anyone else gone from 4 times feeding a day/ feeding to sleep back to work?

[sheeplikessleep]

please reassure me everything will be okay.
ds2 is starting at cms end of february and i will be going back 2 days a week. i will also have 3 evenings a month (so for 3 days, i will be away from 8am until midnight'ish).

ds2 is 1 beginning march and b'feeds about 4 times during the day (we've just mastered no night feeding and he's sleeping through until 5am, which is great). he won't take a cup. he eats well. i feed him to sleep for daytime naps (trying to tackle this at the moment, with some resulting crying to sleep , but would rather he was doing this at home than in a months time with the cm).

should i be cutting down his daytime feeds more? how often should i be trying with a cup? any other words of advice or reassurance gratefully received. thanks

Actually, he might find it easier to manage without the bfeeds at the CM's. When he's with you, he can't understand why he can't have breast and has to make do with a cup/bottle. However, he won't have the association with his CM, so may well not be too bothered. I went back to work when DD3 was just 1, and she was fine with a cup at the CM.

My CM also rocked her to sleep, which was enough for DD3 to replace her feeding-to-sleep (though she was only having milk twice a day at home anyway). I bfed her to sleep till she was 16 months, but again, when I wasn't there, she went to sleep for Daddy with a bottle and a cuddle.

HTH.

poledra - thanks for posting, that is reassuring. did you introduce a bottle at 1? i haven't gone down that route yet, as i was hoping he'd take from a cup . maybe i should buy a bottle or two this weekend and try him with it. really hope you are right and he settles ok.

Hi Sheep, my dd was 1 in December and started at nursery in January 3 days a week. Like your ds she was having 4 feeds a day and still does on days when I am not working.

At nursery she has a bottle of cows milk at 10 am and another smaller bottle in the pm if she hasn't eaten much lunch. Apart from trying her with a bottle of cows milk to see if she'd drink it we went cold turkey as it were and we've had no problems. I didn't want the stress of reducing feeds/ trying milk to spoil teh end of my nat leave.

There isn't any need to reduce feeds unless you want to. Will your ds take a bottle rather than a cup, can you have him on a bottle to start with and work on the cup over time?

Sorry, that should read, the end of my mat leave.

We'd tried DD3 out with a bottle before 1, as there were a couple of occasions when I needed to be away from her before. TBH, I'm not sure I'd bother with a bottle for your DS - a cup with a soft spout is probably fine for him at his age (and DD3 wasn't particularly enamoured with a bottle anyway - she dropped it before she was 18 months old in favour of a cup).

yep, i'm decided, going to buy a bottle over the next few days and try him with it. do you think it matters if i try him with cows milk, just to see if he'll drink it? he'll be a week away from 1 when he starts. he did grab his older brothers bedtime sippy cup a week ago and took a few gulps out of it, but nothing of any significance.

Nope, I'd go with the cow's milk myself (have you smelled formula?? I'm not surprised when babies who aren't used to it turn up their noses [bgrin]). I did a similar thing with DD3, as she really didn't like formula.

oops, crossed post poledra! i've been using mostly the tommee tippee sippy hard spout, 4mth+ cups for his water (which he sips, but again, not much yet). also, i've bought a tommee tippee soft spout one, which he also sips from. i'll have a look in the shops.

i just have this fear that he'll be missing his milk and won't have any sleep all day, plus dh will then put him to bed without a feed (if he won't take from a cup or bottle). tempted to see if dh can se if he can settle him one night in next couple of weeks. might not go well and worry me more!

thanks all for posting