May start working for the first time since DS was born and I'm worried about leaving him enough...

[mrsjerrygarcia]

I will (hopefully) be going to work soon and I'm really worried about leaving DS enough milk/food. I will probably be working full time and gone at least 8.5 hrs. DS is almost 9 months old and he is JUST getting interested in solids. I feed him about 6 or 7 times a day, sometimes only 5 depending on how busy he is. I'm sure that I'm mostly overreacting and that he'll be fine if I just pump a few bottles and leave him some solids to eat as well, but I just want to make sure that he won't be REALLY hungry or anything, because he really is only just starting to like solids. Also, how much should i pump while at work? I figure that he'd probably feed twice while I'm there, so should I only pump twice or more because the pump isn't necessarily as effective as DS is?

Also, DS' father and I just split up and he'll be spending the night with him within a few months- we decided that once he's more into solids he would stay the night there occasionally. And I'm worried about doing that as well! I guess what I really need is knowledge of how many ounces per hour he'll need and I can figure it out from there. Also, reassurance that he won't starve! Haha. I don't necessarily mean that literally, but it still freaks me out!

Any help would be appreciated!

[Marissamom]

I don't know about overnights (is he nursing through the night still? if so, then it will probably be really hard to be away from you all night, more emotionally than physically)

when I started working full-time when DD was 9 months, she was just taking a couple of tablespoons of solids every couple of days. I started out pumping three times a day at work, until I was comfortable cutting back to two. I would get 5-6 oz during the day, and she would take it all as one bottle, and she increased her solids consumption a lot. I think the general rule of thumb is 1-1.5oz for every hour apart. though not all babies follow that. it's going to take a bit of experimenting to see how much he'll want when you are gone, but he'll be fine. 

[mrsjerrygarcia]

Thank you for that! My son was STTN at 1.5 months until 6 months and since then he's woken up mostly just to nurse right back to sleep. But, he is teething and last night he woke up and didn't go back to sleep for an hour and a half.... no matter what I tried. Eventually he got tired again. I'm hoping it was just a one time thing and not going to be a pattern, but we'll see. Thank you for the info!