The expressing clique

[popsycal]

I'm Popsy and I am a pumper

DS2 is 6 months and i am bac at work 4 days a week mon-thurs. I express and lunchtime and get around 5oz.......
He needs 2 7oz feeds during the day but i am hoping to reduce his lunchtime feeds as his solids increase.
BEen back at work properly only one week but am having to express during every feed and every time on my day off to get enough.
my boobs hurt

Who else is in my gang

Popsycal, I always used the Isis hand-pump for ds1 and ds2 and even for ds3 when he was in scbu because I found it better than the hospital Medela pump, better let-down. I could never understand people saying that it was hard work. But NOW after using the electric one I can't believe how hard it is to use the hand one. I must have had hands of steel before. ( Or maybe I'm just getting on in years!)
Tipex, no way can he hear it in the shower! Your dh has an overactive imagination.
BTW, my fears came true in a small way yesterday. It was lashing rain when dropping ds3 off to nursery and one of the staff rushed out to help me and to carry ds3's bag in. Only when I was almost at work did I notice that I had ds3's changing bag with nappies, change of clothes and she had taken the breastpump bag! Luckily I was only working a half day or would have been in trouble! From now on I will keep a hand-pump stashed away in work, just in case!

Hi Bubblesmum

I am so impressed that you get 10oz in one session. What type of pump do you use? I've just gone back to work and started expressing at work using the Medela Mini Electric and I'm getting nowhere near that amount in one session. Please tell me how you do it.

Thanks.
savanna

AAAAARGH! very annoyed with myself, I found the milk I pumped yesterday still sitting in the storage bag this morning (should have gone in fridge or been frozen for use on Tuesday)!

So I now have to pump as much as poss over sat,sun, mon (as well as bfing ds2) to make up for the wasted milk.

However seeing as the milk actually smells fine I am feeding to ds1 (2.3) in a cup - might help his cold and he quite likes having special mummy milk anyway!

I've written a new evening routine list to try and keep myself right as I'm always falling asleep in armchair and forgetting to do stuff!

GP was really keen to get me a pump on the NHS but bloody nhs will only give a handpump. I got one of those already. Hard work. DH said you know, we can buy a leccy one you know.

CM will take my handpump to work just in case.

Btw - I'm in awe of the 10oz in one session too Bubblesmum!
Alux - Sounds like you would be best to buy an electric double pump if you are keeping up the pumping for the longer term, especially if your dh is saying go ahead and spend!

Oh that makes me feel so good I didn't realize 10oz was such a good amount. I have a Medela 'pump in style advanced' pump. Its a double electric one. I am living in US now - not sure if the same models are avail in UK. It was a bit expensive (about $230) but def worth it. With my first child I had a cheapie electric pump which hurt and wasn't good at pumping even - so I stopped bfeeding around 2 months. This time I was determined to give it a go and decide to invest in the better pump and this was my incentive to see if through. THe other thing I find helps a lot is to drink LOTS of water. I really notice if I don't have water, my output really decreases.

It's my second week back at work and I am not sure what to tell coworkers who ask about my furtive (I hope not!) comings and goings or what I am carrying in my cool bag. I don't want to lie and yet I don't want to tell all and sundry that I am expressing breastmilk unless they "need" to know, IYSWIM. I've only told a couple of people so far (my managers and a third colleague who thought I was leaving for the day when I was only going to get some "liquid gold" for my lo. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

savanna

Hi Savanna
I don't think you need to tell people unless you want to. I've told people when I feel comfortable ... eg told other colleagues who are Mums, and mentioned it to a couple of male colleagues. I've had to mention to a few people to explain why I pop out of meetings for 15 mins.

I've found that word has gone around without me even saying so. Eg, the other day as I went to fridge and got out my little cool bag, I heard one of my team say "Enjoy Your Lunch". Didn't realize that they were talking to me and as I was pumping in the nursing room overheard another colleague explain that it wasn't my lunch but milk for my baby!

I've not had any problems. Anyone who is embarrassed avoids the subject and I don't advertise it. I've also found a few people quite interested - and I'm not too furtive as I hope lots of other Mums will feel encouraged and do it too!

my boss was looking for me yesterday and my friend told him i was expressing....so he asked what that was....he didnt know where to put himself....
why are people so funyn about it?

i told everyone in my dept at school as we all have pass keys to the classrooms. no point letting boys in to drop off their bags while i'm busy. now i have a room that is supposed to be private. however, i heard a key in the lock today and soon enough entered the head of yr9. (male) i put my chin to the desk to hide my bits and said hello! i believe all senior managers know as he said oh, i didnt know you were here. said sorry and left!

This is my third fullweek of expressing at work.....feeling that my supply may be dwindling....or it could just be that because i am increasing ds2's solids, he is taking less milk from me so my supply is adjusting yet i am still giving him the same amount from the bottle.

any ideas?
starting to get to me a bit now////

Could you not keep your supply up with extra expressing sessions? Are you drinking enough? Now that you're back to work, you may be too busy to keep your fluid intake up, so a sports bottle full of water might help. You're not anaemic are you? Or it could be that you feel self-conscious expressing at work which is inhibiting your supply?
HTH

HI there

It coul dbe fluid intake actually///that is a very good point.

I express at lunchtime and get around 5oz but have found it harder to get that much in the ladst three days. I also express at every feed (including on my three days off per week). I have tried to add an extra expressing session on an evening but get an ounce if I am lucky.....

Will try to increase my fluid intake and see if that helps! Thanks!

How much milk do you all leave your children? DS2 is nearly 7 months and has 2 7 oz bottles (one late morning before lunch and one mid afternoon). Finding it hard to express enough for this. I endlessly express every day....

I try to keep up my fluid intake and I think that helps maintain my supply. I express twice at work and sometimes once at home but am finding it tiring. I find that I consistently get more from one of my breasts than I do from the other and the less productive one is the one my ds did not like to feed from when he was a newborn. Anyone else have that experience?

Popsycal, my supply can go up and down depending on how much ds fed the day before, how much water I'm drinking and whether I've had breakfast.
Savanna, I have a "good boob" and a "bad boob" as well. I think I automatically put ds onto the left one when I'm feeding but when I made an effort to change this I found that I got more from the right breast but the same amount overall so it didn't make any difference.

I find that if I'm getting stressed that I haven't got enough milk (just to remind you I exclusively express for 4 month dd) I find that my supply dwindles. Drinking lots of water helps as does increasing the number of pumping sessions/increasing the time that you spend pumping - however I appreciate that this will be difficult when you're at work. I'll have a look in my expressing 'bible' as they offer 2 types of strategies for incresing supply and will post tomorrow. I appreciate that my experience is slightly different as dd never latched on so my pump stimulates the milk rather than dd. Hope this makes sense!!

I hate expressing. Find the sight of my poor little nipple being squeezed in and out of a hard, unforgiving piece of plastic quite sad. However, am aware that it offers me a limited window of freedom from babybird mouth, so am persevering. I only seem to get the opportunity to express early afternoon, and am only getting 1-2 ounces, Successfully expressed 3 x this for dd1, whats going wrong? Is there an optimum time to, say, down 3 pints of water in my hectic schedule to maximise afternoon milk production?

Hi all
Thank you for your advice. It is helpful to be able to share experiences.
I'm off to pump now so will make this brief. I'm seriously considering buying a double pump - my Medela mini electric is driving me mad with the noise. I would like to hear from anyone who is happy with their double pump and can recommend it. I need something that's easy to set up and use.
Thanks.

not only have i not been drinking enough but not eating properly.
must make an effort.
ds2 took smaller bottles today as i had parents evening last night and just couldt get enough milk
so he had a 5 and a 6 oz bottle and was fine....thikn i might reduce them down a bit to take off the pressure and start increasing solids a bit more

A wee tip from me - if you find that you are a bit short of enough EBM for one feed just top it up with water. Babies get used to a ceratin amount of milk in a feed so if say you only have 4 ox and babe is expecting 5, just add 1oz water.

Some days you get lots when expressing - other days are slow. TBH, the amount you drink does not influence the amount of milk you make directly. To up supply, up expressing sessions or feed. Supply is dictated by demand, not by food or drink intake.

I'm still in 2 minds as to what to do when I go back in Dec (ds will be 8 months).

I really don't fancy the embarrassment of expressing at work and was really hoping to manage with early morning and evening feeds only on my 3 days at work (Mon-weds) and reverting back to bf'ing during the day on my days off. I have been told that this will be possible as your supply adjusts accordingly.

I'm worried about having sore boobs and leaking at work though although I guess I can hand express down the loo for relief.

Does anyone else b/f not much for part of the week and then more for the remainder?

dd has only just turned 5 mos and started nursery 3 wks ago. she feeds less while at nursery and waits for me to return to feed. I feed her just before leaving at 8.15 and when I pick her up at 4.15. She is still on milk only and I am determined not to stress out about expressing. She gets all I can express and if she wants more than I've expressed, then she gets formula.

Because she is 'waiting' for me she feeds a lot more at night. I have gone into the mode of feeding her w/out hardly waking myself and going back to bed and if by 3 am I don't want to get out of bed anymore, I bring her to bed with us for the rest of the night.

My supply still diminishes and she builds it back on the weekends.

I have been getting 7 - 8 oz during the day at work and starting to squeeze in a night session at about 8.30. where I'm getting 2 oz this week.

I am currently renting a hospital grade pump which I hope to send back and get an Ameda lactaline dual pump.

I have a medela mini-electric but now see that as a pale second to a good dual. Yesterday I was at a seminar and took it along for convenience. The seminar was at St James Park. I asked for a room to express. I ended up expressing on the 5th tier in one of the executive boxes that overlook the pitch from on high. Well it was private, and had a socket along with other niceties!

Mears - that is a really interesting post. are we talking cooled boiled water? i will bear it in mind for future emergencies

After the hassle we orignally had to get him to have a bottle, he will now basically guzzle whatever is in there. he wasnt particularly hungry today after having slightly less and certainly hasnt fed anymore this evening. he is fast asleep now.

Is anyone else leaving as much as me for their babies? I feed in the morning, then leave 7oz for late morning and 7oz for mid afternoon. Quick top up feed when we get home around 4:15 then solids then bedtime feed. Also 10/11pm feed.......then whatever he decides he will have in the night!

okay i wanna join but DD2 shes not so keen on the old bottles!!

any tips!

no problems getting the milk out just have problems getting it in