Hellobee Boards

It probably depends on how good your particular supply is--how old is your baby?

My mom supposedly did this with me-she went back to work when I was 8 weeks old and she just nursed me before work, on her lunch break, and after work (she was a teacher, so her hours were probably just 8-3) and claims she had no issues. But I was born in 1980 and I have no clue how early they started stuff like rice cereal back then--probably pretty early.

Not exactly the same thing, but I'm sort of doing that now at 10 months? I don't pump at work, but he still breastfeeds morning and night and gets either frozen milk (I have a large stash) or freshly pumped (I had a morning 6:30 AM pump right after his first feed up until yesterday) 2x during the day at 6 ozs each.

It works for us and I've not had supply problems. I will say that I don't try to feed him on the weekends during the times he would usually take a bottle. I figure there is no milk.

With all that said, my supply was fairly established when I made this change. Have you searched the boards? I remember someone even posting about still breastfeeding on the weekends when not pumping. I think that they had an older baby though too.

Would you be sort of feeding him on an every 3 schedule? It seems like he might have to go a little long for the 4:30 feed as I would assume it would be like 6:30, 9:30, 12:30, 3:30. You could always do a mid-afternoon 2 oz snack bottle? In my mind, it makes sense, here's what I'm imagining:

6:30 AM - nurse
7 AM - pump
9:30 AM - bottle (like 4 or 5 ozs?)
12:30 PM - nurse
3 PM - light snack bottle (2 ozs?)
4:30 PM - nurse
regular night time nursing schedule

The only rub (or at least for me) is that on the weekends you still have to get up for that 7 am pump. That drove me crazy.

After writing this post I'm starting to wonder if it's helpful at all.

@yellowbird: I got this one. I think plugging in a big pump and cleaning the parts is half of the time commitment. Since I shoot weddings I needed something I could duck off and use anywhere quickly. http://www.amazon.com/Philips-Avent-Manual-Comfort-Breast/dp/B009YSYCZS

I didn't do this but sounds like it could definitely work, especially given that you get 6-9oz from your first pumping session.

I want to say that it *could* work, but also might not...5 hours between morning pumping and noon nursing sounds like a long time. it's hard to say and you won't know if you're risking your supply until it starts changing. For what it's worth - I started with oversupply and needed to pump 2x per day which was usually 9:30 and 1:30, but I have seen plenty of other people on here who need to pump more frequently (like 3x at 9, 12, and 3). Also expect that you might get engorged and be uncomfortable/leaking, at least at first, with a 5 hour time interval..

I only pump once during a 7-8 hr shift and twice during a 14-15 hr shift and I get plenty of milk for LO. It's a super big inconvenience to everyone for even those times I pump but I make it work and it's been working! I just pump a ton during those sessions

I think it's doable too on your schedule! And it seems like you have pretty good supply if you can get 6-9 oz AFTER feeding!

Going from 2 hrs to 5 might be risky. I think it depends on how you feel about potentially supplementing if your supply does go down a bit. If you are very opposed to supplementing, I think you should add a session at work just because at home you nurse very frequently. It might work in the beginning but gradually your supply may decrease. It decreased for me very quickly even though i pumped 3 times.
Some of the responses here are from women with older babies who I'm sure don't nurse every 2 hrs.

I agree that you can make it work but you also may have to be open to re-evaluating or shifting things as you see how it plays out in reality.

I went back M-Th 9-3 when LO was 10 months. I had low supply so we were already supplementing. I sent two bottles of formula and nursed her before drop-off and right when I picked her up, in the parking lot. My supply was not affected (though it was already low) and I was still able to satisfy her nursing at naptime on Fridays/weekends.