Older babysitter, questioning my nursing

[@llli*jaa-08]

My baby boy will be 3 Mo on 7/4/13...I am breastfeeding. I was on maternity leave for 8 weeks and had an oversupply. Since going back to work my supply has gone down and I am pumping for the next day, not getting a stock pile. I am drinking mother's milk tea and taking fenugreek pills, which helps me get what I need for the next day. He stays with an older lady (mid-to-late 60s) who has an in home daycare with only a couple kids. She has never had a breastfed baby in her many years of being a daycare. I give her three bottles a day with 3-5 oz in each usually 1-4.5oz, 1-4.5, 1-3-3.5oz She told me today that he might need to start eating more, which makes me feel like I'm not doing a good enough job. So today I sent a bottle of pre-made formula (not what I mixed, what the hospital gives out. I told her that this should be a last resort and stressed that ONLY if he really acts like he is still hungry and there is no more breast milk left. I don't think she realizes that sometimes he just has a need to suck and to give him his paci. Please help, am I not producing enough for him? I read on one post to push the let down button again after production slows during pumping and see if I can get another let down to get more. I need some advice on how to produce more. I also have a mother-in-law that doesn't support breast feeding and thinks he should already have been on rice but I'm wanting to wait until 6 MO to introduce anything other than breast milk. We get along great, that has been our only disagreement in 7 years, I just need help on how to communicate with the sitter, documentation of how much he should be eating so I can maybe show her? OR I need to know if I am not producing enough for him. HELP!
P.S. I am new to this so I don't know the short terms for everything, sorry it's so long!

[@llli*mommy2lilah]

Hi there! You only need to send 1 to 1.5 ounces per hour max while you are away from your baby. Can you nurse your baby right when you pick him up? You are sending 12 or so ounces? I always sent 12 ounces for each of my girls - and I was away from them for 10.5 hours. I did give my babysitter a few frozen bags of milk in the freezer for emergencies or growth spurts, etc. Have you tried pumping once a day on the weekends? How many times a day are you pumping at work?

[@llli*sonogirl]

Also, your baby's intake needs are not going to go up as he gets older. This is something the sitter is likely used to from her experience with formula-fed babies, but breastfed babies will continue to only require 1-1.5 oz of breastmilk per hour of separation.

[@llli*jaa-08]

Thanks for the quick reply!
I am sending between 11 and 13 oz a day, she just looks at the bottles when I give them to her, like "he is going to starve" I really hope she doesn't feel the need to use the formula I sent this way she can see that he IS getting enough, but she doesn't have any extra for like growth spurts, I haven't been able to get anything extra frozen.

I always mean to pump extra on the weekends, but it's so hard since he is actually there to nurse and my breasts don't feel full between feedings so I am afraid to pump and not get hardly anything out and get discouraged. Do you suggest pumping between feedings no matter how much output I get?

I usually feed him about 6:30 or 7 in the morning, take him to the sitter about 730 and pump about 10:30 or 11 and then again at 3 or 4. then he usually eats as soon as we get home. Then from then is just nursing, no pumping, unless he goes to bed early then I will try to pump before I go to bed.

[@llli*jaa-08]

Oh that is good to know! She has NEVER kept a breastfed baby, so that is probably what she is thinking that he needs more since he is older now.

[@llli*mommy2lilah]

You could pump once in the morning on the weekends, maybe at the same time as your first pumping at work - and just accept that you will likely not get much out. It's only to build up enough to have a few frozen bags for breathing room. Is there any way for you to fit an extra pumping in the morning at work? You are getting enough mama, it's just better to try not to let more than three hours go by between nursing and pumping or pump to pump, if you understand what I'm saying. So is it about 9.5 hours between when you nurse him in the morning and then when you nurse him again when you get home?

[@llli*still.here]

Here is some outside confirmation. Maybe you can print some of this out for her. Or just tell her your pediatrician said so, that often works with the older generation (try it on your mother in law).

http://kellymom.com/bf/pumpingmoms/pumping/milkcalc/

http://kellymom.com/bf/pumpingmoms/f...ottle-feeding/

[@llli*lllmeg]

How many times does baby nurse each day when home with you?

How many hours is baby with caregiver?

Is baby eager to nurse when you pick baby up?

I suggest you share this information with your baby sitter. http://www.llli.org/docs/00000000000...astfedbaby.pdf

How much a baby will drink from a bottle is well known to mean little in terms of how much a baby needs nutritionally or hunger. IT MIGHT be that baby needs more if baby is not nursing much when with you. Which is problem in and of itself. But as you suspect, often a baby will suckle on whatever is handy because baby is compelled to suckle. If it is a bottle with milk in it, baby will drink the milk. That is why the bottle feeding method described in the file I linked is so important. For all babies, actually, not just breast-milk fed ones. But I would not try to convince your caregiver of THAT. Just tell her breastmilk is different and this is how you would like baby to be fed.

[@llli*jaa-08]

Only pumping twice a day is not good to do, right? Should I get in an extra pump session in the morning AND the afternoon, that would be 4 pump sessions, or just one extra in the morning OR one extra in the afternoon. It's about 10 hours or maybe a little more between nursing sessions, depending on when he had his last bottle. He never takes a bottle when I am home with him, he nurses every 2.3-3.5 hours or so.

[@llli*krystine]

I was told by my IBCLC to never go more than 3 hrs without removing milk or you will be communicating to your body to make less milk. So if you nurse your child at 7, pump at 10, 1, 4, or around there. I always pumped mid-morning at work and over lunch and I got off early enough that I didn't have to pump in the afternoon (I worked it that way because of productivity requirements at my work. It would have messed me up to take yet another break). When I go back this time though I'll be doing 8 hr shifts and will pump 3x at work nurse right before leaving and as soon as I get home.

ETA: if you're feeding him at 630 or 700 then pump 930/1000, 1230/100 and again 330/400. really being gone 8+ hrs you need to pump 3x.