how can i get ebf ds (3mths) into a feeding schedule (going back to work)

[roundthehouses]

hi, i go back to work ft when ds2 is 4mths old, he is currently ebf on demand. i am expressing and hope to be able to keep this up so he can continue being ebf til 6 mths (tho am prepared for possibility we might have to mix feed if i can´t express to keep up with demand).

i am hoping to feed him before i leave for work around 8ish and when i come home about 5.30pm ish and am basing my expressing objectives on 2 feeds while i am away but obv this won´t work if he feeds every couple of hours. Dh will be sahd and I want to smooth the transition for both of them.. should i try to get ds into a rough routine of feeding say every 3 or 4 hours or let them figure it out themselves when the time comes?

ds is currently very good weight (6kgs+ at 2 mth check), feeds well, sleeps 8pm-5am straight through (only for about 10 days, talk about tempting fate...). feeds anything from every 2 to 3 to 4 hours, no routine at all really..not sure what other relevant info there might be..

oh and not sure if it is relevant or not but ds2 is VERY attached to me, even more so than dh or i remember ds1 being at this age. he bears other people holding him for about a max of 30mins before crying which only stops when i then go to him. this includes dh. dh is understandably a bit nervous about the impending role change, and i am too.

I'm not sure why you need a routine, can't your dh feed him when he asks?

You'll probably need to leave an oz for every hour you're away - if you put it in 2 or 3 oz bottles there's less chance any will be wasted.

Sorry to hijack for a moment, RitaMorgan does the 1oz per hour formula (haha!) work at different ages? Working out what to express to leave for a 7 month old...

well yes he can, i guess i am just worried about wastage, as you say. its not that easy to express so i want to max chances of it working but if he barrels through the supplies with most of it getting chucked away then we´ll be on to mixed feeding all the quicker. i am freezing varying amounts, 2/ 3/ 4 and hope dh will just be able to judge what might be needed but thought if he was more in a more regular routine it might be easier.

binky - breastfed babies tend to take around 25oz a day between 1 and 6 months. I'd guess after solids are introduced this would fall a little though?

I personally wouldn't bother with a routine - mine would have never managed 3-4 hours between feeds anyway - but maybe talk to your dh about the importance of not overfeeding? I think there's a section on kellymom about this. Basically babies will take a lot more from a bottle than they would from a breast so carers overfeed and then the mother's supply can't keep up. I'd make it clear he's only to give 2 or 3oz at a time, and if the baby is upset to find other ways of comforting him if it's been less than a couple of hours since the last feed.

Hi ya

I went back to work at 4 months and managed not to use formula. DH is a SAHD she is now 14 months

I worked on 1oz/hr (was a bit more generous at the start) and was happy to feed her in the night. I decided this way would work best for me as (i) she wasn't a sleeper anyway and (ii) I didn't want the pressure of expressing loads

For the first few months I expressed twice a day and would get 6-8oz first session and 3-5oz the second. She started off taking 8-11oz a day. I would feed literally just before I left and when I got home so 8-11oz was quite generous.

Issues I had was that DH would resort to food straight away, but learned to read her cues. I did a big pumping mission in the 3rd month and stocked close to 100oz which we didn't use until I stopped expressing.

At 7 months we had her down to 1 3oz bottle at lunchtime, so was only expressing once a day at that point. Weaned at 5.5-6 months at which point she was having up to 8oz a day while I was out. That meant I was expressing a bit more than she took so DH would often wither freeze the excess at the end of the week or give me a lay in or do a night feed.

I would ring DH when I was coming home so if he was due to feed her, he would hold off. I stopped expressing at 9.5 months with the plan to use the freezer stock. We found quite quickly that we are able to drop the final bottle so the freezer stock was used when I had to work long days or go out after work for exercise etc.

As rita said it is easy to overfeed them with bottles (i) because it's easy sucking means swallowing and they're used to comfort sucking and (ii) care giver often blames everything on being hungry. We found DD would finish the bottle regardless of amount so we controlled what was initially put in. If she then seemed hungry add 1oz at a time (She rarely was)

also I found this useful