B/F when at home, bottle at work - possible?

[Gomez]

Are my boobs clever enough to let me feed DD2 (7 months)during the day when I am at home and not when I am at work (4 days at home/ 3 at work) WITHOUT expressing on work days? Potentially only 1 feed/maximum 2 extra on work days?

If a stupid idea please be gentle with me.....

I hope it's not Gomez, that's my plan too! Anyone?

Probably.

Go on MI say what you mean, don't sit on the fence at all - .

Not sure Gomez. FWIW when I went back to work I expected to stop b/f and had got ds largely onto bottles. To my surpise, there was still enough for him to have a feed when I got home but sadly that only lasted about a month before it all went. If I'd been doing more than one feed a day it might have adjusted though, who knows?

He was 8 months old by then so it was OK, but made me feel quite sad when he rejected breast in favour of bottle. If you'd told me that in the early days when I was struggling with cracked nipples/mastitis etc. etc. I'd never have believed it!

I tried to combine feeding when I had dd. I worked from 9am - 1pm which is very different to your situation though.

I have to say - for me - it didn't work.

My dd would scream the place down from 12O'Clock onwards and my dh would eventually give in and give her a bottle - which meant that when I got home from work bursting my dd wasn't hungry.

This stopped me producing more milk (Because if you don't use all your milk up your body stops producing so much) and I found I coudn't give dd enough to satisfy her.

We ended up moving to a bottle - after many guilty feelings on my part.

I'd also like to add that I found expressing a very very very time consuming activity for quite poor results!!!!

Sorry ladies - hopefully it would work better for you.

I'm going back to F/T teaching...would ideally like to b/f mornings, evenings & weekends, & leave bottles of formula with childminder. I suppose I COULD go & hide in the staff toilets & express milk every lunchtime, but I'd go nuts without my lunch break to eat nasty canteen flapjack & do the 'moaning teacher' bit with colleagues!

Looks like ds may well be hitting the bottle then - I'll give it a go but I'm beginning to think my boobs have been punished enough!

Had no problems with something similar.
Went back to work when dd was 7 months. Went in for a few weeks to feed her at lunch time, then nursery manager suggested she could do without, managing on just water (was working f/t) So, for the next two years, b/fed her at home, more frequently on w/ends obviously and at nursery she had water or juice. Never needed formula (she's never drunk any milk but mine in fact0 and b/feeding tailed off (her choice) at 2 1/2 years.
(never reaslly got the hang of expressing with dd, although am able to do so now with ds thanks to an electric pump.)

Best aspect of all of this was that I could lie in at the w/ends, fedding her instead of having to leap up and maker her b/fast or a bottle. Also was lovely way to reconnect after a day apart (first day back at work, when i went to get her, fed her in the nursery carpark, tears pouring down my face. So odd that she smelt of someone else's perfume-felt I had to 'reclaim' her!

Hey there is hope Moondog - I had thought that since only 1 feed during the day and only 3 days a week I am happy for her to have a bottle then. It is just laziness on my part to be fair - I can express and did do until I had a fair old collection in the fridge for when I was not there. But stopped early Dec and can't be bothered with it any more. Also it will only be for another few months I would imagine as she is weaning well and won't need milk during the day soon anyway. Also means I don't need to bother with bottles etc. when I am around.

It would be good to here other views - especially any success stories!!

Yes, I think that would work fine, but it does seem to vary. You might need to really feed quite a lot on your home days to keep your supply up. Are you really opposed to expressing - even for ten minutes once a day at work?

You don't have to keep the expressed milk if you don't want to and it really doesn't have to take long. I did it in the loo in the afternoon.

Thanks Aloha. Just had a thought thou when thinking about your question - it is not the expressing that bothers me it is all the faff that goes with it. I could express to keep my supply up but lash it down the sink rather than worry about keeping it cool etc. Mmm worth a thought.

Okay you had got there before me!

Not sure, as when I went back to work I bf morning and after work. Both of mine had bottle of formula during day, whether I was working or not.

That system worked fine

Yes, boobs will do this, no problems.

As the baby gets older you'd be reducing the no. of feeds anyway, and giving a bottle when you're at work is the same principle.

What you probably can't do is eg. give two feeds a day on your work days, and then four feeds a day at weekends, as you wouldn't have enough milk on Saturday or Sunday, but would then be in agony on Monday when your boobs had adjusted to the extra demand.

So you either have to reduce feeds on nonwork days in line with feeds on work days, or use your weekend feed schedule as a starting point and express the extra on work days. In the long term, the latter might result in a lowered supply. But then again, your baby is at an age where feeds will reduce naturally anyway as she takes more solids.

I'm still feeding morning and evening only, and that works fine. I can sneak in the occasional extra late evening feed at 11pm if she wakes up then, but if she does it more than a couple of days in a row, I feel a bit fuller the next time she sleeps through.

I can't see why you'd have any problems.

I went back to work 3 days a week when ds was 7 months. For the first month I expressed but I also encouraged ds to drop a feed in the day so he was having b/f in the morning, bottle of expressed in the afternoon and b/f at night. After about a month I found it harder to keep up with expressing so gradually moved over to b/f morning and evening and giving him a bottle on the days I was at work. It doesn't seemto have impacted on my supply although he does sometimes wake in the night to make up for the lost feeds in the day.

I went back to work full time as a teacher and now am part time. I had no problems doing this althought until around 8 months I expressed at work. I dont think it was necessary though tbh.

Hercules and JulieF thanks. I think when all is said and done I can only give it a go and see how we get on.

Cheers

Just in case anyone looks at this in the future. The boobs have risen to the challenge with no problems at all..

Mon to Wed I feed am & pm only, with one 7oz bottle given by nursery/granny at around 2.30/3.00pm.

Thurs to Sun - I feed am, afternoon and pm and in fact any other time that takes her fancy! Haven't noticed any impact on supply as yet and I don't express during the days I only feed twice.

HTH