Continue ebf or change to formula
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My LB is formula fed and sometimes he goes 2.5 hours and sometimes he goes 4 between feeds. The only consistent time is overnight when he’ll go from 11-7/8. I think it just varies from baby to baby rather than how they’re fed!
I’ve been combi-feeding from the start too, have gradually reduced the amount of formula and now LG has 1 formula bottle a day and the rest is BF. I switch up the times that she has depending on if we’re going out, if my husbands at home and can feed her etc. it’s given us a lot of flexibility. I would definitely suggest starting with combi-feeding (as opposed to switch completely overnight to formula) and introducing a bottle of formula a day and see how things go, this will also reduce the risk of mastitis and engorgement.
Also midnight_milk bar on insta has a lot of info on combi-feeding. It doesn’t have to be one or the other, it can be both. You’re an amazing mama and ultimately will make the right decision for you and your baby
I exclusively pump and I know what you mean about pumping. I have two cup which I switch between as I can't do the fridge method (where you pump then put in a container in the fridge and only sterilise once every 24 hours. My fridge just isn't big enough). I was until a couple of weeks ago combi feeding where I pumped every 3 hours but her bedtime and window at night was formula. It's given me a good freezer stock as there was two pump sessions milk spare and allowed my husband to feed baby sometimes at night (i dong expect him to wake on work night). We have only recently switched to breast milk at night and she went longer on express then formula, so I thought ah might as well switch.
I'm in exactly the same boat. My first was combi fed from the start and I stopped breastfeeding at 4 weeks due to various issues and I felt no negativity with decision. This baby is 10 weeks old but breast fed well from the start and things are different. I wanted to breastfeed a bit longer but I did want to combi feed again. This baby won't take a bottle though. We've been trying since about 3 weeks. We've tried different bottles. I've tried breast milk and formula in the bottle. We will keep trying until she gets used to it and next week I have family coming who will take her to try a bottle without me in the house so hopefully we can crack it. For me it's exactly the same thing of feeling the strain of being the only one who can feed her.
Whatever you decide will be the best for your baby. I decided to combi feed from early on so we had more flexibility but I still got to enjoy breast feeding. I then got mastitis and chose to switch completely to formula. All babies are different, but generally mine feeds every 3ish hours on formula, but does one longer stretch overnight of between 5 and 7 hours.