Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Will There Be Enough Food?

Warning: This post may be TMI for some of you.  I'm hoping someone worried about feeding their baby at daycare may find this helpful.  I wish I had seen something like this when I was trying to figure out how much milk to send with Carter to daycare!

Before Carter was even born I worried about supplying him with enough milk when I returned to work.  When he was a few days old I began pumping once a day, every day.  I bagged the milk and saved it in the freezer for when I returned to work.  

 

Carter's Milk Stash

My first day of work rolled around and I had no idea how much milk to send with Carter.  I was so worried he wouldn’t have enough food and would go hungry.  I hadn’t given him a bottle in 2 weeks and had no idea how much he ate at feedings.  I searched online for information about how much a 3 month old eats during feedings.  

Every source was different.  I decided to go off one that said to find out how many ounces your baby should eat per feeding, take your baby’s weight and divide it by 2. Okay, so Carter weighed 13 pounds, meaning he should be eating 6-7 ounces per feeding.  

Now I was really worried!  I looked at the records I’d been keeping of when he eats.  He should eat 3-5 times while at daycare.  That meant he could eat up to 35 ounces at daycare!  I looked at the milk stash and felt stressed out.  Was this going to be enough?  Could I feed my baby?!!?

The first day of daycare I went bonkers, just totally overboard.  I packed him a whopping 50 ounces of milk (you know 15 extra ounces just in case).  In retrospect I wonder what in the world I was thinking!  I’m sure the teacher and director were thinking I was completely nutty.  When I picked Carter up, I checked the record sheet for the day.  He had eaten 8 ounces.  Hmm, guess 50 ounces was a bit much!  Now I know he normally eats 2.5 ounces per feeding and I pump more in a day than he eats at daycare. 

 In the morning before Carter wakes up I pump 10-13 ounces.  I am able to make all of his bottles for the day and have some leftover to freeze.  I pump again at my plan time for a total of 16-19 ounces pumped per day.  Carter normally eats about 7.5-8 ounces of milk a day at daycare.  So I’m pumping an excess of 8-11 ounces per day.  Now I giggle at all the anxiety I felt about him not having enough food at daycare!  Know anybody needing some liquid gold?  I’ve got it in excess!

Carter's Paci Stache