Feeding expressed breast milk

Has anyone solely done this and is it manageble? Breastfeeding isnt going well as Bella latches on, has a few suckles and then dozes off, then a few suckles more etc. It takes so long to give her a decent feed and really wears me out- especially at night. She takes a bottle fine (apart from having a few power chucks- drinks too much too fast?) and manages to down 100ml and is satisfied. She is a much more settled baby when she has a bottle. I still want to give her breastmilk and feel like this is the only way I can cope. Also, it means DF can help with feedings. Experiences?

I didn't do the expressing thing apart for a dream feed. Even just doing it for a dream feed I got sick of it after a couple of months.

And you often find that once a baby gets use to a bottle they don't like taking the breast again because it's much easier to get milk from a bottle.

Have you tried talking with your local la leche league to see if they can help get Bella feeding properly?

Try getting a little help with latching. Many babies will do the fall asleep thing if they aren't latched on far enough cos they tire out and the milk doesn't come down without the right stimulation.

I would say the chucking will be because she's hungry and guzzles cos milk comes from a bottle so much easier and faster instead of having to work for it, and she would be settled like that too - because she drinks her fill before going to sleep. I definately second what Stacey said about getting help to get a good latch, they shouldn't fall asleep after a couple of sucks

I find Megan will sometimes fall asleep when I am feeding her....I will sometimes strip her down to just her nappy and body suit and even sometimes get my husband to wet a flannel and I will wipe her face with it..usually it is enough to wake her up

PM yummymummy - she fully expressed bf for quite a while.

IMO bf just works so much better after being super patient for the first month.

wow 550 grams that is fantastic..well done Topsy.

Hi

Yup, I have been expressing every feed since just before we came home from hospital. I try to express just after Joy has had a feed so there is milk ready for the next feed. Sometimes she gets formula as my milk seems to be less in the evenings. It is quite time consuming but has it benefits like anyone can feed baby, you know how much they are getting etc etc.
However, if I had the choice, I would have preferred to BF. But Joy had trouble latching on and sucking from the very start and was not getting enough. I should not have listened to the midwives in hospital who suggested bottle feeding so Joy would put on weight (jaundice issues), saying "you should have no trouble going back to BF" - yeah right!! It turned into a huge nightmare and was seriously affecting our bonding trying to BF after that so it was just easier to bottle feed EBM. Looking back now, if I had persevered with BFeeding in hospital, she would have eventually got the hang of it and then started putting on weight.
If you would like the contact details of an excellent lactation consultant, pm me and I'll pass them on. She was very good but also supportive when we decided to bottle feed. She may have some good advice and be able to help you sort out the BF issues if you want to continue.
Hope all works out for you, but it's not the end of the world if it doesn't. If you want to express then at least baby is getting breast milk for as long as possible.

You sound like you are doing a great job, i express fed for 6 months, due to a multiltude of problems, yes its doable but you need to be organised and committed (in both senses) I expressed 8 times a day for 2 months while trying to build up my milk supply but we had a visit to the speech therapist at about that point who pointed out some problems with Fay's latching technique, so I put the idea of reintroducing b/f out of my mind then and continued to express 4 times a day slowoly decreasing the number of times til i was doing it twice daily at 5 months. I am glad i did it, when you get into it it becomes part of your routine, but I was amazed at how much more time I had when I stopped, even just doing it twice a day. When I stopped i oput Fay onto the Gold type formulas and I have a happy healthy 1 year old, we had lots of initial problems bonding which I do put down to her prematurity and my one track obsession with b/feeding, but I think we have a lovely relationship now
good luck with everything and hope it works out
Claire