Determined to ebf while at full time work

[ParsleyCake]

I have been offered a job which is 40 hours per week, shift work. My son is 10 months old and very attached to the breast but happily takes a bottle of expressed milk. He has never had formula. My fiancé will become a stay at home dad once I begin work.

DS has never had formula, and I would really really like to avoid giving it to him. I have read so many different ways of expressing milk to allow feeding breast milk to continue but I forced myself to stop thinking so hard and just decided to go with what my gut feeling was. I now have a good idea of what I would be happy doing, but I am not sure if it will work.

Basically I want to begin feeding using a bottle (with expressed milk) during the day and feed from the breast only at night.

This will depend on me being able to express enough milk for ds to keep him in milk for each day. My job will be in a call centre and from what I have heard from people in similar jobs they are very stingy on breaks - I suspect I will be faced with two 15 minute breaks in a 9 hour shift. Of course I could pump milk at the beginning and end of my shift too but it's not ideal as coming in early and leaving late, even if just a little bit, means more time away from DS after being with him every waking moment until now.

I would much rather, if possible, wake to pump throughout the night. I am a light sleeper and it doesn't bother me, getting up frequently. I am just not sure my milk supply will continue if I only pump twice a day, even if I do it more at night , especially as I would be breastfeeding baby through the night too (we co sleep and he wakes often for quick feeds£

So basically I am wondering if this will work and if anyone has done anything similar

DS was ebfed till 2.5 years, I went back to work full time when he was 11 months old. I was away from him for around 11 hours a day and had to go away on business for 3-5 days every three months. Never had supply problem, never expressed, DS never had formula. He also did not starve while l was away working. Obviously that's just my experience but your supply should be fine.

I BF my DD when I returned to work when she was 9 months. I fed her first thing, when j got home, and before bed, by that point my supply was established enough that it wasn't an issue.

We had a different problem - DD wouldn't take formula and at that point I really couldn't be doing with pumping. She just had a bottle of cows milk in the middle of the day to help her nap and that was it. I continued BF her until she was 20 months, so it can definitely work.

I think this plan will be very hard.
You will definitely be able to continue bf morning, evening and night, and you can of course pump in your breaks at work. But I don't think you'll get enough to be certain that not a drop of non-b milk ever has to pass the child's lips.
Your poor fiancé will have to cherish this hard-won milk like gold. Sometimes one has to discard a half bottle of milk after the baby has had a few sips. and changed his mind. Sometimes one might mix milk with cereal and he'll turn up his cute little nose. What's he going to do then? I think it's going to add serious stress to both of your lives at a time which is already going to be a little pressured until you all get used to it.
Also sleep - for you - is actually essential to life. You have to function! Drive to work! Do the job! Not make mistakes! Your baby might well start MORE night feeding when you go back to work. I don't think you'll be able to burn the candle at both ends quite as fiercely as you think. Otherwise you'll be zombified.

I went back to work when DS was 6 months. He's now 9 months. I feed him morning, evening and night (although we are phasing out night now). He has about 250ml of Aptamil over the course of the day. In the first month I tried to pump at work. I have plenty of milk and was well used to pumping, but it was a total PITA. I scarcely had time anyway so I just stopped the day feeds and the breasts soon got the idea.

Best of luck!

I am back at work full time and my son is just over a year old. I don't pump at work - I just feed him between the hours of 6pm and 6am (we bedshare and he feeds quite a lot through the night). He has cow's milk in the day alongside solid food and water but I know some babies manage without milk while their mothers are at work.

Is there a particular reason you don't want to give him formula? Is it because you're worried about maintaining supply or for other reasons? I was concerned about the "virgin gut" before six months - I was pressured into combined feeding by HVs who didn't think I had enough supply, but really wanted to EBF - but after that I figured he was having other food anyway so didn't mind so much about the occasional bottle of formula.

My ds wouldn't drink from a bottle. He bf morning and night (and middle of the night till 13mo) and I did not pump at all.
He drank water and ate lots of dairy and started cows milk at 12mo.

Though it does depend how well your ds eats. Mine took to food quickly (maybe because he was hungry as he wouldn't take formula and I wasn't around 24/7 for bm)

My son never had formula, I went back to work when he was 12 months old. He had cows milk as an occasional drink and a breast feed in the morning and when I got in from work. Had extra feeds at weekend. I never expressed and never had problems with supply.

Ds only had breastmilk - at 9 months he only had one feed in the working day and I breastfed all the time he was with me. If you get a double pump you could fit two sessions of 10 minutes while you eat (I could double pump, eat my lunch and read at the same time) which should give you enough milk for him. I had a pump which you could buy extra pump sets for so it was all sterile each time, then my milk went in the fridge, but you could take a cool bag and ice blocks - a wine chiller sleeve is great for rapidly cooling the milk.

Hmm so do you think it's possible that an 11 month old would be able to go mostly without milk while I am away at work for around 10 hours ? I am not against him having formula if we run out of expressed milk on the odd occasion but would prefer to give him breast milk almost all of the time. Some days he eats well, some days he doesn't. I'm not sure whether he would take food instead of milk while I am away

so do you think it's possible that an 11 month old would be able to go mostly without milk while I am away at work for around 10 hours

Sure. Replace with yogurt for example.

Having said that, by 11 months he could be having normal milk if you wanted, as part of his diet. Maybe in a cup rather than a bottle.

I tried expressing at work but after a few times I could only get tiny amounts. DS seemed to be able to get more than enough when feeding himself, though. So, I gave up and gave him a bottle of formula when I was away.
Every other feed was from the breast. He was 4 months then, though.

Ok - Dd - went back when she was 11 months. She'd stopped feeding at night by then and had a 7am, 3pm and 7pm feed. I'd do the 7am and pm ones in person and then express at bedtime for the 3pm one. Cut the 3pm one pretty quickly as it was a massive hassle and she wasn't overly impressed by the whole milk-in-a-cup rigmarole anyway. Kept the other two feeds until she turned 2 then stopped the morning one. Stopped the night time one at 2 years 3 months.

No real problem with supply although at about 18 months she started refusing one side so I ended up one sided feeding for the last 9 months or so.

DS - went back when he was 13 months. We were on 7am, 7pm and a variety (attempts cheery laughter here but it fails massively ) of night feeds. Finally stopped the night feeds at about 2.5. (Don't ask.) Still going and he's 3 next month. At a recent conversation about it I suggested stopping when he was 3. He counteracted with aged 10! The debate goes on.

No supply problems. (I long for supply problems so he loses interest and gives up! )

My DD started full time nursery aged 11 months so didn't get milk from 7 til 7 most days. I never expressed so she drank only water at nursery and ate her meals (ate much better at nursery than at home). However she did go a little crazy for milk when I got home :-)
Good luck returning to work!