q about feeding newborn at the hospital

i have a question. since i will be having a c section and not having a private room( that is DH is not allowed to stay the night), i will ask for my baby to stay in the nursery for the night. I am not sure what to do with the feeding schedule. If i ask him to be formula fed at night, will it still be possible for me to get him on my breast/bottle once we are home? or should i be asking for him to be brought to me for breast feedings at night at the hospital?

Message edited 11/27/2011 2:44:53 PM.

Re: q about feeding newborn at the hospital

when I delivered, my hospital roommate had a c-section and the nurses brought her the baby every few hours so she could breastfeed...

Re: q about feeding newborn at the hospital

That's entirely your decision. If you are planning to EBF, I would definitely have them bring the baby to you at night for feedings. I think that's the best time to practice nursing and to get any help you might need while you are still there. Once you get home, you're on your own (unless of course you hire a LC or something). But if you are planning to mix it up at home anyway, I think it would be fine to nurse the baby during the day at the hospital and let the nursery feed him/her overnight if that's what you'd prefer.

Re: q about feeding newborn at the hospital

with my ds i was totally cluelessly breastfeeding. I let them take him and said to bring him to me for feedings.. I had a c section so I was there for 4 days and by the last night I said I wanted sleep and that they could feed him a bottle at night. Well I didn't get sleep anyway because they keep waking you up for vitals so I should have just had them bring hm to me. We did continue afterwards great BFing so It wasn't a problem and what was done was done. With ths one I will have them take him to the nursery at night and bring hm to me for feedings even if its every 2 hours.

Re: q about feeding newborn at the hospital

Really its all up to you. If you want to EBF they will bring the baby into you to so you bf and than you can call them to pick up dc. If you don't mind your dc having formula than can fed the baby overnight.

With dd I was ebf and had the nurses bring her into my for feedings the first night. The second night I kept her in with me and the third night I allowed them to feed her formula because I was running a fever and not feeling well.

Re: q about feeding newborn at the hospital

ladies, when you say "EBF", does it mean breast only or pumping and feeding thru bottle as well?

Re: q about feeding newborn at the hospital

When I delivered my oldest I was suppose to exclusively breastfeed and instead of them bringing her to me for feedings at night they fed her that glucose water (did not like that at all). With the rest of my dc I had the nurses bring them to me for the night feedings. Did not want to start nipple confusion while they were so young.

Re: q about feeding newborn at the hospital

Here is my experience:

DD (DC1): Did not BF right away. Let them bottle feed her. Had a hard time with latching. Bottle fed overnight in the nursery. Had problems with latching for weeks after I got home.

DS (DC2): BF'd right away (after weighing and cleaning and stuff). Nurses brought him to me every couple of hours overnight to BF. He slept in the nursery other than that. No problems when we got home.

I would recommend BFing exclusively in the beginning, if that's what you plan to do. Introduce bottle a few weeks later. It SUCKS to be woken up. But it's worth it in the long run.

Re: q about feeding newborn at the hospital

That is a personal decision. I did not my baby to have any formula. t LIJ, they have you check a paper that is attached to the baby's bassinet. You can tell them you want them to feed a bottle at 1m, 5am, or that you are EBF and want the baby brought in when she/he wakes up crying.

The nurses brought my DD to me whenever she got up to be fed.

Again, it's a personal decision that only you can make.

EDIT: There were 3 other women in the room with me. I didn't care. I dont think they had their babies come in at night.

Message edited 11/27/2011 9:58:00 PM.

Re: q about feeding newborn at the hospital

Posted by curiousO

ladies, when you say "EBF", does it mean breast only or pumping and feeding thru bottle as well?

Re: q about feeding newborn at the hospital

I did introduce a bottle to her *(of pumped milk) shortly after we got home. I was worried of nipple confusion, but exhausted because she ate every 2 horus and I needed a break.

We luckily did not have any nipple confusion.

Re: q about feeding newborn at the hospital

Based on my experience with DS, I would suggest having them bring the baby to you throughout the night for BF'ing if you plan to EBF. I wanted to EBF, but after my c-section, I let them formula feed him during the night so I could rest. I ended up having a horrible time with milk production. I will be trying to EBF from the very beginning with my next to see if it will help to establish a more healthy supply. Just know they will be waking you up every couple of hours. On the positive side, personally, BF'ing always made me feel sleepy, so it may not be so bad.

Re: q about feeding newborn at the hospital

I wanted to EBF and didn't want anything to get in my way of that, so I told them to bring the baby to me throughout the night. My feeling is this- yes, they can give the baby formula instead and you could wind up BFing just fine, but what if it does cause nipple confusion? and then you have to work to get DC to latch more, or it takes longer for your supply to come in because you weren't getting as much stimulation? Why risk it.

Re: q about feeding newborn at the hospital

I would have them bring baby to you so you can get help if you need it with latching and so on. I will also say to check the hospital you'll be delivering at because some are VERY "strict" about breast/formula feeding. I am in MI and just had my DS in the 16th. We had issues with his blood sugar and I was/am ebf. I finally asked for 10cc of formula to get his sugar up so he wouldn't have to go to the NICU and you would think I was asking to harm him! They kept saying you wanted to ebf so no formula. It was such a struggle I finally got a nurse who understood and we did great, but I was VERY unprepared for how anti bottle of bm, formula or paci they were once I said I wanted to bf.

Re: q about feeding newborn at the hospital

My hospital only has private rooms, but DH had trouble sleeping there so he went home at night. The nurses would bring DS to me when it was time for him to be fed. BFing is really hard. I wouldn't recommend anything that could possibly make it more difficult like giving DC a bottle of formula at night.

Re: q about feeding newborn at the hospital

You can request to have them bring DC to you for night feedings. At my hospital the last feeding is at 10, then baby goes to nursery. They bring DS to me ONCE during the night for 1 feeding. then they bring him back to the nursery and the ped do their assessments in the morning. He is back in my arms at 9am after I have breakfast.
DS's first feeding was a bottle because he had trouble latching. After a few tries he latched on no problem. I was able to breastfeed and bottle feed. The last night of my stay (4 days for cs) DS had developed jaundice. They recommended I give him a bottle at night instead of bf. I was okay with that. What ever the ped thinks is better for him. I was clueless! But thank god DS was so easy to deal with going from bottles to breast.

Re: q about feeding newborn at the hospital

thank you for your input, girls. I will try to do the night feedings. hopefully it works