How to support my employer when she returns to work??

[Nannyto2]

My boss (am a nanny) is returning to work in Sept. she is currently breast feeding her 8month old - he will take a bottle of breast milk. When she returns to work she will leave the house at 7:30am - some days baby isn't up by then so would have to have formula from bottle when wakes. He will also be having 1 maybe 2 bottles a day whilst with me.

Boss is very upset that she has to put him on formula as never did with her Ds1. She's tried to express but doesn't think there is enough to feed him during the day.

How can I support her as she is getting very emotional about giving up breast feeding for the majority if his feeds (bedtime feed will be breast fed)

I've had to do this - my DS has 2 bottle feeds of formula at nursery and is breastfed for all other feeds. I cried when he had his first bit of formula

BUT

Actually it's been fine! My supply has adjusted, after the first week I wasn't even massively uncomfortable at the end of the day and, as a wise person said to me - I give him dairy anyway in weaning. I just see it as another food group and let it go.

Forgot to say - DS was 7 months old when I went back to work

Boss was getting tearful whilst telling me her plans today , I felt helpless as never having been through it myself I wasn't sure what to say. She realises it won't harm it at all but she struggled with breast feeding for a while and now she enjoys it she doesn't want to stop so is finding it hard

He doesn't really eat masses of food - most I've seen him eat is a small yoghurt and maybe 1/2 a small jar. I'm guessing he will need to be topped up on milk

In order to keep supplies up, might work if she wakes the baby for a feed before she leaves.

I had to mix feed when I returned to work, it was fine. She could pump one feed if she feels able to? Actually could you take him to her at lunch times?

We did manage to keep feeding until ds was 22 months. It was fine and worked well for us as a family.

Why not give her the contact number for NCT/LLL/ABM?
They could talk though her options as well as help her come to terms with whatever decision she makes regarding formula.

I'm down to one feed a day now with my 9 mo DTs and it seems to be going fine. We wake them at 630am for nappy change and feed otherwise my DH would not get to see them (out at work 7am-7pm) and I wouldn't have time to feed them and get ready for work when I go back next month. I think she might just need to wake her little one before work. Might get away with only 1 EBM feed and perhaps 1 ff until she returns at night.
Has she started to build stocks of EBM for the freezer?

Once DD1 started sleeping in the evenings (and that was only at 6 months, horrifically enough) I would feed her in the early evening before bedtime, and then express and freeze another feed just before my own bedtime. DH then had a large supply in the freezer which he used on the while I was at work (although I was only working a few times a week).

So if your boss does one feed in the morning before she leaves, and then during the daytime you give the baby whatever solids he does eat plus the expressed milk, then she feeds him again in the early evening and expresses at around 11pm. Would that work, perhaps?

With DD2 I decided to work one full day a week when she was about 4 months (and still fully EBF), and DH looked after her for that day. He brought her to me around lunchtime so I could feed her at work. If your boss doesn't work too far away would that be an option for you?

Her work lunch is the time I have to do a pick up from school so probably wouldnt work

I second the suggestion to get your boss to rouse DC in the morning for a BF. Along with a bedtime BF her DS may be fine on one bottle of EMB during the day.

Your boss is lucky to have you, I think it's totally brilliant that you are clearly doing everything you can to make a tricky time easier for her.