working part time-- how do you work out Expressing time?

[champs]

going back to work in 2 wks. can you give me advise about how you express, do you just use your breaks, or do you have extra break for expressing? how do you find it? i only get 15 mins, will it be enough?

Champs, you are entitled to separate breaks purely for expressing (but I think you have to ask for them...)
You are also supposed to be supplied with a suitable location to express (ie, not sitting on a toilet lid). I use my office which is not ideal but better than having to ask the Occupational Health Nurse to leave hers so I could use it, which was the other suggestion made to me! I also passed on our (male) Facilities Manager's "helpful" insistence that I put up a huge yellow roadworks style barrier outside my office - might as well have a sign on it saying, "Topless Manager within".
Good luck with the return - you've done so much careful planning ahead, I hope it goes really well.

Champs,
First of all - fair play to you for going to this bother for your baby.
my DS2 has a cleft palate so I had to express for him full time - it's hard to start off but I ended up whisking out two full bottles in ten minutes. Have you started to express at all yet? you should start now expressing at the times you will have to do it when you are working - this way you can get your body to work with you and hopefully it will be easier and more efficient. fifteen minutes should be enough once you've had a bit of practice at it. Like Marina said though you should not have to use your breaks for this, you should get time allocated just for expressing (and at a time that suits your BF routine).
Will you have a fridge available to store the mik in?
one other thing - be careful when you express that your other breast may start leaking - not a good stain to have on your work clothes

champs - I went back to work 3 days a week when my dd was 6 months old. I used to express twice a day, morning and afternoon, taking about 20-30 minutes each time. I was lucky that I wasn't particularly busy and no-one was really paying any attention to what I was doing. I work for a consultancy and things were very quiet then. But my expressing time still didn't add up to any more than a standard lunch hour.

Anyway - whatever you can do is great. Try not to worry too much about how long you'll express for or how many ounces you get out. Easy to say, I know!

As I understand it the legal situation with regard to expressing is that companies are 'encouraged' to give people time to express. In other European countries you are legally entitled to specified extra time for expressing. But in the UK you are definitely entitled to an appropriate location to express, as Marina says NOT the loos! Though again in my case I found it so much more time consuming to go and fetch the key to our first aid room (down 4 floors, sign for the key, up a floor, sign key back in, up 4 floors again) that I decided just to use the very spacious and very clean and virtually unused disabled loo on my floor.

It may take a few weeks, but you'll work out a routine that works for you.

Good luck

I did it in the loo, in my lunch hour. Probably not ideal, but every other room in the place had glass doors! Sometimes I expressed twice - ie just vanished for a bit in the afternoon. I fed more on days off and weekends. I also left formula with the childminder which did help me stop getting stressed about ds not having enough milk.

I also didn't use the fridge - just took a coolbag to work with me with avent pump in it and the pre-sterilised bags.

I've just started this this week but full time. I take a cool bag with 2 of those things you put in the freezer to keep the stuff cold. I also take two cloths and 2 plastic sandwich bags to put the pupm in afterwards.
I have the use of a room which locks but no sink and kids on the other side of the door as it's a school.
I have to do it in my lunch break and started pumping the same day a few days before I went back.
I can get minimum 3-4 oz in about 10 minutes although I did get 8 oz once in about 15.
hth

thank you all for the advice. I am feeling abit anxious.
did you all tell employes that you intended to b/f before you came back.
marina-- lol@ topless manager sign!!! would they let me even have breaks on the days i dont normally ge them?, i only do 4, 51/2,21/2 hrs. i prob wont nd to express in the 21/2 hr night although will have to if i get too full. baby feeds alot

eefs-- there is a fridge in the staff changing room

aloha and hercules, how long does the cool bag keep it cold for?

I worried hugely about expressing before I went back to work - but the one thing I learned was that all that worrying was unnecessary!

I think you'll find that expressing once briefly during your two longer shifts will be ample, given the hours you work.

How old is your baby?

I used a coolbag with a freezer pack too - stuck the milk and the ice packs in the fridge whilst I was working, and then carried everything home in the coolbag. But I think the milk would be just fine in a coolbag for quite a few hours.

Good luck.

Agree with Pidge. Personally, I might well not bother expressing if I was only there for a short time. Definitly not on the 2/1/2 hour day. Only only did once or twice in a full 9.30 to 5.30 day three days a week, plus travelling time of a hour each way. It will be fine
BTW, I found the coolbag was fine - plenty of cold packs from the freezer in it and it kept the milk cool all afternoon. Ds never objected anyway!

Champs - you should let your emplyer know that you are breastfeeding a baby before you go back so that they can ensure are being treated properly at work. In some jobs a risk assessment is necessary. Women are not expected to work on night duty when breastfeeding - things like that.

Where do you work? You might find that you don't need to express at all. Either feed or express just before leaving for work. Do you gave a distance to travel? If not, you might not even need to express on your 5 1/2 hour shift.

baby feeds every hour at times and has the odd sip too, so I may get to full. I may get away with expressing at home so that he can get the milk.

Champs, I work pt 2 very long days a week and express in the early afternoon, then again if I get too full. DS2 is very good at making up for lost time. He co-slept until recently, which was brilliant for my milk supply but disastrous for my sleep. I leave formula with my childcarer so that I'm not under pressure to express for all his needs and that helps. He usually has a feeding bonanza when I get home, so he probably ends up with roughly the same amount of goodies he'd get if I stayed home.
We recently had a visit from a youthful Human Resources person from head office and my boss's idiot PA told him at great length how terrible it was thatI had to express in the ladies' loo. The poor young man looked terribly embarrassed. (It's a tiny office, and depending on who's around I use either my shared office or my boss's. If everyone's there I use the loo. They aren't going to move ofices to give me somewhere to express, so why make a big deal of it?) But seriously, good luck. It's worth it.

thanks dannie, I dont know where I'll express. Hopefully will be somewhere decent. Bet that HR wont be back in a hurry lmao!! nice of pa to stick up for you tho.

spoke to hr manager yesturday and she is making me an appointment with the OT. had a horrible dream last night that I had forgotten my pump and was leaking all over my blouse!!

Champs, how did it go.

I have to go back to work in couple of months and want to express too. Will be 10 hour days though..... youch

hi, it's ok i suppose, i dont bother to express on my 21/2 hr shifts but do on my others, had embarrassing leak the other day. today i had to wait over 20mins for someone to let me go and express!!
i express so that my milk supply will keep up and so that baby can have milk while i'm gone. I feed him just before I leave adn in the car the times i get a lift. he doesn't really take to his cup (bottles are a deff no-no for him) he mostly has water and waits till i get home for milk. He does finish it on odd ocasions tho, i do worry while am at work but he has dinner and such so know he wont go hungry. he cries alot too and is ever so clingy when I'm home.

does your baby take a bottle/cup? if not try to introduce it and also start expressing before your due to start work so you are not in a mad panic like I was.
Are you going to use a disposable system? I use via which was recomended in a thread. and a £5 cool bag from boots which i place in the fridge and it keeps it cool on way home.

remember to let work know you plan to breastfeed when you return so preperations can be made (yeah right) and organise a risk assesment.

Champs, have you had your via freebie. If you go to the AVENT website and click on Via and fill in the form to receive more info what they actually send you is a pack of the cups with adaptor and teat.

thanks Julief!! just filled in form