Questions about breastfeeding, returning to work etc

[DuelingFanjo]

I am posting this here as it's mostly about breastfeeding/expressing and returning to work. I know people tend to link to Kellymom but a lot of their links are broken and I'm seeking information on preparing to return rather than on my rights to express in the work place and so on.

so.. I return to work in about 8 weeks, DS will be 9 months and I am lucky enough to have a creche/nursery just across from where I work so if I want I could express then take the milk straight over. I can even go over to feed but not sure if this will be too disruptive for my son.

He's basically not had a bottle at all since we came home from the hospital but I have recently managed to get him to use a sippy cup. He seems to have got the hang of that but not had a full feed of expressed milk yet.

so... my question is... should I start now? Start giving him a feed from a cup and then build it up so that all his daytime feeds are from a cup? I am doing a bit of BLW with some purees but he's not having full meals yet so he still feeds on demand from me.

Or should I take advantage of the breastfeeding room and go over to feed him? I worry that this would mean I am saying 'goodbye' to him several times a day which will effect his ability to settle quickly. plus one day a week he will be with my mum so this would make feeding him on that day impossible for me.

I kind of need someone to explain to me how they did this - got their baby to take feeds from a cup. Did you build it up gradually of just refuse the boobs?

hope this makes sense.

I wouldn't go to feed him during the day - I agree that it is likely to be distressing for him.

I recently got my 11 month old to take a cup in the day - I started with his before nap feed in the morning, just offering the cup instead of a breastfeed. I then didn't let him breastfeed again til after lunch, and for a while it meant he had an extra bf in the afternoon, but I did eventually get down to just one afternoon bf again and then swapped that for a cup too.

I started at the beginning of June and it took a month to get him to drink an oz, but I had the extra issue of trying to get him to take formula/cow's milk not ebm. Now he has two cups a day, mid morning and mid afternoon (this is when they do snack time at nursery, though he's only at nursery mornings) and drinks 2-3oz each time. I breastfeed first thing and before bed.

thank you, that was another question. I have no idea how much he has so not sure how much I need to provide. I have just read that it's a good idea to let someone else give him the cup so he gets used to it not being from me. It's all so scary because so far (apart from a short stay in neo natal at the start) I am the only person who has fed him.

I see my mum once a week so I think I will start getting her to give him a cup before his afternoon nap.

Once I started doing it I did it every day, so wasn't practical to have someone else do it - it did take offering the cup on about 15 consecutive days before he drank a drop!

I found ds wouldn't sit and cuddle me and drink it at first, so I let him wander round with it and kept offering a sip every now and again. He is better at sitting down and drinking in one go now, but don't expect your ds to chug a whole feed in one go.

Breastfed babies only tend to take a few oz in one go, so I'd probably only provide 3oz for each feed. Will he be having milk at set snack times at nursery? Might be an idea to find out what their routine is so you can replicate it at home now.

thanks rita, I'm going to arrange to speak to them next week. It's something I know I just have to do and I've been delaying it for weeks but for his sake I want to make the transition as easy as I can.