16 weeks maternity leave - any positive experiences?

[footprints]

Hello everyone!
To cut a long story short I'm longing to ttc a second child. Dd is now 3 and I have always been adamant that I didn't want her to be an only child like me.

However, we live in Switzerland and maternity leave is just 16 weeks With my husband going back to university, I will be main breadwinner. I only work part time anyway, so we will really be struggling financially anyway.

Feeling really down about the whole thing. I so want another baby, but I stayed at home for more than 2 years with dd1 and am still breastfeeding her. I don't think I could have gone back to work when she was so tiny.

Has anyone gone back to work so soon and managed to breastfeed? Any positive experiences to cheer me up?

Just need to vent I guess.

sorry to bump my own post.
Just posting this made me realise that I'm going to ttc anyway.
And see what happens, because I want another one so much.
Our chances are not that high as Dh has an almost non-existant libido, even though he says he'd like another.

i think that the desire for a baby always overides any impracticalities there may be. i ttc knowing that i 'should' finish my degree - i will now just have to do it as best i can

as for BF-you could express, or even FF? or mix feed. don't worry about leaving him/her to work-maybe you could go part time?

Good luck x

Hi there - I went back after 16 weeks and breastfed til 2.5 years. I worked until the last minute (literally!)to maximise the time off with my baby. Like you, I had to go back for the money but I wanted to keep feeding. I never had lots of milk, so when I tried a normal breast pump or the self expressing technique I just used to get maybe an ounce for half an hour of effort, so I hired a huge pump like they have in hospitals from La Leche League (aren't they international?), which was quite cheap. Then I used to pump off the spare milk after each feed, which increased the supply, and pump 3 times a day when working. This gave me all the milk I needed for the bottles the next day. Milk freezes well too - you could build up a supply before you went back? Baby was initially reluctant to take the bottle - did a bit of reverse cycling (ie fed all night, little in the day) but after a couple of weeks he was cool about it and still keen to latch on whenever i wasnt working. After he was 1, I ditched the pump and he got formula in the day and breastmilk at other times til he stopped of his own accord at 2. NB didnt do a lot for my boobs tho! There are some good brestfeeding forums on the web for advice from seasoned pros.