How do you do it all?

With difficulty 😭 but I don't have a choice as he wouldn't latch and has a cows milk allergy so can't have normal formula. And he won't drink the amino acid formula (don't blame him, it's rank). Feels so overwhelming at times but if I don't do it he doesn't get milk. No advice just solidarity, and when it eventually gets easier I am sure we will feel proud of what we've done x

Lots and lots of snacks! Peanut butter and jam on toast, cereal, fruit, bowls of cheesey baked beans, things that can literally be thrown together in under 2 mins and I can eat with one hand. Basically I survive off of a variety of breakfast foods until my boyfriend gets home from work to hold her while I cook sommet proper for tea

@Rachel I can't remember which one of the cows milk free ones smells like really strong cheese. But my niece had that one and she refused all bottles. There's a super hypoallergenic one, I'm not sure of the name but it's for babies with lots of allergies if that helps and it doesn't smell of cheese. At the moment I'm pumping while she eats and then 30 minutes to an hour feeding her. Some days she's tired at an hour and a half other days she goes up to 4 hours. No two days are the same right now

I definitely made a schedule for my son he ate 3 times a day 3 bottles and snacks. When he woke up I'd give him an hour to play independently while I ate cleaned and did whatever. Then I'd give breakfast, Then a bottle then his first nap then lunch time at 12 or 1 then his next bottle would be at 3 before his second nap then dinner at 6-7 then out by 9 with his last bottle and snacks after every meal

@Heather my schedule so far is baby wakes at 6:30, fed by 6:40. I'f I am actually on the planet by that point 7:30 breakfast for her. Miss apple on the TV so I can get breakfast and I tend to pump at that point. She usually naps for an hour and a half by 9am, then i feed her a bottle normally 20 minutes after she wakes so around 11 and I try to pump at the same time. If she has a second meal then I tend to do that round 12ish/1. She then usually naps for 2 hours around 3. Bottle at 6 (we have dinner at 7) and again at 10pm. I then feed her at 4am as well. She goes to sleep anywhere between. 7pm to 10pm depending on if she has 2 or 3 naps

@Helen feels similar here, baby is 6 months and some days naps are ok, others are awful. Wake windows all over the shop. He has a good appetite and loves solids so I'm hoping it eases off with the milk soon a little. We've tried 3 different formulas so far (I think) and just not getting anywhere with them so I've given in as he just cries and spits it out and it gets stressful 😅 There's days where it feels manageable and then days where I'm at my wits end. Do you meal prep your own meals? Our slow cooker broke but before that I was buying pre-chopped meat, pre prepped veg etc from Tesco and literally just chucking it in with a flavour sachet in the morning and leaving it all day to cook. If it cooked and I wasn't ready to eat I just turned it down to low/warm and kept it until I was eating. I doubled up portions too for some to reheat the next day. Super lazy but such a big time saver and really convenient x

For me it became too overwhelming 😔. Couldn’t find time to cook, to pump and my little girl is a Velcro baby so can’t find time to do e anything . She started liking food more and milk less so I made a choice focusing on the food and using the time to cook. I stopped pumping at 9 months and a half almost 10. It came gradually so now we are on formula. I had wished to continue till 12 months but couldn’t 😔. Still cannot find time to eat properly 😄, baby eats way healthier than me. There are days I eat only 1 egg all day so I understand you.

@Helen pumping was hard and I ended up quitting at 9 months because it was just so hard with no support and a messed up diet and I had such a low supply it took only 3 days to stop completely

@Rachel I wanted to breast feed but that didn't start well, so ive been stuborn and continued to pump. She will take formula, but we havent used any since she was 10 weeks old. She usually latched first thing in the morning and I might get 1 later on but I always offer a top up after to see if she needs it because she doesn't always drink a lot directly from me. I'm bad at meal prepping, I don't tend to fancy any food at all. A lot of the time we have easy food like quishe, chips and peas. Something I can just shove in the oven and then go back to sitting in the playpen with my baby.

@Imelda I try to make sure I pump when she eats, but she's just changes from 3 to 2 naps most days now, so that's thrown me. She still sometimes sleeps after an hour and a half awake when she's growing. I know her grow days because I know she can go 4 hours. Mine loves food, she eats even when she doesn't like it. She's still of 5 to 6 bottles currently. She will probably drop to constantly to 5 soon.

@Helen I'm bad at prepping too now our slow cooker is broken. I only really eat well because I need to make sure our toddler eats so that forces me to cook. Totally understand you, as on her nursery days I live off toast and cereal until the evening when we eat as a family and there's an extra pair of hands around 🫠

I got my pumps down to 3 a day with 2 being power pumps one is before baby wakes and the other is after baby has gone to sleep so I only have to take 20 minutes out of my day to pump which is normally during a nap but also breakfast is always easy porridge or weetabix quick no prep needed. Lunch is always snacky veg sticks something bready maybe some cheese. Dinner is 9/10 what we’re eating so I was cooking anyway! Xx

@Heather I'm honestly surprised I make anything with how little I eat some days. I have eaten half a block of cheese like a savage because I was starving recently. My original goal was 6 months and I'm nearly 8 months in now. If I can get to a year I will be happy with myself. Anything beyond a year and I will be really impressed with myself. I think it will actually be easier to pump when I'm back at work because my daughter is at a needy stage. She hates being left. As long as I'm sat on the floor with her she is happy, otherwise she crawls after me crying. So I usually pump while she eats and then do nursery rhymes while I finish my pump and go into the kitchen with her in the sling or in her seat to wash up while but dancing and spinning around so she doesn't cry. The days I have my mum to help is sooo nice. I can just go here have a bottle and I go and stand outside for a breather for 5 minutes

@Georgia my baby only contact naps, if I put her down she wakes (my husband has to put her down at night or she will wake). If we ate healthier for dinner I'd make her a lumpy puree of our food. She doesn't like whole foods at the moment. She just picks it up tries to eat it screws her face up, shakes her head and drops it. If I offer it back she tried to get away. But if I make it a lumpy puree she will eat every last mouthful happily with her spoon. It's an added step I don't always have time for so we have some pouches I use for ease. I do make her porridge most mornings or I have some biscuits things I crush with milk (as per instruction for under 8 months). I currently pump 5 to 6 times a day with 1 being at 3am.

@Heather I do the same!

Try and give baby some foods they can feed themselves and pump as they eat

@Madison that was my schedule before my son went to daycare

@Tasha mine doesn't really feed herself and I still pump 5 to 6 times a week she doesn't eat that amount of food, not even I do.