Can anyone offer advice on how I can go back to work and not stop breastfeeding? Supply issues!

[Caz10]

Hi! I will be going back to work FT for a fortnight when DD is 6mths old. I will then be off for 6wks (school summer hols) and then back to work again FT in August.

DD is ex-bf and currently feeds approx every 2-3hrs (she is 19wks).

When I go back to work for the fortnight in June my days will be approx 8am-5pm and I reckon if she is still feeding this often that means I will miss about 4 or 5 feeds per day. I am waiting to hear about arrangements for expressing - it will be possible only once a day max, if at all.

I don't want these 2 weeks to be the end of my bf-ing! So I suppose I am asking:

1. would my supply cope with dropping that many feeds for 2 weeks?
2. should I cutting back on feeds prior to those 2 weeks rather than go cold turkey OR will that just bugger up my supply even more?
3. is there anything else I should be thinking about?

Come August when she is 8mths, I am happy to give formula during the day and just bf morning and night if I can't keep up the supply of EBM, but for the fortnight in June I'd really like to keep her on breastmilk.

Any advice? Thanks!

Caz -sorry just noticed your message. LO would never take a bottle from me but reluctantly took a couple of ozs at nursery from the staff there. Just enough to get by on.

Honest - she won't starve herself!

I work in quite a male environment and there are really no spare rooms to express - just the office, workshop and toilet. I suppose I shall have to comandeer the toilet for 15 minutes each lunchtime but I'm going to feel very very obvious aswell as stopping everyone else going to the loo (strict 30 min lunch too).

thanks again all! leo i have a lock on my classroom door and a walk in cupboard - seriously just thinking of sitting in my cupboard too!

bumper i used to be able to do that, it does work well, but right now dd is a wriggling/scratching/jumping bean of a bf-er, it takes 2 hands to pin her down! you are back at work recently aren't you, how goes it?

oh gosh ladykay that sounds hard, we have no spare rooms either, which is why my cupboard is appealing! have you spoken to your boss about it?

I could not express in the toilet - it was as if my body knew it was unhygenic and my anxiety around someone next to me hearing me I think stopped my let down. Cupboard is fine!!!!!!

Hi I'm a primary teacher too. Still bf DS2 at 9 months. He has never taken to a bottle and doesn't drink much with a cup. BLW and doesn't consume a huge amount of solids either. Also allergic to all dairy and hates soya formula. My Mum looks after him and I meet them in a local cafe for lunch and bf him then! It's working well, and it's a nice break away from school. Have to be very organised for the whole day though. Leave school as early as I can, home by 4:30 usually.

Thanks tobytortoise, that does sound nice! When did you go back? Hope it's going ok.

leo that is what I am thinking re my cupboard - it's mine, I might feel more relaxed there!! This is so glam...

When I went back I had a freezer full of breast milk and tried to 'save' a few ounces each day and it quickly built up. She adjusted and fed more when i was around and took some expressed in a bottle and other drinks when i was not around, my childminder kept a supply in their feezer.

Was dreadfully anxious beforehand but it was ok

Oh and could not express at work it did not happen my breasts got used to providing milk extra am and pm and on a part time basis!! - so on days I was not at work she fed as normal and on other days she had bigger and less frequent feeds.

Hello. I am just writing for the first time so I'm sorry if I've missed something important earlier on - I've got my wee girl upstairs about to wake up so I don't have a lot of time.

I'm going back to work and will try to express there - will find a cupboard or cupboard equivalent. HOwever; I am currently fastidious about sterilizing my expressing equipment (although nothing else; I think I reason it is because I am going to store it). Is there anyone who sterilises at work? should I bother? or if I just put it in a sterilised bottle and in the fridge should I just use it the next day?

My girl is 7 months old. I am sooo sad to be going back to work... It's just hit me. Second (and last) time I'll be doing this.

I sterilise (well, dishwash, which is as close as I come) the whole kit at home every night, and just chill it with the milk in between pumping sessions at work - certainly not worth sterilising at work.

Expressed milk goes into a sterile bottle and into the work fridge, then home in a coolbag with an ice block to my fridge, then the next day in a coolbag with an ice block to the nursery fridge.

Fridays I freeze it and it thaws on the way to nursery on Monday morning.

sorry, that's a bit ambiguous:

I just chill it, with the milk, in between pumping sessions

just open in the fridge MrsB? The pump that is? that was my plan too, i think it is probably "cleaner" to do that than to be washing it in the staff room sink or whatever.

i'm trying to build up a store, but struggling as can only get a couple of ounces a day, and those are currently getting dribbled all over the place and ultimately thrown away as we try unsuccessfully to get dd to take ebm from a bottle/cup/spoon/ANYTHING!!!

hi, just a quickie but another one to let you know it is definitely possible - I expressed only once a day from 3 mths to 6 mths (but DS2 did feed at night too) and then stopped expressing at 6mths.

Am still bf DS2 (15 mths) although I think he is self-weaning now.

I expressed in mornings too from one side while DS fed from other. Less pressure then to get enough when expressing at work.

Caz, just to say I have the same problem as you! DD nearly 6 months, on 50th centile, excl bf (no solids yet) so clearly my milk is fine, but can only express a couple of ounces a day, which every day DH tries to feed her via a bottle/cup etc and she spits everywhere!

Almost more worried that she wont ever take the cup (have abandoned bottle now!) than about expressing at work, although there is that worry too... Mind you if we are expressing in place of a feed we will deffo get more.
Good luck!

Actually I keep everything in the coolbag in the fridge so my colleagues don't get scared by finding tubes and stuff next to their sandwiches - I stuff the open end of the pump with a tissue to stop any residual drips leaking out.

Hi Caz

Sooo glad you started this thread - i have been thinking (worrying) exactly the same. Great advice on here especially about storage and cooling which I hadn't really thought about.

i emailed the person in my department who allocates rooms and he gave me a room all to myself which i can use for expressing. Is there a room like that in your school? expressing in your classroom (albeit locked) might be a bit stressful?

Good luck with it all - 2 weeks will be over in no time!