working moms who breastfeed/pump ((ENTER))

LaBellaVida

I am contemplating going back to work and I would go back starting next Sunday. I still haven't 100% decided if I am going back, and my two reasons being that I just simply don't want to be away from O. My boss is willing and able to 100% work with my schedule, in fact she just told me to tell her when I can and can't work, and choose my days off. ((She is desperate to have me back)) I will only work part time as well, so only 5 hours a day 4 days a week. My other reason is the one really making me second guess going back. That's being that O doesn't take a bottle. We have introduced the bottle and he just flat out refuses it. He only took it once for MH about 3 weeks ago, with the Medela Calma bottle. He has since refused it. He sometimes takes a soothie paci so I decided to stick with a bottle nipple that resembles that. I just recently bought the medela regular bottles and I tried it this morning and he got so upset (as did I) and I ended up giving him the boob and he was happy as a clam. 

Aside from those two reasons I am a little concerned that even working part time and having to pump once or twice during the day to make a bottle, that my milk supply will go down. 

So, my questions are- 

Did any of you ladies go back to work w/out your LO taking a bottle first? 

With pumping, did you have any issues with your supply due to pumping? 

I know every baby is different, but what bottles did you find that work best for you LO? 

k_warren8

I haven't started back work but you have to make time to pump otherwise your supply will be affected. Try to stick to certain times that way your coworkers know that you will be gone. Have you tried giving a bottle whenever you are gone? Babies are smart and can smell you so probably not wanting to take a bottle.

LaBellaVida

k_warren8 said:

I haven't started back work but you have to make time to pump otherwise your supply will be affected. Try to stick to certain times that way your coworkers know that you will be gone. Have you tried giving a bottle whenever you are gone? Babies are smart and can smell you so probably not wanting to take a bottle.

Yeah, I will only work nights, so O will be with daddy while I am at work. I will be pumping at work at least twice while I am there, and that won't be a problem with my co-workers or boss. 

When O did take the bottle I was out of the house getting a mani pedi with my mom. Since then, I haven't been out of the house. I haven't even been away from him. 

I suppose that's where I need to start. Is leaving the house around the times I would be working and have MH give him the bottle. Maybe that will work. 

musicalsilver

My LO used to take a bottle, and then I got lazy and waited a week and a half before giving him a bottle again.  We started trying the bottle again last week, and have been trying every day in preparation for LO starting daycare on Monday, but no dice.  We had a pedi appointment on Friday, and she told us that even though he's refusing it, he'll figure it out within a couple days of starting daycare.  I'm anticipating some rough days ahead.  Hoping I'll be able to work slightly shorter hours for LO's sake!

MrsAery-to-be

Have your H give the bottle when you aren't in the same room. Babies can smell mom and some refuse a bottle cause they know mom is there and would rather BF.

As far as pumping, make sure you pump a couple times. You might not respond to the pump as well as if LO is BF but it will help tell your body to keep producing. I pump till empty then a little longer so my supply stays up. I BF whenever we are together.

We use Breastflow bottles, suppose to mimic BF. Sometimes he struggles a little but usually he does a great job.

LaBellaVida

MrsAery-to-be said:

Have your H give the bottle when you aren't in the same room. Babies can smell mom and some refuse a bottle cause they know mom is there and would rather BF.

As far as pumping, make sure you pump a couple times. You might not respond to the pump as well as if LO is BF but it will help tell your body to keep producing. I pump till empty then a little longer so my supply stays up. I BF whenever we are together.

We use Breastflow bottles, suppose to mimic BF. Sometimes he struggles a little but usually he does a great job.

@MrsAery-to-be
Are breastflow bottles the brand??

steph_pegasus

Haven't gone back to work yet, but I will be in a few weeks so we introduced DD to the bottle this morning. It took warming the milk from fridge temp, getting her lips and mouth wet with milk from it, and lots of encouragement and praise from me and DH, but she did finally take it and finish it. It was about 1 1/2 oz, and DH fed her. We have 2 different bottles, so we will try the Avent ones tomorrow, but she ate from Tommee Tippee today. Just keep trying, I don't really think babies have that much of a preference for one bottle over another, but when you EBF I think they definitely have a preference for mom, at least at first. And like a pp said, your LO will figure it out when you do back to work, and won't starve. LO may end up reverse-cycling, but they will not go hungry.

hst

Like pp said, have your H feed baby when you aren't there. I'm not back to work yet but I pumped for a year at work for DD, my supply never suffered, I made sure to pump as many times as she would eat. Other than work I rarely left DD with a sitter because I wanted to breast feed as much as possible. I used born free bottles, the medela bottle nipples use to collapse on DD but I know others who used them successfully.

kaleyandjason

We tried introduced a bottle when LO was 5 weeks old and he hated it. Then we revisited it at 6 weeks and he did amazing. We used the Medela newborn nipples. I also watched a video on YouTube on paced feedings. It really helped a lot and he wasn't drowning in milk anymore.

LaBellaVida

kaleyandjason said:

We tried introduced a bottle when LO was 5 weeks old and he hated it. Then we revisited it at 6 weeks and he did amazing. We used the Medela newborn nipples. I also watched a video on YouTube on paced feedings. It really helped a lot and he wasn't drowning in milk anymore.

yeah, I watched the pace feedings on yt also. I didn't know medela made nb nipples. Nonetheless....we had success tonight with the momma by lanshinoh bottles. We are gonna stick with that for now since he took it almost with ease. 

[Deleted User]

Just a suggestion that would help to make it through the day until you return home from work... Could your sitter finger feed your LO during the day? Even if its slow, your LO would get food.

LaBellaVida

What is finger feed?? And MH will be watching him as i will be working nights. :-)

[Deleted User]

brandilc84 said:

What is finger feed?? And MH will be watching him as i will be working nights. :-)

You have LO suck on your finger like a pacifier. Fill up a feeding injector syringe (its an oral syringe with a very narrow curved tip) with formula or breast milk. While LO is sucking on your finger, you slip the injector into the corner of their mouth next to your finger. Slowly inject the milk while LO sucks.

We had to do this as supplementation when we left the hospital. It's very easy but can take awhile. We got a couple Medela syringes from the hospital but I would imagine they are sold at BRU.

luckaloo

My LO was the same way. She likes the soothies pacifiers and would not take a bottle. I am exclusively breast feeding/pumping and only needed bottles for when I was away. I tried them all! She ended up liking tommee tippee bottles with the slow flow nipple. It's a lot like the soothie nipple. She even takes the bottle from me now and easily transitions from boob to bottle throughout the week. Hope this helps!

needanustart

G was like this when I went back to work part time. He took the tommy tippee bottles a few times from my husband without me on the room, but when he cut his first tooth at 5 months he refused the bottle from then on. I just went to work and decided if he was really, really starving he would take the dang bottle from the nanny. He never did but since I was part time he just preferred to wait out the 5 hours than take a bottle. I pumped at work and froze it to keep my supply up, and ended up donating it. We ended up going straight to a sippee cup which he liked.

spitler

My LO only takes the Dr. Brown's bottle that simulates breastfeeding. I was getting nervous as I have to go back to work in a week as she would take the medela bottle anymore so I got the Dr. Brown one and she has taken it every time

spitler

My LO only takes the Dr. Brown's bottle that simulates breastfeeding. I was getting nervous as I have to go back to work in a week as she would take the medela bottle anymore so I got the Dr. Brown one and she has taken it every time