Please tell me your tips for bf at work when you have a stressy job - i am getting nothing and i could DO THIS before, I really could

[Pillow]

I can't express at work despite being very full. Have just gone back and been given access to the first aid room to express. The first day back I took my Medela Swing but my lord it is noisy when you're not in your own living room. I can hear other people outside and I think that made me v self-conscious. So the next day I took my Avent hand pump. But nothing's happening. I am trying to get an Amela (if Louloue will ever answer my post!!!!)but I am v upset as I was able to express before. Please give me some help, ladies.

Sorry, an avent hand pump and a photo of ds generally did it for me. Have you tried hand expressing to get you going? Is it possible you could get a radio so that music/chat would drown out the sound of people outside?

I expressed in a storage room and had to put a big notice on the door to stop people trying the (locked!) door - I never really got over the feeling that people knew exactly what I was doing, so I just tried to feel 'empowered' by what I was doing!

Pillow, is the door locked? If it's possible that someone could walk in on you, then that could be making you nervous, so hindering let-down. If it is locked, could you wear headphones with a soothing CD, maybe if you can't hear the people outside, you would get let-down? I had pictures of ds3 on my mobile phone and used to look at them.
FWIW, my double electric was an avent Isis IQ duo which was very quiet. They are expensive new, but quite cheap second hand on ebay.

I nip to another department and use their shower room (no-one wants it during the day, has a chair and a lock) because I feel better knowing that if anyone hears me it's unlikely to be someone I know!

OK now I have got an avent Isis Duo thing chipmonkey on your recommendation and I will be BATTERING DOWN YOUR DOOR if it doesn't work. Don't be scared..

i KNOW where you live...

Except not really.

Well the general area is on my profile but it might take you a while to find my house!

I will let you know how it goes and if it fails, LIVE IN FEAR!! Me and my army of .. um.. two cats and a baby.. will be round. If we can find it. Which might be hard. Can we sit on the couch and think about it for a while?

seriously, I have found it very good and it lasted quite a while as well and accompanied me and dh on several weekend breaks when ds3 was still being bf. Have to dig it out again now, as ds4 due on 30th April!

Oh congrats!!! How exciting! And 4 - am on my knees in awe.

Glad you are, because I'm on my knees in fear! And my dh may have to go into a Home for the Bewildered!

I have just tried expressing at home and its fine, so its a work thing. How bizarre. I thought I was OK about being at work and expressing. Clearly I can't relax properly or something. Have now got a MP3 radio thing which I am going to use. And I will stop checking my blackberry all the time - which I am realising as I type it was so dumb.

Chip i was only trying to be funny as the Avent one is a tad expensive and i think it may have come across a bit wrong . I am taking delivery of it tomorrow and if nothing else it has got to be a bit quieter and a bit faster.

I go back to work next week pillow and I am dreading the very same thing! Hope your new pump helps.

Oh I bet you are feeling rubbish - It is not going to be as bad as you think I'm sure - get that first day over with and bang there you are. I have found the whole thing a LOT less horrible than I thought - and I have an AWFUL AWFUL stressy job which I hate (and I had to work over the bank hol!!!). Does that make sense - I mean even if your job is horrid and you are not going back to work because you want to, the whole leaving the baby thing is much less of an issue than you think it will be (at least it has been for me). Now I just have to crack the expressing thing.... Come to think of it, running down to the first aid room and screaming at myself in my head "You have 15 minutes, hurry up" might not be helping

I get performance anxiety when I express at work- usually I get to go home but when I am on call I have to do it at work knowing I might be called on at any point- I found it really hard to relax when I thought I might be disturbed- I just could not get a let down. I reckon this is the problem for you- you are imagining people can hear through the door (I bet they can't), worrying about being away from your desk etc.
The advice to plug yourself into the mp3 is a good one; make sure you are confident the door is locked; and don't try and check your blackberry!!! Do you really only have 15 mins allowed- or is that you putting pressure on yourself??

If you find that you really can't get it sorted, I find expressing prior to the first feed of the day gets me a good amount for one feed, as well as leaving enough for DD to have breakfast. How old is your DC?

8 1/2 months - performance anxiety exactly right. The 15 mins thing is just that I can't be away from my desk too long - I divert my phone to my mobile and check bberry all the time and then get worked up about the noise/the time I've been in the first aid room (is in the middle of a row of offices)/ the fact that there's no milk.

I only had 15 minutes allowed but with the double pump, the pumping itself only took 10 minutes, so that took a bit of the stress out of it. Also found the Avent duo very gentle, a bit more like a baby suckling. I do remember one day, we were having renovations done and my boss had to sit outside the door to make sure the workmen didn't walk in on me! Still got a good 6oz that session, though!

I hope you got my apology chip amongst the ramblings above

no apology needed, Pillow! Knew you were joking. Or hoped you were!

Thank goodness, and will be back to say how the new pump went. Although the probs are more in my mind than pump-related I think as I am doing fine at home.

Oh, another thing I did was to record ds3 crying on my mobile and play it when pumping as I usually found that the sound of any baby crying would get the milk flowing! Now, I do sound like a saddo!