breastfeeding and going back to work...

[ithoughtofitfirst]

... Only 2 mornings a week to keep on top of things. Dd is 15 weeks but does anyone have a rough idea how many oz of ebm I'll need for a 4-5 hour period ? I can see how it goes the first time and review it. I'm going back on Tuesday. I struggle to express loads because she's on me a lot but if I start today I can just keep going til I have enough.

TIA

Kelly mom and la leche league have calculators based on how often your baby feeds as a starting point.
It averages as 24 fl oz per 24 hr - so if it's 10 feeds a day, that's 2.4 fl oz per feed. Or 1 fl oz an hour.
Of course that's an average so if your baby seems still hungry or doesn't finish it might be they drink a bit more/less (and it varies with time of day too). But a good starting point!

My Lo Is about the same age and has 6oz bottles (ff) usually every three hours. Id try and leave about 8oz for that sort of gap (and feed just before you leave and as soon as you return).

Can you leave frozen milk for whoever is looking after her? if so, I'd leave a 4oz bottle (note that as bm adapts with age, the quantity babies take stays much the same, so its less than ff), plus 4oz in the freezer as a backup. It defrosts in the bag in a few minutes in warm water, so no real delay in feeding

Ooh a swanky calculator you say! I'll check that out thanks squiz that sounds about right.

As it happens I was thinking 8-10oz. I just managed to do 4 while she's asleep so I'll freeze that and then do more tomorrow night and leave it in a bottle in the fridge?

What would you use to freeze it? I'm using these little avent pots which I've steralised. But when I got to the office I was going to take my hand pump and some sterile bags. But if I steralise my pump how will I transport it without it becoming contaminated?

Sorry loads of questions x

pop it into a clean sandwich bag with a zip lock?
I freeze milk in little bags from mothercare or Avent tubs. Tesco weaning freezer storage (like an ice cube tray of lidded 2 oz squares) is useful as I then have a neat 2 oz bottle portion. And it fits neatly in the freezer space wise. Think its £3.99 from the baby aisle.

Ok I've got the little mothercare freezer bags. Just bought some . and ive got the avent tubs which I'm using at the moment. I've got 6oz in the freezer now so just need a little more to top it up over the next 24 hours. Yay!

I like the idea of the freezer bag for the pump. Thanks squiz are you back at work yet? Your dd is older isn't she?

I used a big loc n loc box for all the sterile bits of my pump which then got a milton soak in the evening.
DH (I travel for work, so dh was left with ds and ebm in the freezer from 6 months) preferred me to freeze 4oz bags flat (they then went into a plastic box upright to stop jostling which damages the bag seams) as they defrost better than cubes

You do not need the same amount of bm as formula so don't consider the amount of formula babies are taking at the same stage. I found pumping 3oz bags worked well and cm just used as much as she needed. It really helped that the cm was more familiar with bf rather than FF as my mother used to attempt to give tonnes of milk to him when she got her hands on him because she was more used to bottle feeding, including FF my older 2. Be explicit with the cm about only thawing small amounts at a time to save wastage and you pumping.

I had pumped an absolute tonne of milk before going back to work. In the end he took very little and reverse cycled.

I'm not back yet but have had several hospital trips (all ok thankfully) hence know how much to leave, and froze extra in case I needed to stay. Luckily not!

Thank you both that's really helpful.

I'm glad you've both pointed out to do 3-4oz bags I would have definitely filled them to the brim not thinking but that's much better. I like the ice cube tray type thing idea too for little amounts cause she is a little and often girl.

Oh bless you hope you're ok x

CM can thaw on demand too so you can keep the milk frozen and literally use it on demand. I was so blessed my CM was a LLL leader, I handed in the milk a tonne of it and ds and she did the rest but there are a lot of details on kellymom and LLL about thawing the milk quickly for use.

Fighting fit!

They thought I'd burned out my thyroid/had a malignant lump... but it turned out to be a benign cyst. Phew!

Scary stuff I bet you were worried sick.

I can't believe I've never used the kellymom site before. it's so helpful! Especially that calculator. It does end up being about 2.5oz per feed so I'll probably get the little ice cubey thingummy.

hope the first few days back go well. FWIW DS would not take milk from anyone when I left him with the CM so in the end I Stopped sending in milk with him. He just reverse cycled (thank goodness for Kellymom and LLL for their insight on that!)
Will you be able to pump at work? You may find you are able to pump loads when you have a longer gap between feeds and then that becomes the feed for the next day.
Best of luck. Let us know how it goes.

Squiz glad to hear you are fighting fit. What a scare.