Breastfeeding and returning to work

[ZuzuandZara]

My DTs are almost 11 months, premature so still quite tiny. There are on about 5 or 6 feeds a day - first thing in morning (not always), mid morning, mid afternoon, before bed, about midnight and about 4am.
I am returning to work end of Jan, part time including some shift work, when they are one. I desperately want to continue breastfeeding.

Lots of questions!
Do I start dropping daytime feeds soon?
Do I need to replace the breastfeeds with another milk?
I hope to at least continue bedtime feeds (I feed them at bedtime but they are not fed to sleep), what happens if I'm on a late shift and cannot give them a bedtime feed? They've never not had a bedtime feed and I'm worried they won't go down without as it's part of their routine.

I don't know if these are silly questions or not, I really don't have a clue what to do. I love breastfeeding and definitely want to carry on, but at the same time I don't want to 'have' to continue feeding up to six times a day.

Many thanks.

Zuzu, haven't got any advice really but just wanted to say well done for feeding premature twins for 11 months, well done you

Hopefully someone will be along soon with trainig or experience or maybe even both

Thank you
They were in SCBU for 3 weeks so I got lots of support and help from the nurses to establish breastfeeding, it was really, really hard for a couple of months but now so easy and I love, love it!

hello!
i have only the one DS, but have been back doing full time shift work since he was about 6 months so can tell you how we got on.

I'm not really sure how many feeds he was having when i went back, quite a few i guess as it was just before he had any other food. i expressed when i went back, i had two breaks per shift to do this, then it went down to one before i was able to just feed when i was home.

i used to feed him right before i left and as soon as i got in.
i think by 11 months i had almost stopped expressing.

he settled fine for DH with a bottle of ebm if i wasn't there for bedtime. more recently he has a cup of warm cow's milk if i work evenings. i used to feed him in his sleep when i got in and also as i left for an early morning start. when he was smaller he went back to sleep no problem, he's a bit more excitable now at 15 months!

my body seems to cope fine with the random feed times, i don't really get uncomfortable now.

sorry this got so long! i'm so glad to be still bf him. :)

I went back to work when DD was about 8 months and carried on bf around work. She refused a bottle and would only drink water from a cup in my absence, but as she was on solids it really didn't matter. I was slightly uncomfortable at first and expressed a little at work, for comfort really but within a short space of time we both adjusted. If I was late home, I would usually go into DDs room and even if she was sleeping she would usually wake and feed and then go straight back to sleep.
The feeds reduced to 3 times a day once I was at work - morning, when I got home from work and bedtime, which was fairly civilised.

Just marking my place and watching with interest.
I go back to work end Feb (DS2 will be 11 months), 2 days a week, but can be working 9am - 11pm/12am sometimes.
DS2 still being BF on demand and about 5-6 times in 24 hours too (he is quite a snacker and I use it to feed him to sleep).
Really worried about how I can make this work.
Sorry, no help, but would love to read other peoples experiences here.

Thanks jiggy. I think I may start trying a cows milk drink from a beaker before bed occasionally to see what they think. I need to get over my 'problem' with cows milk, I don't drink the stuff (bleugh!) and am reluctant to replace my milk but obviously needs must at some point.
I did express a lot when they were tiny and it was so hard trying to establish feeding but they haven't had a bottle now for months. Is it ok to go straight to beaker or cup now?

Thanks Beamur. I have spent half days away from the girls on a few occasions and they don't seem to be bothered by my absence so maybe it'll be better than I think.
Very similar situations sheep, worrying isn't it?

Zuzu - yes, it is worrying. everyone keeps telling me it'll all be fine, but i'm not convinced. We've managed to get DS2 to sleep through recently (yay!), so my challenges after christmas is to get him to sleep without being fed to sleep for his naps and to get him to drink from a beaker.

going to try with formula - we tried with ebm a week ago and he just refused it. i can't stand throwing it out! so i'm going to buy those cartons of formula, to at least try getting him used to drinking a bit from a beaker. here's hoping! going to trial different times of day / from different people / different temperatures / different levels of hunger at the time.

although not nice, it is encouraging they aren't too upset by your absence though? hopefully that'll mean they adapt quickly.

and i'm really hoping i can feed as normal on the days i'm not working. don't want to stop breastfeeding yet.

He refused ebm - cheeky! You can use it on cereal etc so don't waste it!
I think that's a good idea, to start experimenting with different things to see what works and also so not too routiney perhaps, so they are (hopefully!) a bit more adaptable to our changing shifts etc.
Hopefully we can just muddle through and find what works for us like Beamur and jiggy.

Are babies not meant to have cows milk as a main drink until they are one? Am thinking of getting DH to try putting them to bed, should we do formula or cows milk? I haven't expressed for months, don't have an expresser anymore even. Although I'd feel better with expressed milk. Maybe I'll get hold of an expresser and try it. Sorry just thinking aloud now!

i don't think they are meant to have cows milk as a main drink, no, as it fills them up quite a lot, but lacks the nutrition provided by breast milk or formula. my understanding is that it is fine in cooking or on cereal, but it should be either breastmilk or formula for drinking, until 1.

you've got double the effort, to get both of yours drinking from something else , hope they 'co-operate' soon. i'm sure they will

I went back to part time work when DD was 4 months and breastfed her until she was 12 months. She weaned when she was 6 months, she was sleep through from 11pm to 7am from about 3.5 months so I didn't need a night feed so all my feeding was done during the day. Basically, I fed her first thing in the morning (7am) and then as soon as I got in from work (7pm). In the early days, I also did a late evening feed at about 10/10.30pm (depended on when she woke up for it!). In the early days I used to express at around 11am and 3pm at work, these corresponded with when she was at home having her milk in bottle. After 6 months she went down to just a 2.30pm milk, but she liked a milk feed at about 5pm to keep her going when I got home, so I always expressed at 10.30pm before bed to get that extra milk.

It was easy to express at first but got harder to make as much milk as time went on but as she had already weaned by then, I introduced mixed feeding at about 9 months, i.e. if I didn't have enough milk she had a mix of ebm and formula. This wasn't very often but took the strain off me.

My situation doesn't match up exactly with yours but hope that helps a little.

I gave DS wee tastes of cow's milk in a cup when he was about 11.5 months, just a few oz in a cup for him to get used to it. It meant I could stop expressing on my evening shift and could either feed him when I got in, or express in front of the TV with my feet up!

I think I got DH to give him his ebm in a sippy cup when he was 11 months ish, he hasn't had a bottle for a while now. I guess a cup should be fine if they can drink a good amount from it.

I think it is good that they don't worry too much when you are away - I guess it means that they are very confident wee things :)

DS is pretty good like that, his little friend cries when his mum leaves the room which I would find much harder.

He has napped fine without me to feed him during the day. When I went back at first, he fell asleep after his bottles of EBM I think. He now has a sleep after his lunch, I think DH usually just cuddles him in a bit and he conks out. Still likes a feed to sleep when I am home though :)

He was surprisingly adaptable to sometimes getting ebm, sometimes bf at all sorts of times of the day, and it was much easier on weekends/holidays to be able to just bf him as normal.

I did have a wee freezer stash, only got to about 8 'portions' at it's most, just enough in case he had a hungry day when he was small really. I used to put Friday's ebm in the freezer if I was off at the weekend. Sometimes defrosted Monday's feeds if I couldn't be bothered expressing at the weekend.

I am in awe of you! Well done on feeding your twins.

Each time I've gone back to work I've not bothered expressing milk for my children. Both just drank something else while I was work and topped up when I was around. I didn't think about any strategies for dropping feeds; I breastfed when I was about and left water for them when I wasn't.

My eldest son breastfed until he was around 2.9 years and my other son is still feeding at 20 months.

I went back to work (3 full days a week at first) when my DD was 10 mo. I started off expressing but nursery said she wasn't drinking it, so I gave up after a few weeks. DD was happy to take water in a sippy cup at nursery, and we carried on bf at home.

They do try to make up for the lack of day feeds at night though. For me it wasn't too bad, but I would imagine it could be tiring with twins.

FWIW DD has never had formula and is still BF at 3 yo.

Wow!
Thanks so much everyone. It's really interesting that everyone's babies have coped and adapted differently, but very encouraging that you have all continued to breastfeed.

I think I'm going to get my mum to offer them some formula from a beaker (which they glug water from) during the day, and get DH to do this if I'm not back in time to do a bed time feed, which really won't be often. Then breasfeed before I go to work, as soon as I get in and as normal on days off. I am mobile at work so it may be possible for me to pop in and feed them during the day, but I'm not sure I'll get much work done

Luckily they are very confident little babes, when you have two, if one is crying the other often gets passed to the nearest person to hold while you deal with the other so they are fairly sociable. Also very luckily for me my mum is looking after them while I work. Also, although they still feed in the night (they went from midnight to 6 last night ) they are very quick feeders so we're all back asleep in no time!

Thanks very much for all you experiences.