Do I wake baby to nurse before work?

[@llli*Oda.Baby]

My son is 6 months old. I am about to begin the process of weaning him down to only 2 feedings per day, as I will be returning to work in the fall, and pumping while teaching has been too stressful for me. He will drink formula when I am at work. As much as I hate to do it, I think this will be better for my own sanity and stress level.

I would like to still nurse him in the morning and at night, but I would have to wake him up an hour earlier than his normal routine to feed him. Has anyone done this? Is it a bad idea? Secondly, will I be able to maintain my milk supply for four months if I am only nursing in the morning and evening?

Any advice/thoughts from someone who has tried this would be more than welcome.

[@llli*lidarln]

My son is 6 months old. I am about to begin the process of weaning him down to only 2 feedings per day, as I will be returning to work in the fall, and pumping while teaching has been too stressful for me. He will drink formula when I am at work. As much as I hate to do it, I think this will be better for my own sanity and stress level.

I would like to still nurse him in the morning and at night, but I would have to wake him up an hour earlier than his normal routine to feed him. Has anyone done this? Is it a bad idea? Secondly, will I be able to maintain my milk supply for four months if I am only nursing in the morning and evening?

Any advice/thoughts from someone who has tried this would be more than welcome.

on waking baby to nurse before leaving, YES do it, you won't regret it and you would regret NOT doing it. :jm2c I did and it was very beneficial, I laid with my son in a twin size bed and had a leisurely nursing session every day before leaving, we continued this into his second year and I still fondly recall those mornings. in fact we still cuddle almost every morning in the early hours

on maintaing supply I have some questions.
1. how old will he be when you start back to work?
2. why are you thinking only two sessions per day? I nursed my son when i left when I returned, and when we settled in for the night at minimum even when he began weaning? if you are teaching your days should be considerably shorter than my 9-10 hour work days and you could nurse him more. in fact if you stop worrying about the fall and nurse plenty now it could be that he'll just eat solids while you're gone and nurse when you are with him = no formula needed???

3. if you are deadset on you plan in OP then no honestly yes, I think your supply will dwindle rather quickly attempting to nurse only twice per day, now or later. and honestly I think that will not be the worst of it, the worst will be the limiting your son and his reaction to that rejection.

sorry for the bluntness.

[@llli*phi]

I responded in your other thread, but to reiterate:

I think that is great idea (especially if you will only be nursing twice a day). I did this many of the days that I worked even though I was pumping. Many times my son would just nurse and fall right back to sleep. Even when he stayed awake, there were never any problems because of it and he was always very happy and playful during the day.

Be prepared for the possibility that he may start waking at night to nurse to make up for the daytime nursings as he is weaned. He may also want to nurse at night to reconnect with you after you go back to work. Nursing is about bonding and comfort as much as it is about food, so these sorts of things are common. It is also common for babies to start nursing more frequently at night around 7-8 months anyway because of teething, milestones, and all that good stuff. It's certainly possible that your baby will not start waking more (not all babies do this), but it's a possibility and you might want to be prepared. Cosleeping can help a lot with that if it does happen.

Good luck!

I think PP is absolutely correct that your milk supply will probably dwindle pretty rapidly, and that you should be prepared that this course of action might not work out so well. Usually when babies go down to nursing twice a day, they are substantially older. However, if this is what you must do to keep your sanity then I am by no means going to attempt to dissuade you.

You will most likely be successful in making it to a year if you nurse as much as possible while you are together. Again - good luck!

[@llli*phi]

I missed this:

in fact if you stop worrying about the fall and nurse plenty now it could be that he'll just eat solids while you're gone and nurse when you are with him = no formula needed???

GREAT point! Particularly if he likes yogurt and cheese. Nurse lots at home, make sure to work in some full fat dairy during the day. Maybe it is better not to stress yourself out about all of this quite yet. It may ultimately be a non-issue.

[@llli*toddlerandtwins]

I asked the same question about waking to feed last year. I used to wake my twins to feed before leaving for work and still do it to this day. On weekends they will *sometimes* sleep an hour or two later than weekdays when I feed them.

I am also nursing twice a day. But I didn't start partially weaning until 10-11 months. But I weaned to 2 feedings a day by 12 months and we are still going strong.

[@llli*krystine]

I woke my daughter up to nurse before work until she was over 2 yrs old. Not just for milk supply but I worried if she woke up shortly after I left she'd be sad that she missed me.

[@llli*amysmom]

I didn't "wake" DD1 when I went to work. I got her from her crib, laid her in our bed and dream nursed her. She got a full nursing in and kept sleeping with DH until he was getting up with her later to take her to DC. I nursed her when I got home, maybe again during the evening and again at night for bedtime. The key was to nurse when we could, to nurse when she wanted, rather than some arbitrary schedule.

[@llli*krystine]

Amysmom, yes I agree, I kept my daughter in bed to nurse and didn't get her up to nurse. It was just a few times that it happened (and I had to pump before I left the house anyway) but yes nurse when you're home together and keep up your pumping at work.