Moving from bf to ff

[Excited85]

Sorry second post of the night from me but you all seem so knowledgable!

Dd is 8 weeks and bf, although we have tried the odd expressed bottle and also formula bottle some evenings to try get her used to bottles. I'm back to work part time in Jan and would really struggle to express more than a couple of bottles which wouldn't last her the 12 hours I'll be away so need to switch over to formula.

Any tips for the best way to do this? I'm guessing I switch feeds gradually but is there a good order in which to switch, I.e. Keep middle of night feeds/first thing feed to breast as long as possible? Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

No exp but I'd keep BF easy ones - mid night. & b'fast.
Also easier I've heard for someone else to do bottles certainly to start with.
After hard start to my BF I'm now dreading giving up with DS (3rd baby but only one that is BF) as imagine it'll be hard! Good luck.
Can I ask if you're looking forward to return to work?

Do you want to stop fb completely or would you like to try continue a morning and evening feed? I know some people do this, but not sure how!

I'd switch one feed at a time to minimise engorgement. I've seen a rule of thumb which says to drop one feed per week. You have to manage the decrease in your supply as much as the increase in the ff I think.

Its up to you. Lots of women like to keep a first breastfeed in the morning / last at night thing. I dropped night feeds first, and expressed at work for a few months, as I wanted to getto 6 months on bf. You have to drop one feed at a time or you run a risk of getting mastitis etc.

Ahhh, a feed a week might be tricky but I'll get started ASAP. Unfortunately at the minute she grazes a lot so doesn't really have set feeds as such but will see how we go. Anything Thinking about it the evening & night feeds I can keep up until end of Jan, but I'm away early Feb with work for a few nights so she'll need to be fully ff by then. Alanna glad to hear you manage to express at work - unfortunately I don't think that would be viable for me but nice idea. Thanks Twins is fab you've stuck with bf despite problems, I never realised stopping would be so difficult to do. At the moment when dd has an expressed bottle or the couple of formula bottles we've tried she wants to take it from me, dh hasn't had much luck although I keep emphasising how important it is for him to be able to do it - he generally just plugs it into her mouth then looks back to the TV and wonders why she isn't sucking or starts crying... Hmmm. In two minds about return to work, on one hand I'm quite envious of friends I have that are off for 9/12 months with nice maternity packages (my work offer diddly squat, SMP only) but needs must. The structure to my days & weeks will be nice to get back, will miss dd though and anticipate problems with her care (solely MIL to start with) but that's not for this thread!!!!

I don't think its a feed a week - a feed every few days is fine. Also if you can't express at work (are you sure? Most places can make "reasonable adjustments" - I was given a lockable windowless room in our basement otherwise used for storage which actually was perfect, even had a tiny sofa in it! - a friend of mine was given the stockroom - another the manager would leave her office) you can always hand express in the loo and just throw it away. I found I could go 6 hours without feeding quite easily (breasts hurt and had to hand express a bit off but was fine). I kept all the feeds up (its my second baby) until i was back at work, then worked 1/2 days for 2 weeks as I dropped feeds, then got down to 2 breast-feeds a day from 6 months. I stopped altogether at 7 months - mainly as the value after that point from the research is very limited, its mainly then because mum and baby enjoy it (not a bad reason of course if you have the time!) and I was so tired from a very high pressure job and she was fine with a bottle - and it was lovely to get my body back!