I do top up with FM when after BM, baby still wants more milk and not enough. We also started him off with some FM when he was jaundiced and had to be hospitalized and my expressed BM wasn't enough for him to go round the clock. I am not so hard and fast with total BM because I think as a mom, if I wanna BF successfully, I need to be relaxed. 2nd time round, I guess I have learnt my lessons from the first one. My theory now is, even though it's not total BM, any BM is still good enough. But of course, BM will still be priority for my baby, just that if he still fusses, I won't keep tiring myself out from keep latching. What I do for night feeds with my CL is quite good (though it's tiring, that's why we both nap during day when baby naps).
I will first latch baby, then express whatever I have leftover, and then I'll wake CL to bottle feed him while I rest. In this way, we both take turns to zzzz and hopefully with the expressed BM, baby can last a bit longer to give us a bit more rest. Just that now after week 3, he's starting to get more gassy and he tends to wake up in between for comfort cuddling which can be tiring for us at night time. Maybe you can try this and see if it works. BTW, how old is your baby now? First 2 weeks, they tend to be really sleepy and can sleep through without waking up for feeds, you need to try to wake them up, even more so if they're jaundiced.
And also, sometimes, baby doesn't take too well to bottle also could be he's too used to the nipple and the teat of the bottle may not be what he wants. And also, BM always taste better than FM. So there's also another reason why he rejects. Use Lanolin or BM to heal your nipples and get a nipple shield if you must to protect against abrasion between your nipples and the bra.
so he was early for abt a month? Rest well, mummy.
