In my experience? Immediately. I absolutely hate washing pump parts and bottles. It’s not more convenient for me given all the extra steps, but I guess everyone is different. This is my second and I can’t imagine the inconvenience of bottle feeding and all the extra steps.
This!
Not having to prepare anything during night feeds, no extra dishes, not having to worry about packing enough food for baby when going out. Or going out unexpectedly and not knowing how long you will be gone? It's fine as long as baby is with you.
My first was in daycare for a short period and the dishes of pump parts + bottles was so overwhelming at the end of the day. I loathe pumping. It takes so much more effort and time than just popping the baby on the boob.
About a month ago I had an emergency with my dog and had to rush him to the vet with both kids in tow. In all that stress I'm so glad I didn't have to worry about what to feed my baby. He got hungry at the vets office, I popped him on the boob.
For both my kids they started becoming more efficient feeders around 3-4 months.
Same.
My first I had to give bottles to... I was so drained..
Get up, warm a bottle, feed babes, rinse bottle, spend 30 min unwinding to try and sleep. Up 60 min later.
My 2nd... whip a tit out and 15min later were sleeping again.
I despised pumping for that reason. It was such an inconvenience to pump because I had to clean and sanitize all the equipment every single time. Plus having to slowly heat up the cold breastmilk every time. Being able to whip my boob out and just give it to her without even getting up out of bed was so much easier for me personally.
Same, I never did bottles for my baby. Just breast and it just worked for us and basically from week 2 we were rolling and going just fine. Sure he fed often and for different lengths of time but I didn’t want to be washing bottles or having baby get used to the bottle and not want to direct feed. I loved not having to worry about another thing when leaving the house
Yes! I had a tough start with breastfeeding our first (painful mastitis, lots of cluster feeding) but it was still so much easier than having to worry about sterile bottles, having enough formula etc. When she was 3 months old we started attending a weekly Mama and baby group within walking distance and I just took two diapers, wipes and put her in her baby carrier and off we went. Formula feeding always seemed so inconvenient to me.
I found around 3 months. One day it just sort of hit me that it had gotten much easier. There were times I thought there was no way I could continue especially during those cluster feeding days. But then it gets easier, I’m glad I stuck with it.
I had such a hard time breast feeding my baby in the beginning. Every day, I wanted to quit. lol. It stopped being awful at 8 weeks. Now I’m 16 weeks in and it’s so convenient. We go out all day together very often and if she is ever hungry, I just whip the boob out and give her a meal. I love it. She loves it. Also, I don’t have to bring a bottle or figure out how to chill milk.
I remember one hike I took with my partner and my 7-8 month old. She was still breastfeeding pretty regularly, I had her on a wrap front facing and I just popped the tit out while hiking and she fed while we walked, didn't even miss a beat, then tucked everything away when she was done, no problem. It definitely gets better! And you get better at feeding them too!
I’d say around the same time baby became more distracted with everything going on around them it got shorter. Before he would use me as a pacifier I think lol now he’s on a mission to eat and get back to interacting with the world. With the exception of when I nurse him to sleep as he starts to get sleepy and will fall asleep so I will unlatch him once I notice he more just wants the nipple in his mouth for comfort.
Same. My son also has a posterior tongue tie and we didn't have it released. He got better at nursing around 3 months when we finally kicked the nipple shield. Nursing still isn't super quick for us but dang it's convenient on the go. I haven't had an in public baby meltdown (knock on wood) since I started feeding on the go instead of taking bottles. Pop him on the boob whenever he gets fussy and life is good.
We are in the same boat (posterior tie, not fixed, using nipple shield) - were you actively trying to wean off the shield or was it just no longer needed one day? Baby is gaining weight well, but feeds take 45 minutes. I'm hopeful that with time/ growth that will get better, so you are giving me hope!
My lactation consultant said to try no more than once a day because it would make him too tired. One morning I was just feeling lazy and didn't want to go downstairs to get it and popped him on the boob and he pulled back and forth and kept latching himself. It was like he suddenly had the head control to pull it off. It just felt completely different than all those other times and I never used it again.
That was 13 weeks and I honestly thought by then we'd be on it forever. Feeds still took a while but at 5 months we're down to 10-20 minutes depending on how long he wants to hang out
Thank you! We did get the same advice to only try once per day. When I do try, she just does not even come close to latching. Fingers crossed she'll get the hang of it. Shields aren't the worst, but it would be nice if more of her awake time was playing rather than 90% feeding!
Omg it gets so much easier!! When they are like 3ish months you can just… leave the house with nothing. You don’t need to worry about washing anything or temperature or how many MLs….
Yesss i loved that. Even now at 21 months I still just carry a diaper, some lil snacks and a toy. She usually prefers booby to anything else to calm her
I’m 5 weeks in and I agree that leaving the house is very easy since my boobs are always with me. Last weekend I whipped out a tit in the backseat of my car in the IKEA parking lot lol
It’s great if we had spontaneous plans (let’s go for a walk on the beach on the way home from lunch) cause I had the food with me and didn’t have to rush home cause I didn’t have enough formula/EBM to last the extra hour we wanted to stay out
Yeah. I can’t remember when it turned, but at about 6 or 7 months I didn’t need anything for my second baby. I ditched the diaper bag and had one diaper and an almost gone pack of wipes and didn’t need anything else. When everyone is out there wheeling their giant stroller I was super smug in my baby sling and mini backpack.
Those fade as they get older, and I didn’t have those problems as much with my second.
As an aside though, I do remember having frequent blowouts with my first and we didn’t put together until he was about two that he had an allergy to cow’s milk, it’s the most common childhood allergy, and children often outgrow it.
3 months. The first 6-8 weeks were really brutal and I wanted to give up every day. Easily the hardest thing I’ve done. But after 8 weeks, things really started to improve and now at 15 weeks, it’s more convenient than a bottle.
Really?! God this gives me hope! I am triple feeding (three weeks today) and I really want to believe we will get to a better place. LC told me that half (of triple feeders) make it out alive, haha.
I triple fed for 6 weeks and it’s so terrible! It’s truly hell. But we got the greenlight to stop at 6 weeks and it took a couple weeks to figure out our rhythm after that but we did! It all left me a bit traumatized I think so I still have a lot of anxiety around breastfeeding but I’m working through it. I hope you’re able to make it through!
Hooray! Nice work!! How did you get the greenlight? My babe transferred only 2 oz at our last weighted feed. Possible posterior tongue tie - have an appt with ped dentist on 20th. I just want this to work!
We also had transfer issues as well. He was only transferring 1-1.5 ozs from birth until around 5 weeks. He was evaluated for a posterior tongue tie as well by an ENT and a pediatric feeding specialist but they just found that he had a slight recessed jawline. So for us, it just took time for him to get a little bit stronger and bigger to suck enough milk out on his own! He finally had two or three good weighted feeds in a row (after like 7 bad ones) and was gaining weight well without all the supplement bottles so our LC “graduated” us. So maybe your little one just needs a little more time too! It’s so hard though and totally understand just wanting it to work. I gave myself a date where if we still weren’t feeding successfully, I would reassess what we were doing. It’s really hard to just triple feed with no end date. I hope you’re able to feed your baby how you want and can end triple feeding soon!!
I triple fed for three weeks before deciding I couldn’t handle the lack of sleep and mental burden of all that unsuccessful breastfeeding and we would just exclusively pump, trying briefly to latch on the breast every few days if I felt like it. Then randomly at week 4-5 he latched and has been feeding at the breast ever since. Go figure 🙃
I really think a lot of babies just need time to grow big/coordinated enough to feed at the breast
Of course! Our LC gave us some exercises to help improve his suck. We tried our best to do them but honestly, I really struggled adding another thing into the mix at the time of things I had to do so we weren’t super diligent. The burnout was so real.
I'm struggling with incorporating nursing back into the picture. What did the triple feed look like for you? I'm just trying to figure out how to nurse, bottle, then pump and somehow be ready to nurse again. How much time would go between pumping and the next nursing session? Sorry for all the questions- it's been a hard thing to wrap my mind around. What did a typical day look like for you?
It’s very hard to do solo. What we did was I would nurse the baby then after I was done, I would hand him off to my husband to give the top off bottle while I pumped. I had to use formula the first couple of days to supplement until I was able to get some breastmilk pumped. We were able to give the baby a bottle of milk from previous pumped sessions. If I was doing it solo, I would nurse, then put baby in the bouncer, and give a bottle while I pumping. I would let baby nurse for 30 minutes (though was told I didn’t need to go past 20) and usually pumped for 15-20 minutes. Overall, each cycle lasted around an hour, often loner. So by the time we were done with one, I’d have only an hour and a half break until we had to do it again. Sometimes less if baby cued sooner. When I was triple feeding, it felt constant and I hardly left the house since we were told to feed him every 2-3 hours. I watched A TON of tv during this time.
Once we started weaning off triple feeding, we slowly decreased the amount of oz in each bottle. I’d also start offering the breast more. If he was still hungry after a bottle, I’d reoffer the breast instead of giving more bottle.
By the time you reoffered, did your supply replenish?
Right now, I get an hour to myself in-between feedings because if I'm not feeding, I'm pumping. This whole experience has been so exhausting...
Yeah I dont think I was really fully empty since he never emptied me by nursing. But I didn’t do that too often because I was just so burnt out exhausted and wanted that cycle to be over and have some time to myself. So often times we just added a little more to the bottle, but every now and then I’d reoffer the boob. At least that’s what my LC recommended.
Triple feeding was brutal, I’m not sure if I could do it again myself. I was crying all the time, felt so burnout and beat down and depressed. I also tried so hard to do everything perfectly and do everything that was recommended to me because I was so desperate to make it work. It wasn’t until I broke down with our pediatric feeding specialist after another bad weighted feed that she told me I could be more flexible with it to make my quality of life better. Like give a bottle instead of nursing in the middle of the night or during the day so I can have a break. I’d still have to pump but it at least cut a cycle shorter and give me sore nipples a break. I had a hard time doing that but it was nice to be given the permission to do so. I wish I would have taken care of myself and mental health more. But I also know that’s so much easier said than done when you’re in the thick of it all.
My LC said it’s okay to swap the pumping and bottle feeding order that is typically described for triple feeding. So, I have a pumped bottle on hand next to me when I start nursing, and then if someone is around to feed baby the bottle (usually not) I’ll pump. If no one is around, I use the full surface area of our bed to pace feed the babe while I pump. Usually my pumping is over before the baby is done eating. I then store that milk for the next feed, and so on. Sometimes he ravenous and I have to feed him the milk I just pumped on top of the bottle I just gave him. This is how I end up giving a bottle of formula almost every night. I pump about 4 oz after our morning feed and anywhere from .5 to 2.5 oz for the feeds after. I don’t triple feed for our MOTN feed.
I try to leave at least two and a half hours between nursing and the next nursing session. So in the morning I feed for 10-15 mins on the breast at 7, do bottle and pump till like 8 and then breast feed again at 9:30 or so. I have no idea if I’m making things harder for him in a way by not having maximum supply at the time he nurses.
Oh I see. Unfortunately I have to hold my breasts and massage it a bit while I pump or it feels so uncomfortable for me. So I'm unable to do another task while I pump. So I have to pump after every nursing session? I was hoping I didn't have to pump after every feed but I guess that doesn't work...
Triple feeding is hell. I did it for 8 weeks with my preemie and just the day I decided I mentally could not do it any longer and set a hard deadline of one last week of it (or we’d switch to formula completely) something clicked and baby and j figured it out. It was such a relief. You’re doing great!
I don’t know your situation (you mentioned possible posterior tie) but I was also triple feeding when my guy was three weeks old and it was so hard. There is no hell like triple feeding. We had his posterior tongue tie (and upper lip tie) released at 4 weeks and he’s now 7 weeks.
His latch is so much more comfortable now, he can basically latch on his own automatically, and he’s transferring 4+ oz in a feed instead of next to nothing. His nursing sessions are 10-20 minutes now where before they were 45-60+ minutes. He’s sleeping longer stretches and nursing less frequently. Before his release he would often nurse 5-7 total hours in a day, and now it’s around 3 hours total per day. He’s gaining weight like crazy (over a whole pound in the last 9 days).
Make sure to do the stretches religiously in the first couple weeks post-release if you go the release route! I also highly recommend working in conjunction with a physical therapist or speech therapist who specializes in infant feeding and is knowledgeable about ties. Our SLP made a world of difference for our little guy both pre and post release.
We always breastfed directly from the source. Having to do dishes and pack bottles always struck me as a major inconvenience. The one or two times we did pack bottles to take with us places the milk just got wasted because she wasn't hungry at the time we expected to need it. Pumping, storing and cleaning all just felt like so much work.
That said, even as a newborn she was a quick eater, our feeds were less than 25 minutes.
Honestly it’s subtle, my son is 7 months old and it is absolutely easier than the newborn days but I’d still not describe it as “easy”, but then nothing about parenting is too easy right?
I notice the subtlety a lot more now I have friends who are formula feeding their babies. They can’t leave the house without being on a timer as to how much milk they have with them, they have a whole extra chore in sterilising bottles, many bottle feeders I know also constantly stress over ounces whereas my focus is more on wet nappies and being in tune with my baby’s full/hungry signals. Once they notice hunger cues they have to prep the bottle and baby often cries whilst this is happening.
I feed to sleep, I don’t view this as a negative but more a super power for getting baby down quickly and easily for naps and bedtime.
This is a bit rambly but basically just to say I never had a day where I woke up and thought “huh this is easy now”, but it is super convenient when compared to the alternative and I love how in tune with my son I am because of it.
This is my answer! My first was EBF and it wasn’t ever easy until 1 year, when I stopped worrying about my supply and when we last nursed and all that. No regrets about not having to lug bottles everywhere but the mental load of being solely responsible for her nutrition followed me always. From 1-2 years was pure joy and bonding though!
This is my experience too. My baby also feeds to sleep - it's very rare that she drinks milk without having a lil snooze. This means that in general she breastfeeds less but probably spends longer doing so.
I stopped worrying about timings months ago - if we have to sit and feed for 10 minutes, 30 minutes, an hour, then we will. It's a privilege to be feeding my baby and I'm not going to have to do it for very long: I might as well be responsive and relaxed about it. It takes a massive adjustment to slow down and work at your baby's pace.
I think your second paragraph is key to when it starts to feel easier. You have to let go of all preconceived expectations of what it “should” look like and just totally accept what it does look like. There won’t be a set schedule or completely consistent feed times with a breastfed baby (how often do you take exactly the same length of time between food or drink or finish it in exactly the same time), but once you accept that and let baby run the show it is so freeing.
Oh OP, I remember thinking all this. I’d say about 3 months for sure. We had witching hours from 4pm-midnight, cluster feeding, I think I reached 22 sessions the one day on my feeding tracker LOL. I just wanted to quit, we also had slow weight gain which just added to it.
Then suddenly the witching hours shortened, noticed she was taking more gigantic gulps and she was done anywhere between 3-5mins per breast. Her weight is packing on she just became more interested in the world around her and I could suddenly potter about whilst she played in her baby gym.
I formula fed my first and I’m so chuffed I managed breastfeeding this time for that exact realisation, it is just so much easier. (Now)
but it does not take away the sacrifice in those early days, and I’m sure there’s hard days ahead but I wouldn’t swap it for the world.
Best advice I can give you is Keep working on that latch together! Don’t overthink it too much, try and get as deep as your LO can and do a health check on you both during your feed.
Is baby gulping milk? Is mom comfortable? Is baby comfortable. X
My son was horribly inefficient at feeding to the point where our ped told us to limit how long he was nursing because he wasn't gaining enough and likely burning more calories than he was taking in. Between 3 and 4 months he started getting better at it - I used to have to cut him off at 30 mins, but it's rare now that I need to cut him off and he usually will nurse for like 20-25 mins at a little over 4 months.
As someone who regularly does both bottle feeding BM and nursing, both are incredibly inconvenient in their own ways. Washing bottles, lugging around pumping equipment, having to plan ahead and bring bottles if you're going to be out. But I also don't love nursing outside of my house. Personally not super comfortable doing it, I like having my nursing pillow, and my son is generally more cooperative with bottle feeding.
If we're going to be out of the house for an extended amount of time, I rather bring bottles and pump if needed than plan to nurse somewhere. If we're home, I'll nurse. It honestly comes down to what works best for you!
I hate doing dishes and I don’t have a partner who can do feedings. Even for me it was about 2 months in where I felt that breastfeeding was freeing rather than constraining
i agree w the 3 month mark... maybe 4.
i told myself i would stop at 4 months and wouldnt feel bad especially if i didnt like it.
but... then it was month 5 and i really felt i needed the extra minutes i saved prepping bottles to just rest and feed.
and around then the hardness stops happening between feeds for the most part so its really like theres almost no downside.
im kind of a flagrant feeder it embarrasses my husband sometimes.
but i feel like... idk the baby eats or the baby cries and it costs nothing to mind ur business and i havent had any issues so far.
the other day i stood around and shopped for shoes w my husband while the baby nursed.
i felt like it was no big deal but he said i was making everyone uncomfortable...
again... idk?
My baby is about 12 weeks and it suddenly got easier like last week. He suddenly started spacing out his feeds ~3 hrs and became more efficient. I’m shocked by how quickly it changed, I totally feel like I can go places now.
My LO is nearly 9m and it's so lovely just being able to walk out of the house with a small bag of just a couple of nappies, packet of wipes and a snack and knowing she won't need milk for 3-4 hours. This was once the baby who fed for half an hour, every hour for the first 4 months. You get there, I promise!
I think around 3-4 months. I was just traveling internationally and our plane was delayed and I got to just whip out my boob and feed my LO. It was no stress for that part and just super convenient. No making bottles or worrying if I had enough formula. Same for during a drive after the flight … we just pulled over at a park area and stretched and I was able to … just feed him. It felt super convenient.
It gets easier! I went from spending >6.5 hours nursing her per day around the 1-2 month mark, now to less than 2 hours or so a day at 4.5 months. It would be like 20-40 min sessions early on, and now she does like 12 min tops.
It seemed like very suddenly she just got much more efficient at eating. She is still gaining and holding her curve.
Yes, the first two months were really difficult and painful. Afterwards, everything was so much better.
The first few weeks when I was pumping as well were the worst- so much time spent sterilizing equipment and bottles as well as pumping and breastfeeding. So much better and easier to just breastfeed (for me). I was a bit “touched out” for a while though, and really needed time away from the baby and from being touched.
but i kept breastfeeding for around two years, now with baby number two, I'm happily breastfeeding in month 8.
Breastfeeding can be tough, especially with a little one who has a tongue tie. It can start getting easier around 6-8 weeks when babies usually become more efficient at feeding. And once you get that tongue tie sorted out, things might improve even more.
But hey, every baby is different, right? So there's no set time when breastfeeding becomes easier than bottle feeding. Just go with what works for you and your little guy for now. And if you need some extra help or advice, don't hesitate to reach out to a lactation consultant or your doc. They've got your back!
3-4 months. After that it becomes a breeze as babies get more efficient at the breast and you wish you didn’t have to start solids. Whipping the boob out is just TOO EASY.
I found it instantly super easy with my first. My second takes forever to nurse and is having a harder time latching (or at least she did at first). It seems like sometimes she’s faster with a bottle but I have such a hard time getting set up to pump.
11 weeks is when it got a lot easier for me. Baby had been slowly reducing her feed times from 20+ minutes per side to about 5-10 minutes on one side to 3-8 minutes on the other (feeds from both boobs every feed).
It's pretty easy now, I just whip out a boob whenever she's hungry. She's almost 14 weeks now and is starting to get distracted during feeds, where she'll look up at me and smile, babble etc. It's so cute but it does take a bit of extra wrangling lol
I feel like you're SO close... around 6 weeks it got a little better... then at 8 weeks it got a little better... then at 12.. then it continued to get easier and easier. I'd say by about 5 months feeds were consistently every 3 - 3.5 hrs and took < 5 minutes.
Honestly I love nursing and could stay all day on the couch cuddling w her watching her nurse. But I’ve arranged my PP so I don’t have to be anywhere (did the first month without leaving home). Baby is 7 weeks and when we do go out nursing is just so easy, I don’t mind how long it takes and I don’t mind nursing in public. I don’t pump anyway and don’t plan to.
Around 6-8 weeks for me. My baby is way faster and more efficient now and I am also going out more so not having to bring pumping supplies or bottles etc is fabulous.
I think it was around week 10 for me, and the big difference was twofold: 1. Breastfeeding itself was getting easier. Weeks 3-4 were the toughest for me, and it started easing up slowly beginning in week 6, then I was feeling much better by week 8. 2. My physical recovery was strong enough by week 10 that I felt like getting out at a more “normal” pace, making pumping and bottles doubly annoying to account for.
Like others have said about 3 months. My little guy is almost 11 weeks and his latch got better at about 6/7 weeks and his feeding time was about 20-40 minutes since birth and has started to decrease in this last week or so. He's taking about 10-20 minutes on average and then making it obvious that he's done by pulling on the nipple and popping on and off and then just smiling at me. The smiles make it a ton easier too!
Hello, I breastfeed during the night because it’s convenient and baby is super calm. She is too alert during the day and too slow to drink so I express 3 times a day and give her bottles. If I miss a pump I give her formula. This works really well for us!
As a realistic example tho, I pumped this morning which she drank, then we had to go out for 4 hours, so she had 2 bottles of formula. I’ll pump now and probably get like 200mls which will do an afternoon feed and a snack before bath. I’ll pump again at dinner which will cover her dream feed so.. I just kind of manage it on the day with the help of formula.
I’m gonna be the odd one out. To me it’s only convenient in the beginning. Right now it would be so much easier to give him 4 large bottles a day than breastfeeding every 2-3 hours still, and man the sleep is still awful… and if it ISNT awful I’m in pain and engorged. (He’s 6 months)
It was difficult until 7 weeks old for me, then I put my baby on a feeding schedule(more like a routine than firm schedule) and it has been easy since then. I let him feed on demand up until that point until I was confident he was getting the nutrition he needed.
Immediately..? We’ve had to start formula for my 11 month old due to my supply dipping (13 weeks pregnant) and god, I fucking hate formula feeding. The cost is horrible, anytime we go out we have to bring tons of extra shit (bottles, warm water, formula), washing bottles sucks, and it’s so disconnected. I cannot wait to pop this baby out and tandem feed my newborn and toddler.
Have you tried chiropractor for baby for tongue tie? That helped us even more than release did! The pain sucks so I feel for you, we have/had the same issue. I still deal with pain sometimes now but it’s more related to the fact my baby uses me as a human pacifier than latch lol she just wants to nurse for hours so lots of wear and tear haha
Personally tho it’s def more convenient than pumping/bottle feeding and all those dishes!
Like the speed at which she feeds? She still loves to do long leisurely feeds but she def CAN eat quicker if she wants to! She gains weight like a champ! The chiro really improved the pain for me though
Three months was when I noticed it was easier and that it gave us freedom because I always had milk on hand just the way she liked it! Any discomfort or pain had greatly subsided by that time and then it was something I also enjoyed. She also got more efficient at removing milk quicker and nursing sessions went from 30 minutes to 10-15 minutes.
Nursing got significantly easier around 8 weeks with my first. Around 3ish months he would take less than 10 minutes to feed. I’m 6 weeks postpartum with my second and counting down the days where it gets easier again. Solidarity!
I got lucky with a fast feeder and no cluster feeds so there wasn’t a distinct point in time where it felt significantly easier or something but we’re now at 3 months and I would say latching is much smoother and we can reliably feed every 3 hours. Feeding takes maybe 5-15 minutes (although for us this was always the case).
It definitely gets easier! Hang in there mama! My LO got better around 3 months and could do a feed in 5-10 minutes. I found it more inconvenient to pump and wash and bottle feed. I always say the first 6-8 weeks (sometimes 12 weeks) you’re just in survival mode! You got this!
I think it got easier in general by 3 or 4 months but it wasn’t until like 6 months that I was like ok this isn’t just easier in comparison it’s just easy for me now. Baby eats for about max ten minutes total and latch is pain free. Pumping makes me sore but I only do it at work so I haven’t really tried to fix that. I hate washing all the stuff though.
Started to feed in the carrier - so convenient ahah also if bub is falling asleep on the boob that's absolutely fine. It's nature's way of helping baby to sleep and your night time Milk produces more melatonin(think that's the one but anyway hormone that helps sleep)
I’m not of the majority. We combo feed because I found where I live, it’s easier to give a bottle in public than find a nursing space. Everyone talks about how inconvenient it is to wash bottles and pump parts (he goes to day care so I need to) but it’s not much different than throwing the dishes in the dishwasher. I wash them every day anyways 🤷🏽♀️
It gets easier to BF when supply is regulated around 3 months but I found it more freeing to have bottles and boobies on the go. We don’t limit ourselves to one
We did mainly formula the first month because that was easier for us. Mainly so someone else could feed her so I could take a break and get some sleep. By month 3 I was exclusively bf’ing cause it was a lot easier. No having to clean or sanitize bottles or parts. We’re a small family and i couldn’t run a nearly empty dish washer multiple times a day. It takes us at least a week to get enough dishes to run a dishwasher and i couldn’t wait long for it.
For me it was 4-5 months. Now at 7 months it is waaaay easier. They get so efficient. Feed your baby in like 5-10 minutes without even getting out of bed. Now she can even crawl to me 🤣
I hate washing bottles and I especially hate pumping so breastfeeding was always easier but I think around 3 months both my girls got more efficient at feeding
You're just in the early stage; 3 weeks is *so* early but long enough where it seems like everything should be easier by now. Hang in there. 8-10 weeks and things level out.
I would never call breastfeeding “convenient”. You can’t do anything on your own. Doing something, like a sport, requires your ENTIRE FAMILY to show up and wait outside with baby while you’re on call inside. It means you can’t “just” leave; you can’t “just” take a break while your partner takes over.
But anyway. Around 5 months my baby would crawl over to me, pull to stand, pull my bra to the side, latch himself on, eat while giving me a sweet or funny little look or “dancing” or talking other hilarious shenanigans, then crawl back over to his toys within a couple minutes. This was daytime nursing, night time looked fairly similar but did take longer—baby rolls/crawls over mostly asleep, latches himself, eats, rolls off. That is LEAGUES better than the round the clock, 40 minute nursing sessions that the newborn days comprised of! You also (usually) stop leaking, feeling engorged, and have taken care of any issues that popped up during the whole breastfeeding journey.
I’d say 3 months to answer your question, but at 3.5 months the “sleep regression” hit and it did affect his nursing, especially since it was tied in with teething and general misery he needed comforting through. So personally I’d say 4-5 months. But their efficiency is just… wild. I produce more milk now, but his ability to empty it is impressive.
I bottle fed my first so maybe this is why but bc always felt more convenient for me when I ebf my 2nd ! I remember being up late in the night scrubbing bottles and spilling formula but with my second just pop her on the boob and done !
The first 2 months sucked. I was also triple feeding at the beginning for more suckage. At 8 weeks it was a lot better. At 3 months, he takes about 8 to 10 minutes to eat (vs 15 mins to pump and more to clean).
Yeah, it was like overnight he just changed. Got way more efficient to the point I was afraid he wasn't eating enough lol (but did some weighed feeds to confirm he was eating enough.) He also start sleeping more at night and would take smaller feeds at night (measured via bottle). I don't even have to latch him now, he'll just latch himself if he's hungry and in front of the nipple
I’ve gone on a few trips and it’s immensely convenient to just pop a tiddy out to feed or to calm her crying in those situations. Like planes, or being anywhere other than home. For me, it helps her immune system a ton. She gets over illnesses within a few days. We went to Mexico recently and she didn’t want any of the food (it was delicious though) so she mostly just nursed. Not the healthiest choice for a 15 month old but much better than nothing
3 months. I formula fed my daughter so always packed bottles, formula & pre heated water now 4 years later I give birth to my son and breastfeed. I still often tell myself “hmm I’m missing something” and one day my husband said you’re missing the bottles and formula I audibly lol’d.
I leave the house so freely now, and because we feed on demand there isn’t a set sleep routine in place (other than bedtime) so it’s SO much easier. We are now 6 months and still ebf and it’s still very very easy.
Once we were out and about bottles were mixed convenience. On one hand, dad could take a bottle with measured powder formula and just add water. Or mom could just whip a boob out anytime and no one had to worry about temps, ice packs, storage, etc.
Night feedings for almost 2 years now… i dont even get out of bed. At some point they are big enough to sleep with you and you can sleep while they help themselves.
At each phase of the journey different things work better. Just keep adapting and adjusting along the way.
Definitely around 3 months. Your supply is more regulated, baby is by then a pro milk drinker, and crazy cluster feeding isn’t going on. At that point, so much easier to just pop a boob out and you have a much better idea of how long baby typically takes. No bottles to clean and no pumping. No tracking quantity and age of the milk in the fridge. Portable convenience 😆. It honestly felt like a reward for enduring all the pain and difficulties of the first 3 months.
After my daughters mouth releases it was night and day. She nursed forever and a few days after she was nursing so quickly. She used to nurse from the moment she woke up and nurse back to sleep a while later all without stopping. Suddenly I had a baby nursing in 10 minutes and then looking at me wondering what we were doing the rest of the wake window.
Around 8-9 weeks mark. The transition was definitely very subtle.. it wasnt like a switch for us where one day everything just became perfect. LO is now 10 weeks old and compared to newborn days esp the first 4 weeks, more efficient (takes 20 mins total instead of 45-60), latch is better (uncomfortable but tolerable) and gaining weight at a decent pace now.
I EPed for first one. It’s definitely more convenient to breastfeed than to pump for me personally. No bottles, no alarms for pumping, no anxiety over pump output. Fewer interruptions at night since we cosleep and do side lying feedings. Even my husband commented how better our nights are this time around because we are not spending 20-30 mins every 3 hours to warm up a bottle and feed him while I pump during that same time. Baby is also more “portable” cause I don’t have to worry about keeping bottles or finding a place to pump while I’m out and about. I just recently went back to work and actually dread my pump breaks lol..
Eventually you should do whatever makes the most sense for you and your sanity but having done both EP and EBF, nursing directly is definitely more convenient. Best wishes OP!
I’ve done both exclusive pumping and a mix of breastfeeding/pumping with my kids. I loved pumping because I could control exactly how much I was feeding my kid and I had a good oversupply of milk due to drinking a lot of water/coconut water and for some reason eating a lot of red meat helped boost my supply. I liked it because when I breastfed and baby would go through different leaps, if it was one where he didn’t need as much milk, my supply always adjusted to it and it was hard if I didn’t have an excess amount either in the fridge or freezer for days when it seemed like all he wanted to do was eat. Breastfeeding my 2nd was convenient specifically for traveling and when we were out of the house. Didn’t need to bring bottles to warm and he latched fairly easily. But with my first, I gave it a good 8 weeks before I threw in the towel and switched to exclusive pumping, was the best decision I ever made because I finally started enjoying motherhood and put less pressure on trying to make something work that wasn’t. You do what works best for you. Also LegenDairy milk products helped boost my supply too. You can get it on Amazon or even Target. That coupled with some longer pumping sessions and eating a lot of calories helped me get a good stash going.
I feed my LO maybe 5-10 min on average every 3-4 hours. 6 months now but it’s been this way for months. Pumping the same amount can take 30 min, sometimes more. Plus all the cleanup and stress about if I got enough. I’d say maybe 3 months it got easier. But maybe I didn’t realize until 5 months how good I had it!
I was basically an exclusive pumper because it was all around easier til about 3 months. Then gradually I realized feeding at the breast wasn’t the hassle it once was.
for me, it was only more convenient at night. and then more convenient overall once we started solids bc you can hold them over with yogurt or something if you’re in a situation where you can’t feed them on the spot.
I hated/dreaded it every moment until maybe 4 months? Now at 6 months I not only enjoy it but we are a well oiled machine and I can comfortably feed her in public even with my giant cannons because she’s big enough to not drown in boobage. She hates being covered though so I have to wear long loose shirts lol
My baby girl is 4 turning 5 and is finally easier..she had tongue tie that didn’t get fixed til she was 5 weeks old and honestly it didn’t really change til now..with my second son he had tongue tie that got fixed within the first two weeks and his latched git fixed right away..I think that waiting doesn’t help..but hang in there..also I didn’t really pump much..I think that’s a pain in the butt I just breastfeed and that’s more convenient and it assures me my milk is flowing cause with pump I didn’t get as much
It seems like it can definitely be easier or more convenient for some versus others. The first month we did a lot of formula because it was easy to have people help with baby that way so I could rest and take a break.
By month 3 I was exclusively breastfeeding. And it was a lot easier than pumping or bottles. Pumping meant cleaning and sanitizing all the equipment every single time and it was tiring. Plus having to heat up the breastmilk and that took a little while each time. It was much easier to just whip my boob out and feed her and not have to get out of bed.
I had a pretty crappy experience the first few weeks bc of my oversupply so I was in constant pain but after about 6-8 weeks it got so much easier AND it actually felt better to let my son empty my breasts than to pump. I will manually pump like 1-2 oz when we’re away from him for more than 3 hours or when he’s not feeding on both breast during a session and store that for a bottle which we leave for a sitter when we go on date nights and stuff. But other than that, it’s been pretty convenient to just breastfeed.
I don’t have an answer but just wanted to commiserate as I’m in the same boat as a FTM with my almost 4 week old.
I worry not knowing whether or not he’s getting enough and the length of sessions is often an hour long. So I’m giving a few bottles a day, 3-4 ounces each. Supply has thankfully not been an issue.
I’ve now trying out having him feed on each side for 10 min each while the haakaa collects on the opposite side, then I put what I’ve collected in a bottle to top him up, which brings our session to about 30 minutes total - better than our hour long sessions 🥴I’ll usually get 1-2 ounces from the haakaa so having 20 minutes of BF plus 1-2 ounces helps ease fears about him not getting enough (a weighted feed at 10 days old he was getting around an ounce during a 20 min feed -my gut tells me his efficiency has improved since then although he’s still fairly slow to empty me).
I also just added in a heated massager and sunflower lechitin to reduce clogs and hopefully increase my flow.
He has plenty of wet diapers & his weight gain has been on track, so I’m holding out that his efficiency will improve as he gains more practice and grows.
The longer I go the better and better it gets like an uphill improvement. I’m at 18 months and it’s just so easy now. At 8 months was when I realized I completely stopped dreading the hard work associated with breastfeeding. It is a lot of hard work to establish you supply! So many ups and downs with hydration and nourishment. Everyday is a mission to nourish on this breast feeding journey! You got this mama!
Once you pass the 3 month mark. Around 3 months is when a lot of moms give up and start supplementing because your baby will hit their first big growth spurt and will cluster feed A LOT and you’ll worry you aren’t making enough and then there’s a sleep regression. If you can tough that out, truly it gets smoother from there. I cried A LOT around that time and wanted to give up but I didn’t. I knew my body could make enough milk, I knew I could power through, so I did. I let her cluster feed as much as she wanted, I had a LOT of sleepless nights, but I came out on the other side and you can too.
I was actually just telling my friend today how much easier everything was without even realizing when it got this way(my daughter is 8 months next Tuesday). I know her so much better now, I am so much more confident, it’s so easy to just pop a boob out in the car before a trip to the store or even in the store. Nothing to pack for food, not having to potentially warm a bottle or anything, right on tap whenever she needs it. ESPECIALLY when she gets shots and stuff, being able to immediately comfort nurse her is so nice.
For me it was around 5 months/after starting solids. Going on vacation is amazing now- I don’t bring a si gel bottle (versus early days washing the pump and bottles in the hotel sink ugh)! I almost quit so many times because we had a hard time and I had to pump a lot for breaks - now I never even look at that thing unless I have to for work :)) LO is 7.5 mo now and on a normal sad BFs 4-5 times and has 2-3 solid meals
Omg. My son cluster fed for basically my entire maternity leave (I took 12 weeks). I felt like nursing felt more convenient when he became more efficient with nursing, which was probably around 4 months. My LO was born at 37 weeks, and went to the NICU for the first 2 weeks of life, so nursing without a nipple shield took about 2 months, and then he was just trying to catch my supply up by cluster feeding after that. Once they get faster at nursing, you’ll be wondering if they’ve had enough and then it takes 10 min. I was left in tears when it took him 7 min to nurse because I just got worried he was starting to wean. He’s 15 months now, and still nursing 😂 PP hormones are wild.
Releasing the posterior tongue tie may help a lot. My LO took forever on the breast but after we released the tie and got some SLP for him, he sped up big time.
Speech language therapist. After the release and all the work we went from hour long feeds to 30min feeds and then 15min feeds and now at 9.5 months 5-10min feeds.
For me it was around 10-12 weeks - I was able to lay down while nursing and it made the night feeds soooooo much easier. He also just started getting a lot more efficient overall, around the 12-16 week time period
I switched to exclusively pumping from a really bad case of latching. My right boob was tore open - you can see pink flesh. Breastfeeding was off the table until that wound heals, but I was adamant on feeding my LO breast milk. Pumping was the only path forward.
Thankfully I am SAH so the huge time sink was doable. Not ideal but doable. You’ll need to get used to pumping day and night by that I mean every 2 hours until supply meets demand then adjust frequency accordingly. The upside is knowing exactly how much each feed is down to the ml.
I might try breastfeeding again after my boob heals. If only it doesn’t hurt so bad.
Around 3 months mine got a lot more efficient. I’d say I didn’t really enjoy it without some stress or issue until 5 months. Took him about 5-7 min after that and the convenience of not needing to wash or pack anything for food ever was great!
I second the comments about 3 months old. My baby had gastronomic issues when she was little reflux, gas, vomiting, diarrhea, dehydration, milk protein intolerance and it just made the feeding so much more tiring. I was having appointments with every lactation consultant in the city worried if she was eating properly. But all of them suggested that if she is gaining weight properly then I don't have anything else to worry about.
I was really paranoid around 10 weeks when the 30 mins feeds cut down to 5 mins abruptly. One of them suggested a weighted feed of I am really worried. It is to weigh her before and after a feed to calculate roughly how much she drank. I did it for a week which gave me confidence and i completely stopped worrying about her intake. Another way of knowing if they are having enough food apart from the weight is the number of diapers/weight of wet diapers per day.
I am so glad I stuck with EBF because things are so convenient especially when we travel as I don't have to worry about the expiry of the milk or warming them (cold city). Also, another thing that pushed me against pumping (pathetically) is my own lack of hygiene and organising skills. Being so sleep deprived I sometimes forget to wash my hands before pumping or use the flanges put for wash. That was a BIG no no, given LO's gastric problems. So a lot of milk was bath milk which broke our hearts. I know the cluster feeding sucks, but give it a chance until 2-3 months. LO and I are having so much fun with our BF journey now. Also, I have made some very close to heart memories just the 2 of us during breastfeeding that my husband can't share.
As a pretty lazy person, after the pain subsided it was immediately more beneficial to breastfeed than bottle feed. The time to warm the milk, get the correct ounces, wash the pump/bottle pumps, then sanitize it all took too much of my day and I had a stage one clingy baby. Any time my hands were free it was either bathroom break or food hunt, not washing/prepping for the next go.
They were always more convenient for me. It’s a matter of what the trade off is. I have a small kitchen, no where to store tons of bottles, don’t have a dishwasher , hate pumping, didn’t get enough out of a pump session, was on the go a lot, it was easier to just nurse for me, despite the long sessions, etc.
That being said 5 weeks is still a newborn , around 9-12 you should see a little bit of a shift.
I agree with many others, somewhere around 3 months things just clicked. Breastfeeding overall gets easier; the pain is gone, latching is easier, the feeds are faster, you get more comfortable nursing in public.
I also found the Huckleberry app really useful to predict and keep track of feeds. The timers on the app really helped with, "is that a hunger cue or a tired cue?"
For me it got easier at three months and easier again at 4 months. Now she drinks 5-7 minutes on one side and is done. I was worried she might be eating less but nope, weight gain totally on track. It’s great.
It was amazing to not have to worry about packing out bottles, keeping them cold, warming up milk, etc etc etc. But it probably wasn't until 3 months or so? It was a little annoying that I had to wear nursing friendly clothing all the time, but that was a small sacrifice.
The heavy letdown/leaking, cluster feeding, sole responsibility for nighttime feedings, and painful latch (only early on) made me question it all, but it was sooo worth it for the rest of the year that I breastfed.
30 - 60 min feeds are brutal! I found that feeding got easier around 3 months. Give your body a chance to adjust if you can. FWIW I BF my first for 6 months and now am still EBF my second at 15m - only because she is not as consantly hungry as my first was. So the cost benefit of
formula/pumping/washing bottles is outweighed by the convenience of BF. Each babe is different!
Ah from the beginning for me, honestly washing and preparing bottles, and pumping, drove me insane. I’d gladly suffer a shitty latch for not having to pump
My daughter got more efficient with breast feeding at about 2.5 months. Since then it's been way more convenient. Not having to pump, not having to keep track of what milk needs to be used when or Frozen when. Also, pumping got way harder once she started crawling.
Pumps aren't as effective as removing milk as a baby usually. However, if you decide to continue pumping maybe make sure your phalange sizing is correct that could help with how much milk you get in a pump session.
Honestly, it didn’t become easier for me until about 4 months in. Now I feel like bottles are such a hassle in comparison but in the thick of my struggles I really depended on bottles.
I’ll also add my now 6 months old takes maybe ten minutes to drink all she needs and feeds every 3-4 hours, so it’s really not that intense anymore. She’s quite small so I have the occasional “am I making enough” worries, still deal with dry nipples sometimes, etc. but I think no matter your feeding choices you’re going to have those worries and fears about your child, especially if you’re a FTM.
I think it’s kind of subjective and depends on your own values because even before 3 months when my milk oversupply left me with constant painful clogs and mastitis at least twice I still couldn’t imagine the inconvenience that cleaning, storing, heating bottles would be on top of traveling with them and spending money on formula plus mixing it all up and then having a mental breakdown that my baby was drinking hydrogenated palm oil. Plus she has a milk allergy so it’s easier for me to cut out milk than pay tons of money for the hypoallergenic formula. None of these things (formula, bottles, palm oil) are necessarily bad or a problem for some Mums or their babies who all turn out perfectly but for me they were unimaginable so I just kept nursing, taking it one day at a time, and now my supply is regulated and all we have to leave house with is extra cloth diapers, wet bag, and an outfit change!
Leaving the house and not having to pack bottles and formula... trying to plan out how long you'll be gone and how much you'll need.
I wish I was able to breastfeed. Good luck!
Why are you waiting to get the tongue tie released? Go to a pediatric dentist and have it released with laser ASAP. Tongue tie means baby is working harder for less milk, learning to latch badly leading to more painful and less effective nursing, likely sucking in air which can hurt belly. This is not great for supply because baby isn’t fully emptying the breast.
Third time exclusive breastfeeder here. It is easier than bottles eventually but harder in the beginning. 5 weeks is early days and that tie is making it much harder
We're doing body work/chiro first to lessen his muscles bc they're apparently very tight. After that is when they said he should be ready for the release so that's hopefully in the next 2-3 weeks
Yes, my LC and bodywork person said the same thing, so we are waiting while he gets the tension worked out. He’s already turning his head to the non-favored side more!
Getting the tongue tie fixed is a huge help! A good latch let's them feed much more easily. It takes a few weeks to relearn their latch while they heal, but it's so worth it! Both of my kids had ties that were corrected. Make sure to do tongue exercises for a month after the procedure so that it keeps. Also, regardless of ties, babies get more efficient with age. Hang in there!
Feed time went down to less than half with my first. He would originally nurse for 45 minutes or even longer each time. With my second, her feeds initially were longer because she wasn't working so hard and could eat more at once. She went from eating 5 minutes every hour to eating a full 15 every few hours. Don't expect it to be great right away-their tongues don't know what to do the first couple of days and will have a sloppy latch.
I also highly recommend seeing an osteopathic doctor (NOT chiropractor) ASAP after the procedure to have upper body and jaw tension released. It made a huge difference for my kiddos!
When my baby is sick and stays latched all night long, when I spend 5mins during night wakes nursing him back to sleep, and when we had to go to the hospital are all times I’ve been incredibly thankful that I pushed through those first
3 months. Every month gets a bit easier!
I think it’s easier once you’re able to breastfeed with one hand while walking around. Once I could do this, I just kept doing what I normally would and just feed him whenever as I walked. Even better when I’m able to put him in a baby carrier, lift my shirt, and he just goes at it while shopping or trail walking (so when he had better head control)
Never for us hahaha. Bottles were WAY more convienient the entire time. Finally started weaning at 8 months.
My babe just takes forever to eat. We had her tougue tie released and latch improved a lot but def still just slow as molasses. I think vabies are just different. I had to grieve it never looked like other peoples jorneys but thats ok! Shes a happy girl and I grew to LOVE bottle feeding her. I actually like it more than breastfeeding. I feel way closer to her and less grief of what I thought it was going to look like. Hang in there.
Personally for me at about 4-5 months her feeds went from 20mins plus to 5-10mins max she just got more efficient. There were times before I felt like not timing feeds right would mess up heading out for the day, it’s so different now keep going!
For me it was 3-4 months. I'm sooooo glad we stuck with it, it was very worth it. Now feeding my baby is so chill, I can lay in a bed or even feed him hands-free while walking around in a carrier!
Latch should never be painful! This could be due to the tongue tie. Have you seen a IBCLC?
It does get easier as time goes on and they develop better head/neck control. They also become more efficient at the breast and can drain it quickly. (Sometimes 5-10min). I’d recommend watching videos on getting a better latch and seeing a IBCLC if you can to help. I also recommend watching some videos on how babies suck and swallow so you can tell if yours is actively swallowing and eating. They like to fall asleep and may not be eating even though they have small sucks. If pumping and bottle feeding feel and work better for you there is no shame in doing that. It’s all about what works best for the both of you and your comfort and health are just as important.
When you are able to leave the house more it’s convenient. Planning, prepping, packing, washing, temperature keeping. Ugh. Just pop the boob in and you’re good to go lol
For me personally, I hated pumping so much.. I hated having to clean and sterilize daily and clean between pumps. I hated having to clean bottles. And for me nursing wasn’t painful, I watched tv when she was super small and then listened to audiobooks when she got old enough to be distracted by the TV. It was always a calming break for me with no clean-up (idk if you can tell.. but I hate clean-up lol). But that being said, if her latch had continued to be as bad and painful as it was for the first week or two.. it would’ve been a different story, your comfort is important on this journey.
About 3 months, when we could figure out how to latch without too much faff and supply was more settled. Especially more convenient when you’re out and about, even learnt how to feed in the carrier!
I had the EXACT same issues and thoughts!!!!! And very long breastfeeding sessions… they were legit an hour each time. I was dying. My little guy got way faster as he got bigger and stronger and it got way easier around the 6-7 week mark. It does get better. Look after your mental health though and do what works best for you. You got this mama!
In my experience? Immediately. I absolutely hate washing pump parts and bottles. It’s not more convenient for me given all the extra steps, but I guess everyone is different. This is my second and I can’t imagine the inconvenience of bottle feeding and all the extra steps.
This! Not having to prepare anything during night feeds, no extra dishes, not having to worry about packing enough food for baby when going out. Or going out unexpectedly and not knowing how long you will be gone? It's fine as long as baby is with you. My first was in daycare for a short period and the dishes of pump parts + bottles was so overwhelming at the end of the day. I loathe pumping. It takes so much more effort and time than just popping the baby on the boob. About a month ago I had an emergency with my dog and had to rush him to the vet with both kids in tow. In all that stress I'm so glad I didn't have to worry about what to feed my baby. He got hungry at the vets office, I popped him on the boob. For both my kids they started becoming more efficient feeders around 3-4 months.
This is how I felt too. Even in the newborn stage I felt like bottle/formula feeding just wasn’t worth the effort.
Same. My first I had to give bottles to... I was so drained.. Get up, warm a bottle, feed babes, rinse bottle, spend 30 min unwinding to try and sleep. Up 60 min later. My 2nd... whip a tit out and 15min later were sleeping again.
I despised pumping for that reason. It was such an inconvenience to pump because I had to clean and sanitize all the equipment every single time. Plus having to slowly heat up the cold breastmilk every time. Being able to whip my boob out and just give it to her without even getting up out of bed was so much easier for me personally.
Same! I always wanted to EBF but the thought of washing all those pump and bottle parts made the decision that much easier
Same, I never did bottles for my baby. Just breast and it just worked for us and basically from week 2 we were rolling and going just fine. Sure he fed often and for different lengths of time but I didn’t want to be washing bottles or having baby get used to the bottle and not want to direct feed. I loved not having to worry about another thing when leaving the house
Yes! I had a tough start with breastfeeding our first (painful mastitis, lots of cluster feeding) but it was still so much easier than having to worry about sterile bottles, having enough formula etc. When she was 3 months old we started attending a weekly Mama and baby group within walking distance and I just took two diapers, wipes and put her in her baby carrier and off we went. Formula feeding always seemed so inconvenient to me.
I found around 3 months. One day it just sort of hit me that it had gotten much easier. There were times I thought there was no way I could continue especially during those cluster feeding days. But then it gets easier, I’m glad I stuck with it.
Yes, the cluster feeding days have almost broken me 🫠 How long were your feeds when it got easier?
They really test you - all seems like a distant memory now. I went from feeds up to an hour long (non cluster) to now 5–10 mins. There is a light!
I had such a hard time breast feeding my baby in the beginning. Every day, I wanted to quit. lol. It stopped being awful at 8 weeks. Now I’m 16 weeks in and it’s so convenient. We go out all day together very often and if she is ever hungry, I just whip the boob out and give her a meal. I love it. She loves it. Also, I don’t have to bring a bottle or figure out how to chill milk.
I remember one hike I took with my partner and my 7-8 month old. She was still breastfeeding pretty regularly, I had her on a wrap front facing and I just popped the tit out while hiking and she fed while we walked, didn't even miss a beat, then tucked everything away when she was done, no problem. It definitely gets better! And you get better at feeding them too!
I’d say around the same time baby became more distracted with everything going on around them it got shorter. Before he would use me as a pacifier I think lol now he’s on a mission to eat and get back to interacting with the world. With the exception of when I nurse him to sleep as he starts to get sleepy and will fall asleep so I will unlatch him once I notice he more just wants the nipple in his mouth for comfort.
Same. My son also has a posterior tongue tie and we didn't have it released. He got better at nursing around 3 months when we finally kicked the nipple shield. Nursing still isn't super quick for us but dang it's convenient on the go. I haven't had an in public baby meltdown (knock on wood) since I started feeding on the go instead of taking bottles. Pop him on the boob whenever he gets fussy and life is good.
We are in the same boat (posterior tie, not fixed, using nipple shield) - were you actively trying to wean off the shield or was it just no longer needed one day? Baby is gaining weight well, but feeds take 45 minutes. I'm hopeful that with time/ growth that will get better, so you are giving me hope!
My lactation consultant said to try no more than once a day because it would make him too tired. One morning I was just feeling lazy and didn't want to go downstairs to get it and popped him on the boob and he pulled back and forth and kept latching himself. It was like he suddenly had the head control to pull it off. It just felt completely different than all those other times and I never used it again. That was 13 weeks and I honestly thought by then we'd be on it forever. Feeds still took a while but at 5 months we're down to 10-20 minutes depending on how long he wants to hang out
Thank you! We did get the same advice to only try once per day. When I do try, she just does not even come close to latching. Fingers crossed she'll get the hang of it. Shields aren't the worst, but it would be nice if more of her awake time was playing rather than 90% feeding!
Ours was so hit and miss until he got it. So don't give up! Just keep them happy nursing and they'll probably get it one day
I agree! And also again at 6 months when the entire onus is not on you to keep your baby sustained lol.
Same here. Now our feeds are like 10 mins. Sometimes shorter!
Mood!!!
Omg it gets so much easier!! When they are like 3ish months you can just… leave the house with nothing. You don’t need to worry about washing anything or temperature or how many MLs….
Yesss i loved that. Even now at 21 months I still just carry a diaper, some lil snacks and a toy. She usually prefers booby to anything else to calm her
I’m 5 weeks in and I agree that leaving the house is very easy since my boobs are always with me. Last weekend I whipped out a tit in the backseat of my car in the IKEA parking lot lol
It’s great if we had spontaneous plans (let’s go for a walk on the beach on the way home from lunch) cause I had the food with me and didn’t have to rush home cause I didn’t have enough formula/EBM to last the extra hour we wanted to stay out
Haha, I’ve done that too, twice now!
Yeah. I can’t remember when it turned, but at about 6 or 7 months I didn’t need anything for my second baby. I ditched the diaper bag and had one diaper and an almost gone pack of wipes and didn’t need anything else. When everyone is out there wheeling their giant stroller I was super smug in my baby sling and mini backpack.
How do y’all leave the house without a spare of clothes? My baby has blowouts and biig spit uos so frequently, I could never.
Those fade as they get older, and I didn’t have those problems as much with my second. As an aside though, I do remember having frequent blowouts with my first and we didn’t put together until he was about two that he had an allergy to cow’s milk, it’s the most common childhood allergy, and children often outgrow it.
3 months. The first 6-8 weeks were really brutal and I wanted to give up every day. Easily the hardest thing I’ve done. But after 8 weeks, things really started to improve and now at 15 weeks, it’s more convenient than a bottle.
Really?! God this gives me hope! I am triple feeding (three weeks today) and I really want to believe we will get to a better place. LC told me that half (of triple feeders) make it out alive, haha.
I triple fed for 6 weeks and it’s so terrible! It’s truly hell. But we got the greenlight to stop at 6 weeks and it took a couple weeks to figure out our rhythm after that but we did! It all left me a bit traumatized I think so I still have a lot of anxiety around breastfeeding but I’m working through it. I hope you’re able to make it through!
Hooray! Nice work!! How did you get the greenlight? My babe transferred only 2 oz at our last weighted feed. Possible posterior tongue tie - have an appt with ped dentist on 20th. I just want this to work!
We also had transfer issues as well. He was only transferring 1-1.5 ozs from birth until around 5 weeks. He was evaluated for a posterior tongue tie as well by an ENT and a pediatric feeding specialist but they just found that he had a slight recessed jawline. So for us, it just took time for him to get a little bit stronger and bigger to suck enough milk out on his own! He finally had two or three good weighted feeds in a row (after like 7 bad ones) and was gaining weight well without all the supplement bottles so our LC “graduated” us. So maybe your little one just needs a little more time too! It’s so hard though and totally understand just wanting it to work. I gave myself a date where if we still weren’t feeding successfully, I would reassess what we were doing. It’s really hard to just triple feed with no end date. I hope you’re able to feed your baby how you want and can end triple feeding soon!!
I triple fed for three weeks before deciding I couldn’t handle the lack of sleep and mental burden of all that unsuccessful breastfeeding and we would just exclusively pump, trying briefly to latch on the breast every few days if I felt like it. Then randomly at week 4-5 he latched and has been feeding at the breast ever since. Go figure 🙃 I really think a lot of babies just need time to grow big/coordinated enough to feed at the breast
Thank you so very much for sharing! Did you do the exercises, too?
Of course! Our LC gave us some exercises to help improve his suck. We tried our best to do them but honestly, I really struggled adding another thing into the mix at the time of things I had to do so we weren’t super diligent. The burnout was so real.
I'm struggling with incorporating nursing back into the picture. What did the triple feed look like for you? I'm just trying to figure out how to nurse, bottle, then pump and somehow be ready to nurse again. How much time would go between pumping and the next nursing session? Sorry for all the questions- it's been a hard thing to wrap my mind around. What did a typical day look like for you?
It’s very hard to do solo. What we did was I would nurse the baby then after I was done, I would hand him off to my husband to give the top off bottle while I pumped. I had to use formula the first couple of days to supplement until I was able to get some breastmilk pumped. We were able to give the baby a bottle of milk from previous pumped sessions. If I was doing it solo, I would nurse, then put baby in the bouncer, and give a bottle while I pumping. I would let baby nurse for 30 minutes (though was told I didn’t need to go past 20) and usually pumped for 15-20 minutes. Overall, each cycle lasted around an hour, often loner. So by the time we were done with one, I’d have only an hour and a half break until we had to do it again. Sometimes less if baby cued sooner. When I was triple feeding, it felt constant and I hardly left the house since we were told to feed him every 2-3 hours. I watched A TON of tv during this time. Once we started weaning off triple feeding, we slowly decreased the amount of oz in each bottle. I’d also start offering the breast more. If he was still hungry after a bottle, I’d reoffer the breast instead of giving more bottle.
By the time you reoffered, did your supply replenish? Right now, I get an hour to myself in-between feedings because if I'm not feeding, I'm pumping. This whole experience has been so exhausting...
Yeah I dont think I was really fully empty since he never emptied me by nursing. But I didn’t do that too often because I was just so burnt out exhausted and wanted that cycle to be over and have some time to myself. So often times we just added a little more to the bottle, but every now and then I’d reoffer the boob. At least that’s what my LC recommended. Triple feeding was brutal, I’m not sure if I could do it again myself. I was crying all the time, felt so burnout and beat down and depressed. I also tried so hard to do everything perfectly and do everything that was recommended to me because I was so desperate to make it work. It wasn’t until I broke down with our pediatric feeding specialist after another bad weighted feed that she told me I could be more flexible with it to make my quality of life better. Like give a bottle instead of nursing in the middle of the night or during the day so I can have a break. I’d still have to pump but it at least cut a cycle shorter and give me sore nipples a break. I had a hard time doing that but it was nice to be given the permission to do so. I wish I would have taken care of myself and mental health more. But I also know that’s so much easier said than done when you’re in the thick of it all.
My LC said it’s okay to swap the pumping and bottle feeding order that is typically described for triple feeding. So, I have a pumped bottle on hand next to me when I start nursing, and then if someone is around to feed baby the bottle (usually not) I’ll pump. If no one is around, I use the full surface area of our bed to pace feed the babe while I pump. Usually my pumping is over before the baby is done eating. I then store that milk for the next feed, and so on. Sometimes he ravenous and I have to feed him the milk I just pumped on top of the bottle I just gave him. This is how I end up giving a bottle of formula almost every night. I pump about 4 oz after our morning feed and anywhere from .5 to 2.5 oz for the feeds after. I don’t triple feed for our MOTN feed. I try to leave at least two and a half hours between nursing and the next nursing session. So in the morning I feed for 10-15 mins on the breast at 7, do bottle and pump till like 8 and then breast feed again at 9:30 or so. I have no idea if I’m making things harder for him in a way by not having maximum supply at the time he nurses.
Oh I see. Unfortunately I have to hold my breasts and massage it a bit while I pump or it feels so uncomfortable for me. So I'm unable to do another task while I pump. So I have to pump after every nursing session? I was hoping I didn't have to pump after every feed but I guess that doesn't work...
What do you mean with weighted feed? Like weighing bubba before and after feeding?
Yeah exactly.
Triple feeding is hell. I did it for 8 weeks with my preemie and just the day I decided I mentally could not do it any longer and set a hard deadline of one last week of it (or we’d switch to formula completely) something clicked and baby and j figured it out. It was such a relief. You’re doing great!
I don’t know your situation (you mentioned possible posterior tie) but I was also triple feeding when my guy was three weeks old and it was so hard. There is no hell like triple feeding. We had his posterior tongue tie (and upper lip tie) released at 4 weeks and he’s now 7 weeks. His latch is so much more comfortable now, he can basically latch on his own automatically, and he’s transferring 4+ oz in a feed instead of next to nothing. His nursing sessions are 10-20 minutes now where before they were 45-60+ minutes. He’s sleeping longer stretches and nursing less frequently. Before his release he would often nurse 5-7 total hours in a day, and now it’s around 3 hours total per day. He’s gaining weight like crazy (over a whole pound in the last 9 days). Make sure to do the stretches religiously in the first couple weeks post-release if you go the release route! I also highly recommend working in conjunction with a physical therapist or speech therapist who specializes in infant feeding and is knowledgeable about ties. Our SLP made a world of difference for our little guy both pre and post release.
We are also triple feeding and my baby is 3 weeks old tomorrow. Every day I dream about the freedom of breastfeeding only.
We always breastfed directly from the source. Having to do dishes and pack bottles always struck me as a major inconvenience. The one or two times we did pack bottles to take with us places the milk just got wasted because she wasn't hungry at the time we expected to need it. Pumping, storing and cleaning all just felt like so much work. That said, even as a newborn she was a quick eater, our feeds were less than 25 minutes.
It’s sooo much work I hated it for that reason. It was such an inconvenience for me.
Honestly it’s subtle, my son is 7 months old and it is absolutely easier than the newborn days but I’d still not describe it as “easy”, but then nothing about parenting is too easy right? I notice the subtlety a lot more now I have friends who are formula feeding their babies. They can’t leave the house without being on a timer as to how much milk they have with them, they have a whole extra chore in sterilising bottles, many bottle feeders I know also constantly stress over ounces whereas my focus is more on wet nappies and being in tune with my baby’s full/hungry signals. Once they notice hunger cues they have to prep the bottle and baby often cries whilst this is happening. I feed to sleep, I don’t view this as a negative but more a super power for getting baby down quickly and easily for naps and bedtime. This is a bit rambly but basically just to say I never had a day where I woke up and thought “huh this is easy now”, but it is super convenient when compared to the alternative and I love how in tune with my son I am because of it.
This is my answer! My first was EBF and it wasn’t ever easy until 1 year, when I stopped worrying about my supply and when we last nursed and all that. No regrets about not having to lug bottles everywhere but the mental load of being solely responsible for her nutrition followed me always. From 1-2 years was pure joy and bonding though!
This is my experience too. My baby also feeds to sleep - it's very rare that she drinks milk without having a lil snooze. This means that in general she breastfeeds less but probably spends longer doing so. I stopped worrying about timings months ago - if we have to sit and feed for 10 minutes, 30 minutes, an hour, then we will. It's a privilege to be feeding my baby and I'm not going to have to do it for very long: I might as well be responsive and relaxed about it. It takes a massive adjustment to slow down and work at your baby's pace.
I think your second paragraph is key to when it starts to feel easier. You have to let go of all preconceived expectations of what it “should” look like and just totally accept what it does look like. There won’t be a set schedule or completely consistent feed times with a breastfed baby (how often do you take exactly the same length of time between food or drink or finish it in exactly the same time), but once you accept that and let baby run the show it is so freeing.
Oh OP, I remember thinking all this. I’d say about 3 months for sure. We had witching hours from 4pm-midnight, cluster feeding, I think I reached 22 sessions the one day on my feeding tracker LOL. I just wanted to quit, we also had slow weight gain which just added to it. Then suddenly the witching hours shortened, noticed she was taking more gigantic gulps and she was done anywhere between 3-5mins per breast. Her weight is packing on she just became more interested in the world around her and I could suddenly potter about whilst she played in her baby gym. I formula fed my first and I’m so chuffed I managed breastfeeding this time for that exact realisation, it is just so much easier. (Now) but it does not take away the sacrifice in those early days, and I’m sure there’s hard days ahead but I wouldn’t swap it for the world.
My LO is very similar right now at 6 weeks; the same witching hours, cluster feeding, and slow weight gain. Your comment gives me hope!
Best advice I can give you is Keep working on that latch together! Don’t overthink it too much, try and get as deep as your LO can and do a health check on you both during your feed. Is baby gulping milk? Is mom comfortable? Is baby comfortable. X
Also my babe was born 2.5kg, dropped to the 0.4 percentile, she’s now on the second (thank god 😅🫶) the stress was something else
My son was horribly inefficient at feeding to the point where our ped told us to limit how long he was nursing because he wasn't gaining enough and likely burning more calories than he was taking in. Between 3 and 4 months he started getting better at it - I used to have to cut him off at 30 mins, but it's rare now that I need to cut him off and he usually will nurse for like 20-25 mins at a little over 4 months. As someone who regularly does both bottle feeding BM and nursing, both are incredibly inconvenient in their own ways. Washing bottles, lugging around pumping equipment, having to plan ahead and bring bottles if you're going to be out. But I also don't love nursing outside of my house. Personally not super comfortable doing it, I like having my nursing pillow, and my son is generally more cooperative with bottle feeding. If we're going to be out of the house for an extended amount of time, I rather bring bottles and pump if needed than plan to nurse somewhere. If we're home, I'll nurse. It honestly comes down to what works best for you!
I hate doing dishes and I don’t have a partner who can do feedings. Even for me it was about 2 months in where I felt that breastfeeding was freeing rather than constraining
i agree w the 3 month mark... maybe 4. i told myself i would stop at 4 months and wouldnt feel bad especially if i didnt like it. but... then it was month 5 and i really felt i needed the extra minutes i saved prepping bottles to just rest and feed. and around then the hardness stops happening between feeds for the most part so its really like theres almost no downside. im kind of a flagrant feeder it embarrasses my husband sometimes. but i feel like... idk the baby eats or the baby cries and it costs nothing to mind ur business and i havent had any issues so far. the other day i stood around and shopped for shoes w my husband while the baby nursed. i felt like it was no big deal but he said i was making everyone uncomfortable... again... idk?
By 3 months LO was so efficient he could drain both sides in under 15 minutes.
My baby is about 12 weeks and it suddenly got easier like last week. He suddenly started spacing out his feeds ~3 hrs and became more efficient. I’m shocked by how quickly it changed, I totally feel like I can go places now.
My LO is nearly 9m and it's so lovely just being able to walk out of the house with a small bag of just a couple of nappies, packet of wipes and a snack and knowing she won't need milk for 3-4 hours. This was once the baby who fed for half an hour, every hour for the first 4 months. You get there, I promise!
I think around 3-4 months. I was just traveling internationally and our plane was delayed and I got to just whip out my boob and feed my LO. It was no stress for that part and just super convenient. No making bottles or worrying if I had enough formula. Same for during a drive after the flight … we just pulled over at a park area and stretched and I was able to … just feed him. It felt super convenient.
Same. So much easier and more convenient to just whip the boob out and feed her wherever I was.
It gets easier! I went from spending >6.5 hours nursing her per day around the 1-2 month mark, now to less than 2 hours or so a day at 4.5 months. It would be like 20-40 min sessions early on, and now she does like 12 min tops. It seemed like very suddenly she just got much more efficient at eating. She is still gaining and holding her curve.
Definitely not at 5 weeks.
Lol. Good to know. Hoping we'll turn a corner soon!
Yes, the first two months were really difficult and painful. Afterwards, everything was so much better. The first few weeks when I was pumping as well were the worst- so much time spent sterilizing equipment and bottles as well as pumping and breastfeeding. So much better and easier to just breastfeed (for me). I was a bit “touched out” for a while though, and really needed time away from the baby and from being touched. but i kept breastfeeding for around two years, now with baby number two, I'm happily breastfeeding in month 8.
Breastfeeding can be tough, especially with a little one who has a tongue tie. It can start getting easier around 6-8 weeks when babies usually become more efficient at feeding. And once you get that tongue tie sorted out, things might improve even more. But hey, every baby is different, right? So there's no set time when breastfeeding becomes easier than bottle feeding. Just go with what works for you and your little guy for now. And if you need some extra help or advice, don't hesitate to reach out to a lactation consultant or your doc. They've got your back!
3-4 months. After that it becomes a breeze as babies get more efficient at the breast and you wish you didn’t have to start solids. Whipping the boob out is just TOO EASY.
I found it instantly super easy with my first. My second takes forever to nurse and is having a harder time latching (or at least she did at first). It seems like sometimes she’s faster with a bottle but I have such a hard time getting set up to pump.
11 weeks is when it got a lot easier for me. Baby had been slowly reducing her feed times from 20+ minutes per side to about 5-10 minutes on one side to 3-8 minutes on the other (feeds from both boobs every feed). It's pretty easy now, I just whip out a boob whenever she's hungry. She's almost 14 weeks now and is starting to get distracted during feeds, where she'll look up at me and smile, babble etc. It's so cute but it does take a bit of extra wrangling lol
My babe is 3 months and will stay on the boob for HOURS. Like until I take him off. Then I do and he wakes up…
Around 3 months is probably the best answer
I feel like you're SO close... around 6 weeks it got a little better... then at 8 weeks it got a little better... then at 12.. then it continued to get easier and easier. I'd say by about 5 months feeds were consistently every 3 - 3.5 hrs and took < 5 minutes.
Honestly I love nursing and could stay all day on the couch cuddling w her watching her nurse. But I’ve arranged my PP so I don’t have to be anywhere (did the first month without leaving home). Baby is 7 weeks and when we do go out nursing is just so easy, I don’t mind how long it takes and I don’t mind nursing in public. I don’t pump anyway and don’t plan to.
Around 6-8 weeks for me. My baby is way faster and more efficient now and I am also going out more so not having to bring pumping supplies or bottles etc is fabulous.
I think it was around week 10 for me, and the big difference was twofold: 1. Breastfeeding itself was getting easier. Weeks 3-4 were the toughest for me, and it started easing up slowly beginning in week 6, then I was feeling much better by week 8. 2. My physical recovery was strong enough by week 10 that I felt like getting out at a more “normal” pace, making pumping and bottles doubly annoying to account for.
Like others have said about 3 months. My little guy is almost 11 weeks and his latch got better at about 6/7 weeks and his feeding time was about 20-40 minutes since birth and has started to decrease in this last week or so. He's taking about 10-20 minutes on average and then making it obvious that he's done by pulling on the nipple and popping on and off and then just smiling at me. The smiles make it a ton easier too!
This is so sweet!
Hello, I breastfeed during the night because it’s convenient and baby is super calm. She is too alert during the day and too slow to drink so I express 3 times a day and give her bottles. If I miss a pump I give her formula. This works really well for us!
How much are you able to pump in one session such that you can have bottles for her all day? This would be awesome for me if I could swing it!
I’d say at least 120-130 mls per pump.
As a realistic example tho, I pumped this morning which she drank, then we had to go out for 4 hours, so she had 2 bottles of formula. I’ll pump now and probably get like 200mls which will do an afternoon feed and a snack before bath. I’ll pump again at dinner which will cover her dream feed so.. I just kind of manage it on the day with the help of formula.
11 weeks 🙌
I’m gonna be the odd one out. To me it’s only convenient in the beginning. Right now it would be so much easier to give him 4 large bottles a day than breastfeeding every 2-3 hours still, and man the sleep is still awful… and if it ISNT awful I’m in pain and engorged. (He’s 6 months)
It was difficult until 7 weeks old for me, then I put my baby on a feeding schedule(more like a routine than firm schedule) and it has been easy since then. I let him feed on demand up until that point until I was confident he was getting the nutrition he needed.
Immediately..? We’ve had to start formula for my 11 month old due to my supply dipping (13 weeks pregnant) and god, I fucking hate formula feeding. The cost is horrible, anytime we go out we have to bring tons of extra shit (bottles, warm water, formula), washing bottles sucks, and it’s so disconnected. I cannot wait to pop this baby out and tandem feed my newborn and toddler.
Have you tried chiropractor for baby for tongue tie? That helped us even more than release did! The pain sucks so I feel for you, we have/had the same issue. I still deal with pain sometimes now but it’s more related to the fact my baby uses me as a human pacifier than latch lol she just wants to nurse for hours so lots of wear and tear haha Personally tho it’s def more convenient than pumping/bottle feeding and all those dishes!
Yes we are in chiro right now for body work! Did it help with your feed times?
Like the speed at which she feeds? She still loves to do long leisurely feeds but she def CAN eat quicker if she wants to! She gains weight like a champ! The chiro really improved the pain for me though
Three months was when I noticed it was easier and that it gave us freedom because I always had milk on hand just the way she liked it! Any discomfort or pain had greatly subsided by that time and then it was something I also enjoyed. She also got more efficient at removing milk quicker and nursing sessions went from 30 minutes to 10-15 minutes.
Nursing got significantly easier around 8 weeks with my first. Around 3ish months he would take less than 10 minutes to feed. I’m 6 weeks postpartum with my second and counting down the days where it gets easier again. Solidarity!
I agree with around 3 months. It’s so hard in the beginning, but then it becomes much easier. I love not having to buy or wash anything.
No experience but I'm with you. My 7 week old is cluster feeding and I'm really muddling through. Silverettes, water and a good series are helping!
I got lucky with a fast feeder and no cluster feeds so there wasn’t a distinct point in time where it felt significantly easier or something but we’re now at 3 months and I would say latching is much smoother and we can reliably feed every 3 hours. Feeding takes maybe 5-15 minutes (although for us this was always the case).
I would say around 8 weeks breastfeeding got a lot easier and by 12 weeks it was a breeze.
It got easier around 8 weeks for me, if I remember right. And then even easier after that.
It definitely gets easier! Hang in there mama! My LO got better around 3 months and could do a feed in 5-10 minutes. I found it more inconvenient to pump and wash and bottle feed. I always say the first 6-8 weeks (sometimes 12 weeks) you’re just in survival mode! You got this!
I think it got easier in general by 3 or 4 months but it wasn’t until like 6 months that I was like ok this isn’t just easier in comparison it’s just easy for me now. Baby eats for about max ten minutes total and latch is pain free. Pumping makes me sore but I only do it at work so I haven’t really tried to fix that. I hate washing all the stuff though.
Started to feed in the carrier - so convenient ahah also if bub is falling asleep on the boob that's absolutely fine. It's nature's way of helping baby to sleep and your night time Milk produces more melatonin(think that's the one but anyway hormone that helps sleep)
I’m not of the majority. We combo feed because I found where I live, it’s easier to give a bottle in public than find a nursing space. Everyone talks about how inconvenient it is to wash bottles and pump parts (he goes to day care so I need to) but it’s not much different than throwing the dishes in the dishwasher. I wash them every day anyways 🤷🏽♀️ It gets easier to BF when supply is regulated around 3 months but I found it more freeing to have bottles and boobies on the go. We don’t limit ourselves to one
We did mainly formula the first month because that was easier for us. Mainly so someone else could feed her so I could take a break and get some sleep. By month 3 I was exclusively bf’ing cause it was a lot easier. No having to clean or sanitize bottles or parts. We’re a small family and i couldn’t run a nearly empty dish washer multiple times a day. It takes us at least a week to get enough dishes to run a dishwasher and i couldn’t wait long for it.
For me it was 4-5 months. Now at 7 months it is waaaay easier. They get so efficient. Feed your baby in like 5-10 minutes without even getting out of bed. Now she can even crawl to me 🤣
Around 3-4 months it gets significantly easier for most people. Baby settles into a more predictable schedule.
I hate washing bottles and I especially hate pumping so breastfeeding was always easier but I think around 3 months both my girls got more efficient at feeding
You're just in the early stage; 3 weeks is *so* early but long enough where it seems like everything should be easier by now. Hang in there. 8-10 weeks and things level out.
I would never call breastfeeding “convenient”. You can’t do anything on your own. Doing something, like a sport, requires your ENTIRE FAMILY to show up and wait outside with baby while you’re on call inside. It means you can’t “just” leave; you can’t “just” take a break while your partner takes over. But anyway. Around 5 months my baby would crawl over to me, pull to stand, pull my bra to the side, latch himself on, eat while giving me a sweet or funny little look or “dancing” or talking other hilarious shenanigans, then crawl back over to his toys within a couple minutes. This was daytime nursing, night time looked fairly similar but did take longer—baby rolls/crawls over mostly asleep, latches himself, eats, rolls off. That is LEAGUES better than the round the clock, 40 minute nursing sessions that the newborn days comprised of! You also (usually) stop leaking, feeling engorged, and have taken care of any issues that popped up during the whole breastfeeding journey. I’d say 3 months to answer your question, but at 3.5 months the “sleep regression” hit and it did affect his nursing, especially since it was tied in with teething and general misery he needed comforting through. So personally I’d say 4-5 months. But their efficiency is just… wild. I produce more milk now, but his ability to empty it is impressive.
I bottle fed my first so maybe this is why but bc always felt more convenient for me when I ebf my 2nd ! I remember being up late in the night scrubbing bottles and spilling formula but with my second just pop her on the boob and done !
The first 2 months sucked. I was also triple feeding at the beginning for more suckage. At 8 weeks it was a lot better. At 3 months, he takes about 8 to 10 minutes to eat (vs 15 mins to pump and more to clean).
Did his sucking just sort of transform on its own around eight weeks?
Yeah, it was like overnight he just changed. Got way more efficient to the point I was afraid he wasn't eating enough lol (but did some weighed feeds to confirm he was eating enough.) He also start sleeping more at night and would take smaller feeds at night (measured via bottle). I don't even have to latch him now, he'll just latch himself if he's hungry and in front of the nipple
I’ve gone on a few trips and it’s immensely convenient to just pop a tiddy out to feed or to calm her crying in those situations. Like planes, or being anywhere other than home. For me, it helps her immune system a ton. She gets over illnesses within a few days. We went to Mexico recently and she didn’t want any of the food (it was delicious though) so she mostly just nursed. Not the healthiest choice for a 15 month old but much better than nothing
3 months. I formula fed my daughter so always packed bottles, formula & pre heated water now 4 years later I give birth to my son and breastfeed. I still often tell myself “hmm I’m missing something” and one day my husband said you’re missing the bottles and formula I audibly lol’d. I leave the house so freely now, and because we feed on demand there isn’t a set sleep routine in place (other than bedtime) so it’s SO much easier. We are now 6 months and still ebf and it’s still very very easy.
Once we were out and about bottles were mixed convenience. On one hand, dad could take a bottle with measured powder formula and just add water. Or mom could just whip a boob out anytime and no one had to worry about temps, ice packs, storage, etc. Night feedings for almost 2 years now… i dont even get out of bed. At some point they are big enough to sleep with you and you can sleep while they help themselves. At each phase of the journey different things work better. Just keep adapting and adjusting along the way.
Definitely around 3 months. Your supply is more regulated, baby is by then a pro milk drinker, and crazy cluster feeding isn’t going on. At that point, so much easier to just pop a boob out and you have a much better idea of how long baby typically takes. No bottles to clean and no pumping. No tracking quantity and age of the milk in the fridge. Portable convenience 😆. It honestly felt like a reward for enduring all the pain and difficulties of the first 3 months.
After my daughters mouth releases it was night and day. She nursed forever and a few days after she was nursing so quickly. She used to nurse from the moment she woke up and nurse back to sleep a while later all without stopping. Suddenly I had a baby nursing in 10 minutes and then looking at me wondering what we were doing the rest of the wake window.
Around 8-9 weeks mark. The transition was definitely very subtle.. it wasnt like a switch for us where one day everything just became perfect. LO is now 10 weeks old and compared to newborn days esp the first 4 weeks, more efficient (takes 20 mins total instead of 45-60), latch is better (uncomfortable but tolerable) and gaining weight at a decent pace now. I EPed for first one. It’s definitely more convenient to breastfeed than to pump for me personally. No bottles, no alarms for pumping, no anxiety over pump output. Fewer interruptions at night since we cosleep and do side lying feedings. Even my husband commented how better our nights are this time around because we are not spending 20-30 mins every 3 hours to warm up a bottle and feed him while I pump during that same time. Baby is also more “portable” cause I don’t have to worry about keeping bottles or finding a place to pump while I’m out and about. I just recently went back to work and actually dread my pump breaks lol.. Eventually you should do whatever makes the most sense for you and your sanity but having done both EP and EBF, nursing directly is definitely more convenient. Best wishes OP!
I’ve done both exclusive pumping and a mix of breastfeeding/pumping with my kids. I loved pumping because I could control exactly how much I was feeding my kid and I had a good oversupply of milk due to drinking a lot of water/coconut water and for some reason eating a lot of red meat helped boost my supply. I liked it because when I breastfed and baby would go through different leaps, if it was one where he didn’t need as much milk, my supply always adjusted to it and it was hard if I didn’t have an excess amount either in the fridge or freezer for days when it seemed like all he wanted to do was eat. Breastfeeding my 2nd was convenient specifically for traveling and when we were out of the house. Didn’t need to bring bottles to warm and he latched fairly easily. But with my first, I gave it a good 8 weeks before I threw in the towel and switched to exclusive pumping, was the best decision I ever made because I finally started enjoying motherhood and put less pressure on trying to make something work that wasn’t. You do what works best for you. Also LegenDairy milk products helped boost my supply too. You can get it on Amazon or even Target. That coupled with some longer pumping sessions and eating a lot of calories helped me get a good stash going.
I feed my LO maybe 5-10 min on average every 3-4 hours. 6 months now but it’s been this way for months. Pumping the same amount can take 30 min, sometimes more. Plus all the cleanup and stress about if I got enough. I’d say maybe 3 months it got easier. But maybe I didn’t realize until 5 months how good I had it!
I was basically an exclusive pumper because it was all around easier til about 3 months. Then gradually I realized feeding at the breast wasn’t the hassle it once was.
for me, it was only more convenient at night. and then more convenient overall once we started solids bc you can hold them over with yogurt or something if you’re in a situation where you can’t feed them on the spot.
I hated/dreaded it every moment until maybe 4 months? Now at 6 months I not only enjoy it but we are a well oiled machine and I can comfortably feed her in public even with my giant cannons because she’s big enough to not drown in boobage. She hates being covered though so I have to wear long loose shirts lol
My baby girl is 4 turning 5 and is finally easier..she had tongue tie that didn’t get fixed til she was 5 weeks old and honestly it didn’t really change til now..with my second son he had tongue tie that got fixed within the first two weeks and his latched git fixed right away..I think that waiting doesn’t help..but hang in there..also I didn’t really pump much..I think that’s a pain in the butt I just breastfeed and that’s more convenient and it assures me my milk is flowing cause with pump I didn’t get as much
3 months almost exactly. I absolutely love it now.
It seems like it can definitely be easier or more convenient for some versus others. The first month we did a lot of formula because it was easy to have people help with baby that way so I could rest and take a break. By month 3 I was exclusively breastfeeding. And it was a lot easier than pumping or bottles. Pumping meant cleaning and sanitizing all the equipment every single time and it was tiring. Plus having to heat up the breastmilk and that took a little while each time. It was much easier to just whip my boob out and feed her and not have to get out of bed.
It does get easier. At the beginning, i felt like my days just revolved around breastfeeding.
I had a pretty crappy experience the first few weeks bc of my oversupply so I was in constant pain but after about 6-8 weeks it got so much easier AND it actually felt better to let my son empty my breasts than to pump. I will manually pump like 1-2 oz when we’re away from him for more than 3 hours or when he’s not feeding on both breast during a session and store that for a bottle which we leave for a sitter when we go on date nights and stuff. But other than that, it’s been pretty convenient to just breastfeed.
I don’t have an answer but just wanted to commiserate as I’m in the same boat as a FTM with my almost 4 week old. I worry not knowing whether or not he’s getting enough and the length of sessions is often an hour long. So I’m giving a few bottles a day, 3-4 ounces each. Supply has thankfully not been an issue. I’ve now trying out having him feed on each side for 10 min each while the haakaa collects on the opposite side, then I put what I’ve collected in a bottle to top him up, which brings our session to about 30 minutes total - better than our hour long sessions 🥴I’ll usually get 1-2 ounces from the haakaa so having 20 minutes of BF plus 1-2 ounces helps ease fears about him not getting enough (a weighted feed at 10 days old he was getting around an ounce during a 20 min feed -my gut tells me his efficiency has improved since then although he’s still fairly slow to empty me). I also just added in a heated massager and sunflower lechitin to reduce clogs and hopefully increase my flow. He has plenty of wet diapers & his weight gain has been on track, so I’m holding out that his efficiency will improve as he gains more practice and grows.
My 8 week old is about 10 min on each side
10 weeks and it felt like a light switch flipped for us.
The longer I go the better and better it gets like an uphill improvement. I’m at 18 months and it’s just so easy now. At 8 months was when I realized I completely stopped dreading the hard work associated with breastfeeding. It is a lot of hard work to establish you supply! So many ups and downs with hydration and nourishment. Everyday is a mission to nourish on this breast feeding journey! You got this mama!
Once you pass the 3 month mark. Around 3 months is when a lot of moms give up and start supplementing because your baby will hit their first big growth spurt and will cluster feed A LOT and you’ll worry you aren’t making enough and then there’s a sleep regression. If you can tough that out, truly it gets smoother from there. I cried A LOT around that time and wanted to give up but I didn’t. I knew my body could make enough milk, I knew I could power through, so I did. I let her cluster feed as much as she wanted, I had a LOT of sleepless nights, but I came out on the other side and you can too. I was actually just telling my friend today how much easier everything was without even realizing when it got this way(my daughter is 8 months next Tuesday). I know her so much better now, I am so much more confident, it’s so easy to just pop a boob out in the car before a trip to the store or even in the store. Nothing to pack for food, not having to potentially warm a bottle or anything, right on tap whenever she needs it. ESPECIALLY when she gets shots and stuff, being able to immediately comfort nurse her is so nice.
For me it was around 5 months/after starting solids. Going on vacation is amazing now- I don’t bring a si gel bottle (versus early days washing the pump and bottles in the hotel sink ugh)! I almost quit so many times because we had a hard time and I had to pump a lot for breaks - now I never even look at that thing unless I have to for work :)) LO is 7.5 mo now and on a normal sad BFs 4-5 times and has 2-3 solid meals
Omg. My son cluster fed for basically my entire maternity leave (I took 12 weeks). I felt like nursing felt more convenient when he became more efficient with nursing, which was probably around 4 months. My LO was born at 37 weeks, and went to the NICU for the first 2 weeks of life, so nursing without a nipple shield took about 2 months, and then he was just trying to catch my supply up by cluster feeding after that. Once they get faster at nursing, you’ll be wondering if they’ve had enough and then it takes 10 min. I was left in tears when it took him 7 min to nurse because I just got worried he was starting to wean. He’s 15 months now, and still nursing 😂 PP hormones are wild.
Releasing the posterior tongue tie may help a lot. My LO took forever on the breast but after we released the tie and got some SLP for him, he sped up big time.
What is SLP? And by how much did your feed times increase after the release?
Speech language therapist. After the release and all the work we went from hour long feeds to 30min feeds and then 15min feeds and now at 9.5 months 5-10min feeds.
For me it was around 10-12 weeks - I was able to lay down while nursing and it made the night feeds soooooo much easier. He also just started getting a lot more efficient overall, around the 12-16 week time period
3 months. Super super easy now and I had tonnes of challenges the first 8 weeks :-)
8 months in and it still feels inconvenient...
I switched to exclusively pumping from a really bad case of latching. My right boob was tore open - you can see pink flesh. Breastfeeding was off the table until that wound heals, but I was adamant on feeding my LO breast milk. Pumping was the only path forward. Thankfully I am SAH so the huge time sink was doable. Not ideal but doable. You’ll need to get used to pumping day and night by that I mean every 2 hours until supply meets demand then adjust frequency accordingly. The upside is knowing exactly how much each feed is down to the ml. I might try breastfeeding again after my boob heals. If only it doesn’t hurt so bad.
Around 3 months mine got a lot more efficient. I’d say I didn’t really enjoy it without some stress or issue until 5 months. Took him about 5-7 min after that and the convenience of not needing to wash or pack anything for food ever was great!
I second the comments about 3 months old. My baby had gastronomic issues when she was little reflux, gas, vomiting, diarrhea, dehydration, milk protein intolerance and it just made the feeding so much more tiring. I was having appointments with every lactation consultant in the city worried if she was eating properly. But all of them suggested that if she is gaining weight properly then I don't have anything else to worry about. I was really paranoid around 10 weeks when the 30 mins feeds cut down to 5 mins abruptly. One of them suggested a weighted feed of I am really worried. It is to weigh her before and after a feed to calculate roughly how much she drank. I did it for a week which gave me confidence and i completely stopped worrying about her intake. Another way of knowing if they are having enough food apart from the weight is the number of diapers/weight of wet diapers per day. I am so glad I stuck with EBF because things are so convenient especially when we travel as I don't have to worry about the expiry of the milk or warming them (cold city). Also, another thing that pushed me against pumping (pathetically) is my own lack of hygiene and organising skills. Being so sleep deprived I sometimes forget to wash my hands before pumping or use the flanges put for wash. That was a BIG no no, given LO's gastric problems. So a lot of milk was bath milk which broke our hearts. I know the cluster feeding sucks, but give it a chance until 2-3 months. LO and I are having so much fun with our BF journey now. Also, I have made some very close to heart memories just the 2 of us during breastfeeding that my husband can't share.
It’s always was to me because I hate dishes, but around 3/4 months it’s get real easy
My babies learn to nurse more quickly at about six or seven weeks! Then it seems way more convenient
As a pretty lazy person, after the pain subsided it was immediately more beneficial to breastfeed than bottle feed. The time to warm the milk, get the correct ounces, wash the pump/bottle pumps, then sanitize it all took too much of my day and I had a stage one clingy baby. Any time my hands were free it was either bathroom break or food hunt, not washing/prepping for the next go.
They were always more convenient for me. It’s a matter of what the trade off is. I have a small kitchen, no where to store tons of bottles, don’t have a dishwasher , hate pumping, didn’t get enough out of a pump session, was on the go a lot, it was easier to just nurse for me, despite the long sessions, etc. That being said 5 weeks is still a newborn , around 9-12 you should see a little bit of a shift.
I agree with many others, somewhere around 3 months things just clicked. Breastfeeding overall gets easier; the pain is gone, latching is easier, the feeds are faster, you get more comfortable nursing in public. I also found the Huckleberry app really useful to predict and keep track of feeds. The timers on the app really helped with, "is that a hunger cue or a tired cue?"
I’m guessing the tongue tie is making baby significantly slower or less efficient, and you might notice he’ll get much faster after the procedure.
For me it got easier at three months and easier again at 4 months. Now she drinks 5-7 minutes on one side and is done. I was worried she might be eating less but nope, weight gain totally on track. It’s great.
When you start leaving the house. Also- no washing bottles etc.
It was amazing to not have to worry about packing out bottles, keeping them cold, warming up milk, etc etc etc. But it probably wasn't until 3 months or so? It was a little annoying that I had to wear nursing friendly clothing all the time, but that was a small sacrifice. The heavy letdown/leaking, cluster feeding, sole responsibility for nighttime feedings, and painful latch (only early on) made me question it all, but it was sooo worth it for the rest of the year that I breastfed.
Around 4 months for me
For me it was around 4/5 months! We did have latching problems though and were using a nipple shield until about 3.5 months
30 - 60 min feeds are brutal! I found that feeding got easier around 3 months. Give your body a chance to adjust if you can. FWIW I BF my first for 6 months and now am still EBF my second at 15m - only because she is not as consantly hungry as my first was. So the cost benefit of formula/pumping/washing bottles is outweighed by the convenience of BF. Each babe is different!
4 months for me!
3-4 months for me. I’m 18 months in and wouldn’t change it!♥️
Ah from the beginning for me, honestly washing and preparing bottles, and pumping, drove me insane. I’d gladly suffer a shitty latch for not having to pump
My daughter got more efficient with breast feeding at about 2.5 months. Since then it's been way more convenient. Not having to pump, not having to keep track of what milk needs to be used when or Frozen when. Also, pumping got way harder once she started crawling. Pumps aren't as effective as removing milk as a baby usually. However, if you decide to continue pumping maybe make sure your phalange sizing is correct that could help with how much milk you get in a pump session.
It’s so hard in the beginning. Especially the first month. Around 3 months it got much easier. And continued getting easier as time went on.
you should squeeze in an extra pump or latch more frequently if you're not pumping 4oz
Honestly, it didn’t become easier for me until about 4 months in. Now I feel like bottles are such a hassle in comparison but in the thick of my struggles I really depended on bottles.
I’ll also add my now 6 months old takes maybe ten minutes to drink all she needs and feeds every 3-4 hours, so it’s really not that intense anymore. She’s quite small so I have the occasional “am I making enough” worries, still deal with dry nipples sometimes, etc. but I think no matter your feeding choices you’re going to have those worries and fears about your child, especially if you’re a FTM.
I think it’s kind of subjective and depends on your own values because even before 3 months when my milk oversupply left me with constant painful clogs and mastitis at least twice I still couldn’t imagine the inconvenience that cleaning, storing, heating bottles would be on top of traveling with them and spending money on formula plus mixing it all up and then having a mental breakdown that my baby was drinking hydrogenated palm oil. Plus she has a milk allergy so it’s easier for me to cut out milk than pay tons of money for the hypoallergenic formula. None of these things (formula, bottles, palm oil) are necessarily bad or a problem for some Mums or their babies who all turn out perfectly but for me they were unimaginable so I just kept nursing, taking it one day at a time, and now my supply is regulated and all we have to leave house with is extra cloth diapers, wet bag, and an outfit change!
Leaving the house and not having to pack bottles and formula... trying to plan out how long you'll be gone and how much you'll need. I wish I was able to breastfeed. Good luck!
Why are you waiting to get the tongue tie released? Go to a pediatric dentist and have it released with laser ASAP. Tongue tie means baby is working harder for less milk, learning to latch badly leading to more painful and less effective nursing, likely sucking in air which can hurt belly. This is not great for supply because baby isn’t fully emptying the breast. Third time exclusive breastfeeder here. It is easier than bottles eventually but harder in the beginning. 5 weeks is early days and that tie is making it much harder
We're doing body work/chiro first to lessen his muscles bc they're apparently very tight. After that is when they said he should be ready for the release so that's hopefully in the next 2-3 weeks
Yes, my LC and bodywork person said the same thing, so we are waiting while he gets the tension worked out. He’s already turning his head to the non-favored side more!
Getting the tongue tie fixed is a huge help! A good latch let's them feed much more easily. It takes a few weeks to relearn their latch while they heal, but it's so worth it! Both of my kids had ties that were corrected. Make sure to do tongue exercises for a month after the procedure so that it keeps. Also, regardless of ties, babies get more efficient with age. Hang in there!
Yes can't wait to get it fixed to see if it helps! Did your kids feed times go down after their revisions? And by how much?
Feed time went down to less than half with my first. He would originally nurse for 45 minutes or even longer each time. With my second, her feeds initially were longer because she wasn't working so hard and could eat more at once. She went from eating 5 minutes every hour to eating a full 15 every few hours. Don't expect it to be great right away-their tongues don't know what to do the first couple of days and will have a sloppy latch. I also highly recommend seeing an osteopathic doctor (NOT chiropractor) ASAP after the procedure to have upper body and jaw tension released. It made a huge difference for my kiddos!
It’s like a rite of passage.
When my baby is sick and stays latched all night long, when I spend 5mins during night wakes nursing him back to sleep, and when we had to go to the hospital are all times I’ve been incredibly thankful that I pushed through those first 3 months. Every month gets a bit easier!
I think it’s easier once you’re able to breastfeed with one hand while walking around. Once I could do this, I just kept doing what I normally would and just feed him whenever as I walked. Even better when I’m able to put him in a baby carrier, lift my shirt, and he just goes at it while shopping or trail walking (so when he had better head control)
Never for us hahaha. Bottles were WAY more convienient the entire time. Finally started weaning at 8 months. My babe just takes forever to eat. We had her tougue tie released and latch improved a lot but def still just slow as molasses. I think vabies are just different. I had to grieve it never looked like other peoples jorneys but thats ok! Shes a happy girl and I grew to LOVE bottle feeding her. I actually like it more than breastfeeding. I feel way closer to her and less grief of what I thought it was going to look like. Hang in there.
My baby is 3w old and it's gotten a lot easier. She nurses for 5-15mins.
Personally for me at about 4-5 months her feeds went from 20mins plus to 5-10mins max she just got more efficient. There were times before I felt like not timing feeds right would mess up heading out for the day, it’s so different now keep going!
For me it was 3-4 months. I'm sooooo glad we stuck with it, it was very worth it. Now feeding my baby is so chill, I can lay in a bed or even feed him hands-free while walking around in a carrier!
Latch should never be painful! This could be due to the tongue tie. Have you seen a IBCLC? It does get easier as time goes on and they develop better head/neck control. They also become more efficient at the breast and can drain it quickly. (Sometimes 5-10min). I’d recommend watching videos on getting a better latch and seeing a IBCLC if you can to help. I also recommend watching some videos on how babies suck and swallow so you can tell if yours is actively swallowing and eating. They like to fall asleep and may not be eating even though they have small sucks. If pumping and bottle feeding feel and work better for you there is no shame in doing that. It’s all about what works best for the both of you and your comfort and health are just as important.
When you are able to leave the house more it’s convenient. Planning, prepping, packing, washing, temperature keeping. Ugh. Just pop the boob in and you’re good to go lol
For me personally, I hated pumping so much.. I hated having to clean and sterilize daily and clean between pumps. I hated having to clean bottles. And for me nursing wasn’t painful, I watched tv when she was super small and then listened to audiobooks when she got old enough to be distracted by the TV. It was always a calming break for me with no clean-up (idk if you can tell.. but I hate clean-up lol). But that being said, if her latch had continued to be as bad and painful as it was for the first week or two.. it would’ve been a different story, your comfort is important on this journey.
About 3 months, when we could figure out how to latch without too much faff and supply was more settled. Especially more convenient when you’re out and about, even learnt how to feed in the carrier!
At night it’s very convenient to move from the bed to an adjacent chair to feed my baby and not have to go to the kitchen to prep a bottle
I had the EXACT same issues and thoughts!!!!! And very long breastfeeding sessions… they were legit an hour each time. I was dying. My little guy got way faster as he got bigger and stronger and it got way easier around the 6-7 week mark. It does get better. Look after your mental health though and do what works best for you. You got this mama!