I know this has been done before, but can anyone suggest a plan for going back to work at 7mo?

[ziptoes]

DD is now 6 mo. I am due to start back 4 days a week in one month, but I have a couple of all day meetings I have to go to before then. What's the best way to drop the daytime feed so I can go back to work?

DD has 4-5 breastfeeds a day and is on 3 full meals (eats only fingerfoods - and loves it! Refuses puree) She was gaining weight very slowly until last month so I'm still demand feeding and we don't really have a routine as such. A very rough schedule is:
4:30 am breastfeed
6:30 up
7:00 breakfast
8:00 breastfeed
12:00 lunch
4:00 breastfeed
6:00 dinner
7:30 breastfeed
8:00 sleep

I had been expressing to give her EBM with meals, but gave myself tendonitis. She likes cow's milk with or without water with food, but doesn't seem to like formula (SMA, we're going to try other brands). I can express at work if needs be. Is there anything I should be doing now to ease the transition? Or do I just take my breastpump along to the all day meetings, and hope DH and DD can manage without me?

How long will your day meetings be? Because looking at your rough schedule you may only miss 1 or 2? The 8 and 4 ones. In which case if it were me I would just leave it for those days and feed when you get back home ? maybe a quick hand express in the look if you?re really desperately sore.

You say you gave yourself tendonitis ?does that mean you have a manual pump? If you want to express at work I would buy a double pump ? I bought an ameda lacteline for returning to work and it?s brilliant.

I went back when my DS was 7m, and I looked at the Kellymom calculator and started off leaving 10oz per day. I?d got a bit of a stash in the freezer, but was expressing at work as well and with the new pump was getting 10oz in 2 pumping sessions at work. He refused any milk at the CM for the first month so my freezer stash got bigger and bigger?. He was quite happy on just solids and water, but then started taking milk after he?d been there a month, we assume because he was settled. He?s dropped a feed on his own now though (coming up to 9m) and I leave him 5oz now.

One thing you could do is start trying to get into a day time feeding routine now so that you are prepared for going back to work. I know feeding on demand is better, but feeding to a routine is more practical for working mums and childcare IMO. I do wakeup (about 6.30) 11 and 3 ( which is also when I express at work) and bedtime (about 7) and whenever in the night and I have found that it works well for us.

I hope this waffle has helped a bit.

Not waffle, that's great!

I missed out the middle of the day feed in my routine, but perhaps that's because she didn't ask for one today? (is she sorting out my problem for me?). One meeting is 9 to 5 and I can cycle so don't have to miss the 8am feed. The other one is a train journey away, so I'll possibly miss the 8, midday and 4.

Yes, I had a hand pump, and was only getting 1 or 2 ounces a time, so it didn't feel worth it. We'll persist with the formula, and whatever EBM I produce out of soreness.

Someone I work with said her daughter ate nothing but water and yoghourt at the childminders for days after she went to work, and cried all day. I was hoping to avoid that.

Mine didn?t cry at all, he seemed totally happy with her from the start, but we think just didn?t associate her with milk as he?d only ever had bfs from me or bottles from his dad. It was when he started taking milk from her that we thought he had properly settled.

If you decide not to express at work, it shouldn?t take that long before your supply settles down, I express twice a day, but have had to miss some days for various reasons and don?t really leak any more or get that engorged even on those days ? but days when I am home and do those feeds, supply is fine.

DS will be at home with DH and two days a week with DS too. So the connections will be closer. First meeting is tomorrow, so we'll see...

Hi ziptoes. I am in a similar situation except my baby is a couple of months older. So I am very interested in how you find it! I will be working 3 days and hope to still breastfeed on my days at home so am adopting a "wait and see" approach. I anticipate that she will drop the day time milk as she is not a formula fan and I hate expressing, but wonder if she will make up for it in the nigh? Hope not!!
Good luck and let us know how it goes

I didn't express at work but only started transitioning a couple of days before I started. If I'd been prepared to pump at work then no need for any preparation.

Looking at your schedule I'd suggest you -

a) express in the morning before you go to work, from both sides, or maybe even better feed then and then express whats left. Then you only need to express once at work - because you were going 8am-4pm without a breastfeed anyway.

b) probably best to express from both sides at lunchtime. That way you should have lots of milk when you get home. You might be surprised by how much you get.

c) If you don't want to express then feed directly at before work and after, then you are only missing one feed.

I tried feeding on days I didn't work but there wasn't enough milk and DS2 got cross but my SIL does this, varies from person to person.

i went back this week and am on contract for 4 days a week but doing 3 days a week for 3mths using 1 day a week as annual leave. my baby is 9mths old and 5wks ago we cut his feeds down to 3 feeds a day to fit in with my working day as he doesnt drink milk from a bottle and didnt want a beaker battle at that stage for milk.

so his routine is

6.45am/7am- breast feed

8am - breakfast

9.30 - nap hr and half

11.30am- lunch

1.30pm- snack

2/2.30pm- nap of 1hr/1hr 30mins

4pm- dinner

4.45/5pm- breastfeed

6pm- few finger foods whilst we eat dinner

7pm- breastfeed

8pm- bed

we offer snacks at anytime he is awake and has eaten/breastfeed for 2hrs as he likes little and often - and this was a baby who bf on demand and was fed every 90mins-2hrs during the day sometimes short snack type feeds.

Well today went surprisingly well. BF at 3:30 am (ouch! she's normally not up til 4:30 or 5:30) and again at 6:30. Expressed at 1:00 at work. Then got home to BF at 6:00pm and again at bedtime at 7:30pm. DD was happy all day and actually drank from a bottle for the first time ever! We're planning on giving formula for daytime feeds as I don't think I'll be able to express enough, but it's nice to keep the EBM to give instead.

Next meeting is next thursday and as it's out of town I'll have a longer time away from her. foreveronadiet it's interesting that your SIL managed to keep daytimes going when you couldn't - a lot of this BF lark seems a bit random like that!

As greasychip says, I'm now wondering if she'll make it up with extra feeds in the night - I hope not! So I'm off to bed early just in case...

My SIL's baby is addicted to breastfeeding (he's nearly 2) and so doesn't seem to care if the milk flow is slow, whereas my DS did care about that, also she feeds several times in the night which keeps her supply up whereas my DS didn't want to be fed in night. So that would help to account for the difference.

Also my DS once he had a bottle prefered that, whereas SIL took a year off work so never gave her DS a bottle.

Glad it went ok ziptoes how was the night?

She hasn't asked for any extra food in the night - hooray! Thanks for all the advice...

great news :)