Going back to work/expressing, how did it go/any tips please?

[jaggythistle]

Hi,

The day is creeping closer when I will be returning to work, I really want to keep BF my S and am getting a little anxious about how it will work out.

He will be just under 6 months when I go back and he will be looked after by his Dad so that part is nice and simple.

I live quite close to work so will be out for a maximum of 9 hours a day.

I tentatively asked my boss about expressing when I go back, the good news is she has sorted out a room and even a fridge, which is better than I expected.

What is making me a little nervous is the reality of it I suppose. I work on a big busy site and am trying to picture my self trundling off saying 'That's me away to pump some milk, later guys!'. (OK, that's an exaggeration but hopefully you know what I mean!) I will probably go in my lunch break not sure when else.

Hopefully you can maybe reassure me about how it went for you and the practicalities.

I did have some nice reassuring replies last time I posted on this, I think I am just thinking more specifically now.

Thanks in advance

I haven't done this but there are women on here who have so hopefully they'll spot this & reply.

I went back to work when my DS2 was 8 months old. We did BLW at 6 months and the few weeks before going back started to take more solids and reduced his daytime feeds.
When I went back he was feeding first thing in morning, mid pm, before bed and then once or twice in the night. It meant that I only had to express the afternnon feed. I work 3 days a week. 2 days he is in nursery 8 til 4.30 and the other day my mum looks after him. The day my mum looks after him is a shorter day ( finish early afternoon) so was able to go home to feed him.

I would take my steriliser, cool bag and ice blocks to work. Sterilise ( not sure why as over 6 months!) then would go in a quiet room with the door locked to express. I have a Medela mini electric pump so quite noisy, that was a bit embarrassing at times!

I would normally sit with some paperwork to do at the same time too.
My son goes to nursery on 2 consecutive days so the first days milk went for the next day and the 2nd days milk I put in the chest freezer in a pump and save bag. I would then get out frozen milk the night before he was back at nursery the following week.
I probably did not get out as much expressed milk as I did in my home environment so often I would try and keep the freezer stash up by expressing once or twice a week. I only left him between 4-5oz at a time.
We weaned him off the afternoon feed over Christmas as it seemed he never requested it when I was not around, but nursery kept giving it as I had painstakingly expressed every oz! He was also eating three good meals a day and drinking lots of water. A snack was replaced with that afternoon feed.
I will admit it is hard work expressing at work but I am very glad that I have done it and would definitely do it again.
My DS is now 11 months and still BF and pleased that I put in the effort to express at work when he needed it

I would recommend getting a small freezer stash beofre you go back to act as a 'buffer' then you will not feel too stressed if you can not express too much at work.

I went back to work when the daughter was 9 months old and dutifully epxressed a few ounces every lunch break. The daughter wasn't having any of it (or maybe one ounce max), so after four weeks I decided to just leave it be, the nursery workers agreed with me.

The daughter is blw'd btw and just got her milk in the evenings and nights.

I went back to work ft when DS was 4.5 months old, and expressed at work till he was 14 months old and finally gave up his dayime feed.

You do need to develop a bit of a thick skin about expressing at work - I generally referred to it as needing to nip to the first aid room to do something, but everyone found out what it was eventually, especially after facilities cleared my milk out of the canteen fridge on christmas eve.

I had a Lactaline pump, took my lunch in a cool bag that I then took the milk home in, and just treated expressing as my actual breaks. I sterilised everything at home and packed it in a big lock and lock plastic box - you can get extra pump heads for the Lactaline which was very convenient

It really was no hassle imo

Thanks all

Yeah I think a thick skin might be important. I am very keen to do this so I really don't give a monkeys what they think, hope I am that brave if I get any cheek.

I have a Medela Swing which I have been getting on fine with so far, am thinking maybe I will get the Medela bags so I can attach them straight to the pump? Sounds like our occupational health people are quite on the ball and have earmarked a room and a fridge for me already.

I have a whole 8oz of milk frozen so far am hoping to work on that for the next few weeks as a backup for my H.

I work 5 days a week on shifts so it will be a bit interesting for a while I'm sure!

Thanks again for all your encouragement, it is good to hear your experiences.

I don't think using bags at work is a good idea - they are a bit fragile, and you have to be careful with them. Keep the frozen milk in bags in a box in the freezer so it doesn't get knocked otherwise the seams go.

I once had to ask a customer when I was on site if I could take a break to go and express - I was mortified, but they were lovely about it.

I went back to work when DS was 8 weeks old and expressed for him until he was 10 months old when he stopped being fussed about his daytime bottle.

I would leave about 5oz per feed, DS was having 3 feeds while I was out at 6 months and he dropped to 2 at about 8 months (we did BLW so probably took longer to drop feeds).

I expressed twice a day, I didn't tell anyone sitting around me where I was going, but I'm pretty sure everyone knew. It was never an issue.

If you want to do it you will be fine. I think the hardest thing for me was dealing with my antenatal class friends who had all stopped breastfeeding by 6 months and seemed to take me carrying on expressing as an insult. I was often asked why I wouldn't just give formula... Never managed to work out the right answer to that one, I just used to talk about wanting to know whether I could manage to keep going!

I went back to work when DD was 5 months. Worked from 4 weeks at building up a good frozen supply as I could never express enough for a full feed in one go. Take a photo of baby with you to help with the flow.

Has your employer got a breastfeeding policy? I work for NHS and am entitled to time off to express, or go home to feed.

Could DH bring baby in to you to be fed? Would it be easier to go home?

CMOT has v=beaten me to it aga9in, but one thing I would really recommend is to get some Axifeed bottles for storing milk (google for stockists) - reusable, dishwashable, stack neatly in the freezer and never ever leak. Much better than bags and cheaper in the loing run.

MrsBadger thanks for mentioning Axifeed - I have spent a fortune previously on little avent bottles to store mine in as bags are rubbish. I never had enough, and am expecting again.

I used the medela bottles that can attach directly to your pump. I think they can go in the freezer too. I normally transferred to the medela freezer bags for freezing and have never had any probs with splitting. Nrom only store 4oz max in a bag so not sure if that has an effect on splitting. I also keep them in a plastic box so they can stand upright.

I went back to work when DS was 4 months old, he is now 8 months and I am still expressing at work/in the car (I travel around for work some days). It has not been a problem at all.I am lucky in that I hve my own office at work, where I can lock the door!) and I love my Ameda Lactaline in its nice little backpack. No-one can tell what it is. I actually love taking the time out in the day for expressing,I use the time to think about the baby and de-tress a bit.

I am not sure how long to go on expressing at work for, at the moment he has up to three bottles a day when I am out, so I express before I leave in the morning, and then at work. It is sometimes all a bit time consuming but to my mind completely worth it to keep him on the breastmilk (and let me carry on bf, which I really love!)

Went back 3 days a week when DS was 4 months old-would express 3 times a day to start with. Recommend trying to go at the same time every day and taking some paper work with you-the Medela Swing is very quiet so you could even make mobile phone calls (I had the Avent Isis which was very noisy so I couldn't). Used to express into a bottle with a seal and then decant into bags at home and keep them in ziplock freezer bags in date order. If you are worried about pumping enough (I always struggled) I recommend putting in an extra pump late evening once you know DC is down for a while. Good luck-it is challenging but I think it is worth it (I am still bfing DS at 18 months morning and evening).

Thanks again all.

I have thought about asking my H to bring the boy in for a quick feed in the car park! Will see how things go.

Have been freezing the milk and storing in a box in the freezer, so that should be ok. Have only frozen 2-4 oz per bag so far, didn't see the point in doing loads. He seems to take 4-5 oz quite happily and I can pump at least 4oz normally if slightly 'full'.

Will maybe just get a couple of extra Medela bottles, I was thinking the bags would be easier for H to warm in a hurry (PFB is not used to waiting ), so could decant to some at home.

I am hoping to feed him before I leave and also express at home too when I can. I have heard I should get on ok bfing all day on my days off?

I'm afraid my job doesn't always have a lot of paperwork to do, so I suppose I am worried about abandoning my workmates when we are at a busy time (I work in a lab). That's why I was thinking of using my lunch break. My boss has obviously taken my request seriously and looked up what they are required to provide, if I have problems I'm sure I can request additional breaks if it comes to that.

I will probably be phoning home while pumping at first, to see how Daddy is getting on with the boy!

Will let you all know how I get on. Am planning a little trial run or 2, hopefully H will be able to finish work a bit before I start back so will abandon him at home with some ebm for a day sometime...

My ds stays at home with my dh two days a week while I express milk at work and it's been fine. You're really lucky they provide a room etc. I express every morning so there's a freezer supply, then as ds is fed on demand, dh texts to say how much he's had and I express accordingly in my breaks so we stay synchronized. Only thing we found was that sometimes ds has much less milk when I'm out, he kind of waits, then catches up when I come back, but no ill effects from this so far! Nice to hear of other Daddys doing childcare, we're the only ones we know in this situation.

I've just gone back to work and DD is 6 months old. I'm lucky to have my own office so I put a sign on the door saying "Please do not disturb", lock the door and get cracking. It feels a bit odd at first but now I get 8oz in 25 mins with my little Avent manual pump and that's enough for 2 bottles for DD the next day. I express another 5oz in the evening and that builds up my freezer stash as i'd like to stop expressing at work in a month or 2.

Lots of people have been curious about what i'm doing in my office but i just braved it out and showed them the milk i'd produced. I don't care anymore.

I think it's worth trying to get the hang of hand expressing as it saves the hassle of carrying/sterilising a pump. Not so easy to work at the same time I guess but I'm sure the break from it is good anyway!

Hi, I'm another one who's gone back to work recently. It'll be fine - the room and fridge are a great start and show that your employer is all for it. I have a fridge in my (20-person) office and there isn't a squeeze on space, but there are two rooms I can use and I've only just realised how to lock the latch in place once I'm in! Did get walked in on once last week. Use a twin Medela which I think is really noisy but nobody has said a thing, even the guys in the office on the other side of the thin partition wall.

In the first few days I think you will feel noticeably engorged after a couple of hours and you may need to go off and express more regularly than just at lunchtime. This will be a good way to get ahead of the supply - using my double pump I would be getting nearly a full medela bottle out of each side on a session (i.e 120ml each boob). It definitely makes a difference expressing from both at once because when using a single pump I often found that when you change over to the other side the letdown reflex has sort of been forgotten. But with a double you get the benefit of the simultaneous letdown. Very odd feeling without the baby there. So in the first week or two I was getting about 200ml three times a day which was way more than my son was actually feeding.

Then it dropped off quite a lot for various reasons (went away for a weekend, had a cold) and I'm still only just keeping up with what he needs. However he is now past 6m and having three meals a day, so he is having less and less milk. I am not all that bothered if the odd feed is formula, I just want to keep BF supply enough to do morning, night and comfort feeds on demand. Pumping and storing BM for the daytimes is a bonus, for us.

Regarding hand expressing, I am finding that towards the end of a pumping sesh (which now takes about ten mins in total from leaving my desk to bringing milk back to the fridge) the boobs seem to be empty, but a bit of random juggly massaging (like a Carry On film) keeps them going an ounce or so longer. So, manual stimulation (ooer matron) has a role even when you are using a pump.

forgot to say last night - WATER! Drink lots of water. Was too easy to slip back into the habit of mainlining coffee/tea all day at work.

Thanks again

I get a break in the morning too so I should be able to express then, and probably in the afternoon as required. Although when I am back on shifts that will be evening...

I have noticed that a bit of stroking/massaging helps when pumping, thanks for reminding me.

I don't really do tea or coffee and normally drink water or juice (diluting/squash type stuff) so I will have to remember to drink a bit more than I used to.