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Interesting question - I would like to find this out too. I will need to go back to work soon too and I was also wondering if I could alternate the bottle and breast, maybe breast morning and night but bottle in the day...?

In the pregnancy forum i posted a topic about bottle and breast and on page 2 or 3 a few girls say that they used formula. Check it out, it might be helpful

You can do that for sure! The only prob is that your milk supply will drop off (and in the mean time you will get painfully swollen boobies). Expressing off when you have full boobs will mean that you have some to bottle feed her anyway.

I hated expressing and when I started giving Han a bottle once a week while she was at creche it was so much less stress free!!! (Although she never quite drank enough.. but ah well..)

with expressing sometimes it takes a while to get into the habit as well, it takes alot for you to learn to relax etc and to trigger the letdown - all of which baby does in a few mins. you could try the bottle for one feed, so that you have a nice full supply - then express, cos then you can get into the habit while you are sure to have a lot of success - do you do the massages to stimulate let down etc before hand? also, try havinga shower or warm bath first - that usually stimulates milk flow too. it can take time.
anyway, you can do both and it has been done.. i wish i had done that this time around sometimes.. this exclusive stuff is kinda getting to me sometimes. It's a worry when it sounds like your 10 month old daughter can say "boob"

Lol... Kiya and her cousin Michal (girl, 3yo) were playing with dolls together. Gran said "Time to go" and both girls wandered down the hall to put the toys away. On the way, Kiya said "Lets feed our babies one more time" so both girls lifted up their shirts in unison!

Dont want to go back to work but we cznt afford for me to stay home. am gonna try for some family assistance but think husbands income is to high for the working for fsmilies package

We dont qualify for the working for family package because our combined income is toooo high however if only one person is working you might qualify. (I think the last amount in the table is 60K+ ??)

I wish I could sit at home and look after my baby girl but we just cant afford to. Oh well.

I'm doing breast at night and formula during the day. I';ve found however my milk supply has dropped dramatically (but unpainfully!), and now at night it's not enough to fill taine up. So am pretty much stopping completely. My plunket lady said if I wanted my milk supply up, to breastfeed constantly for a weekend, but with a 18 months old (and lets face it, a life) I don';t have the time. My bub is healthy and happy and full on formula. that said, I must admit to some feelings of guilt for not sticking with breastfeeding longer - even though I know it was best for us as a family.

Carmel and Roksona I am in the same position, we have financial commitments, loans etc and I wil just have to go back to work earlier than I would have liked. But thats the way life is, I certainly wouldnt not have my baby just because I wont get to spend as much time at home with it as I would have liked...it's just one of those things I guess...

and there are a few things someone once told me that i have always liked to pass on, they are:

1) No matter what, how far away you are, and how long you're gone, when you return you will always get that smile and cuddle, and they will be glad to see you because guess what, you're their mummy and they love you.

2) If you focus on all the things you'll miss, you'll never appreciate the things you DO get to share and experience with them. You might not be there the first time they do something, but when they do it FOR YOU for the first time, it won't be any less special and you'll clelbrate them doing whatever it is every time you see it from then on out - with any luck by the time YOU get to see them do it, they've refined the skill a little so you get to see the real thing, not just the attempts!

and 3) They don't know any different, they don't get confused with who their mum is, and babies are so incredibly flexible and open to change that the world would be a better place if our bosses were the same