To formula or not to formula

In the beginning, we weren’t sure whether to get formula or not. We had this flawed expectation that babies will come out all calm, and feeding will not be a problem.

Boy were we wrong.

In the first few days in the hospital, we were given a bit of formula to top up after every meal. This is because my wife’s milk hasn’t come through yet. After giving birth, it might take a few days for the milk to come through. Until that comes through, the baby will feed on something called colostrum. It’s essentially a thick liquid filled with nutrients that will satisfy a baby for the first few days. Even in a normal birth, babies might lose up to 10% of their body weight in the first week because the mother’s milk hasn’t come through yet.

With James’ jaundice and Isabelle’s c-section, it was extermely difficult to feed James as even placing a bit weight on Isabelle’s stomach was very painful for her. We were then given formula in the hospital to help top James up.

My mistake in the beginning was to not prepare formula at home. We didn’t think that James would need it in the first couple of weeks which was a mistake. Buying a can of formula just to be safe would have been better as then I wouldn’t have had to go out and buy it right away on the first day back.

Expressing some colostrum

One of our nurses told us that we could have expressed some colostrum before the James was born. Since it was a planned c-section, we should have done that which would have helped and allowed us to feed James when Isabelle was in pain. This would have given Isabelle more time to recover and relax since we wouldn’t have had to worry about whether James was getting enough or not.

To summarize

Prepping formula at home would avoid the unnecessary headache of trying to find the formula in the first couple of days. If it’s possible, expressing some colosturm early on would have been useful to feed the baby when he’s hungry.