Sudden panic... ebf then blw but I am back at work fulltime at 11 months... possible?

[legallyblond]

Don't know why (probably because DD had about 5 tiny mouthfuls of scrambled egg and a lick, literally, of toast this morning for brekkie...) but I am suddenly starting to panic that DD will not be weaned enough for me to go back to work full-time at 11 months.

DD is 7 months tomorrow. She's a total bottle refuser (I tried bottles of my milk from 6 weeks - no joy) and a total spoon refuser... so its breast feeds and her feeding herself all the way! She is, I think, doing really well at blw... she has 3 meals of "proper" food (eg: scrambled eggs, toast and strawbs, then mozarella, avocado and pitta, then pork meatballs and polenta) but really only has the equivilant of a few teaspoons full at each meal. She certainly enjoys food and is v dexterous with it, but all her calories def still come from breast milk.

She has always fed little and often and still does - she doesn't go more than 3 hours between feeds, even at night, but is a very efficient little feeder - never on for more than 6-10 mins. Those of you who bf will know - there is no point trying to change this - you can't make a baby bf when they don't want to, so I can't get her to take more at a time and go longer between feeds very easily!!

i am working on cutting down night feeds so that she eats more solid food in the day - at one point a few weeks ago she was waking every 1.5 hours, now we're down to once every 3 hours and I plan to try to help her (lots of cuddles from daddy in the night!) go 4 hours over the next few weeks.

BUT.... I need her to be having a morning and nighttime breastfeed only by the time she is 11 months... possible???? All her calories need to be coming from solids that she feeds herself. I am going back to work fulltime and DH is going to be a SAHD.

Like I said... paniking!!!!!!

If food is for fun until they're one. does everyone else who ebfs then blws have more than a year off work....?

Think how much she's changed in the last 4 months - things will be totally different in 4 months time!

And you could always use a cup for some ebm/cows milk/formula/water during the day? I am bf and have just started blw (DS 6mo), I will be going back to work full time when he is about 9mo, so just keeping my fingers crossed that it will all magically work itself out by then If worse comes to worse I guess they can always make up for their milk intake at night for a while

At 6 months my DS could not eat a strawberry, it kept slipping out of his hands just as he got it to his mouth (poor thing!).

At 6 months + 1 week he was scoffing them down.

They learn so quickly, she'll be gobbling loads of food by 11 months!

Sounds exactly like my situation with DS1. He never took a bottle and was blw and was feeding himself happily from 6 m but bf loads. I went back to work at 11 months and he would have a feed in the morning and initially a feed as soon as I picked him up. Soon he was able till wait till we got home and have a pre-bed feed. He took water from a doidy or sippy cup and was absolutely fine during the day.

He also did a bit of reverse cycling (i think that's the right term) when I first went back and started having a few night feeds again for a couple of months. I think you also have to be prepared to relax about blw a lot once they go to nursery (not saying you are not relaxed just that I was a bit pfb looking back on it!). He was at a brilliant nursery but they didn't really get the blw thing and were totally freaked out that he wasn't having milk so kept offering him cows milk in a cup until he accepted (can't remember when maybe at about 13 months?). I also walked in to find them spoon feeding him a few times which at the time I was about but really looking back now it didn't matter a fig!

My milk supply was also fine - carried on feeding him till he self weaned at 19m. Sounds like its all going brilliantly with the food anyway. Agree with Rita that 4 months is a long time.

Thanks all... v reassuring!

I do know she will have grown up a lot in the next 4 months and, tbh, I suspect that a lot of her bfs at the moment are for comfort - she actually eats quite a bit over a normal day. For instance, today, I would guess that she actually ate (played and gummed on a lot more!):

• 2 whole strawberries,
• about 1/4 of a scrambled egg,
• 1 bite of toast (and quite a bit of the butter),
• 1/3 of an avocado,
• 2 or 3 mouthfuls of pitta stuffed with a sort of homemade chicken pate I (chicken thigh, stock and creme fraiche all purreed up), and
• 6 or 7 mouthfuls of homemade quiche with veggies, cheese and tuna in.

So that sounds like she's on the right track, doesn't it?!

To be honest, I am more than happy to just bring her into bed with me and have my bra open all night for a couple of weeks when I go back to work if she needs that, either for calories or comfort. I have been really lazy about sleeping... if she wakes and won't settle I just put her in bed with us (me on my side with my bra open - she snacks anytime she wants without waking me!) - that way we all get sleep and it doesn't seem to stop her going into her cot the next night.

VotePedro - glad someone else did something similar and it worked re going back at 11 months.. DH will be a stay at home dad and he's a fan of blw, so I suspect she'll continue with that.

Seriously though, I do wonder if everyone else (nearly) who does ebf then blw magically has longer than a year off work!

I did BLW and went back at 6 months - we started weaning at 5.5 months. I expressed at work for a few weeks then had to go to formula for when I wasn't there. Wasn't the hard decision I thought it would be as a) I was only back at work for 5 weeks before the summer holidays when she had me back, and b) trying to express in a mobile classroom with a bunch a of kids running round outside just wasn't condusive to a good letdown!! Anyway everything was fine, BLWing was the best thing we did and at 17 months she now feeds herself every meal (apart from the last spoonful of yoghurt which she can never get to) with a fork or spoon - or sometimes with fingers if that works better. She's not fussy with foods and when she's finished she puts all the bits off her tray onto her plate and hands it over :)

She was also a bottle refuser until a week before I went back to work. After that she happily took a bottle and even now I know dh lets her have her milk in a bottle when she's with him and going for a nap - she much prefers it to her cup for sleeping.

Final thing - I'll shut up in a minute! - she still comes into my bed in the morning for a quick snuggly BF. That way we get another 1/2hr or so sleep and a lovely cuddle

Sounds to me like you actually have everything sorted

Thanks again everyone - update is DD had dropped her late afternoon feed for the last 4 days running! I think I need to trust in her a little more! Still feeding every 3 hours at night but I can forsee her going 4 hours (ie feeding only once at night) withing the next few days/weeks.

DD2 has just turned 10 mths and I have been back at work a fortnight. After throwing the best part of a tub of formula down the sink and experimenting with various cups, teats, warm milk, cold milk etc, and with only a week to go before my return, the penny suddenly dropped and she will take sippy cups of formula (and BF night and morning). In terms of BLW at about 8 mths she started doing really well and taking a fair amount, some meals more than others but I suppose some days she is just hungrier.

Basically what I mean is...they develop so quickly I am sure it will work in the end. Don't stop me panicking about it a few weeks ago though. Hope your return to work goes well for you.