Ok, please use your crystal balls to tell me how I am going to cope going back to work

[BumperliciousIsOneHotMother]

I start back on 1st April. DD will be 9 months. I'm ultimately going to be working 3 long days, 9 hours, plus half hour lunch, plus commute, looking at about a 10.5 hour day. Initially though I hope to ease myself in, a couple of weeks of normal working days.

While I am at work DD will be at home with her dad. We have an expressing room at work and I express usually once or twice a day anyway so that's not a bother. I can't get about 3 or so oz in the morning, and about the same at night. I am building up a freezer supply at the moment.

So my questions are:

will I be able to feed DD normally when I am not at work? And will this depend on me expressing at work?

How much milk would you be expecting a 9 month old to have in a day?

At the moment, give or take the odd night she sleeps 8ish to 7. I'd like to keep it that way. I don't want her to not feed in the day and wake up all night?

Is it worth me expressing at work or is it going to be a lot of hassle?

I realise all of this depends on my DD but can you give me any tips, success stories or advice?

Thanks!

Hi bumper.

1. You should be able to, even without expressing. I continued to breastfeed DD from going back to work when she was six months until she was nine months. She had morning, bedtime and middle of the night (argh) feeds every day, and a mid afternoon feed on days off (as long as we were at home, she was too distractable out and about, but at home the afternoon feed put her to sleep, result).

I never expressed at work, just carried on feeding when I could. DD had formula at nursery. You might find you can manage not to express, but not to use formula either - I have a friend who did that with both children, she returned to work at six months and they just had solid food and water at nursery. DD was a rubbish eater though (still is, really) so didn't consider that an option.

So that's the answer to 'how much milk' - anything from nothing upwards. As you say, it depends on your DD.

Have you checked out the situation with the expressing room at work? Last I heard of it it was so underused they were using it for other stuff, it had no fridge in and the staff responsible for it (OHSS?) were being rather unhelpful about it being used for expressing. My friend (one of the lawyers, would you believe) ended up using the nearest disabled loo - although at least partly cos it was closer, she wasn't entirely being repressed.

Hi, based on my experience (went back ft when DS was 4.5 months, expressed at work until 13 months, still feeding at 20 months) my answers would be: yes, no, 360ml odd if DD is still on 3 hour milk feeds), if shes used to a bottle and so will take enough during the day you should be ok, yes - expressing is such a great break - don't turn down the chance to sit and chill.
As I said, I did the whole expressing thing for 9 months until DS dropped all daytime feeds of his own accord. Now I only express when I have to travel for work. DS has never had any formula, and it was a pretty entirely pleasant experience.
I used the first aid room and the canteen fridge which worked fine apart from when facilities cleaned the fridge out and chucked my milk. It was worth it to see them go so red.
Good luck !

Can I gatecrash- wanted to ask a very similar question. I'll be going back when DD2 is 8mo. At the moment she refuses point blank to take a bottle or formula, but I'm planning to work on her with bottles of EBM.... Interested to read your point Dontcallmebaby about not all babies needing milk of any kind during the course of the day, I am already worrying that she will starve at nursery!

My question is, what do you do with the pump if you need to express more than once in the day? Doesn't it need to be washed and sterilised? Unfortunately I will be expressing in the loos or a shower room- could conceivably wash it in the department kitchen (although don't fancy that much) but have no microwave etc available for sterilising. (Actually, do you still need to sterilise at 8mo? Am clueless because I stopped BF DD1 at 10 wks.)

What about giving EBM in a cup pendulum. DD is 9mo and I'm going back next week . She has had a cup since 6mo initially for water but now takes milk from it too. This means we won't have the problem with weaning her off a bottle.

Don't know if its officially OK but if I express twice in a day at home (building freezer stash) I just put the whole pump in the fridge and add to it.

Good idea re cup mamadoc. DD is only 4 months ATM (yes I have a tendency to worry about things early!) so have not yet introduced cup but I like the idea of bypassing the whole bottle stage.

I think I read on here that it's fine to do what you're doing with the pump in the fridge but wouldn't fancy having it sitting in the fridge at work (very male department)

Good luck with your return to work Is DD your first? Part of me is already dreading going back in June but in fact going back (part-time) after DD1 worked out great, so I feel happier this time

DD is my little pfb. I do really enjoy my job so in a way keen to get back but exceedingly worried about leaving her even with highly recommended and seemingly trustworthy childminder.
Sorry for hijack bumper I was wanting to ask almost the same things. It is so hard to know when they've been bf how much milk to leave. DD feeds twice during working day (plus am pm and 2x night at your 8-7) I have left 2x150ml cups but she only drank 100ml. I guess only answer is to leave too much to start with but it is a bummer to see it go to waste.
I don't plan to express at work as it would be v hard with my job so will only do it if needed for my comfort. I am expressing evenings and days off instead. Will let you know next week how it goes...

Thanks all for the advice, I hope you get the answers you need too pendulum and mamadoc.

DCMB, thanks for the tips. I didn't realise that about the expressing room. I thought there was supposed to be a fridge. Hmm, I will have to get on to them about that. I do intend to at least try and express at first.

If I didn't express during the day would I find myself unable to feed DD during the day when I am off?

I guess until I do it I won't know how it's going to go (hence the crystal ball comment!). It's hard even to keep track of how much she needs now as often I might bf her just to keep her quiet and when I am not around she seems to go much longer with a feed.

'Keeping her quiet' also known as 'comfort'. Same reason, really, why a two-year-old who's breastfeeding can of course go a long time with drinks and snacks, but may well nurse a lot when reunited with his/her mother. Not worthy.

Milk supply is a bit of a mystery, so who knows, but DD and I managed the mid-afternoon one Friday through Monday for a while, didn't stop for supply reasons. Of course, come to think of it, mid-afternoon did tend to be the time that I would leak at work (if I was going to, it certainly wasn't every day). I still have (but don't wear) the rather lairy patterned tops I bought especially, much less obvious than plain ones!

I expressed from 3 months to about 12 mo and then just fed around nursery times. Still feeding at 22 mo and it's amazing how you adjust. Have no probs feeding at different times depending on whether I am working from home or out for the day. Even when I have to travel for 3/4 days every quarter, have carried on feeding when I got back.
Sure you will be fine Bumper and you are having the best attitude towards it to just see how it goes.
Pendulum - get a big tupperware box and put your pump inside it, then put in the fridge - bit less obvious!

Pendulum - don't know what pump you have, but some electric pumps you can get extra expressing sets for so that you have more than one clean set. I packed everything up in a big lock box after sterilising (on principle that the milk would be sitting around for a while, and excess got frozen), then the used sets got washed through, and put in a plastic bag. Milk went in a little washbag (black) and in the fridge till home time when it went in my insulated lunchbag

getting on this thread as I'm in the same situation!

Hi Pendulum (and others), you can get these rather nifty wipes for breast pumps etc for when it's not convenient to do the whole washing/sterilising routine:
you can get them here

I'm going back to work in 4 weeks and plan to express a few times during the day. I've done a few "practice days" with DH looking after DS and me expressing as I would at work cause I too would like a crystal ball and it's as close as I could get! I'm using an ameda lactaline and got extra expressing sets, like cmotdibbler suggests. It was a bit pricey (best deal i found was on an ebay shop) but did make the whole think much easier. I make up 3 sterile sets, put them in tupperware boxes that I've also sterilised, and each time I express I use a fresh set. Then at night wash the lot ready for the next day. If I'm expressing at home I do was cmotdibbler says and put the tupperware box in the fridge between expressing. It does mean I'll have a lot of kit to cart about when I get back to work, but if it makes my life easier - so be it! I'm hopeful that at some point DS will start to drop daytime feeds so I can stop expressing, but he's only just starting to take solids now so I think I'll have a bit of wait for that. So far we've found that he takes the same amount of feeds (about 3 in 8 hours) and they are about 100-120ml each. We use a bottle if he's in the mood, a cup if he's not! Look forward to hearing how everyone is getting on, I'll definitely be checking back in once I'm back at work for proper.

V. difficult to predict how much your LO will take - will depend on so many things, but by 9 mths DS2 was just having one bottle in the afternoon (210-240ml) a big feed first thing, then solid bfast, lunch and tea.

I haven't expressed at work since DS2 was 8/9 mths, he has a bottle of formula in the afternoon at the childminder's.

He always wants a feed off me when I get back from work, even if he's just guzzled 240mls so is often sick greedy pig !

On "home" days I try to feed as much as possible to "boost" supply, although even that tends just to be 3 times in a day (but DS2 was never much of a comfort feeder, being a reflux baby).

We're still going strong at a year and I hope to never express again cos I hated it with a vengeance...

Most important tip is to impress on your caregiver how precious the milk is - freeze in small quantities so it doesn't go to waste once defrosted, and ask the minder not to fill the bottle up too much to avoid wastage. I find people used to giving formula tend to make up huge bottles and then chuck loads away - would be very if s/o did that with my bm.

With DS1 we found he took very little from a bottle to start with but then built up to more than I could express, he went onto formula in the day too but I bf him for more than a year so for me it was the best of both (no expressing).

Oh, just re-read your post and realised what a great sleeper your LO is . Unfortunately she may start to wake when you go back, not ness. from hunger but just for reassurance, although if DH is carer then she should be fine? Night time feeds are great for boosting supply (and stopping you worrying about if they're getting enough)... says she trying to make herself feel better about a sleepless year.

I went back 4 days a week when my son was 9 m/o and was really surprised, I didn't express at work as I couldn't face the hassle and my supply adjusted really quickly. He is 16 m/o now and I work full-time, and b/f morning and evening no problems at all, and more than that at the weekend. No leaking at work, but I would def. recommend pads the first month or so until you can be confident about that!

There might be a risk she will try to feed more at night, but it might not be because she's hungry, it might be because she wants extra time with you. However if you are working 3 days a week I would hope you would be OK.

Good luck!

thanks for tip, ChasingButterflies! Will be getting myself a packet of those!