Nursing at night, morning and the weekend – working mom

[faithforbaby]

Hello there!

It's been a while since I've been on here! My little man it is nearly 6 months old, and I've been exclusively nursing since he was born. I went back to work in the middle of February, and I pump at work and send expressed milk to the sitter. My supply is good, and he nurses like a champ. I do believe though that I am ready to start weaning the pumping. It's getting to be a lot at work. I have tried to give him a bottle of formula, and he takes it with success. I know I'm lucky! My question is: Have any of you ladies had success with partially weaning, meaning that he will only nurse at night, morning and on the weekends? Were you able to keep your supply to do that at night? For the past two weeks I've really only pumped once at work and I've still been able to provide him all he needs so far .... any insight appreciate it! Thanks!

 

[AnneD]

Yes, I stopped pumping when lo was 18 months old. I went back to work when she was a year old, my boss paid lip service to supporting my pumping at work but only gave me one 20-minute break to do the lot - walk to a room three floors down at the opposite end of the bilding, assemble pump, pump, disassemble, put milk away etc., so it was not a good experience. I stopped when boss started to deliberately schedule my duties (meetings, stuff where I had to be present physically there and then) for when my pumping breaks were scheduled. I carried on nursing in the morning, evening and at night (still do, actually) and it seems that she still gets milk unless I'm dehydrated.

 

[Left wonderin]

Yes , I went back to work when lo was 10 months old . She was ebf and never took a bottle , pumping just didn't work for me . She is now 15 months and we feed morning, evening and night and whenever she fancies at the weekend and my day off . Never had any supply issue . Go for it

 

[luz]

I did this with my first two babies. When they were about 6 months old i quit pumping during the day and only fed them in the morning, night, and weekends. My husband didn't even give them formula during the day. I nursed them before i went to work and he'd give them water and a cup of juice for lunch, and then as soon as i got home i nursed, and then would nurse again about 2 hours later before bed and then on demand as they woke up throughout the night. It is completely do-able. =)

 

[noon_child]

I did it at a year but the principle is the same. My LO just ate solids while I was away but your LO could go to formula while he's still working on learning about solid food. The only question is, do you think you can afford the formula?

 

[newbie2013]

I'd like to bump this thread and ask my own question relating. My lo is 7 months and still wants to be fed every three hours, despite heartily eating veges, fruits and yogurt (no cereal). I can't see him holding out for longer but with my work schedule over the next few weeks, it is going to be impossible to feed him so frequently (I'm so lucky he's at onsite day care as it is!). If I want to introduce supplementing formula for a feed or two a day, how do I do that? How much formula do I give him? I don't think I want to introduce a cereal based supplement because I can go back to nursing after the next few weeks. I won't have the time to pump, unfortunately.

 

[noon_child]

Maybe introducing more protein based foods at this stage would help - cheese, fish, chicken - if you eat them or some more carbs? I know he's new to weaning so he may not be taking much at the moment anyway, so for formula I'd say stick to about 3-4oz per bottle as a breastfed baby rarely takes more than that per feed. Also ask whoever is feeding him to do paced feeding.