Comments on Blacktating: The Relief Bottle

We did the relief bottle, but also with a twist. ...

2011-09-21T07:00:10.709-04:00

We did the relief bottle, but also with a twist. My daughter would clusterfeed for HOURS at night. HOURS! I was maybe getting 3 or 4 broken hours of sleep. My husband would take a "shift" from 7:30-10:30pm. I would sleep, pump when I woke up (next day's bottle) and then take over. After a few weeks she started going to bed earlier so I could still get some sleep and hold on to my 10:30pm pump to build up my freezer stash. At almost 8m in my body is a little too trained to pump at night so I'm still not really sleeping as much as I could, but I think it's worth it to help keep a healthy supply.

Worked for me but with a twist. I I ended up excl...

2011-09-20T01:55:28.386-04:00

Worked for me but with a twist. I I ended up exclusively pumping 17 months with the second, and about 5 with the first baby. The relief bottle was just that with my first, and finger feeder with my second given when he was very young and I was very doped up on pain meds from my C-Section. I am lucky in that I'm an efficient pumper so it took me less time to pump and empty the breast as much as a pump was gonna than it took my baby to feed from the tube or bottle. So, my husband propped up half asleep with his huge pinky in the baby's mouth, and I propped up with a pump strapped to me, humming away. By the time he was older I had trained my boobs to go longer stretches at night where I didn't need to pump and yet could get the same supply from the morning and evening sessions, and yet my boys were still up, bullying Daddy for that late night feed. I only EP'd and I know if baby isn't used to bottle and you don't respond well to a pump it would be pretty useless. Besides there are plenty of times that aren't feeding times in which Dad can offer mom a nap. And I would (and did) take them!

It did not work for me either....

2011-09-12T12:54:28.093-04:00

It did not work for me either....

After my husband spilled the relief bottle, dipped...

2011-09-09T16:16:00.855-04:00

After my husband spilled the relief bottle, dipped into my work supply, and left a mess for me to clean in the morning, I realized it's easier and more efficient to just get up and nurse. And mornings were much brighter once I learned to breastfeed lying down!

Nay on the relief bottle. If you "relieve&qu...

2011-09-08T21:44:34.307-04:00

Nay on the relief bottle. If you "relieve" your duties..you still have to pump at that time too...what's the point? Might as well sleep feed until your LO doesn't need to sleep at night..it's another one of those things that "seemed like a good idea at the time."

I sent you a follow request on twitter @ram0na Hope to read more about you soon!

It was just too much work to pump so my husband co...

2011-09-07T00:20:34.827-04:00

It was just too much work to pump so my husband could do a feeding. I was much too tired to go to the extra effort and seemed so much easier to just roll over and do a dream feed. My son never woke up entirely, and neither did I. Bed sharing and nursing through the night worked for us, I figured why change it.

Pumping is like torture to me, so I just deal with...

2011-09-06T20:37:31.196-04:00

Pumping is like torture to me, so I just deal with the tiredness. Saw this today and wanted to send it to you, there's a really vague line about co-sleeping and SIDS that made me a little angry...

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/23/us-sleeping-babies-idUSTRE77M74P20110823

I say Nay. Nursing is so much easier than all of t...

2011-09-04T10:43:08.847-04:00

I say Nay. Nursing is so much easier than all of those other things that people can help with: older siblings, cooking, cleaning, laundry. No thank you, I'll just relax and nurse my sweetums.
Sometimes this relief bottle business might be a sign that the mom is feeling overwhelmed with the new baby, maybe lonely, maybe trapped! SHe might not be getting any help with anything. Who knows, but getting her to a La Leche League meeting may get her over the hump and back in the groove. Or maybe a postpartum doula...

I didn't get a chance to read all of the comme...

2011-09-03T20:53:30.755-04:00

I didn't get a chance to read all of the comments, but I guess I just always felt like breastfeeding through the night was part of my womanly/motherly duties?? I hated pumping so much that I would much rather wake up to breastfeed than pump in advance. I was also always afraid of mastitis, clogged ducts, etc., so I was cautious about that. I knew that my daughter mostly awoke for the comforting factor, not necessarily the nutrition, so I didn't think a bottle would really help with that. I've never been much of a sleeper (maybe 5 - 6 hours a night) so it wasn't too bad, even when I had to work.

I totally agree with you. I think moms of newborns...

2011-08-30T12:21:59.702-04:00

I totally agree with you. I think moms of newborns put way too much focus on having a pumped milk supply when they should just be working on establishing that supply and demand loop at the breast. (Unless they have to return to work right away, of course.) Granted, it's also way harder for me to wake my husband than to nurse a baby too.

Yay! I enjoy the relief bottle. Dh needs to share ...

2011-08-28T02:20:03.153-04:00

Yay! I enjoy the relief bottle. Dh needs to share in the experience, the first week is rough but as you posted your first week of how you thought it was going to work was too until you realized the nonco-sleeping wasnt for you. He needed time to work his own routine with dad and you figure out how to help to get your rest and minimize engorgement.

I agree! My husband could sleep through anything, ...

2011-08-24T15:21:46.441-04:00

I agree! My husband could sleep through anything, so I'd have to wake him, wait for him to stumble out of bed, open his eyes, and then take the baby. It was too much work! Instead we figured out another system that got me some extra sleep. Since our middle of the night feeding is generally close to 3am, when she wakes again for the morning at 6am he takes her into the living room for some play time letting me sleep for another hour (sometimes longer) before she needs to nurse and go down for her first nap.

Pumping regularly while also breastfeeding never quite made sense to me. I pump when I'm engorged because she's slept longer than usual, to keep some milk in the freezer in case of emergency. But I've wondered about those women who have overflowing freezers of milk. Do they spend half the day nursing and half the day pumping? I'm SO happy that my milk production is right in line with my little girls needs. It can be mighty uncomfortable when it isn't!

I can't imagine it working for all the reasons...

2011-08-24T13:46:07.721-04:00

I can't imagine it working for all the reasons you state in your post. I guess, moms could pump while their husbands fed with the bottle, but that wouldn't solve any problems. This time around with baby #2, I plan to pump more for day time feedings, but will keep our night time routine mostly the same, with me waking up to feed and co-sleeping.

I tried this in the beginning with my daughter, to...

2011-08-24T10:02:54.703-04:00

I tried this in the beginning with my daughter, too. The problem was that I could hear her and him and I was awake the whole time anyway. It was the very beginning, at that part where I didn't believe my husband could take care of her without me. So I was always worried he'd do something wrong. In the end, it just wasn't worth it. Once we started to co-sleep when she was about 3 weeks old, it got much better.

We had an input / output agreement in my family. I...

2011-08-24T09:30:24.572-04:00

We had an input / output agreement in my family. I handled most of the feeding and Dan handled all of the diaper changes he was home for. This included middle of the night changing. It's only fair! Even if the hubs has to get up and work, mom still has to get up and function all day with a new child. I remember the few days I went back to work thinking how much easier it was to function tired at work than it is to function tired and look after a demanding new baby. But maybe that's just me?

The resentment is real!@3ad8725771adc69660dce2ce06...

2011-08-24T09:24:00.382-04:00

The resentment is real!@3ad8725771adc69660dce2ce06826561:disqus Even pregnant now sometimes I am giving my husband the evil eye and he is like, "If I could do it for you, I would!"

Jovan did the "death march" before bed. ...

2011-08-24T09:22:21.003-04:00

Jovan did the "death march" before bed. I'd nurse the baby then he'd strap him on and go for a walk until he was asleep so I could do important stuff like play online.

That is another good point. So many moms go back t...

2011-08-24T09:20:19.413-04:00

That is another good point. So many moms go back to work so quickly that the nighttime is actually the most bonding time you get with your baby during the week. Even though I was lucky to be able to stay home for about 8 months, when I did go back bed sharing was wonderful because I got to snuggle my baby all night!

If you are both working, yes. Once I went back to ...

2011-08-24T09:17:00.478-04:00

If you are both working, yes. Once I went back to work, we did take shifts if the baby woke up, but thankfully he was pretty much sleeping through the night at that point.

I think the "relief bottle" is pointless...

2011-08-24T09:15:03.577-04:00

I think the "relief bottle" is pointless. I weaned my first to formula quite early, and I was STILL the only one to get up and feed him. Plus he was sick ALL THE TIME.

I nursed everyone else (I have 7 kids) until they were walking and talking. Still am nursing the youngest. He's 3. Breastfeeding is just so much easier.

And I WOTH until right before my fifth child was born. Still easier.

That is awful and so sad for that baby.

2011-08-24T07:21:05.087-04:00

That is awful and so sad for that baby.

I was in the park yesterday and there was a baby, ...

2011-08-24T07:12:38.175-04:00

I was in the park yesterday and there was a baby, maybe 2-3 months old, with his grandmother. He was asleep in the stroller most of the time, but when he woke up and was ready to eat, his grandmother propped the bottle on a blanket next to his head so he could eat. I was so taken aback. Why wouldn't she want to hold him and feed him?? It was kind of sad. It was a beautiful day, and he couldn't even get out of the sweaty stroller to enjoy his meal.

I never tried the relief bottle for the reasons yo...

2011-08-24T07:05:00.171-04:00

I never tried the relief bottle for the reasons you just mentioned. I had so much milk in the first 9 months or so, I was having let-down constantly, even when it wasn't time for her to nurse. There was no way I was going to miss a feeding. I did pump so I could go to yoga once or twice a week, but usually even then we were on a good schedule and I just nursed her when I got home. When she started sleeping through the night I thought, "Ah, this will be great," but many nights, usually around 5, I had to get up to pump b/c I was about to burst. Eventually my body worked itself out, but skipping a night nursing in those early months would have been more horrible than heavenly for me, too!

The relief bottle wasn't a relief for me. Fin...

2011-08-24T05:07:49.496-04:00

The relief bottle wasn't a relief for me. Finding the time to pump was more of a hassle then feeding my baby straight from the tap. Also, that missed feeding led to me eventually getting up to remove some milk so that I wouldn't get engorged.

The one thing that helped my sleep was learning to nurse in a side-lying position. Ahhh! Sleep! We bedshared, so I did not get up and go to different room to nurse. I imagine that I would have been pretty exhausted, too, if I'd had to do that.

I recently hit a wall on the lack of sleep and tho...

2011-08-24T04:57:55.817-04:00

I recently hit a wall on the lack of sleep and thought that a relief bottle would help both with the resentment I was feeling towards my hubby (though logically I know there isnt a lot he can do) and the lack of sleep. Well one feeding was replaced by the bottle & that is all it took for me to end up with a plugged milk duct. It didn't work for us.