have to try a couple different types of nipples, the brownish latexy kind, and the clear plastic ones to see which your child prefers.
4. if i am breastfeeding and decide to pump for a bottle feeding for later, when should i pump?? and when will my milk be replenished enough for the next feeding? At first I pumped for my son for every meal. But if he breastfeeds then let him eat first and pump off some leftovers. There is always more then your baby needs. So don’t worry about that. Though you may not want to pump ALL of it in this case (since you are breastfeeding, and don’t need to constantly store extras).
March 1st, 2010 at 6:38 am
My son drank about 2 ounces for the first 2 weeks and then slowly moved him into drinking about 4 ounces. He’s 7 weeks now, and he’s just moved up to drinking about 6 ounces at a time. We don’t warm his bottle up – we do use room temp. water or formula. We feed our son 6 times a day, so we can manage with 2-3 bottles but we have much much more. When we travel or go out shopping, I carry 2-3 bottles with me so I would say for you to buy about 5-6 bottles at first and see how that works for you.You should pump around the same time is the baby’s feeding schedule. Also, some people say pump one breast while the baby is feeding off the other. The milk will replenish itself.