planning for going back to work when baby is 6 months, advice please!

[eeyore2]

Hi there, I would really like some advice or to hear about your experiences.

My baby is 14 weeks and breastfeeding for all feeds except one formula feed at 7pm before bed. Generally she has 5 breastfeeds and one formula feed per day, unless she's in a hungry mood. She generally goes through the night from a last feed at 10pm until a first feed around 6am.

It is all going so well, much better than it ever did when my son was a baby which was much tougher. So now I am in the position of trying to decide what to do when I go back to work (3 days a week) at the beginning of September, when baby is almost 6 months. I also need to start doing the odd day at work in late July and August as well.

I would love to keep breastfeeding for a while, on the days I'm not at work and in the morning and evening of those that I'm at the office. I feel quite guilty about reducing her breastfeeding just so I can work. Has anyone managed to do this? Did you express while at work? I'm totally happy for my daughter to have some formula feeds while I'm at work and would only want to express if I needed to for supply reasons. I'm also worried about mastitis as I got this when I was late for a feed recently and don't want to get ill from being away from my baby when I'm at work. I would really love to hear your experiences with this. Thanks very much!

I went back to work at 10 months, so a bit later than you but not so very different. DD was EBF till about 8mo, then I switched the day time feeds to FF, gradually, over a two month stretch, so it was well established and my milk supply dropped off gradually. I absolutely knew that I couldn't be bothered with expressing at work and storing milk in the work fridge and all that.

When I went back to work I carried on the morning and evening breastfeeds, which worked really well. I did stop entirely around 12-13 months, but I could have chosen to carry on. Now I'm a big fan of mix-feeding! Personally, I don't think there's any reason whatsoever to feel guilty about making practical plans to let yourself go back to work.

I went back p/t at 5.5 months and 4 long days a week from 7 months. I expressed x2/3 at work which was a PITA but worth it as she had breastmilk only til 8 months and then very occasional formula til 11 months when I abandoned expressing and used up freezer stash and gave occasional formula at nursery. Building a freezer stash of almost 2 litres of EBM really helped for low supply days

I went back when DS was 10 months and for a few weeks had to express once a day. At first this was around lunchtime, then became later and later until I could get to 4 pm without feeling too uncomfortable. I guess my supply adjusted. Now DS is 12 months and I feed morning evening and through the night. At weekends I feed during the day too. I'm continually amazed how my body can adapt to keep feeding on demand. Expressing at work was a bit diddly but tbh it was nice to put 'do not disturb' signs on my office door and have half an hour quiet time!