pumping/feeding schedule when baby comes home?

SWR&MSM

My little nugget is coming home soon!!!  Once she hits 4lbs she'll have the car seat test, which she hopefully pass, and then come home!  I feel excited and anxious all at the same time and trying to get everything in order for her homecoming.  One of the things I've been thinking about is the pumping and feeding.  Right now I'm pumping 8x/day and Bfing once.  I get up twice at night to pump.  How did you transition when your baby came home?  I'll be allowed to BF once, but all other feedings need to be by bottle mixed with Enfacare.  Did you just BF in the middle of the night?  Or did YH bottle in the middle of the night and you pump?  I think I can wing it during the day - but I'm not sure how to make it work so that the babe can get enough to eat and we can get a little sleep.  We've got a 2.5 year old too, which also makes the schedule a little tricky.  Any suggestions?? 

lemen99

I wrote this post about my pumping experience on my other blog.  I EPed for 14 months and had a great supply. It has a lot of info.

Is your supply decent?  I would suggest dropping one of your night pumps like NOW.  I mean first, you need your sleep and your baby is coming home and it will be very tiring.  And second,  I found I really didn't need my night pump at all, but everyone is different.  

I hoped to BF when Andrew came home but he was a micropreemie and for a variety of reasons, it couldn't/didn't happen. 

A few things:

1) I pumped when he got a bottle. I pumped if he woke up at night and my Dh fed him a bottle (I couldn't bf)   When he STTN I STTN. He started to sleep 8 hours by 6 weeks and so did I.  

2) Even if you dont have enough supply for exclusive breastmilk, even some is good for immunity.  Esp since you have a toddler, seriously don't beat yourself up about your supply, pumping in the middle of the night, and the possiblity of supplementing with formula.

When I went back to work at 6 weeks I decided not to pump at work - so I only pumped 4x/day and we were all STTN.  it was still more than enough supply and I didn't have to supplement.

 Let me know if you have any other questions!

 

 

 

 

 

CBJmommy

I followed the same schedule that the NICU gave us until our Ped gave us the okay to demand feed.  I think that was until she was about 7lbs (probably around 3 months!).  I would wake up 15 mins of when we had to get her up, pump, give her the bottle that I just pumped and go back to bed.  Easy.  I would do the BF'ing during the day when she is likely to be more awake.  Just my opinion.

 It took us awhile to transition to bf'ing exclusively as she was tiny and had a tiny mouth that made it hard to latch on.  The shield helped us a lot and by 4 months she was exclusively bf'ing!