Will be away from home all day at 6 mos, can't express, need to avoid engorgement

[Udderly]

Wise ladies I need your advice.
My LO is curently 19 wks and EBF. I have to do a month's work experience in May on which I will be assessed regularly. Pumping is not an option. Currently I am away from my LO maybe one day a week (it varies) 8.30 - 4.30 and I pump once in the middle of the day. At that point my boobs are hard and uncomfortable. I won't be able to do that come May so what are my options? I figure I will have to start cutting out a feed to reduce my supply? And do what, introducr formula instead? I don't intend on weaning until 6 mo's so I don't think food will replace that feed. Its only for the month of May.

would you be able to nip to a loo and hand express? Not ideal I know to do it in the loo, but may be better than nothing?

I was going to say the same as Cosmosis. Practice your hand expressing?

I'm getting about 10 ozs out of the midday pump, and that just about gets me to 4pm when I get very uncomfortable again. I don't think I'd manage that handpumping and think I would spend a good portion of the day uncomfortable, distracted and possibly leaking. Its in a school where I will be spending a good portion of the day teaching and I need to focus on it 100%. I would still gladly b'feed morning evening and night, but I also need a strategy for feeding LO during the day while I'm not there for the month. I don't want to ramp up production by pumping more as that will only make things worse for engorgement, so right now its looking to me likre formula during the day solves both problems and its just a case of when to start it, but I am loathe to start formula having come this far without it, and quite eager to be talked out of it with some other solution.

Will you get a lunch break? If you can lunch in a private room & pump at the same time...?

Wondering now what teachers do if they go back while breastfeeding.

Can I ask why you can't pump at midday/lunch?

I'd be very loathe to go to formula just because of a month's work and unless your LO drops that feed anyway (seems unlikely and might trigger reverse cycling if you try to force it!), you'll have to introduce formula so you can drop that feed with plenty of time for your supply to adjust.

I understand you think you'll be being assessed, but an employer leaving a new Mum with no choice but to start stopping bfing is very wrong!

I don't have an employer, just a kindly principal that I don't know who has accommodated me by allowing me into the school during this time. Its a opportunity for me to make an impression on the school so that if a position arises there in the future they already have formed an opinion of me. Lunchtime is the only opportunity I would have to interract with other teachers and get advice, insights and a bit of support. I would feel very uncomfortable slinking off to express at this time. Also, its not that I feel I will be assessed, actual inspectors come along and assess for the course I am doing, unnannounced, at regular intervals.

If I was a qualified teacher working in a school I would have no hesitation to pump as I desired, I'd ask for a room, and I'd ask for time to do it.

Hope someone has some ideas then!

I think you'll be fine to slop off to the loo for 15 minutes without damaging any impression they may have of you.

Me too, but I'm not overly optimistic. :(

IME, if you have a really good feed/pump before you leave in the morning, then hand express for a couple of minutes every time you go to the loo, then a good feed/express when you get home it's not too uncomfortable - the hand expressing takes a lot off quite quickly

It takes me at least 10 mins per boob, I wouldn't have anywhere to store it, I wouldn't get enough to cover the next day's requirements.

Sorry, I know I sound like I am making every excuse in the book, and ye are doing exactly what I would to someone else in this position, which would be find a way regardless. There is a possibilty that it might work out that no-one would bat an eyelid and I could pump ay lunchbreak (30 mins), but I won't find that out until I'm there really, and at that stage it would be too late.

X post CMOT. I'm going to try that this week to see how I get on. Do you get enough out of the morning and evening express to cover the following day?