Introducing A Bottle to Baby Franky

Sponsored with love by Ashland Breast Pumps

Here I am, almost two months of being a mom of two and it’s been just so amazing, to say the least. It’s blissful, full of love and of course we’ve had our rough moments but there’s just something about the second time around that I absolutely love. There’s less anxiety, less worrying and more of knowing what I want. Since I’ve already experienced raising a baby one time before this, I now know what I loved about that experience and what I’d like to change with Franky and the biggest difference I’m making this time around is how Franky eats.

Bottle feeding, breastfeeding, formula feeding or a little bit of each, I’m doing things differently this time around and for good reason. With Ava, I exclusively breastfed and if you want to read all about why I chose to do things differently with Franky and pump/bottle feed and breastfeed, click here to read it.

So since I’ve never experienced bottle feeding and I’ve never experienced pumping before this, I had no clue what I was doing or where to start. And Ashland Breast Pumps has truly been a blessing for that reason — They’ve been my advocate in getting a pump that was best for me (click here to read all about how they can get your breast pump for you for free so you don’t have to deal with insurance yourself) and they’ve provided me with so much useful information along the way, helping me and so many other moms through this journey. I may be a second time mom but every single journey is going to be different, no matter how many kids I have. So a huge thank you to Ashland Breast Pumps for helping me along the way.

Introducing the Bottle to A Newborn Baby

When do I start giving my newborn a bottle?
How many days a week do I give a baby a bottle if I also plan to breastfeed?
How much milk should my newborn baby be drinking?
When should I pump and how often should I pump?

So many questions that needed to be answered and Ashland Breast Pumps has all of the free resources I need to get on track with the feeding plan I wanted — the feeding plan that was best for us. And here’s how our journey has gone so far:

We started introducing Franky a bottle at 3 weeks old, which was recommended by our lactation consultant in the hospital after delivery. Franky luckily latched immediately, my milk came in immediately and because of that, three weeks was the perfect amount of time for him to get used to breastfeeding but not so used to it that he wouldn’t want to try anything else. So there it stood and at three weeks old, we introduced that bottle and he took it immediately.

What type of bottle is best for my baby?

It depends on the baby and we tried a couple with Franky so far — some he loved and some, not so much. So try different bottles and see which ones your baby loves and stick with that!

When do I pump?

I pump once a day in the mornings after Franky’s first feeding. He usually eats around 6am and then around 8ish is when I sit down and pump, only for five minutes. With five minutes of pumping I usually get around 5-6oz of milk and that’s perfect for us, since we don’t need a huge backup of milk stored. I primarily continue to breastfeed so that pumped and stored milk is just for certain occasions when we need it and for keeping Franky used to the bottle.

So overall, it’s going great so far and we’ve got our routine down.

Next step: Heading out for a date with my handsome hubby and leaving Franky with an auntie or grandma and a bottle full of milk. We’ve done it once so far and it was glorious.

If you’d like more lactation, pump and bottle feeding resources, here are some great articles I’ve snagged from the Ashland Breast Pumps website:

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