Pump, nurse, or change LO's schedule?

bainidhedub · December 2014

Curious if anyone already back at work had a similar issue. Z has been more or less STTN about 11pm-8am, eats, and then goes back to sleep for 2 hours. When I go back to work in a week, I'll have to get up around 6am, and DH will drop off to daycare at 8:30.
I'm trying to decide if I should try dream feeding LO when I get up and hope he still sleeps til 8, just pump and leave a bottle for DH to use at 8, or try to shift things so LO ends his long sleep at 6 and then goes back down until 8. (Please note, I am not terribly optimistic about the last option. I know it's early for actual sleep training and schedules.)
What have you guys done?

emmylu30 · December 2014

I would pump and not mess with LO's schedule too much for now. However, if there was a schedule change to be made I would try to put LO down earlier in the night so they would wake up at 6 for a feed, eat, then goes back to sleep until 8 and be up for the day. I know it sounds easier said than done but LO may be so tired from daycare after starting that he may be easier to put down earlier. Personally, my LO started to go to bed 1 - 1.5 hours earlier once started daycare. Good luck with going back to work!

sprocketsngadgets · December 2014

I went with the don't wake the baby and let DH give her a bottle when she wakes up between 6:30and 7:30am. He also does daycare drop off. I do my first pumping session pretty soon after I get to work. It sucked the first few weeks she was only getting up once at night since I was super engorged, but I regulated and it's worked well for us. I don't run the risk of her making me late because of a long nursing session or waking her up to a point where she wants to be up for the day which leads to a cranky DH. I will say that she will sporadically sleep from 8pm until 7/8am. During the week if she's having one of those nights I will try and dream feed her before I leave for work. Mostly because then I'm not spending my hour commute feeling like my boobs are going to explode