Bryce's basket in the fridge at daycare, where I place his bottles in the morning 

According to Getting off to the Right Start: Breastfeeding Basics in Washington FAMILY Magazine, if you've made it through the first 4-6 weeks of breastfeeding you’ve made it!  After that, there really isn't any reason you can't successfully breastfeed for a full year, write Michele Elkins, RN, IBCLC.  

That was quite reassuring to read!  BUT if you know me even a little, you know I'm not myself if I'm not worried about something.  With my return to work just under a week away my latest obsesh has become how my milk supply will be affected by the transition from nursing to pumping.  Right now I nurse Bryce on demand. He eats around every two hours, but when he frets or cries I put him to the breast first.  So I pretty much produce an abundance of milk throughout the day – there's always something there when he needs/wants it.  But now I'm about to go from nursing all day long… to pumping maybe 2 or 3 times a day.  That is a really drastic shift.  And knowing that milk supply is based on supply and demand, I've been worried that my daytime supply would dip to the point that I can't nurse him sufficiently on weekends.  I wondered if Derek would have to supplement with a bottle come weekends.

So I reached out to two of my favorite breastfeeding, attachment-parenting, baby-wearing mamas  - Elita of Blacktating Blog and Dagmar of Dagmar's MomSense.  These women are awesome not only because they're so knowledgeable but because they're always so assessable and willing to share that wealth of knowledge.  I contacted both ladies simultaneously and, even with their own busy schedules and lives, they responded immediately.  Both assured me that, as long as I continue to nurse in the mornings before daycare, pump at work (even if only a couple times), and nurse in the evenings/night, that my supply shouldn't be significantly affected.  They stated that if Bryce needs more on the weekends, my body should be able to produce that.  And on the issue of Bryce starting to take to the bottle a little more than the breast, as some breastfed babies at daycare tend to, Elita noted: Even if he ends up being primarily on bottles, you can still nurse him and provide the benefit of the closeness and the antibodies. So let's say Derek gives him a bottle, end the feed with some nursing, so he is still associating the feeling of being warm, full and happy with being at your breast."  I love that!

Elita and Dagmar also provided me with other great tips and resources, such as drinking Mother's Milk tea to keep my supply up, and visiting Work & Pump, a website that helps you find strategies to maximize your milk supply, as well as advising you on the best way to use your freezer stash without telling your body to make less milk.

Thank you ladies, for your understanding, patience and, most of all, for helping me fight the good fight to keep on breastfeeding.  I appreciate you!