I apologize in advance if the backstory gets long.
DS is 8 months and in an in-home daycare from about 7:15 - 4:30 every day. He eats every two hours, and has 5 ounce bottles of breastmilk. He's having 5, 5 ounce bottles (or 25 ounces) most days at daycare. I know that seems like too much, but the daycare lady and I have discussed it ad nauseum and he is happier and naps better with that amount of milk. It seems like that is what he needs. At home on the weekends he does tend to eat about every two hours from the breast. He's also still waking several times in the middle of the night and I feed him to get him back to sleep. He's about in the 25th percentile for weight and 15th for length, so he's not huge.
I introduced solids at 6 months, and it has been slow going. He won't take purees from the spoon. We've done some BLW, but he doesn't eat much. He will now eat small pieces of food, but doesn't pick them up well and I tend to feed him. We've also tried those mesh feeders. Long and short of it is that he's not eating enough to constitute a meal or to drop a bottle.
I pump three times at work and then once more in the evening after LO goes to bed. I typically get about 20 ounces a day, so I'm short 5 ounces every day. I pump after the first morning feed and after he goes to bed on the weekends to try to catch up. I have (or had) a pretty good freezer stash to make up the difference, but it's dwindling. I think I have 5 to 6 weeks left of my freezer stash left and am trying figure out what I'm going to do once it runs out.
Do I give DS a bottle of formula each day to make up for the 5th bottle? Do I try to get him to eat more solids and drop a bottle? Any advice on doing this? I don't need advice for increasing my supply - I think 20 ounces is fine and I can't bear to pump any more than I already do.
The situation stresses me out because I'm constantly thinking "well, if DH and I go out, a babysitter has to give DS a bottle and I may not pump enough to make up for it. And that's one less freezer stash."
I'm hoping that DS will be better with solids soon, but I can't count on it.
Re: Supplement or Drop a Bottle - Need Advice
Honestly, I'd probably just do one formula bottle a day. You're at the point where you are introducing other foods. Formal is an "other food". Being 90% breastfed is still wonderful and he'll get most if not all those benefits, and you'll get the benefit of a deep breath and not counting every single drop of milk you pump.
RE: the solids, DS just didn't get into eating much until 18 months. Yes, a year and a half. He's fine. He eats a wide variety of foods now and it's not an issue. Keep offering, try a variety of methods (pouches?), and have lots of patience.
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I'm in a similiar but different situation - again my baby is 7.5 months old - and up until this week I was able to keep up with her - but now I'm only pumping 8 ounces and she needs 12.
On my birth board the bf check in - a LOT of people are having a hard time keeping up.
I also wanted to add - my baby is a solids monster and that has not reduced her milk needs AT ALL. So.. adding a meal may or may not help you..
We are going to introduce formula when we are out of freezer milk (I am adding a morning pump to my weekend)
I'm sure you'd be fine if you didn't have to pump at work. Keeping up with the pump is hard. Really hard.
But living in a cardboard box is also hard, so moms work. You're doing great and don't you dare look at this as a failure. You're an awesome mom.
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Go ahead and give the formula bottle. Much like Hosier said, it is the pumping, our bodies were designed to nurse babies but not necessarily to pump, so give yourself the space to not be worried. I had to give 1 formula bottle a day and for as long as I kept the same number pumps, I never had a supply problem. In fact I saw a small increase because I was able to relax having a back up. We offered gerber gentle good start (the orange one) because it was important to me that cow's milk whey was the 1st ingredient.