Any bf teachers out there? What happened when you returned to work?

[LottyLikesWindows]

I'm going back to work at the start of September at a new school. Dd will be nearly 8 months old and still breastfed (also eating solids). I'm not sure how to proceed with breastfeeding and would like to hear your stories please. I don't know if I should express milk so she has it during the day or feed dd before and after work, and in the evenings, and leave formula milk for her to have in the day (then breastfeed as I do now during weekends and holidays). Is this sustainable or will the milk production be all over the place?

Has anyone expressed at school? Have awful visions of having to do it in between lessons in less than desirable loo locations, then running across to the other side of the building to leave milk in the shared staff fridge in the kitchen I know that the employers are meant to provide a sanitary and private room to express but just can't imagine how this would work in an over populated secondary school...

Am I making it difficult and overthinking it? I love breastfeeding not only because it's a special time for the two of us but also because I want to continue to provide the benefits that come with breast milk for as long as I can. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

[LottyLikesWindows]

Ouch! How on earth did you manage that?

[susannahmoodie]

I'm a full time teacher and went back at 10/11 m with each if my dcs. I just stopped to am/pm and during night feeds and it was fine.

Fed ds1 til 18m and ds2 til 13m but then I fell at school and broke my arm and had to stop .

[LottyLikesWindows]

Evening everyone. Just wanted to come back and say that return to work and continuing breastfeeding went smoothly. I expressed a couple of times, but the boobs adjusted pretty quickly as did dd. She loves her morning, afternoon and at the moment all nighter feeds, as she's teething.

Thank you all so much for your kind words and wisdom. It all panned out just like you said. Now can someone come and mark my Year 10 books, please?

[clarella]

Oh just remembered one more!

Leaking!

Always always always have extra breast pads. The really ASD children I teach would induce huge let downs!

[Lovelydiscusfish]

I went back to work when dd was 5 months (am an assistant head in a large secondary school). To start with, I insisted my school found me a safe space to express. Didn't need to at work after a few weeks. Successfully bf till dd was nearly 2! Good luck with your return to work -it is so hard I know!

[LottyLikesWindows]

Thank you so much everyone for sharing your experiences. I like the sound of catch up feeding in the evenings. Sure beats marking for hours on end...

[AnotherStitchInTime]

With dd1 I went back to working as supply when she was 7 months. It was hard going to a new school everyday and asking for a cupboard or somewhere to express. In the end I figured her having the odd bottle of formula is just like her having food anyway. She also had cheese and yoghurt as she would bottle refuse some of the time, especially when teething. Baby cereal made with formula is another option that might be more acceptable than formulain a bottle. To make up for no feeds in the day she fed 2 hourly at night and loads on weekends. At 12 months she switched to cows milk for day time feeds, but I breastfed her for 2 years in the end.

[ReallyTired]

I did it support in a school and breasted my dd until 22 months. My dd refused to take bottle and increased the number of night feeds.

[LottyLikesWindows]

LBOCS cross post - 20 months of breastfeeding is wonderful. I'm feeling your sobs from here too - it must be so hard to stop for both you and dc. Hope it all goes smoothly for you.

[LottyLikesWindows]

Thank you so much for posting clarella. Brilliant advice re vit d - new school, new germs and definitely lots of colds going around all the time.

It's great to hear about feeding to sleep and co-sleeping too. I love it, so easy to feed dd while barely waking myself and am really hoping her sleep doesn't regress once I go back to work. I'm not planning on moving her into her cot as she turns into a tortured soul each time we try to get her in there at night (that was two tries too many) and really I'd rather sleep with a happy baby than be awake with a screaming, miserable one.

Thanks for your reassurance wrt boob changes. Am hoping I don't end up being engorged and suffering with mastitis. I think you're spot on in terms of how clever the body is and how pliable boobs are to change. Mine went from fast let down, massive milky jugs of early weeks to massive milky jugs that have adapted to producing only as much milk as my baby wants and needs. Hoping this will continue as I return to work and that the boobs will catch on pretty quickly.

I've actually started to relax a bit about returning to work in terms of how feeding might pan out. Now, in terms of leaving my precious first born behind (albeit with her loving nanny), I still have a loooooong way to go

[LBOCS]

I'm not a teacher but I have a job where I'm not in one fixed place and on site a lot, so not really suitable for expressing (plus I'd never really got on with it).

I went back when DD was 9mo. Two weeks before I returned to work, I discovered that she would NOT take formula. BM and cows milk we're fine but not formula. So... I fed her before leaving, she had sippy cups of water during the day except a bottle of cows milk at lunchtime, then two evening feeds from me. I leaked a bit at the beginning, and decided I probably needed to supplement the cows milk with abidec vitamin drops, but it was fine - and I was still able to continue, I weaned her at 20 months in the end (last week, sob).

[clarella]

(Sorry - more experience!)

I would heartily recommend taking a big vit d supplement from sept onwards. I really suffered last winter from a stupid amount of colds/ infections/ tiredness/ aches and found I was low in vit d. (Of course schools are germ breeding grounds and I'd been out of the infection loop for a year!) Bf does take extra vit d and although we do store it, everyone runs dry the further into the winter we go. The majority is made from sun on skin. At this latitude it's only made from March - sept, roughly 11-3 (longer June- August)

I did a lot of research into it. Basically if you take the largest dose boots do ( they're always going to play safe) when you go back, it will help a huge amount. We can't actually get the levels we need from food .

[clarella]

Pps- still bf on demand and cosleeping at 20 months.

I was heartily glad of feed to sleep ( with boob in for a couple of hours) on my days off as I could have a nap too!

It was tough at times at night BUT it was similarly for my ff friends. Magic boob back to sleep was a life saver!

[clarella]

If it helps - nursery could leave a carton of milk out in a bottle for 2 hours before it had to be chucked, I / they found ds would have a little at a time as wasn't used to 'downing' a full bottle. Grandma could leave half a carton in the fridge for a bit longer,and get out as needed.

The family members just tried him with milk as and when as he seemed erratic at first!

[clarella]

Ps ds was fed on demand so I couldn't swap feeds though he'd had the odd bottle / sippy cup of expressed milk and formula before he went. He preferred water though!

[clarella]

Hi I haven't read the other replies but thought I'd share. I panicked similarly, ds was 9 months but really wasn't into food much. He was going to be a nursery 2 days and with a family member the third as I was working 3 days. I made a conscious decision to continue cosleeping to bf at night (he always fed more then anyway and was a frequent waker, so I got more sleep) I wanted to feed on demand the rest of the week.

A friend who bf, coslept and went back full time with her first did point out 'there's more to life than expressing' so in the end I decided to provide formula cartons for nursery. He refused to drink any milk from a bottle for the first 6 weeks at nursery, (would happily from ME at nursery and at home) would drink water and nibble food. Would have mammoth feeds when I got home! (So much so that one night he puked all over me from just being so full!)

I tried expressing at work but didn't hold out much hope. It's a busy SEN primary school; we've few to no breaks in reality.i expressed after kids left on the first day - was huge and in pain! But oddly I was ok after that. If engorged I went to the loo and massaged them and hand expressed abit off into the loo. Not much though.

I'd been reassured that boobs adjust quickly and they did. I think I felt abit uncomfy for the first 2 weeks after which they settled.

Breasts start naturally changing towards the end of the first year - it's quite magical - when he's not v interested they're fine, when he's ill they magically produce lots of milk.

And I didn't really notice much of a difference on the other days - praps a bit more boobing on a Saturday, the first day back together again after 3 days apart.

Just take each day and week at a time. Afaik it takes a good 40 days to dry up completely. I found I couldn't express like I used to but then as he grew older I didn't need to - I think that's quite common as the milk changes.

Good luck!

[Attheendof]

I have expressed at school. I was given a small office to use to do it. Schools always have spaces somewhere, and I'm sure they'd want to demonstrate good practice re equality issues!
After a month my supply had settled and I just did feeds outside of school times. Baby was one though so I could just leave cows mill for daytime. Good luck!

[LottyLikesWindows]

yoko my weapon of choice is Nutella straight out of jar. Must not be a pig at work, so will go for the more socially acceptable biscuits.

toad your post made me laugh. Am imagining you breastfeeding behind the sheds in a puff of illicit smoke.

[Toadsrevisited]

Thanks Lotty- it wasn't too idyllic though- had to find a quiet place near school to meet DH and bf avoiding teenage pupils looking for a similarly secluded spot for a fag!

Pureeing helped though- it meant he got more solid-ish food more quickly than if we had done blw, although I did think long and hard about it.

Will be back full time in September and DS will be in nursery 10 miles away so will be in the same boat as you by then. It will be fine, I keep telling myself...

[YokoUhOh]

Lotty yep! I haven't had an uninterrupted night's sleep for 21 months. Honestly, you learn to function at work keep the biscuit tin well-stocked - my trick for getting more zeds was to work in bed alongside DS and get my head on the pillow soon after I'd finished. Good luck!

[LottyLikesWindows]

Argh! Sorry - too button happy here. Lost my train of thought now!

yoko it's great to hear from you as we also co-sleep and giving boob and doing BLW. I think I'll have to just get used to being tired at work. Surely body will adapt. I'm pretty certain that I haven't had any proper sleep since 2013.

[LottyLikesWindows]

Thank you so much everyone, your experiences are making it all much clearer for me.
weebairn it's the demanding nature of both our jobs that does make expressing so hard. There are definitely days when I get home from work and realise I haven't stopped since that morning! Also you are spot on in terms of getting ready emotionally for returning to work. Am poss

[museumum]

I'm not a teacher but a self-employed consultant. I couldn't exactly ask clients for room to express and I sometimes travel by train or plane so not suitable for expressing either.
So I just didn't.
My boobs adapted very quickly, only the first week were they uncomfortable by the end of the day.

My ds didn't take a bottle so he had milk in a sippy cup. I was happy for him to have formula in the day once he was on food.

[YokoUhOh]

I went back to work 4 days a week when DS was 8 months, last September. He was on mainly boob and BLW so not getting much in terms of solids.

I couldn't be arsed expressing so he just tanked up at home and through the night (co-sleeping). I've been pretty knackered all year but couldn't see any other way of doing it. He's 20mo now and still bf/co-sleeping.

Your LO will readjust to whatever pattern you put her in, don't worry :)

[LottyLikesWindows]

Exactly guy - appealing it certainly isn't! Good to hear your experiences everyone - it's reassuring to hear it all kind of slots into place and that babies and boobs cope!

toads you lucky thing, lunch time feeds sounds like a dream. Definitely not something I'll be able to do sadly.

What's the longest I can leave it before starting to replace feeds? Shall I start ASAP or could it wait for another couple of weeks?