Balancing work, pumping, and night wakings – need suggestions

[Sofita90]

I went back to work a week ago, and my baby is now 7 months old. He was exclusively breastfed but also takes a bottle of breastmilk without issues. We recently introduced formula a couple of times and he accepted it well. I still pump at work and use some frozen milk, so most days we don’t need formula.
My routine: I wake up with him around 6/7, feed and play, then nurse him to sleep before my commute. I pump during my lunch break at work, and I’m home around 6:30 to play, bathe, and nurse him to sleep by 8. He usually wakes about three times at night, and I do all the night feeds. My husband works from home but is a heavy sleeper, so he doesn’t wake up.
The challenge is that my husband will start traveling for weeks at a time soon. I don’t think I could do cry-it-out sleep training, but I’d like to help my baby fall back asleep without always nursing. Would it make sense for my husband (while he’s home) to give a bottle at the first waking? Would formula at night help him sleep longer? And if I replace some night feeds with formula, will this reduce my milk supply?
Ideally, I’d like to continue breastfeeding until he’s one year old, but I’m not sure how to manage the nights going forward.

Do you let your baby try settle themselves (not get to crying) or just feed them as soon as they wake up? You could start to build in giving them the chance to settle themselves if you don’t already.

also do you use a comforter? My first daughter had a little muslin bear from about 6 months and it was crucial in getting her to eventually self settle.

I did put a comforter in his crib the last week but he is not interested yet. I really haven’t tried as I usually take him out of the crib as soon as I wake up . I will try to put him back to sleep without offering milk

Sleep for a few nights with the comforter in your bra, then just have it for feeds and feeding to sleep for a few days too, and just keep doing it even if he doesn’t seem interested, he might take to it.

it’s really hard to not immediately feed when they wake up. I’m doing exactly that with my 5 month old, as it’s so much easier in the night than trying to settle back to sleep without a feed, but there have been a few occasions mostly with 4am wake ups where if I just leave her to it, she goes back to sleep. She doesn’t cry or anything she just eventually resettles.

good luck - going back to work at 7 months must be hard, and no one prepares you for working and dealing with night wake ups ….doesn’t feel fair!

Sounds like you are doing amazingly but 3 night wakings won't be sustainable for long. I think getting your DH to deal with at least one of them using formula, or giving a bottle of formula in the evening to give you a chance of a longer period of sleep, might help!