Going back to work

milo091511

I am breastfeeding. My mom is watching my daughter. Evert time she cries my mom thinks shes hungry and tells me to feed her even tho I just fed her say a hour ago. I am feeding anywhere from 2 to 3 hours. Well when ever she's hungry. But I'm worried that my mom is going to over feed her. How much milk should I give her for a 8 hour day. I don't know how much she is eating.

CaliforniaDream87

Sounds like you're BF'ing. It's totally normal for baby to eat more often at this stage? It's really hard to *over feed* a BF baby. Have you started stashing BM for when you return to work?

milo091511

Yes I have a good amount. She will throw up if I let her nurse too long. I have reflux drops and it's seeming to help I just don't want my mom to feed her every hour when she cries. She is very fussy right now. She has the reflux and has a lot of air in her belly. She wants to be held constantly. And she likes to be bounced out in front of you. My arms get tired. Lol but my mom dosnt listen to me. I just don't know how many bags to give her. They are 6 ounce bags. So would 5 bags be to much. That sounds like a lot to me.

sjnarry

I have alienate followed the rough estimate of 25oz in a 24 hr period (I believe I saw that on kellymom.com). So when I prepped bottles for my EBF babies (this baby is my third) I would take the number of feedings in a 24hr period and divide that into 25 to get the rough estimate of how much baby drinks in one feed. So if you feed ever three hours, day and night you have 8 feedings, and that equals just over 3oz in a feeding. If you leave 3.5-4oz bottles with instructions as to feeding every 3ish hours you should be good. If you find baby is still hungry bump to 4oz. Once baby starts sleeping through the night or longer naps between feeds, the number of feeds decreases and the amount consumed at each feed increases. I think that most babies consume on average 25oz in a day of breast milk, with the high end being 30oz. This does NOT pertain to formula fed babies to my knowledge.

deviduke412

I second everything @sjnarry said. And I know it's your mom, but if my mom wasn't willing to follow the plan I laid out for her, then I'd be finding another sitter.

amylianne

My 2 kids seem to have wildly different appetites. DD is 6 weeks and drinks 2.5 oz every 3 hours-ish. Sometimes it's more often, and takes her a little while, so we're seriously feeding all day!! DS was drinking more like 5 oz. He has always been a super hungry kid, so you never know. I had trouble keeping up with him, and when he was hungry it was hard on all of us. In my experience, I'd rather let them graze constantly than risk another poor hungry baby.

I do think it's important for your mother to follow your wishes, especially with suggestions on bouncing her and such. That's so easy, why not try. However, she will do things differently, just like DH will do things differently, and that's okay too. No sitter is going to love your daughter and be as vested as a grandmother, so I'd do all I can to make that work.

milo091511

She's driving me nuts she hasn't taken care of a baby in 23 years and thinks she still knows everything. Every time my daughter cries it's let's throw the Pacific in her mouth or she's hungry. She dosnt listen to me about bouncing her. She has a lot of air in her belly and she's extremely fussy and dosnt like to be on her belly. My mom thinks she knows all and puts her up on her shoulder. All she does is cry. I guess my mom will have to learn the hard way. I don't want her to use up all my bags of milk because she just says she's constantly hungry. But I haven't gotten my daughter used to bottles. I don't know if she will eat from them every time. I have tried twice and she did take them. Idk I think I am just worried over nothing

CaliforniaDream87

amylianne said:

My 2 kids seem to have wildly different appetites. DD is 6 weeks and drinks 2.5 oz every 3 hours-ish. Sometimes it's more often, and takes her a little while, so we're seriously feeding all day!! DS was drinking more like 5 oz. He has always been a super hungry kid, so you never know. I had trouble keeping up with him, and when he was hungry it was hard on all of us. In my experience, I'd rather let them graze constantly than risk another poor hungry baby.

I do think it's important for your mother to follow your wishes, especially with suggestions on bouncing her and such. That's so easy, why not try. However, she will do things differently, just like DH will do things differently, and that's okay too. No sitter is going to love your daughter and be as vested as a grandmother, so I'd do all I can to make that work.

Totally agree!

Mwendt615

I'm in the same boat. I exclusively breastfeed so I have no idea how much to pump for my LO's bottles. I contacted the lactation consultant at my hospital and she told me that to figure out how much to pump you take the baby's weight and multiple it by 2.5. Then divide the total you get by the number of times your LO nurses in a day. That will give you a rough idea of the minimum you need to pump for each bottle.

SashaDenn25

Mwendt615 said:

I'm in the same boat. I exclusively breastfeed so I have no idea how much to pump for my LO's bottles. I contacted the lactation consultant at my hospital and she told me that to figure out how much to pump you take the baby's weight and multiple it by 2.5. Then divide the total you get by the number of times your LO nurses in a day. That will give you a rough idea of the minimum you need to pump for each bottle.

I would look at that LC like she was crazy. My LO "snacks" in the evenings. Basically cluster feeding every evening. Small amounts at several intervals. I have no clue how many times a day LO nurses! I EBF too, guess I need to get some sort of idea for when I go back to work!