Anyone else working and fully breastfeeding ?

[mothernature1]

Hi,
Just wondered if anyone else wants to chat about the joys of breastfeeding and working. My ds1 is 7 mths and still having all his bfeeds with 2 small meals a day.Dh very good and non complaining about the lack of room for his own food in the freezer !
Am really pleased with myself as a lot more relaxed this time around.Oh well-off to watch the celebrity daily update !

Hi, this thread is just what I needed! I'm going back to work after Easter and dd2 will be just over 5 mths. I will be doing 2 full days and one half day (consecutive) a week in the office. We'll be starting solids just before then, but I doubt she'll be eating much. So I need to express as much milk as possible now, to get a nice stock of it in the freezer. After a pathetic start, all your tips have helped me get a bit more out...

But my big question is how much I will need. How much will she need per feed by then??

Another thing that is confusing me is how to keep the breast pump clean/sterile when I express at work, which I will have to do to keep my milk supply going. If I sterilise it before I take it to work, and then keep it in the fridge all day, will that be OK? I'm aiming to keep any milk I express at work - don't want to waste it after all that effort!

Sure there are more experts available than me. Never needed to express at work as I would get enough from expressing morning and evening. Anyway I started off leaving 3 beakers of 3 to 4 oz (or maybe more in the beginning) each in the nursery but after a while 1 beaker got returned still full and later he only had 1 beaker. (don't remember how old he was when he started drinking less milk; he was also about 5.5 mo old when I went back to work). Just want to say that you will find out quickly how much he will take during an average day.
I have also left the pump in the fridge nice and cold when you start using it......

Sprout, hope this helps.
Dd went off to nursery f/t at just over five months having just started solids (which went well, luckily for us). She has never taken more than 8oz EBM spread over two feeds, while away from me. Additionally she had two little meals (now big ones as she is nearly 8 months), plus feeds from me first thing, on returning home at around 5.30pm, at bedtime, and once in the night. She seems to be doing just fine on this.
With regards to my breast pump, I got round this situation by whacking out the whole 8oz at once and sticking it straight in the fridge. It comes home with me in a mini-coolbag.
I sterilise the pump bits just before leaving for work in the morning and they come in wrapped in a new sandwich bag. That's the best I have managed and it seems to work fine. I would not have the wherewithal to sterilise the pump at work for more than one use.
If your pump is a Medela mini-electric I believe you can buy spares from Expressions Breastfeeding, their UK distributor. So you could take two lots of valves/boob trumpets etc in with you if you wanted to express twice daily.
Good luck with the return to work. Expressing is a faff and the workplace is full of opportunities to embarass yourself and colleagues, but it is so worth doing, it really is. I am very proud of working f/t and still exclusively breastfeeding her.

Hi sprout, I'm nearly in the same boat as you! I'll be starting one day a week after April and goign up to 3 days a week in June - I'm not at all confident that I'll be able to keep things going but I'm going to have a go (with a little help from mumsnetters...)
I can't answer your questions from experience but I am planning to leave about 6oz per feed - this generally as much as ds2 will take at the moment from a bottle (he's 16 weeks today!). At the nursery he'll go to they give 2 bottles a day and to start with I'll aim to go in and feed him in the afternoon, so just leaving one bottle.
Re keeping the pump clean at work - obviously I haven't tried this yet but at home I routinely keep it in the fridge for up to 24 hours while I add to it, before freezing or using it (I generally need to pump at more than one session to get a decent amount, 4oz say). I know of someone who washed their pump out between pumpings with very hot water. I expect as long as you don't leave it out at room temperature for any length of time, and are scrupulous about handwashing when you're handling the pump, it will be ok.

I have a question for those who are already doing this - is it absolutely essential for me to pump every time I miss a feed? For example, when I first start I plan to work one mornign a week, getting back for a feed at around 2pm thus missing only one feed. Obviously I'll get a lot more done at work if I just work straight through rather than faffing on with expressing half way through the morning, and I know I won't need to express for comfort - I don't get veyr full any more. Will my supply suffer if I don't express?

hi elliott, since dd was born I am only only working 1 night shift a week . I express once or twice the morning beforehand. I don't bother with expressing at work but will get quite uncomfortable ater 16 hours shift (hate it when dh has given dd a big breakfast because she then doesn't want to bf when I get home..)
Anyway, in my experience I don't think missing out on 1 or 2 feeds once a week would matter.

Elliott, I reckon just go on till you're full, then get it out.

My dd2 unfortunately was guzzler extraordinaire - at one point getting through a pint a day before weaning - but I think she was unusual. And I did manage to keep nearly up with her demands, with the help of the stock in our freezer.

I work from home so privacy isn't a problem - total respect to those who negotiate offices!

I went back f/t when ds was 4 months old and breast fed him until he was over a year, so I expressed for 8 months. The frequency that I expressed changed - at first I would pop in to the first aid room 3 times in a day , but I got it down to once or twice. I found it a useful "time out" as well ! I didn't sterlise in between times - I just popped the whole unit (an Avent hand pump) into the fridge (in an opaque plastic bag! ) The amount I managed to express did decrease over time, but I still managed to keep up (see below).

Like motherinferior, ds was a guzzler, but I managed to keep up by supplementing with freezer supplies. When ds dropped the evening feed, I used that time for expressing instead. I also expressed extra at weekends. I also resorted to sending him in to the child minder's with slightly watered milk, as I knew he was getting plenty of milk, but at that stage wouldn't drink water.

It CAN be done

Ditto JanZ re the breast pump in the fridge in the OPAQUE placcy bag - in fact I used to get mad when my dp nicked our one and only suitable plastic bag to put a nappy in! My dd was nearly 6 months when I returned, and not on solids yet, I started off leaving tonnes of milk: 3 x 6oz bottles, but very rapidly reduced that to a couple of 7 oz bottles and by about 9 months she was down to two 5-6 oz bottles.

In retrospect I worried too much about the quantity - after 6 months you can always fill them up with some nice fattening food and then they can have a mega feed when they come home.

I was working 3 days a week and am really pleased I managed to keep the feeding going. Now my dd is 20 months, still feeding morning and evening. I stopped sending milk to nursery when she was just over a year.

Good luck.

Thanks for all your replies. It looks like I need to stop panicking (and keep on expressing!). Good luck, elliott, with starting back to work.

One solution to the non-sterile-pump-at-work problem is to transfer the milk into a sterile container (eg Avent plastic bag) immediately after pumping. In that case, I think so long as the pump is clean, it's not really necessary for it to be sterile, since the milk is only in it for the duration of the pumping. At least, I think I remember mears saying it was really the storage container that needed to be sterile.

I am impressed by all you pumpers. I was thinking that since dd2 will be nearly 7 months by the time she goes to nursery I would just pump enough to stay comfortable and give her formula for the rest. Now I feel like a wimp!

reading through the thread very quickly, i have one question. is it possible to continue to b/f without expressing during the day? I work three days a week and while ds is at childcare he is getting used to taking formula from a beaker spouted bottle(another story!) he is solid mad and i'm sneaking milk in from all angles. he isn't too happy to bottle feed from me during my days off. can i b/f when i'm with him without my boobies getting confused? i'm still b/f am and pm with a sometimes feed at 6ish when we are reunited on my work days.

yes, I used to work 8am 6pm 5 days and never expressed at work.
(Suppose one of those things your body gets used to demand and supply)
Would get bit uncomfortable towards the evening.

make sure you are "leak proof" and not wearing someting too tight..(especialy when working in "male environment".
Gosh, still blushing when thinking about it

thanks. sorry i had to give comp up for spinadad and have only just come back online.

if you're still there(or anyone else in the know) did you find your milk supply was ok during the other two days at the times you would have been at work? does that make sense?
ds is currently latched and a lovely fresh bottle of hipp follow-on is going cold beside us.

i might be imagining it(or it could be that he's under the weather) but he doesn't seem satisfied after feeds esp. middle of night.

You can breastfeed when you are at home on your days off even if you are not expressing. You might find that your breasts will feel full some days at work and you might need to express for comfort. However, you may well not have a problem at all. Babies can have off days for no apparent reason.How old is he spinamum?

Just wanted to ask all you expert expressers out there - at what point did you find you were expressing decent volumes (i.e. 4oz or more at one session?) ds2 is now 18 weeks and despite A LOT of practice (!) I still can't get more than 2oz at a time. Also, what sort of quantities did you get when expressing at the time of a missed feed? I've only tried this in the evening so far and again can't get more than 2oz.
Should I try expressing for longer to see if I get another let down? (I generally have several at quite long intervals when I do a breastfeed, but with expressing I generally only get one).
Beginning to wonder how I'm going to manage to express three feeds a week since it takes me about 3 expressing sessions for each feed....

don't know if this got overlooked or nobody had anything to say, but I'm still interested in any comments on my previous post. Particularly whether you've found that you can express more once you're at work and missing feeds, or whether it becomes harder as you get less stimulation from 'real' feeds.
I'm wondering if I'm being realistic in hoping to carry on bf once I go back to work, given how c* I am at expressing -I'm really at a loss as to why I can't do it better. I've had to replace my breast pump as it was wearing out (!) - bought a Medela hoping it would be easier/quicker but when I tried it out today I got virtually nothing out - it just doesn't seem to get a let down going at all. Any tips anyone?

Hi Elliott, maybe you just have a really inefficient let-down with the pumps, like me?

dunno if my two-pennies worth helps, but I panicked initially before I started work cos I was expressing DISMAL amounts with the Avent- about 2 oz in 2 sessions of 30 minutes each... if I was lucky!my s-i-l was expressing like a dairy cow with the pump, her let-down was REALLY efficient..

But I just couldn't go on like that, so in the end, I bit the bullet and forked out for a Medela double pump, and it worked wonders for me, amazingly. I managed to express about 4-5 oz in 15 mins when I started using it!

After 2 weeks of using it, I do find that it gets better with practice. Definitely. so I wouldn't get discouraged..Also so much milk builds up during the day when u start work so it's easier then too... I find that I prolly get more milk out faster with the pump than when I b/f now that I'm working, but then it might just be my imagination!

I usually try to leave pumping until the very last minute, when my boobs are engorged the MOST and I think I can't wait any longer, cos of my inefficient let-down . I find that the more engorged my boobs, the more milk I can express! Now I get at least 6 oz in less than 10 mins..

But the usual advice is that you should pump more regularly to maintain your supply, so maybe I'm not giving good advice..
Plus I don't have a suitable place at the office to pump, so I normally let 6 hours slide without expressing...

Someone gave me some good advice, that it helps to have pictures of your baby, or other babies when expressing, helps let-down (stimulates prolactin or something??)I find that helps..

also you could try expressing just after a hot bath or shower..that gets it flowing too...and massage your boobs while expressing..or get dh to do it..????

it's important to relax too...I know we all get so stressed out when there's just so little trickling out..but if you just relax and forget abt what you're doing, it somehow happens!!
Good luck...

Hi Elliott, I was off for a couple of weeks and missed this. Sorry you are still finding expressing such hard work, even with your Medela Mangler. If it helps at all, I did find it a lot easier to express at work - more relaxed and no nosy pre-schoolers hanging off the back of the chair and laughing. That is when I started getting a decent yield. I really hope you find the same.
Like Hazlinh, I wait. I do one mega-express at around 2pm so I have also gone about seven hours. It's possible you will find this tactic helpful. I would get no work done at all if I was faffing about every two hours I see much further down that MI endorses the "Aswan Dam" approach also.
Feeding "as normal" at weekends and whenever you are not working should help maintain your supply.
Very best of luck. It may just be that once you are out there it all comes together. I found there was only so much preparation I could do for returning to work on the EBM front, to be honest.

Hi Elliott - like Marina I found expressing at work when missing feeds much easier than trying to fit in extra sessions at home. It did take a few weeks to get into the swing of it - but don't panic, it can be done. I know it's hard but try not to think too much about how many ounces you think you should produce - relax, pump (alternating sides) for 20 mins and if you haven't triggered the let-down just stop and try again in a couple of hours.

I ended up expressing twice a day for my dd who was 6 months and successfully produced milk for her up to the age of one, then used up my freezer supply for a couple of months.

I was terrified before going back to work about whether I would produce enough milk - but everything worked out fine. And if you find it doesn't pan out you've still done brilliantly to breastfeed this long and you can still do morning and evening feeds for your ds.

Good luck

The only thing I would add is that expressing is not like feeding - ie when expressing you SHOULD swap the boobs over regularly. From memory, the notices in the the "expressing" room at my maternity hospital recommended 5 minutes on each boob, then 3 minutes on each, then 2 then one. I don't know the reasoning for this but it worked for me!

By the way, I never had a sense of a let down at all (if at all!) but still managed to express plenty. Just relax and don't panic about it. If it's going to come, it will!

Pidge, I tried to email you the other day to thank you (I used a lot of your input for an article on expressing)...wanna drop me a line?

Hi, thanks for the replies - I'm feeling a little more heartened by your experiences
I think I do need to feel a let down to get any milk out - I've kind of got the knack with the Avent pump now, I have to 'feel' myself into it (strangely I find a light touch on the opposite nipple helps....weird or what??) - will keep going with the Medela and hope I find the trick with that. But it still only yields 2oz at a time....maybe it'll get better once I'm going longer without feeding. My plan is to express once at work and then go and feed ds2 in the afternoon at nursery - that way I only need to leave one bottle a day, and I'll be maintaining more proper breastfeeds per day.
I think the reason I'm really keen to make this work is that once I started daytime formula bottles with ds1, I found I couldn't maintain morning and evening feeds - I just dried up. So I see this as the only way to maintain bf at all - I'll be pleased if I keep going to 9-10 months.

Elliot - try hand expressing before using the pump to get the letdown going first. That might make things easier. And definately keep switching from side to side as the milk flows (if you still are using single pump). No point pumping for 10 mins on one side if milk only lets down for 2 mins at a time. Swiching speeds things up. I personally found jand expressing much more effective and didn't use a pump at all when i went back to work with DD.