Re: breastfeeding and work....how does this work???
Hey momma, thought I would throw my experience in there for you. I went back to work when LO was about 9 weeks old. We nursed on demand at home and we had a decent routine down. He nursed pretty much every 2 hours give or take. What I did was:
nurse when he woke up, pumped as soon as I got to work, then spaced my pumping 3 hours apart. Once LO was around 9-10 months he started eating less often, so I spaced to 4 hrs apart. This is totally dependant on what your LO is doing. If I noticed him picking up feedings for a few days, I would pump more frequently for a couple of days to compensate for his little growth spurt.
I always nursed as soon as I picked him up (still do actually). I ended up pumping around 3 times for quite some time. Once around 8, again at 11, and then again at 2. I left work at 5 and nursed by 5:30.
My mother watched LO for me and was very good at watching for hunger cues, using small bottles and keeping him content. She would make a 3 oz bottle, and if he still seemed hungry after that she would offer a 1 oz bottle. Also, keep in mind that breastmilk should still be your LOs main source of nutrition, so give a bottle, then offer any solids. At this point, the solids are still for learning and experimenting, not for actual nutrition. I would maybe have your DH offer a bottle at the 1:30 feed and follow up with solids. (Unless he is doing that already and I totally missed it
)
MY LO went through little short phases of reverse-cycling (if you could call it that) and would nurse more at night. He did it for a short amount of time. HTH!
FT working momma to a 9/11/10 busy boy and 11/13/12 happy little man.
Also wife to hubs since 8/23/08, bonus momma to H (girl) -99 and G (boy)-03