In January I will be returning to work part time (2 or 3 days a week) and my son will be taken care of by my husband and parents the other days. I have been EBF and have given him BM bottles just often enough to find one that he likes and have him get some practice. We are on a loose routine of sleep, eat, play. And he nurses about 10-12 times a day. Sometimes he is actually hungry and nurses from both sides. Other times he will just nurse for just a minute and be done. But he is definitely used to being nursed on demand.
It won't work for him to eat this many times when I am at work because when he isn't actually hungry it will be a waste of a bottle of breast milk that then has to be thrown away.
I was hoping other moms that nursed on demand and then went back to work can tell me about how they made this transition. Any suggestions? I have 2 weeks until I go back to work. Is there any way to make it a gradual transition for him?
Until we had an idea how much my daughter would eat at daycare, I divided up the milk into several bottles with only two ounces of milk in it. That way, if she was very hungry, they would just feed her more, and if she wasn't they did throw out too much milk.
It turned out she didn't drink as much at daycare anyways, I think she saw bottles merely as food and not as a source of comfort like breastfeeding.
Good luck.
I went back to work about the same time as you with my first daughter and she was EBF as well. She actually found her thumb and soothed herself that way, but my second daughter like a pacifier when she is tired. Otherwise they both would have preferred to BF for a few minutes before falling asleep.
I can tell you that your son will not behave in the same way if the food source is not readily available all day. There are many ways that your husband and parents will be able to soothe him without food.
I can also tell you that even if they warmed up a small bottle of breastmilk and he didn't drink it all, it is fine to hold onto it until a little bit later. Milk can normally sit out for a while and be fine.
You are VERY lucky to have your husband and parents available, as this will make going back to work so much easier.
Since he's still quite young, his eating habits are also changing quite a bit. When you introduce solids (after he turns 6 months at the earliest), that'll impact how much breastmilk he wants probably. With you returning to work, the caregivers may find that he doesn't eat nearly as much while they are with him, but that he'll wait until you're home and he might drasticly increase his overnight and evening feedings..
For the times that he wants to comfort suck, you can give him a pacifier if he'll take one. You can also give him a bottle and if he doesn't drink it then, he can still have it a little later. There's no reason to dump breastmilk that wasn't used in one sitting. It needs to be used within 24 hours of coming out of the freezer, but can be fine longer than that if it wasn't frozen.
I encourage you to check with a La Leche League leader for help. It's completely free to ask for help and they'll have more and better suggestions than I do! :)
Good luck and congrats on being proactive to keep him having milk!
I'm about to do the same but I never let my LO nurse for a couple of minutes. In that case he's not hungry. I also do the eat play sleep loosely but never out of order (unless growth spurt is problem). She doesn't eat till she's napped. She will act hungry if tired but I found if I feed her while she's tired she just wants something to suck on to sleep. So after play time when she's cranky I know its music and some cuddling to get her to sleep (sometimes this is longer than other times...). She's not a great napper and we're just over three months in age. I'm not sure how old yours is and he might want something other than food (as I found in my case).
I'm going to attempt to pump while student teaching at high school and breastfeed at home. I've been told to get try giving my LO bottles when I'm gone (pumped or not) and BF when I'll be home.
Also get your LO use to your husband and your parents if he's always with you. Do a couple of trial days. Give them some pumped milk and pump around the times he usu eats and you'll get to see how much he eats from a bottle. Mine usu eats somewhere around 7, 10,1,4,7,12,4,7,10. About eight feedings. I'm hoping to pump 2-3 times. Chart him for a couple of days-see if you find a pattern and you can see where his little 'mini-feedings' need to be cut. You might find the cycle is 2.5 hours or 4 hours(loosely but still there).
How old is your LO? That might help out with your answers b/c feedings differ with age and a little from baby to baby.
Nursing your baby when he's not hungry is not usually a good idea. What I mean is, there's probably something else he's trying to tell you besides give me a boob. I think most mothers who nurse do it on demand. It's not like I'm going to tell him to just wait a minute. When he's hungry, he eats. When he's hot or cold or tired or scared or wet or lonely or bored maybe he eats for a minute because he figures it might help but then realizes he wants something else.
That's my experience. I also know that whenever my baby cries people "my husband, parents" say, "Oh is he hungry?". Well he has many different cries and I seem to be the only person who can interpret them.
I agree on the trial run part. You probably want to spend as much time with him as possible but go run some errands for a couple hours and have your husband and parents give him the bottle. It will work better if he knows you are not around.
It might take some time to figure out the best situation for your family but try not to stress and know it will all work itself out and your son and his caregivers will find their own rhythm.
Good luck!
This is the perfect time to get into more of a routine - not just with feedings, but in general! My daughter was 8 weeks when I went back to work (so a little younger than your little one), but it worked best for us to have set feeding times on the days that I worked, and to be as consistent with those same feeding times on the other days as well. We also found that offering a pacifier really made a difference, too. We had resisted the pacifier thing, but offered it once I started back to work, and it made life a whole lot easier! It instantly cut back on her demand for feedings, and helped with getting her to sleep as well. And she weaned herself off the pacifier by the time she was 8 months old, so it didn't become a bad habit at all. Good luck!
I'm also going back but with my second. I'm not sure there is anything you can do to make the transition easier but just know that your husband and family will find ways to make the adjustment...but it will take time. My husband will walk around with the baby or use a pacifier to hold her off and very often she will sleep for him like she won't for me just because it isn't me :) It will be trial and error for a few weeks but lucky for you they can try a bottle and if it wasnt what your baby wanted they can stick it in the fridge and try again in an hour (when I did daycare often the bottle was a loss). Soon enough your baby will develop a routine and then you can still nurse evenings and weekends :). The first week or so you baby might not even eat that much - this is also normal - everyone will get used to the new routine eventually just give it time. One thing you could do is talk with your husband and family about how to store and use breast milk etc... and maybe even go out for a while on your own and give them a trial run to see how your baby does for 2-3 hours. But don't worry everyone will adjust eventually.
I am a nanny who dealt with this exact issue. The baby, who was 5 months at the time, was completely breast feed on demand. The mom did not have time to ease him into the bottle before she was forced to go back to work. It was a transition for him definitely, but he did get used to the bottle after a few weeks. He would eat when he was hungry but he wasn't happy about it for a while and then he began eating so well with the bottle that the mom was constantly pumping :). What worked for me was giving him the bottle in a place he was comfortable but distracted which you may not have to worry about with your little one so small. It was a little hard because at first I couldn't hold him and give him the bottle because he became so upset when he realized that he wasn't going to nurse. So, I would feed him while he was in the bouncy chair. That way he could see me and the bottle and wasn't as surprised that he didn't get to nurse. Really I just wanted to say don't worry :) The mom of the little boy was so worried at first that he was not getting enough milk, but honestly when they are hungry they will eat! And after a few weeks he was fine and able to transition back and forth depending on who he was with.
Your little one will do great and adjust to the bottle! And if you have the time you could try someone else introducing the bottle with you not in the same room. Just don't stress if he rejects it for a while, transition is hard even for adults, lol.
