sooo this time round im gonna try breastfeeding with LO but dont plan on doing it for to long just the main 1st feeds! was just wanting to know what formula everyone is going to use (if you are going to) and why? i used SMA last time untill jamie then got put on neocate from the docs for his skin.. however this time we are gonna be pretty tight money wise as i dont think im getting maternity pay now so was gonna go for the cheapest which is cow and gate! has any1 used this or plan on using it? and if so how was your LO with it? x x

i used cow and gate with all of mine and i have never had any problems with it i will be doing to same as you this time, i dont think i am going to have time to feed myself with the other 3 boys x

tbh i dont know what im gonna do until the time..i didnt even try breastfeeding with jamie so i kinda wana give it a go but i dont know if il stick to it or not.. just gonna go with the flow! i know formula is fine to use but i think more than anything i just wana be able to say i gave breastfeedin a shot! x

i did the first feeds with all of mine, its a hard one to judge till you have the lo x

how long did u feed for with ur other 3? cos i know they say there the most important ones. x x

Aimee had prescription high calorie SMA High Energy milk.

Lily started on SMA Gold but she was so miserable for the first 8 weeks that I swapped to Aptamil and she was a different baby overnight.

Holly has had Aptamil from the start and she is fine with it.

I have never heard anything bad about any milk really, its just a case of trying it with baby x

I will say if you want to breastfeed just to give bubs the benefit of some goodness and don't intend on doing it for very long then it will be reeeeeaaaaalllly hard... I mean it's hard enough when you really really want to do it but when you only do it to just give it a go it's sort of easier to give up...

I tried with Tyler but my heart wasn't in it and I thought I couldn't do it so just stopped (I did still express and he had one or two feeds of breastmilk a day until he was about 3 weeks)

With Finlay I wanted to try harder and I managed to exclusively breastfeed about 3 days lol then I quit because I thought he just wanted to feed on me all the time and that if I gave him a bottle he would feed quicker... well it didn't make any difference all it did was make me feel like a failure for quitting... I carried on expressing for 8 weeks but only enough to give him one feed a day.

Bubs only needs like 1 feed to get your antibodies so anything is good but I would say if you want to really give it a go then just be mindful of how hard it is but don't put any pressure on yourself either x

thats really interesting to know jade and i think your completly right! and if im 100% honest i dont think i want to do it deep down but i do want to do the 1st couple feeds just in hospital! would that even make a difference tho or would there be no point and should i just do bottle straight away?
i do feel alot of pressure from my neighboor (who im good friends with) but other than that there isnt really any1 else pressuring me but what she said stuck in my head..she said that maybe thats why jamie has such bad ezcema cos i didnt breastfeed and that makes me feel shit tbh! what would u suggest? x x

I think your neighbour is pretty out of order, us mums are made to feel guilty enough about breast feeding without ppl making it worse.
I think most ppl say that any breast milk you give your baby will give them lots more antibodies so even just feeding in the hospital will be doing extra good but it's not going to do any harm of you don't either if money is tight though maybe breast feeding is worth a try?
I found it ate into my time with tyler though and that he'd already missed out on mummy time as I couldn't do much when o was pg as soooo big,o didn't want him to miss out more of my time because I was feeding finlay, but then others say it's easy once fading gets established if you stick with it. So basically lol whatever you want to do is what is best, as long as your happy that's all that maters x

about the first 2 or 3 feeds, i think like jade says my heart prob wasnt fully in it, but i was quite happy that they got the first ones x

Rich I wasn't allowed to bf due to tablets I was on after the birth and if I'm honest I didn't want to. He had sma and was so poorly, I changed to cow and gate, but he was poorly because of his tummy, but I kept to cow and gate and he thrived on it.

With Lucas I really wanted to try bf, I didn't put any pressure on myself and I dd bf for 30 hours, but found it to painful and I felt useless. I woke up on the morning of the 23rd he was born on 21st and popped to shops and brought aptamil, he's been on it since and been great on it

thanks girls thats really helped alot! im just gonna give it a go in hosp and see how i feel when i get home! if i wana carry on i will but if not il have formula at the ready..no1 knows what ur gonna feel like once babys here so il just play it by ear thanks again!! x x

As long as you ignore any one who might make you feel bad you'll be fine

Don't feel guilty about whether you feed or not.

I used cow and gate with Jamie. However, he was exclusively bf for the first 6 months and has only ever had the stage three stuff from about 7 months so I don't know if that makes a difference

In terms of bf - I think Jade may be right. I was determined to bf Jamie exclusively for 6 months as we have so many allergies in our family and there were many times I sat there in tears. I only kept going because I'm stubborn and I'm not sure if I could have done it if he had been my second because there were times when he was permanently attached. I would say don't put any pressure on yourself. You may love it but if not I wouldn't feel guilty about it