Going back to work and getting worried!

[fadingfast]

So it's still a few weeks off, but I'm stressing about going back to work. DD is 8 months and bfed. She won't take a bottle as I didn't do it regularly enough early on. I was hoping to get away without any bottles as she will be 10 months my the time I am back at work (3 days a week). She has just dropped down to 3 feeds per day and I was hoping that by then she'll manage on just morning and evening feeds on the days i am at work. Do you think this is enough at 10 months? I have tried giving her ebm in a cup but to no avail - she will drink water from a cup really well, but not milk.

Even 3 feeds a day doesn't seem a great deal now so I'm worried that dropping to just 2 feeds so soon will be too little.

Any thoughts/experiences please?

Some babies will very happily adjust their feeding times around their mum going back to work. She may happily drink water from a cup during teh day and munch away on snacks and then when she sees you she'll want her milk! Even if she hasn't dropped the 3rd feed by the time you've gone back you can still feed in the morning, when you get home and then bedtime so she won't miss out...easy for me to say but just relax and enjoy your last few weeks off - it will all sort itself out!

Hi, just a quick one.

I totally stressed about this too. I could get about 2 ozs of EBM from a cup into her and pumped 4ozs every day for her to take to nursery. I believe with hindsight that they prob chucked lots away based on how much my mum got her to take (and she is super patient).

However I have just said that for my next one I won't stress about providing this like I did with my first. If the same conditions apply, which would be that she would happily eat solids and drink water while I was any. As long as your lo is ok weight wise and happily eating and drinking, don't stress too much, agree with bubbly mummy that she will probably just fit in an extra one when you pick up and then have a bedtime one as normal.

I carried on feeding til after 18 months (sadly stopped due to a health issue), but stopped expressing after a year and it didn't affect my supply. Though of course we are all different. Good luck, going back to work isn't all bad

A 10 month old baby will be fine on 2 feeds a day, 3 times a week. However, you might find she still needs 3, she'll just have the other one at a different time of day.

As bubbleymummy says, it will sort itself out. Try not to stress!

Sorry also meant to say, those 2 months bring on tremendous changes in your baby. Your lo may well be ready to drop to 2 feeds a day by then, or be happy to drink milk from a cup. At 10 months some amazing little ones are walking (mine wasn't but still!)

I was in exactly this position with my DS and it worked out fine for him with morning and evening feeds, but it did mean more night waking for feeds so we ended up co-sleeping for a bit. We asked the nursery to give him plenty of yoghurts and he really loved these.

All the best going back to work.

fading, my ds3 was like this and it worked out fine. At that age he really didn't need much EBM, I found that he ate more solids on the days he attended nursery and fewer solids but more bfing on the days he was home. He did wake up at night to bf as well, which was not ideal for me but I was prepared to put up with it if it meant he was getting enought milk.
BTW, ds3 had a bottle before he was ever put to the breast ( he was in SCBU) and was given regular bottles at home as well but he STILL refused bottles all of a sudden when he was 5 months old. So don't think you did a bad thing by not offering bottles early, some babies know their own minds and if they object to bottles there's not much you can do!

You might find your LO reverse cycles, i.e. makes up for feeds at times when you're around. Lots of mums find their baby wakes at night more upon their return to work, whether that's for feeding or to re-connect with mum. Some people find they actually value these extra snuggles at a time when they're apart from their baby for a significant time. Lots of people manage to comfortably feed more on the days that they're at home than at work too.

Best of luck!

Thank you everyone. That's really reassuring. I hope she doesn't start waking up too often as I've had the luxury of unbroken nights for a while now but as you say, Chipmonkey, worth it if it means we can carry on bfing.