So we decided to try Thomas with a soother last night as he had been feeding for hours and seemed to just want to suck. Anyway he was having none of it, spat it out in disgust. I have to admit that part of me was pleased that he wouldn't take it as I am not a big fan of soothers and hate to think of him looking to a piece of plastic for comfort (on the other hand, I don't mind him sucking his hands or fingers, don't know what the difference is really).

Anyway, it made me think that I had really better start thinking about introducing a bottle of EBM occasionally just so that he doesn't end up refusing to take a bottle at all. Which I definitely don't want. But I have to admit to having mixed feelings about somebody else being able to feed him! I do love the special feeling of something that nobody else can do for him. Feel a bit silly saying this as I definitely do want him to take a bottle and I want OH to be able to get involved in feeding too. Does anyone else feel the same at all?

I agree that it's hard to let someone else do "your job." You feel like feeding is your own special thing between you and LO. I didn't worry too much about introducing the bottle early. When it was time for her to take it, she learned quick so she wouldn't go hungry! We did have to try a couple different brands though. We like Dr. Brown's wide-neck bottles for breastfeeding babies.

harry was about 3 weeks old when we introduced a bottle; i had mixed feeling at first, but seeing my oh feeding him, and seeing harry look up nat him the same way he does to me, n having my oh stare down at him, full of love, actually made my heart melt n i felt very proud of my oh in that moment. harry wont feed for that long from a bottle, n 80% of the time refuses his soother, so i would say he defo prefers the real thing, lol, but at least he's happy to try new things n he doesnt seem to have any confusin from it.

good luck

I feel the same way and was considering posting something similar myself so i sympathise with the mixed feelings you have

I feel like there is a lot of pressure on me to start expressing and offering Toby bottles, not from OH, don't get me wrong, but we've had lots of visitors this week and i can think of three separate occasions in the past few days when people have told me how "good" it will be for me when i start expressing and getting OH involved with feeds, and even how much "easier" it will be (which i can't see it being at all but people are odd) but i don't know how i feel about it all

OH goes back to work in another week and will be working full time so it's not like expressing will even mean i can have a break from all the night feeds as OH works shifts and will have to get a decent sleep. I do think he would like the opportunity to offer Toby a bottle now and again though, but he is happy for me to wait until i am ready to consider that, whereas everyone else (OH's stepmum, some friends of ours, my grandma) seems to think i should start pumping and giving him bottles already

I enjoy our feed times though, and the fact i am the only one who can do it, so it guarantees he gets passed back to me when visitors are round etc. I don't know if that makes me seem very selfish?

We also have tried offering Toby a dummy, because he gets himself very worked up during nappy changes and swallows a lot of air, which i think makes his wind much worse, so i thought a dummy would be the lesser of two evils but he doesn't particularly enjoy it, he'll suck it for a few seconds then realise it isn't a nipple and spit it out! Like you say, in a way i am pleased he doesn't find it as comforting as me, but in another way i wish it soothed him more as i obviously can't always have my boob in his mouth!!!

I don't think i have been any help to you but i just wanted you to know i feel the same and i'm not sure what the answer is...for now i feel like i just want to carry on exclusively breastfeeding and thinking about it all again at a later date...

Thanks for the replies

Rebaby - it's good to hear your experiences and feelings, nice to know I'm not the only one with mixed feelings about it.

Unfortunately I don't have the option - because Andrew doesn't latch properly all the time, he's never taken a full feed from the breast, so we had no choice but to introduce bottled EBM in order to get SCBU to agree to him coming home.

But I absolutely love to watch my OH feeding Andrew, both of them seem to go into a happy trance-like state, big grins on their faces. It's really sweet to watch, and it has really helped my OH bond with our baby.

I could have written the OP myself!
Although we haven't needed to try a soother so far.

I've decided to try in a few weeks, purely to see if we can... and only for hubby's benefit (I feel silly too, but I said we should keep it a secret ) I don't like the idea, and thats surprised me, I've been preparing for combined feeding throughout the pregnancy.

I have sooooooo many feeds stored in the freezer now from leaking, I can't waste them.

There can be a lot of pressure to introduce bottles, and it definately feels in our society like it's the normal thing. EBM isn't quite as good as fresh, though, and it's certainly a pain expressing, freezing, defrosting, bottling, and then finally someone else feed baby.

It's a really bad idea to introduce bottles or dummies during the first few weeks, though (normally 6+) as babies can get seriously confused and some refuse the breast for ever after a single bottle.

Here's a good guide on how to get started when (if) you decide to intro bottles, which isn't always easy: http://breastfeedingbasics.com/html/..._bottles.shtml

Melanie