Hi Caroline, basically you do whatever you feel happiest doing - as you say, baby is very tuned in to you and you being unhappy will be felt by him. I live in France and very few people breast feed at all - they thought I was mad. They all turn out fine in the end.
I wanted to bfd and thought it would be really easy, dead natural etc etc and of course everyone tells you its what you should do. As it turned out it was a nightmare for 3 mths - bleeding cracked nipples, pain, engorement, leeky breasts, wet patches, trying to find 'private' places when in public etc etc. and thats after I managed to get him to latch on in the first place - we had to syringe expressed milk down him for the first few days as he was a lazy little bugger !
They tell you its far easier to bfd, that may be so for some people - not for me. As it was, I ended up breast feeding for 8 mths - until Benjamin decided he couldn't be bothered sucking and preffered to bite instead (with teeth !!) HOWEVER I only did it for so long because of the dream machine known as the MEDULA ELECTRIC BREAST PUMP !!! It was fantastic. Without it I definately would of given up sooner.
No one ever suggests you can mix feed or use a pump rather than actually getting him to latch on - but you can. I regularly expressed milk, particularly in the early days and gave him it in a btl instead of the rigmarole of actually putting him on the breast. It did get easier later on, but you have to be very determined and totally into it.
The only thing maybe missing if you btl feed from the beginning is the immunity you can give them - Something to think about would be to perhaps express your colostrum and first milk and feed it to him in a btl for the first week or so. Its time consuming and a bit un lady like having a machine sucking at your breasts, but your whole life in the early days is dominated by baby anyway and then no one can accuse you of not giving him 'the best' as they see it and you avoid all the crack nipple, bleeding business.
I had no trouble with the supposed 'nipple confusion' Benjamin happily went between breast and bottle - what does he care as long as hes getting his milk.
One recommendation is get Gina Fords contented baby book - its brilliant once you get past the idea that shes a control freak - just use the basic ideas behind the routine, its worked for me - Benjamins fast asleep on his 2hr lunchtime nap and he slept through the night from 6wks !
Remember - most of the people telling you breast is best - probably bottle fed their babies, do what you feel happiest doing......
love and good luck for the big day
wendy xxxxx
I'm not sure that this is the easiest option...for the parents or babies. I think that it is far easier to get them into a routine when bottle feeding, but I am no expert.