Formula by day /BF by night

cew810

anyone have experience with giving formula while at work then breast feeding baby in the evening / morning when at home ? I'll be returning to work when baby is 3 months and I'd like to EBF until then. However, I'm a teacher and extremely stressed about pumping at work and keeping up supply. BF has already been stressful enough at home and we are really struggling to get baby to take a bottle of breast milk at just 5 weeks. When I return to work I would like to supplement formula but breast feed when I am at home. 

How is will this work with my supply and does anyone have any advice on how to get started ? 

SmrBrd2012

Your supply will probably go down if you don't pump while you are at work. Mine went down even when I pumped 3 times a day at work and nursed at home. If you keep up nursing at night, you'll probably be able to keep up at least a bit of a supply, but be prepared for it to not last.

valerie1132

I'm a high school teacher and my first block is my prep, so I pump the last 30 min of my prep and during lunch. I've had low supply issues so I've had to periodically supplement some anyway, but I get about 5 oz total during the day from those two pumping sessions. So this makes one bottle for my daughter (5 mo) and then she gets two formula bottles during the day at daycare as well. 

I breastfeed at night and on the weekends with no problems, sometimes I have to supplement with maybe 2-4 oz a day on the weekends. But overall yes it can work! You just have to be ok with the formula supplementation. 

The hardest part is time management as a teacher because you lose part of your prep and lunch to pumping, and f you don't pump you'll be really uncomfortable and you'll lose some of your supply.  I try to plan the week over the weekend and grade or read when I'm pumping. Good luck!  I was very nervous too, there's a bit of a transition period but once you get used to the schedule you'll be ok!