Milk supply decreasing on return to work

[NovemberAli]

DD is 7.5mo and I've been back at work 3 days a week since she was 6mo.

Have been expressing twice a day since i've been back and initially got about 10oz this then dropped to 8oz after a couple of weeks and now I'm lucky to get 6oz.

Have used all my freezer bank supplies to supplement her at nursery but now worrying that my milk is drying up - I really want to continue BF. She eats 3 meals a day now and I've recently been away from her for a couple of weekends.
Has this affected supply? Any ideas for increasing it again? I don't think 6oz is enough to leave her with during the day.

I had this when I went back to work. I just used every opportunity to do extra expressing - DS wasn't feeding at night by this point, so at around 10pm every night I'd express before going to bed. Seven lots of this a week, plus the feeds I could express at work (I'm three days a week as well) just about got enough milk to get DS through three days at nursery.

I was so so happy when he was old enough for normal cow's milk! (at nursery, he carried on breastfeeding with me until 15 months) But I did manage to get enough milk until that time, so it is possible.

She might be ok with no milk at nursery, DS is the same age and refuses milk at his CMs and seems fine, he's eating plenty there and drinking water and just feeding at home. I'm still expressing at the moment at work, but not sure how much longer I'll carry on tbh.

Can you offer her extra milk feeds when you are with her. If she needs more milk she might take it then. And it might stimulate your supply?

FWIW I think 6oz is plenty during the day, especially if only working 3 days a week and she has unlimited access on the other days. DD was on one bottle (normally 3/4oz) at lunchtime at this age.

If you want to keep it up, then extra expressing on your days off helped me. The couple of weekends away could have effected supply, or she is just taking less from you in the day now she is having 3 meals a day, so that your body has adjusted accordingly. I did find after 6 months it became harder to stimulate supply by expressing, which I think is more your body knows how much it should be producing.

Thanks all, I think I got a bit panicky because my FF friends still seem to offer 7-8oz per feed, but I guess that works out differently and I've never had to worry about how much to feed her before, just fed on demand.

I'm trying to offer her more feeds in the evening now to make up for it a bit and try to fit in extra pumping sessions on my days off to build supply back up again.