Going back to work and BF

[Cosmosis]

Probably a bit ahead of myself, but been thinking about it as am looking at childminders atm. I will be going back to work in April and DS will be 7 months at the start of April. I'll be working full days, either 4 or 5 days a week. How much ebm will I need to be supplying the CM with? I suppose it will depend on how well he takes to food?

Just wondering if I need to start building up a supply in the freezer I suppose.

I started back f/t this month. I bf before work and at bedtime. I miss 3 daytime feeds so leave 15-18 oz. We have a nanny though so she can get to my freezer stash ok.
I'd recommend a good dual elecric pump and practise using it. I have ameda lactaline - tis fab!!

I've just started back too. Baby is at nursery from 8AM until 6PM (only two days a week), and 15oz seems to be about right, including a bit to mix with his baby rice. We give the nursery 5 bottles with 3oz in each so that they waste less milk.

I'm also doing an overnight commute, which most weeks will be 36 hours, and think I need to leave DH with about 40oz, maybe a bit more to be on the safe side.

Meanwhile, while at work I will be pumping - I expect to pump the whole 40oz while I'm away, and 15oz when I am working from home. I pump slightly less per time than baby gets out himself, so at the moment when I'm with the baby all day I am expressing 5-10oz extra per day to build up my freezer supply.

A guide of 1oz/hr works quite well with an extra 2-3 for good measure.

Babies normally take 25oz a day with 19-30oz being the range.

A problem commonly encountered is that BF will take more than they need from a bottle. This and this link are quite good info for tips on how to give a BF baby a bottle. This just gives some more general information. The kellymom site that I linked also has good info about storage mainly that in the fridge milk is fine up to 8 days (most people use 5 days to give a good margin of error) and that you don't need to wash the pump in between uses.

I started work at 4 months, 5 days a week and never used my freezer supply as I pumped 12/13 oz a day. From 7 months I got her down to one bottle of 3-5oz a day at lunch time to save me expressing. At 10.5 months we can get her through the day with no milk.

I do feed her every 4 hours at night though, if she fed more in the day I would be more confident to try night weaning. I would rather that than express more.

Yikes that is a lot more than I thought! I'd better get building up my stash then as I generally only get 3oz per expressing session. I may try a different pump though, mine is just a cheapy tomee tippee electric one, not an all singing all dancing medela swing or anything.

If your pumping instead of feeding though, you'll get more.

Your baby will have started weaning so won't be long before he's taking less and as I said my DD was on just 3-5oz by 7 months.

I think babies will take whatever they're allowed to.

ah I missed that bit when I read it first time! thanks, that makes me feel better :)

I've been back since DD was 4.5mths & she's now 7mths. Now she's eating well, I've got her down to one bottle at nursery (7oz) and she feeds from me 6.30 am&pm. Initially, I was expressing at work/when I got home/last thing at night, but now I just do it when I get home at 4.30ish - much easier. Also have a stash in freezer.