Your experience with long-term combo feeding at the breast?

[cieloazul]

Has anyone out there combo-fed at the breast with a SNS or Lactaid over several months time? What's it been like? What have you needed in the way of "gear"; I'm guessing it may be handy to have more than one apparatus on hand for night feedigs etc? What do you wish you'd known going into this arrangement? Any other words of wisdom? Thanks!

[Megan73]

Yup, I breastfed with a Lact-Aid (which is a thousand times better than the SNS, IMO) for over a year then stopped supplementing but kept nursing when DS1 was a toddler. I had five units, which was perfect because they could be washed and loaded once a day - a great job for a partner, BTW.
I just nursed "bare" at night but if you need to supplement at night I'd just keep a small cooler next to your bed. A small insulated bag with an icepack is handy for traveling with the filled Lact-Aid units.
I wish I'd had the book "Making More Milk" with my first son.
If you give me a few more details about your situation I may have more advice...

[cieloazul]

Thanks, Megan73. It's really encouraging to hear that you were able to keep it up for so long. One of my fears is that it will be a huge PITA compared to bottles, which are already a minor-PITA, IMO. Here's a link to a thread I posted here earlier this summer with the details of where I'm coming from: http://www.mothering.com/community/t/1358593/pregnant-with-dc-2-and-preparing-for-another-challenging-bf-experience-advice