Guest Post--Bottle Feeding Breast Milk

This post comes to us from my dear friend Carrie--yes, I have a friend named Carrie. When she first started attending our church I asked someone, "Have you seen Carrie?" The lady I asked looked at me like, "Oh, she's lost it." :) Anyway, this is Carrie and her precious girl's story. Enjoy.


During my pregnancy, I had every intention to breastfeed. It's natural, healthy, always available, and my biggest selling point – FREE. My daughter was breastfed. At least in the sense she did drink breastmilk, but she almost 100% received it in a bottle.

Carrie feeding her girl in the NICU

My daughter was born three weeks early via c-section due to low amniotic fluids and the fact she was breech. She ended up staying in the NICU for eight days in order to regulate her blood sugar the nurses and doctors wanted to record her intake every three hours. When a child feeds at the breast it makes it harder to record the nutrition in ounces.

I began pumping the evening she was born. I pumped every 2-3 hours for the next several days only to receive a few cc’s of milk. I would draw it up in small medicine-like syringes and have her drink it. I supplemented with formula for those first few days. At five days old, my milk came in. I continued to pump every 2-3 hours even at night and my daughter began taking breastmilk in bottles.

Breastmilk from a bottle.

I did try to breastfeed. The nurses did finally allow me to try in the NICU, but my girl wouldn’t latch on. I had very little success in the hospital, but I told myself it would easier at home. I would be more comfortable and I could relax a little more.

I went home continuing to pump about every three hours. By the time she was three weeks old I already had an abundance of “extra” milk in the freezer. At my peak I had 144 bags with 6 ounces of milk in each bag in the freezer. That equals to 864 ounces of breast milk.

I know the idea of pumping 6, 7, or 8 times a day can seem daunting, but in reality it wasn’t. My daughter was a breast fed baby who was fed like a bottle-fed baby. My pumping and feeding schedule for the early months 0-4 was as followed:

6 am pump and feed (pumped around 10 – 15 ounces of milk)
9 am pump and feed (pumped at least 5 ounces of milk)
12 noon pump and feed (pumped at least 5 ounces of milk)
3 pm pump and feed (pumped at least 5 ounces of milk)
6 pm pump and feed (pumped at least 5 ounces of milk)
9 pm pump and feed (pumped at least 5 ounces of milk)
12 pm feed
3 am feed

Pumping took between 10-20 min. I pumped between 35 – 40 ounces a day. My daughter never took more than 25 ounces of breastmilk in a day. That satisfied her. I know some will say that is not very much, but I could never get her to take anymore than 25 ounces. Bottle feeding only took 20 – 25 minutes. Many breastfed babies easily take 40 minutes to breastfeed at the breast. As you can see from my daily schedule I only pumped during the day. My body adjusted and produced more than enough breastmilk during the day to feed her for a whole 24 hours. Eventually the 12 and 3 am feedings became only one feeding and by around three months old the night time feeding disappeared.

I loved my breast pump. I would say it was the one manmade possession I couldn’t live without. I have the original Medela Pump and Style. It pumps both breasts at the same time.

I feel there are benefits to breastfeeding in a bottle. I like numbers and I like knowing exactly how much my daughter would eat. My daughter slept through the night long before the traditional breastfed baby. Dads can easily participate in the feeding process compared to traditional breastfeeding where mom is the feeding source 24 hours a day every 2-3 hours. I received a lot more sleep than the traditional breastfeeding mom. I also think sleep = good. I never had to try to discreetly breastfeed in public. I had a lot of soreness and pain after attempting to feed at the breast. I’m sure I was doing it incorrectly, but I had very little support at traditional breastfeeding. I did see a lactation consultant once at a support group. She didn’t approve of my “breastfeeding in a bottle" method. My mother (who gave up breastfeeding me at two weeks old and didn’t even try with my younger brother) thought I had the best of both worlds (breastfeeding and bottle feeding). Pumping wasn’t much of an option in 1982 (when I was born). Manual breast pumps were the only options and they weren’t very effective.

I continued breastfeeding in a bottle for 9 ½ months. She took formula in her bottles for approximately 10 weeks. I don’t know if “Breast is Best.” I have never done the research. I bet if we had a room full of grown women we wouldn’t be able to pick out the ones that were breastfed and those that were bottle fed.

Carrie & her daughter, Mother's Day 2009