Which pump for expressing at work for a 9 month old?

[TryDrawingAPicture]

Dd is 9 months old and I?ve just returned to work 3 days a week. I?m expressing milk, for dd to have at the childminder?s. She?s very well established on food and will drink water with meals.

I have a medela swing pump, which I bought just after dd was born. It doesn?t sound very happy nowadays but gets me a good 50 ? 90mls when I pump on both sides.

Will the swing be able to maintain my milk supply? Do I even need to worry about my supply at this point, or should I be suitably established that the supply will just stay in place even if I just pump once, in my lunch hour (I currently pump twice a day at work)?

I?m tempted to hire or buy a double pump, so that pumping takes less time. It takes me so long to relax enough to express at work that it really eats into my day. What kind of double pump would be suitable?

I?ve found lots of resources on pumping at work but they seem to be mainly aimed at mothers of younger babies. I?d like to avoid formula/cows milk as a drink for dd as long as possible, as I have severe food allergies and she already has eczema. I just need to find a way to do it that doesn?t take too long out of my working day.

Hello trydrawingapicture. I'm not a BF expert but I have BF and worked with 3 babies. I tried using a double pump in hospital and didn't find it any easier than a single one with regards relaxing enough for a let down..I felt more like a cow than ever!! I had the Medela swing for first 2 but with number 3 just used a cheap Avent handheld pump which actually worked out quicker (I don't know why- maybe it was just me). Again, I'm not an expert but I found that once a day was fine- I worked 3 days a week and my youngest did not give up BF until 15 months (and even then it was forced upon her). I found that if I tried to express too frequently I ended up stressed and resentful and with very little milk to show for it. Also....my kids tended not to bother with my lovingly expessed milk and waited until I got home before feeding. I had a friend that worked full time and BF and had the same issue- her baby waited until she got back! She gave up expressing at all a very very long time before her baby gave up BF. So maybe it's best not to stress too much- your baby is likely to fit her feeds around your work (get ready for mammoth feeding sessions on your days off and-sorry- may be night times)...plus she'll be eating more and more food so she won't be hungry.

I have both a madela electric pump and an avent hand held pump (manual) and the avent one is by far the quickest and most productive.

My DS is 9 weeks and ebf and using the avent pump, I can get a good 5oz (150ml) ish in about 10 mins - from just one side usually

The medela one is noisy and slow IMO

I was in your position about 2 years ago: returned to work 3 days a week when DS was 10 months, and I generally only pumped once a day, with a hand pump. Sometimes twice. Each pumping session took about 20 mins. I then took the milk home and gave it to the childminder, and DS never ever drank more than a mouthful. He fed a lot on my days at home, and I certainly had no supply problems.
I kept that up for about 6 months. After that I still expressed daily at work because I really had to, for my own comfort, but I just threw it away. I was still expressing daily at work with the hand pump when DS was 2.3, though the pumping (about half the volume as initially) only took about 5 mins in total. Now DS is 2.7 and he still feeds quite a bit when I'm at home, but my body has changed lately, mainly (I think) because he's just started sleeping all night. I can now go all day at work without expressing, and it's lovely. I feel free!

Mine is also an Avent hand pump!

Ooh, that's interesting. I hadn't really considered my hand pump. I got so knackered using it every 3 hours at first that i stuck it in a cupboard. But once a day would be ok. I'll give it a try tomorrow.

The thing I'm enjoying least about expressing at work is the very polite way my colleagues are ignoring the whole subject. I have no fear of breastfeeding in public but I'm sneaking in and out with my pump to avoid inadvertently brandishing it at anyone. I don't really know what I'm worried about. It'd be much worse if they were less polite.