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Trust your instinct and send what you pump. Your body knows what it's doing! As long as she's gaining and has good diapers she is good! Do they practice paced feeding?

Ds2 is 3.5 months and feeds typically 5x a day - 5 oz bottles. sometimes 6 oz. I assume when we nurse it's the same amount or more since I typically pump that on office days. Have you tried offering a lil more per session?

How much does she feed overnight?

My son is away from me roughly 8 hours a day and takes 15-18oz. My daughter was pretty similar when she was little and would eat 4ish times.

I started sending 4 oz bottles, then increased to 4.5, then to 5. The reasons we did it were because dd always finished each bottle. It's only now that she's eating 3 or 4 meals of actually food that she'll leave milk.

Also, more important, was that she was dropping on weight percentiles and got down to the first.

Our daycare provider never specifically asked for bigger bottles, but did ask for an extra, fifth bottle each day just in case.

I never pumped much as she drank, but my freezer stash has been enough to get me through. We're at 11 months now and while I only have about 30 ounces frozen I think we'll make it.

I feel like this 4-6 or 4-7 month mark is hard until they really start solids. You are gone longer than most for the day so honestly it sounds like she may need a bit more. I believe I would nurse at 6:30 and again by 5:30 pm at home and my kids took 14-15 ounces around this time.

My kids both ate at about the same rate (so every 3h-ish) but both of them needed 5oz per bottle and sometimes the third bottle had to happen before the 3 hours were up.

But then you shouldn't worry too much since she'll just take whatever she doesn't get at daycare from you in the evening and MOTN. (This of course is not supposed to mean she is to be hungry and crying because of it).

I think all daycares go through this issue.

Both my boys were taking 5 oz bottles at daycare, although I don't believe they ate that much when they nursed. But babies tend to eat more from bottles than they do from the breast because it's easier. Plus when your baby is home with you, you can give her all the attention she needs - it's harder at daycare, so they need us to work with them to help make things easier on our kids. Sometimes that means sending a little more milk. If you're adamant about sticking to 12 oz, I would just send four 3 oz bottles instead and have them feed her more often.

We have this exact issue with our Friday daycare lady.

I send (3) 4-oz bottles for T to have at 9/12/3 and Mon-Thurs, that's all he takes (save twice, he took a snack 2 oz bottle but i chalked it up to a growth spurt). But on Fridays, I get a lot of grief about how hungry my kid is, he's starving, he's so skinny, she's NEVER had a breastfed baby not need formula (red flag!), etc, so i send a 2 ounce snack bottle. I don't want him crabby as hell all afternoon, you know? And i gave her the print out on paced feedings from kelly mom. But every time I pick him up, i hear about how hungry he is. Then he won't nurse for a good 4-5 hours. So i know he isn't really hungry. I consistently get 12-14 ounces a day, so I feel like it's the right amount of milk.

At this point, i let it fall on deaf ears, but it's much easier to do when it's only one day a week. I talked to T about how she manages Mon-Thurs and she says she feeds on demand (BUT she breastfed all 4 of he kids, so she's informed) and will feed a bottle a little early so he takes a longer nap, etc.

That being said, I am only gone from 7-5, so you might need a bit more! I don't know if I'd do larger bottles, but I might continue to send a snack bottle so that your LO can be fed every 2.5 hours, instead of 3. If you are pumping more than you are sending, I'd send that. So you might do feedings at 9, 1130, 2, 430......

i know when T is at T's house and I pick him up, his last bottle is around 3pm and he is HANGRY at 5:15pm-ish, without fail.

You do want your LO to leave a smidge of milk at the bottom, though, so I'd ask about that.

I asked about how much your LO feeds overnight to try to guess at her overall intake.

If she's only breastfeeding 2x a day plus what she gets at daycare, she almost certainly needs more at daycare during the day.

If she's feeding once overnight, you might be sending just enough, but you definitely could need more.

If she's feeding 2 or more times overnight, you're probably already sending enough.

Another thing to compare against is her feeding habits when she's with you all day. Does she want to breastfeed more/less often or at different intervals than what's offered at daycare? Does she tend to cluster feed before longer naps or in the afternoon/evening leading up to bed?

I've learned to ignore all the advice that says to make sure that the baby is hungry for the breast at the end of daycare. After around 4pm he's just constantly hungry right up until he goes to bed! He will happily eat a 3.5oz bottle at 5:30p at daycare, breastfeed at 6:15pm, have solids at 6:40, and then breastfeed again around 7:30 when he goes to bed.

Will she take a paci? Maybe she just wants to suck on something?

How often do you feed her on the weekends? Does this match up with how often she is fed at daycare? I would keep sending the backup bottle and maybe add just a little extra to her bottles. One thing I had to stress with my DCP was that I didn't want her fed after a certain time of day unless she was absolutely inconsolable. Your body is on a schedule and so is she. If they feed her a half hour before you arrive, she's not going to want to nurse. If they know your schedule, they can pace out the bottles and make sure they aren't giving the snack bottle right before you get there.

@LindsayInNY: This one! http://www.kellymom.com/store/freehandouts/bottle_feeding.pdf

I'm pretty sure J just glanced at it and ignored it, but...*shrug*. Also, a few times, she's been all "he's so hungry!" but then i pick him up and he's quiet. So yeah, just bored/wants his mom.

I EP'd and I think my DS was drinking 4-5oz milk bottles every 3-4 hours during the day at 4 months old. So if I were you, I would probably send an extra bag to daycare. We were lucky though and he would sleep 6+ hours at night, so he needed more daytime calories

@mediagirl: Good point! Yes, we had to do that as well, because occasionally they would actually nap and then daycare would feed right before pick up!

I would maybe even try 4 bottles of 3.5 ounces each when/if you have the milk.

Also, I think I would be inclined to just tell them, this is what I'm giving her and her doctor said her gain is normal. Like you said, I doubt any resources at this point will help change anything and you dont want to be "that mom".