Bottles At The Beginning

Hi! I am trying to get ready for what may happen in the next 1 - 2 weeks - catching up after working WAY too much. I intend on breastfeeding but I don't want to buy stuff that I won't need or use. Do I really need to buy some bottles now to have them on hand soon after the delivery? Doesn't the hospital have some for me to use in the first couple of days? I would rather see how things go and then send my husband off to buy things we really need than to have a bunch of stuff we never/ rarely use.

 

My hospital used premade disposable bottles of good start formula with one use nipples, and sent us home with a handful of each (we BF and supplement.) The bottles had 3 oz each in them, but the measurement was on the labels, so it wouldn't be easy to refill it unless you weren't being precise about how much they were eating. They also gave me a pumping starter kit with breast shields and small collection tubes. We used those tubes (2.5 oz with ml marker lines) for a long time to feed them. I would suggest trying to ask for something like that (even if you don't really plan on BFing...), it would get you through a few days until you decide what you like best! Also, the one use nipples are really ok to wash/reuse according to my ped. Just watch for them breaking down.

It ended up that one of my kids at first took your standard nipple type, and the other would take from a NUK better. Now the first refuses bottles unless he's truly hungry, and the latter will take either, but neither of them really dug any of the fancy bottles we used (wide mouth nuks, breast flow, soothie, etc.)

 

I had four 9oz bottles before I went into labor just in case. I also figured that I wasn't going to exclusively breastfeed for a whole year so they would need a bottle if I was gone/had a babysitter. I ended up supplementing a little so I bought 4 5oz bottles a day. Now I still just have the 8 bottles and I only have to wash them every 3 days (I still do it daily).

 

If you are planning to breastfeed, I would highly recommend "Born Free", or some other brand that has the wide more realistic nipples that force them to really open their mouths like they have to when nursing. We started out with evenflow which are the same as what they had at the hospital but switched at the recommendation of the lactation consultant. I noticed a marked improvement in nursing. Of course my babes were preemies and went from tube feeding to bottles to breast. If yours are strong nursers in the beginning it may not matter as much.