Back to work worry, not around for bedtime feed

[MedicalEd]

I'm going back to work when DD will be 8 months, two months away and am already stressing about it.
Apart from the awfulness of leaving her, I want to carry on bf'ing until she is at least 1 but am worried about my supply as I will only be able to do morning and night-time feeds, if she is still having them.
I will be leaving the house at about 8.30am and not back until almost 8pm.
I don't agree with trying to adjust her bedtime to suit me and she is down between 7 and half past at the moment.
Have bought really expensive double electric pump to use at work so SAHD can give bottles/sippy cup milk.
Am wondering if I should start a dreamfeed now or would that be a backward step?
Will my supply be able cope with just one or two direct feeds a day and the pump the rest of the time?

Yes your supply will almost certainly adapt to this no problem. I'm sure she will be fine :) I've known people to adapt their routine so that dad does bedtime at this age with no problems.

And also, if you want to keep feeding her directly during the day at weekends that's ok - your supply can adjust to that too, you won't end up massively engorged in the week or anything.

Thanks Bertie. Do you think its worth trying a dreamfeed before I go to bed to get another direct feed in and (hope against hope) get her to sleep through?
I've tried it in a bit of a half-hearted way (just one night here and there) before and it didn't make any difference to when she woke in the night.

I have no idea, sorry. I don't really know how dreamfeeds are supposed to work!

Your supply will adjust fine, and going back to work will not be as bad as you are expecting I promise :) I too was dreading it, and it has been ok. I feed on demand at a weekend, and used to express 2x a day at work, until ds was 10.5m. My supply has adjusted really well to it all.

Re the dream feed, it can?t hurt to try. It?s never made a difference to us, but like you I only tried it half heartedly really. Personally when I went back to work I liked the night feeds as I felt he needed them ? not the milk, but the feeding iyswim, so was happy to feed twice a night. Now at 11.5m (and with 4m of ft work under our belts) he doesn?t seem to need them any more so I am not doing them unless he?s really poorly or teething.

I was rarely back for her night time feed, meant we never had to deal with the issue of breaking a feed to send her asleep. She did wake and feed during the night.

Personally I don't think it's worth doing anything in preparation, just see what happens and take it from there.