Expressing milk

Go with what you are comfortable with First. It is a personal choice whether to express or not and some people never do. If BF is going well for you and you have no intention to return to work or see no need to ever introduce a bottle - there's no need to do it.

I say keep BF for as long as you want to, as long as you can and as long as baby wants it.

There is so much advice out there and everyone has their own opinion of what works and what doesn't - ultimately it's your choice and exclusively BF is not a bad thing so don't get put off by other peoples comments.

As for mixing BF and bottles with breast milk - there's no problem with that either .. my only suggestion would be to buy a bottle/teat combination that mimics the breast to help with the transition between breast and bottle. I think Avent do a great teat for their bottles or you can purchase specific teats from Plunket which force the baby to treat the bottle just like the breast in as much as using their tongue to get the milk out (rather than it just dripping down their throats). I used the plunket teats with my first and had no problems continuing to BF while giving her the bottle from time to time too. I plan on buying more teats from plunket for this baby also - they can be used with most normal style bottles (not Avent).

One last suggestion is - if you do decide to express and give bottles from time to time - make sure you are expressing when you would normally BF to keep your milk supply up. So even if you miss a BF and give baby a bottle - express so your breasts keep making the quantity of milk required.

Good luck and congrats on your baby!

You don't have to express. If you ever want a night out or some time off you could just try formula if you are ok with that. I got DH to do it a couple of times (he did the 10:30pm dream feed) in the early days when I just hadn't managed to express much and it was great. But if you don't want/need that then don't bother.