Planning for return to work --- pumping questions

Hi folks,

My maternity leave is almost up. I'll be back at work
starting January, while DH takes two month's "child bonding"
leave. I should be able to work from home two days a week,
while DH takes care of DS2 here, meaning that DS2 will only
need EBM three days/week.

I'm starting to build up a freezer stash, for back up but
also for that first day. My first question is, how much
is a large 3.5 month old likely to eat in 8 hours? (He
weighed 16.5 lbs at 2.5 months, the last time he was weighed.)
I'm able to pump 2-3oz/day without too much trouble, and
have 9oz in the freezer so far. If I pump 2oz every
day we're in town between now and 1/3 when I go back to work,
I'll have 24oz more, or 33oz total.

My next question is what to do with the EBM on a MWF schedule.
I think with DS1 I put Monday's milk in the fridge for Wednesday,
Wednesday's in the fridge for Friday, and Friday's in the freezer
for Monday. Does that sound about right?

My third question is, why, when I'm writing the date on each
bottle in the freezer so DH can use the oldest ones first, do
I feel compelled to write the year as well? There's no reason
to believe I'll still be pumping in 12/2006...

--
Emily
DS1 5/02
DS2 9/05

Emily wrote:

I'm starting to build up a freezer stash, for back up but
also for that first day. My first question is, how much
is a large 3.5 month old likely to eat in 8 hours?

Figure 2-3 oz. per lb. of body weight in 24 hours.
A 20-lb. baby will probably need 40-60 oz. in
24 hours, which is 15-20 oz. in 8 hours.

My next question is what to do with the EBM on a MWF schedule.
I think with DS1 I put Monday's milk in the fridge for Wednesday,
Wednesday's in the fridge for Friday, and Friday's in the freezer
for Monday. Does that sound about right?

I would freeze Friday's milk and use the oldest
in the freezer stash for Monday. I like to keep
my stash to within 2 months.

My third question is, why, when I'm writing the date on each
bottle in the freezer so DH can use the oldest ones first, do
I feel compelled to write the year as well? There's no reason
to believe I'll still be pumping in 12/2006...

Even if you're still pumping in 12/2006, unless
you have a deep freezer, you should have used
the 12/2005 milk by then! I put the date
and the time of day.

-- Anita --

Irrational Number wrote:

Emily wrote:
I'm starting to build up a freezer stash, for back up but
also for that first day. My first question is, how much
is a large 3.5 month old likely to eat in 8 hours?

Figure 2-3 oz. per lb. of body weight in 24 hours.
A 20-lb. baby will probably need 40-60 oz. in
24 hours, which is 15-20 oz. in 8 hours.

Wow - 40-60 ounces per 24 hours would be way,way above the normal range
for a breastfed baby! 24-30 oz is a much more common amount. Contrary to
popular "per pound" formula feeding charts, Prof Hartmann has found that
a normal baby doesn't progressively increase his/her 24-hour breastmilk
intake at all between 1 month and six months of age. This is summarised
he
http://www.kellymom.com/bf/pumping/milkcalc.html

My experience of EPing bears this out.

Lara

Emily wrote:
I'm starting to build up a freezer stash, for back up but
also for that first day. My first question is, how much
is a large 3.5 month old likely to eat in 8 hours? (He

When I went back to work, I left 3, 4 ounce bottle for DD
(12 weeks). That worked fine. Even at her most, she never
took more than a 5 ounce bottle, so she never took more
than 15 ounces. So, for that first day, I'd want to leave
12 ounces, and since its your DH at home, he could thaw
an extra little bit if needed, but probably wont be.

I would probably store Monday in the Fridge for Wed. Wed
for Friday and put Friday in the freezer, thawing the oldest
for the following monday. This way you should run through
your freezer stash, keeping it current and you definately
wont have to worry about writing the year.

Mary W.

When I went back to work, I left 3, 4 ounce bottle for DD
(12 weeks). That worked fine. Even at her most, she never
took more than a 5 ounce bottle, so she never took more
than 15 ounces. So, for that first day, I'd want to leave
12 ounces, and since its your DH at home, he could thaw
an extra little bit if needed, but probably wont be.

that's what I was thinking, though it may only be 2 feeds if you time it
right, I fairly consistently found that DS took about an ounce more than I
would pump in the equivalent session, I put this down to babies emptying the
breast better, this meant I persistently had to pump after the first morning
feed to make enough. The other thing to watch out for, is that sometimes
around 5 months they can get a bit hungrier, this doesn't seem uncommon and
is often confused with a desire to start solids, all of a sudden DS was
taking 2 6oz bottles in 4hrs, up from 1 4oz bottle, with him we had no
choice but to make up the difference with formula as we were already
stuggling with weight gain, but had I been working this time I would not
have had a problem having the milk in the freezer in advance, but only as I
knew there was a high chance it was likely to be needed, I'd have probably
been resting on my laurels at 4 months, thinking everything was going well,
then got a shock!

I would probably store Monday in the Fridge for Wed. Wed
for Friday and put Friday in the freezer, thawing the oldest
for the following monday. This way you should run through
your freezer stash, keeping it current and you definately
wont have to worry about writing the year.

I tend to write the year on, I'm fairly scatty, if I write day month and
year, there is a chance I'll be able to work out when it was actually put in
the freezer, a while back I was thawing some out that said 06/06/05 on it,
which was impossible, DD wasn't born til 10th June!

Anne

Lara wrote:
Irrational Number wrote:


Emily wrote:

I'm starting to build up a freezer stash, for back up but
also for that first day. My first question is, how much
is a large 3.5 month old likely to eat in 8 hours?

Figure 2-3 oz. per lb. of body weight in 24 hours.
A 20-lb. baby will probably need 40-60 oz. in
24 hours, which is 15-20 oz. in 8 hours.


Wow - 40-60 ounces per 24 hours would be way,way above the normal range
for a breastfed baby! 24-30 oz is a much more common amount. Contrary to
popular "per pound" formula feeding charts, Prof Hartmann has found that
a normal baby doesn't progressively increase his/her 24-hour breastmilk
intake at all between 1 month and six months of age. This is summarised
he
http://www.kellymom.com/bf/pumping/milkcalc.html

My experience of EPing bears this out.

Interesting page, but I wonder how this jibes with
the idea that the extra nursing around growth spurts
is part of the supply and demand system telling
the breasts to make more milk. Is that only true up
to 4 weeks?

At any rate, for my current concerns, it's enough to know
that if I have 33oz before my first day of work,
I should be in good shape. With DS1, I never had any
trouble keeping up with him while pumping. OTOH,
he hated bottles...

Emily

Mary W. wrote:


Emily wrote:

I'm starting to build up a freezer stash, for back up but
also for that first day. My first question is, how much
is a large 3.5 month old likely to eat in 8 hours? (He


When I went back to work, I left 3, 4 ounce bottle for DD
(12 weeks). That worked fine. Even at her most, she never
took more than a 5 ounce bottle, so she never took more
than 15 ounces. So, for that first day, I'd want to leave
12 ounces, and since its your DH at home, he could thaw
an extra little bit if needed, but probably wont be.

I would probably store Monday in the Fridge for Wed. Wed
for Friday and put Friday in the freezer, thawing the oldest
for the following monday. This way you should run through
your freezer stash, keeping it current and you definately
wont have to worry about writing the year.

Right --- rotating the freezer stock makes a lot of sense.

Emily

Anne Rogers wrote:
I tend to write the year on, I'm fairly scatty, if I write day month and
year, there is a chance I'll be able to work out when it was actually put in
the freezer, a while back I was thawing some out that said 06/06/05 on it,
which was impossible, DD wasn't born til 10th June!

So when was it from? Oh, July 6th 2005?

Emily

Emily wrote:

Interesting page, but I wonder how this jibes with
the idea that the extra nursing around growth spurts
is part of the supply and demand system telling
the breasts to make more milk.

Lots of people note "appetite spurts" or "frequency days" (we certainly
did) ... but the evidence for permanently increased intake after those
periods are over is lacking.

Lara

Lara wrote:

Irrational Number wrote:

Figure 2-3 oz. per lb. of body weight in 24 hours.
A 20-lb. baby will probably need 40-60 oz. in
24 hours, which is 15-20 oz. in 8 hours.


Wow - 40-60 ounces per 24 hours would be way,way above the normal range
for a breastfed baby! 24-30 oz is a much more common amount. Contrary to
popular "per pound" formula feeding charts, Prof Hartmann has found that
a normal baby doesn't progressively increase his/her 24-hour breastmilk
intake at all between 1 month and six months of age. This is summarised
he
http://www.kellymom.com/bf/pumping/milkcalc.html

My experience of EPing bears this out.

That's good to know. I guess it's just the first
couple of days' worth of EBM that's necessary to
be guessed at. 15-20 oz. should cover what most
babies need per 8 hours.

I know Pillbug went from about 15 oz. to about
22 oz. in the same 10-hour period over a year.
Rocky's intake is also increasing as he approaches
7 months old.

-- Anita --