feeding to sleep and returning to work

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Help! I am returning to work in 6 weeks. Has anybody got experience of having had to return although their baby feeds to sleep. My babe feeds at 4/5am, then 9am a sleep/feed. I wont be here! What do I do? She is 6.5m now. She will only sleep in pram / on me. Am really worried..

Who will be looking after her? Do car journey's work? What about letting her wake up proper at 9am and doing breakfast? Change the routine.

When with me, my DS always wanted to feed to sleep at that age. But at nursery he would be cuddled to sleep (or whatever - I only found out after 9 months of him being there that he always had a muslin to sleep with there - no interest at home) with no issues at all.

That said, if you don't get up before 9 now, its a good idea to start getting up when you will need to for work. Perhaps start offering a feed at the time you would be getting up, and then breakfast with you or at the time whoever will care for her will do it

Thanks- I should have been a bit clearer-
She wakes for a feed from sleep at about 5ish am, then back to sleep till about 7. I always offer her a milk feed at 7 and 8 but she isnt interested as she isnt hungry I guess. I am starting to get her to take a tiny amount solids at this time now and know that it will be more by 6 weeks time comes around. Maybe the milk feed at 9am which she uses also to sleep from will be a lot less and its just a sleep issue if I can build up breakfast? I dont know about this.. Should I be trying not to feed her at 5am to make her hungrier at 7??

No, you'll only have a hungry baby shouting at you at 5am !

I'd enjoy the lie in with her until you have to get up, and then offer her breakfast at 7 (or whenever it is you get up)

Will you be expressing for her to have a bottle/cup when you are apart ?

I have never managed her to take a bottle and so am hoping that a cup will do by then. It makes me nervous though as I would like to know that she will get adequate fluids in the day. At the moment I am worried she will be dehydrated. Thought about refusing to feed her to get a bottle going. Was going to do it one day last week but I couldnt do it. Thinking about trying a NUK bottle and then maybe giving up.

does anybody have experience of sending their baby into nursery / child minder with a cup at 7-8m?? How much were they able to drink from it before they went? Have had some good advice to try a doidy too.

My 8 month old was terrible with both a cup and bottle when she started nursery, but she soon realised that she had to get the hang of it or she'd be very hungry by home time. It was really only a couple of weeks before she was perfectly happy with any kind of cup or bottle and during that time she made up for it by having a mega breastfeed in the morning and evening. Also, mine will only sleep at home in the pram or car, but happily settles at nursery for over an hour at lunchtime.

How many days a week are you working? I think the transition is a lot harder for them if they're only in childcare a couple of days a week, my little one is at nursery 4 days a week so she had to get used to the new routine pretty quickly.

I think babies do accept different things from different people. My DD (who wasn't in childcare at that age but would spend time with DP with no access to boobs) would take a bottle or a cup from DP, but never from me. She was always a terrible napper without feeding, even in moving prams/cars, right up to when she went to a childminder at 13 months, where she instantly started napping in a barely-rocked buggy, much to my relief/annoyance!

You might try a gradual change thing if it's worrying you - e.g, start to take your DD off the breast before she's completely asleep for a week or so, then when she accepts that, a little earlier, etc etc. But that might be a lot of work when your nursery will have lots of experience of finding out what works for her/them in a new environment. Or you could try introducing a toy/Cd/mobile/anything you can take to the nursery with her, that you start using at the same time as you feeding her to sleep now, so she'll still have that as a familiar 'cue' even when she's not feeding to sleep.

I had exactly the same issues around the same age with my DS, and I feel I spoilt the last 2 months of my maternity leave trying to get him to fall asleep without a feed at the 9am naptime and stressing when it didn't work. I was so worried, I made myself ill but he really was fine.
Nursery have lots of techniques, they'd rock his cot gently or he'd go into the bouncer until he went to sleep. Please don't worry & enjoy these last few weeks, it will work out fine. She'll see the other babies sleeping next to her and will follow suit! Or maybe she'll need extra cuddles from staff to help settle her, but thats no bad thing- extra attention!
I sent him with a cup with a soft teat & a normal sippy cup to try at first, but he didn't take much ebm from it. Ended up having surprise success with a BreastFlow bottle, he got better at drinking ebm from it as he got older, and better at taking water from a sippy/doidy cup v rapidly. The bottle worked well in the end, as less likely he'd spill precious EBM, I liked to think he got some comfort from sucking it, and his bottle of my milk was obviously different from the other babies' regular bottles!