mothers who went back to work and pumped - how long did you last??

[vis]

started now the whole pavlova pumping- medela swing.....really want to give babe breast milk in bottle- nursery 3 dys a week, do not want to feed him +++ in evening or night............but cant see me doing this every day....how long did you last??

[cmotdibbler]

Went back to work ft when DS was 4.5 months old, stopped expressing in the day when he was 13 months old.
I found I really missed the breaks when I stopped. Took a while to get into a routine of doing it, but then time whizzed by, and I realised I'd been doing it for 10.5 months.

[jamila169]

I did 11 months - expressing in empty bedrooms in the nursing home where I was working (perks of being the manager!)I only stopped when DS1 self weaned

[vis]

much respect to the two of you

[chipmonkey]

I pumped once a day till ds1 was 12 months old
twice a day till ds2 was 12 months old, I had been back at work since they were 4 months old.
I pumped twice a day till ds3 was 12 months old, then a further once a day till he was 14 months old ( he was prem so I wanted him to be cows milk-free till he should have been a year old as opposed to when he actually was a year old) He was 6 months old when I went back to work.

[kiskidee]

till dd was 18 months old.

because she weaned late - at 13 months and wasn't having appreciable quantities of food for at least another 3 months.

have now found out that she is egg and cow's milk protein allergic so I now think it was connected to the late weaning and food refusal of so many things.

[kiskidee]

i went back to work at 5 months and pumped at least twice a day till she started dropping feeds.

[Lyra75]

this is great to hear. i start back at work in a few weeks too and am getting anxious about whether the expressing will work out - good to hear positive stories. i think part of the problem is after 6 months i've found people to be less supportive about bf so when i say i'm worried about this or that their response is usually "but you don't have to feed past 6 months do you"

[kiskidee]

it is none of their business so tell them nicely that this is what you will be doing but also with the tone that it is not up for discussion. at least that is what I did.

I found it easier to pump at work because you are pumping skipped feeds. as long as you are feeding on demand at home, your supply will remain and your boobs will be aching for relief after 3 hrs.

[vis]

kiskidee....now this is the problem " as long as you feed on demand at home"..you see we have just got him to accept a bottle and over the last week if i give him the boob- the next feed if from a bottle is a battle...so in order for him to be fed at the nursery i am doing all bottle feeds during the day -everyday........absolute pain pumping so much....did you have the boob vs bottle battle??

[iMum]

Just out of interest how much were you getting at each pumping? Im still feeding my ds2 who is 16m but if i try to pump i get very little.

[chipmonkey]

iMum, while feeding the baby I would get very little with the pump. But when away from baby I used to pump anything from 5- 8oz a session. On a very good day I would get 10oz.

[chipmonkey]

BTW ds3 was on solids at that point, so may have actually gotten more if we were exclusively bf.

[kiskidee]

dd was a bottle refuser and only accepted it after she got to nursery and had to. she went from breast to bottle, no problem after the initial trauma. I would suggest having someone else offer a bottle at least once a day and make sure that you are not around at all to be even tempted to intervene?

[maygirl]

Pumped once a day, 3 days per week for 9 months, stopping when DS was 16mths. He only had a bottle at nursery, never from me, and he'd only use the mothercare breastflow, but was fine with this. Stuck to newborn teat so he wouldn't start to prefer the bottle to me! Swopped to sippy cup at 13mths.
Maybe you could try a cup now and see if this helps with switching back to breastfeeds. Though I must admit I put off letting him have a cup for EBM until 13mths as terrified he'd spill it after all that pumping!

[maygirl]

We had bottle battles until used the breastflow one BTW, was a relief to discover it!

[chipmonkey]

Ds3 was a bottle refuser too and even when we got him to take a bottle he was reluctant. After he was 12 months he moved to cups but would only drink from them if they were open, wouldn't countenance anything with a spout. Till one day when he was 2 and he picked up another child's bottle and downed the lot!

[ScienceTeacher]

I did about 6 months of pumping at work

[HaventSleptForAYear]

With DS1 didn't realise I could pump at work and tried to pump in addition to bf at home and gave up after a week ! (but bf him for a year in total).
With DS2 I got organised, rented an Ameda electric double pump, and went to the nurses' office. Never did it more than once a day though because I didn't have time on the full days, and on other days I just fed DS before leaving and immediately when I picked him up.
I wanted to excl. bf him to 6 mths so pumped for 3 mths at work, then it was the summer holidays, so he had about 8mths excl.
Once I was back to work in September I decided not to bother with the pumping, after all he was eating other food anyway and having cow's milk in food so I didn't see the point.
Plus; I did find it a pain and an extra stress tbh - but I teach and so have specific times I HAVE to be available and that was stressful. I think in an office job it would be a nice break !