Advise me on what to do...

[haydn'smommy]

to get ready to go back to work. I have to go back in 2wks. Baby will be 7wk6d. I will be working M,T, Th,F and will take him to daycare at 7:30am and pick him up around 5:30pm. I'm hoping to be able to get to the daycare daily during lunch to nurse him and will nurse him upon arrival at the daycare and upon pick up.
So, how do I go about getting him to take a bottle? I have Avent, Playtex drop ins, Breastflow and Adiri bottles to try. I don't want to give him one until he's 7wks if that's possible. How much milk should I send that first day? I have about 90oz frozen at this point. How often should I pump? I was thinking pump when I get to work, at 10, nurse at 12, pump at 2 and nurse when I pick him up and throughout the night. Does that sound good? Also, what are the chances that he'll start to like the bottle so much that he doesn't want to nurse? Will having that one day mid week help with that, do you think, especially if we just nurse all day long?
Thanks.

[PatioGardener]

Your nursing/pumping schedule looks good! Here is a really good handout from kellymom for care providers about feeding a breastfed baby with a bottle. It should help to prevent bottle preference and overfeeding. http://www.kellymom.com/store/freeha...le_feeding.pdf

I am so thrilled that things are going better for you these days! You're awesome!

[haydn'smommy]

Originally Posted by PatioGardener

Your nursing/pumping schedule looks good! Here is a really good handout from kellymom for care providers about feeding a breastfed baby with a bottle. It should help to prevent bottle preference and overfeeding. http://www.kellymom.com/store/freeha...le_feeding.pdf

I am so thrilled that things are going better for you these days! You're awesome!

Thanks!! I've fought too hard to let this get screwed up so I want to do it right. I'm going to check out that handout and then make sure the daycare follows what I tell them.

[hotharmony]

Also breastfeed babies eat on average 25oz per day which is about an oz an hour. I would suggest sending bottles no more than 3 oz in size! So if your gone for 10 hours I would send 4 3oz bottles.

[Eligracey]

My son's always wanted 1.5 oz per hour he's away from me. Kellymom says 1-1.5oz per hour is average. I would do 3oz bottles at that age, it's what we did. You might send extra the first few days until you know for sure how much he wants. It might also take the daycare a little while to know how to tell if he's hungry vs. crying from tiredness. I told my daycare I was fine with them reheating & re-feeding him out of the same bottle if he refused it the first time, so as to conserve milk.

[PatioGardener]

Originally Posted by Eligracey

I told my daycare I was fine with them reheating & re-feeding him out of the same bottle if he refused it the first time, so as to conserve milk.

This is a great point. I always thought that bottles had to be tossed after a feed (like formula does) until a brilliant MDC Mama pointed me to www.kellymom.com that shows research that breastmilk bottles can be kept much longer after using that same bottle for a partial feed. Definitely a way to save precious milk and also a good way to let care providers know that baby doesn't have to take the whole bottle.