Weaning

[@llli*sciencemum]

I guess I should post this in the weaning forum, but I really wanted to see what other working mommies did during the weaning process, since a lot of the weaning process will happen at day care.
So my baby boy turns 1 in a couple weeks. I can't believe we've almost made it (yay us). It's been so much work, but so worth it.
I have a plan for pump weaning, since legally I can't take my multiple pump breaks after my boy is 1. I do plan on pumping once at work during lunch time to keep up my supply, after he turns 1. I also plan on bfing in the morning and at night. So I'm not giving up completely on bfing.
What I have a question on is how to incorporate cow or goat milk in bottles to give while at daycare. Right now he gets 4 bottles at 4oz/bottle of breast milk at day care. He also eats breakfast, lunch, an afternoon snack and dinner. My boy is well fed. But he's also on the small side. So I error on being overally cautious.
I don't want him to get dehydrated, so I want to find out what I should do with replacing the breast milk with other milk. He hasn't figured out how to use a sippy cup yet, so we'll just use bottles initially, then we'll incorporate the sippy cup when we settle on either cow or goat milk.
Any advice or shared experience would be helpful.
Thank you.
And I do aplogize for posting in this forum...I just really wanted to see what other working mommies did during this transitional period, since I don't have the luxury of being as hands on during this process as I'd like.

[@llli*pizanite]

What kind of daycare setting is he in? My DD goes to a daycare center and she moved up to the next classroom at 12 months. The new feeding schedule was dictated by the new classroom teachers. They used BM in a bottle for a few weeks but then she transitioned to 100% sippy cup. She got milk at breakfast and lunch only and they offered water in a sippy throughout the day. She ate the meals and snacks they provided.

I was really concerned about the transition, including her taking 1 nap instead of 2 and sleeping on a cot instead of the crib. But I think she saw all the other kids doing these things and she followed along pretty easily.

It sounds like your DCP is willing to work with you on the transition. It will all happen faster than you think too!

[@llli*pizanite]

Also to your question about amount of milk... You can probably decrease some of what you send (BM or cow or goat) or send the same and have the DCP offer some at meals but offer solids first and see how it goes. It sounds like you provide the milk/food (not provided by daycare)?

[@llli*bfwmomof3]

If you're still nursing 3-5 times/24 hours, you don't necessarily have to provide cow's milk or goat's milk during the day, but it's certainly an option. My son was in daycare when he turned one. I pump weaned. He was already transitioning into having meals at the same times as the other toddlers (basically breakfast and lunch, mid-morning snack, and mid-afternoon snack), and got cow's milk or water with his meals. It sounds like your son is already on a good solids schedule, so I guess you can think of it as just consolidating the milk together with his meals.

[@llli*sciencemum]

Thanks for the advice. We're strict about what our son eats (we're vegetarians and don't eat processed foods), so we already provide all his food and know that we'll continue to have to do so.
He will move up to the next class eventually but not right away. He's not ready yet. I guess we'll figure out how the next class operates when he gets ready to transition.
Weaning is overwhelming, espicially because he'll do a lot of it away from me (sniff sniff). And of course because I'm his Mommy, I'm convinced he's always starving or thirsty.
We'll send him to daycare with reduced bottles of bm and replace it with cow/goat milk until we figure out something else. Like I said, he's small compared to his peers, so I error on the conservative side. I guess since we've made it almost a year, certainly we haven't screwed up too badly, right?
Thanks again for the input. Sorry it took so long to get back.
And I can't believe we've made it! Yay us. :-)

[@llli*djs.mom]

If you are still going to nurse while together, at the year point you can just work on PUMP weaning and he can have water while away from you. I was home and feeding on demand until the 14month point. Then back to work for 9-10 hours a day 5 days a week. After the year point your supply is established enough to just nurse on demand while together.