Conflicted
Hi, I'm due in August and thinking about how I'm going to feed the baby is starting to stress me out.
Here are my circumstances, I appreciate any advice:
-I will return to work after 12 weeks of leave. Baby will go to daycare.
-I know myself, and pumping every couple hours / cleaning the parts regularly is not something I envision having the mental health capacity for.
-At this point, not thinking I would feel sad missing out on the "bonding of breastfeeding"
-I would like to lose the baby weight as soon as possible, so concerned I may be doing myself a disservice there if I skip breastfeeding all together (heard it helps with weight loss but idk if that's true)
-Understand that there are health benefits to breastmilk, don't want to deprive my baby of that.
-Not knowing exactly how much baby is eating during breastfeedings is a concern of mine.
-Since after 12 weeks I'll be forced to formula feed because of returning to work,I want to get baby used to formula from the start.
So, based on that, would you recommend I try a mix of breastfeeding and formula feeding for 12 weeks?
Or just start EFF from birth? If I did a mix, I'm not sure how fast my supply would start to wane given I wouldn't be pumping at all.