Going back to work,not ready to stop BF, what do I do now?

[america]

I'm unexpectedly going back to work soon. I'm still breastfeeding and DC just very recently started accepting the bottle. I'm not ready to stop breastfeeding but how do I decrease the number of feeds from four during the day to only one in the evening? And if I am to express during the day, how does this work? all confused, help please.

[america]

Ups, forgot to say that DC is 8.5MO and very keen on solids too.

[anothercoldcupoftea]

Hi there - I did this with DD1 until she was 1 year (she had a dairy allergy) and it is possible. At 8.5 months, you could probably get away with 3 milk feeds a day - morning, evening and a 'snack' feed in the afternoon. For your DC's lunch, you could just offer water in a beaker with the solids (water is better for iron absorbtion I think anyway).

Assuming you can do the morning and evening feeds yourself, you then only need to express one feed at work - so you can do that in your lunch hour. Hopefully you can find somewhere private to go rather than the loos! You just take in all the expressing stuff (and a double pump is definitely worth it if you can get one), ready cleaned and in a freezer bag to keep it clean, express and pop it in the fridge till you go home, with a cool pack to keep it cool on the way home. Then that becomes your milk for the next day. Its a bit of a faff, but it is possible if that's what you want to do. Good luck!