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Plan on nursing your baby only. Do not bottle feed your baby! You will do better this way. Your husband will find all sorts of other things to do to form a bond with the baby! Nursing was intended and designed for mommies! Breastfeeding is 'udderly' delightful!

I'll have to disagree with your advice ;)
I've never had a partner so loving, excited, interested, and wanting to be involved in every moment of our baby's life as much as my husband is. My boys' father wanted nothing to do with them, or me, when they were born, so this is a wonderful new adventure for our whole family. I think it would be quite selfish on my part not to let my husband be involved in every aspect, including the feeding :D

You don't want to go too long between feedings in the early weeks (it can affect supply) so I would wait a few weeks before regularly substituting a bottle for the breast. Other than that, missing a feeding a day shouldn't be a problem.

I had no interest in breastfeeding. My hubby bonded w/ our daughter so early because he participated in feeding her. You have to do what works best for you an your situation.

Hey, I understand the pain..it's WAY worse when you try to stay away from your baby and pump for any reason... that NEVER worked for me! I've found that you just have to push through, and by 8 months old, the baby is a pro, and you'll be sooo glad you did it, and saved TONS of money by not supplementing with formula. But for me, I had to supplement with formula for the 1st week because I got clogged milk ducts when all the milk came so fast and caused engorgement for BOTH my babies so far. But that's just me, my midwife had delivered over 200 babies and had NEVER seen my level of clogged milk ducts EVER! My ENTIRE breasts would clog up! This was just the beginning when the baby was 1st born, so it was like a "hill" to climb over. I never supplemented with formula again after the 2nd week. The longest I was ever away from my 2 month old baby was 2 days when my husband and I went away for the weekend to celebrate our anniversary...it was torture! For some reason the breast pump just DOES NOT HELP ME! So I "expressed" the painful engorgement away. Oh, man, it will be sooo much easier if you're a stay at home mom! It was on me, I would never have lasted with breast-feeding if I had to work! You can try pumping, but don't count on it, it made my milk supply even greater and so my breasts were full all the time and never seemed to get relief! I actually looked forward to breast-feeding just to get some "relief" for the milk-pressure in my breasts! So, it might seem crazy, but you probably wouldn't even want to give up the baby for the hubby to feed! Also, I turned it into a wonderful relaxing "nap" time by nursing while lying down...so the baby would fall asleep because you are their personal "pacifier" and you would actually get a nice nap in, too! I never used cribs and don't think I ever will...The baby sleeps with me and when he wakes up, I just roll over, and give him the breast and he nurses himself right back to sleep! I NEVER have to get up(out of bed) in the middle of the night(Except for diaper changes) It's awesome! This isn't recommended for heavy sleepers(for obvious reasons) though. But if you are sub-consciously aware of your baby even in your sleep like I am, bed-nursing is a very relaxing and rewarding way to live with your little one! Even daddy gets to hug the little one in bed if he wants...my little 2 year old visits us early every morning and naps between us for at least a half an hour and then he starts kissing and hugging us both as his daddy usually wakes him up all the way by hugging and tickling him. My husband has never bottlefed our little ones as we are strictly breastfeeding, but they have certainly bonded with their "daddy" and I don't think bottlefeeding would have made any difference. If you think bottlefeeding is bonding time, then I guess any form of sucking/eating would be, too. The breast is also a pacifier, it's different from a bottle, to feel the constant hug of your mommy. Daddy could just as easily hug and hold baby and bond that way, feeding isn't necessary. Babies love to suck, and that's why they made "pacifiers" I've never used them except in extreme cases when my baby just would NOT be happy unless he could suck for 4 hours straight! And you KNOW that produces WAY too much milk! Never needed it past the 2nd month. Now, I'm still "pacifying" my 2 year old to sleep at naptime and bedtime everynight with the breast..it's a miracle-worker! You will be soo happy if you stick with it until 8 months..because after that, it'll be a breeze!! No fighting with making baby comfy. just latch, suck and then nap! It's a perfect nap-inducer! I'm not producing milk anymore so when he sucks my empty breasts it hurts like he's biting lightly(even though he's not)but then the pain fades and he stops sucking so hard as he drifts off to sleep, usually takes less than 5 to 10 mins for him to fall asleep, when he's REALLY tired, it might even take only 2 or 3! It's great for when he hurts himself and a pacifier isn't the same as a hug, but nursing is having the best of both worlds! Sucking AND hugging! Hey, just stick with it, you AND your baby will love it! Just prepare to cover your bed with towels or some other vinyl sheet of some sort if you had the problem I did with leaking, the longer you wait to nurse, the worse the leakage-obviously you know! Hehe..but then if you nurse in bed like I do, then make sure you have somthing completely under the baby as sometimes their diaper will be loose and as they lie on their side will pee out of their clothes AND when they fall asleep with breastmilk in their mouths or you start "spraying" they let go because there is too much milk in their mouths and then there is a big sticky milk-mess to clean, so some sectional bed pads would be a must for your list of "things to get" if you plan to bed-feed...hey, it's WAY cheaper than a crib! Just as breastfeeding is WAY cheaper than formula-feeding! So, hey! Lots of pluses! So it's a pretty big personal sacrifice at first but the money saved and the bonding gained plus getting easier as you go makes it ALL worth it! Just don't ever wear silk! Just in case! And keep taking the prenatal vitamins as though you are still preganant..because you are still producing food for 2 people and so you need enough nutrition for 2 as well! Hehe, good luck with whatever you choose to do! I'm sure it'll be fine and all that matters is your baby has a daddy AND mommy that loves them!

I intend on bottle feeding. I don't have any interest in breast feeding and this way my child (8 years old) and dh can both participate in the feeding.

I am bottle feeding. Just a personal preferance, I guess.