Re: Repost: Vent, advise and understanding requested

>This business of him waking at midnight and not settling for a nap after
>first feed of day has only started up since I went back to work, and I think
>it must be because my supply has dropped.

Well, I doubt that.  I suspect it's because he misses you, or because the other
changes in the household routine due to your returning to work have also
disrupted his routine.  Or just because he's getting older; babies' sleep
patterns change all the time.  He may adjust back to his former pattern
eventually, or he may not, but I don't really see how giving him a bottle of
formula is going to change anything for the better.

But what do I know, I've never given a baby a bottle of formula in my life. 
:-)  Anyway, I'm sure your DH would enjoy more sleep, and I suppose it's
possible that using formula in the morning would accomplish that, but it would
also mean that DH is likely to spend more time taking DS to the doctor, you
know!  Not to mention that it's that much more time required for preparing and
washing bottles and that much more money needed for formula.  I suspect there
are better ways of encouraging DS to sleep when DH wants him to.

In fact, you said the bottle of formula you gave him this morning didn't get
him to sleep -- breastfeeding him did!  Why not just make a routine out of
nursing him to sleep again right before you leave for work?  

> I am tired and working
>hard and not eating well enough so I can't expect my body to produce proper
>feeds for him.

But by that definition, formula isn't a "proper feed" for him either!  It's
considerably less so, in fact.  (Your body will sacrifice itself in order to
make milk, if and as necessary -- YOU may not be very healthy, but your milk
still is.)  If you need more rest and better food than you're getting, you need
more rest and better food, not to spend less time nursing!  (Maybe you don't
find nursing restful, but me, I thought it was a fantastic excuse to sit on my
butt and relax for a good long stretch of time every single day!)

>So now I am thinking that I could give him short feeds, for comfort before
>bed, when he wakes and just before I leave for work. But the worry there is
>will my supply completely dry up with so few bfs?!

Lots of women choose not to pump at work, for whatever reason, and are
successful at continuing to nurse the baby morning, evening and night, and
often all day on weekends/nonworking days, for a very long time.  (For that
matter, mothers of nursing 2 and 3 year olds typically nurse only once a twice
a day, and that can go on for *years* with no supply problems.)  There's no
real reason you couldn't do that, but it would be better to cut back on the
pumping more gradually, if you can.  And if you go that route, don't think of
the nursing as for "comfort only"!!   Every little bit of mother's milk you
supply is that much more perfect nutrition you're providing and that much less
artificial mass-produced chemically altered stuff he'll eat.  You'd be much
better off to just breastfeed whenever you're with the baby, and have whoever's
caring for him use formula when you're not. Simple.  Really.

Holly
Mom to Camden, 2.5 yrs
EDD #2 6/8/04