Need some advice from BFing moms who work

DS is 3.5 months old. I'm going back to work on Wednesday and I'm trying to figure out how many bottles I need for daycare. I plan to nurse DS around 7/7:30 a.m. I'm going to drop DS off around 8:15/8:30 and pick him up between 5:45 and 6:15. Although he doesn't take bottles often, he seems content with 4 oz. He usually eats every 2.5-4 hours.

I have to prepare all of the bottles. If DS finishes the bottle and still seems hungry, the daycare workers cannot add any more BM to the bottle. They would have to use a new bottle and anything that DS doesn't finish within an hour must be discarded.

I plan to prepare 3 or possibly 4 4oz bottles. I really hate the idea of wasting any BM so I will also probably prepare a 2 oz bottle in case he's still hungry after a feeding. If I have one 2 oz bottle, should I bring 4 4 oz bottles just in case or do you think 3 is enough for a 10 hour day at daycare with DS nursing about an hour before going?

Right now we both have colds so I'm going to give him as much freshly pumped BM as possible. When he gets better, I plan to use 1-2 bottles of frozen BM. How do you prepare those bottles? I've tried to defrost the milk in the refrigerator, but it's still fairly solid after 12 hours. Since I have to bring the bottles already prepared, should I just run the storage bag under warm water before we leave? Daycare uses a bottle warmer. Does the milk need to be completely thawed before it gets heated up?

TIA for your help.

Re: Need some advice from BFing moms who work

Great questions! I would love to know as well

Re: Need some advice from BFing moms who work

Personally, I would start with 3 5oz and 1 3-4 oz bottle for him.
I looked up what DS was taking when I returned to work. My Ped recommended starting with 5 oz bottles sometimes he left a little but rarely.

This was our schedule when he was 16 wks:

7/7:AM - wake and nurse
he went to my moms ca. 8:30AM and I left 3 5oz bottles. DH picked him up ca. 4:30PM and he got another 4 or 5 oz before I got home ca. 7PM.


Do you leave the bags of milk in a bowl of cold water? I wouldn't use warm water to thaw - once it's warm, you have to use it pretty much immediately. Try thawing in different bowls if this isn't working (I find one bag in one bowl of water thaws a lot quicker than 3 in one big bowl). Also, you can number your bottles so that they give him the most thawed one first (although honestly, once warmed, it should be fine). I just would get as much into the bottle as I could (sometimes having to chip ice blocks of milk). Once it was broken down it thawed fairly soon after.

ETA:
1/ Will you nurse him before you leave? At what time?

Message edited 3/30/2009 12:54:18 PM.

Re: Need some advice from BFing moms who work

Re: Need some advice from BFing moms who work

Oh yes, I used to fill my crock pot with cold water and put them in there in the fridge. DH would pull them out ca. 5PM and I made them before I went to bed 11PMish.

Re: Need some advice from BFing moms who work

DS was 13 weeks when I returned to work.....but this kid was a POWER eater!! My little piggy nursed AM & PM and took 3 ~ 7oz bottles through the day! (I had to start supplementing at that point though so it was 1/2 BM & 1/2 formula for the bottles). He always finished them.

That being said when I started him on bottles of BM around 8 weeks he was taking at least 4 oz sometimes 5 oz. And he sucked them dry. So I kept increasing until we got to the 7oz because he finished them with maybe a 1/2 oz left in it.