COMMENTS
I felt ready to look for a teaching position again once my daughter was 11 months old. I found a part time job immediately, but continued breastfeeding until she was 17 months old. I was lucky that she was weaned onto solide by then, so only really fed in the daytime as a drink after a meal. I hated pumping at work, as I didn't feel happy sharing what I was doing with my colleagues, so used to secretly go to my car at break and lunch time and pump there behind a newspaper! I continued to feed her though, by breast when at home, wanting the best for her, and only decided to stop when I did as she started to wake to nurse again frequently through the night, which I found was very difficult. If I was working close to home I may have coped, but had an hour commute each way on a dangerous road, so it wasn't a good idea driving without having rested much at night.
I'm now feeding my 6 month old son, and hoping I can continue for the next year or so again. Not sure how I'll return to work and still feed him this time though, as find pumping uncomfortable this time. I'm hoping I'll be lucky enough to not have to look for work again until after I stop feeding him.
I had to return to work after 3 months as e could not afford to keep me home beyond my disability insurance and will have the same problem with my next child due in december. It definitely easier for people with desk jobs to keep up with the pumping, i again do not have that luxury, the only time i can pump is at lunch. so this is what i did. i would nurse the baby in the mornng before work, then pump before i left for work (not a large span of time between the two) then pump at lunch and after that it was dependent on the schedule she was on at the time. if she was ready to eat again when i got home from work i would wait and feed her when i picked her up and pump after that. if she was not going to be eating right when i picked her up i would pump before leaving work. then i would pump again after her night time feeding before i went to bed. it was a lot of work and a lot of stress always worrying about keeping my production up. I drank alot of nursing tea. kept well hydrated, id say i kept rested but we all know thats would be a lie! Dealing with the nursing and pumping and work again when i got back is my biggest stress about the baby to come but all any of us can do is the best we can do and try to stay positive about it.
The two main challenges here are 1)your baby will probably take in more breastmilk from bottles than he/she would take from the breast during the day--and probably more than you can pump in your workday; and 2) time away from your baby lowers levels of milk-making hormones. Take advantage of that great morning milk supply--you'll find you pump lots more first thing in the a.m. than later in the day, and also pump at home whenever you can. While your baby is little and not too squirmy, you can nurse your baby on one side while you pump on the other (doesn't work too well with, say, a nine-month-old, but I've done it!). Also, the more time you spend with your baby on your offtime, the more milk you will make while you're at work. Co-sleeping and night-nursing, if you are comfortable with them, is great for repleting those milk-making hormones. During your weekends or days off, hold and nurse your baby as much as possible. And pump too! You will probably have to supplement with home pumping to make enough milk for your baby while you're at work. Most importantly, relax. ANY breastmilk your baby gets while you're away is fantastic.
I went back to work full-time when each son was 11 weeks old. For the first, now 8, I worked a standard 40-hour, Monday-Friday workweek. I found it much harder to keep up with him than my second son, now 19 months and still nursing, because this time around I worked my hours in three 12-1/2-hour shifts. More days off with baby equals better milk supply. I stopped pumping for him when he was 14 months old, and now he happily nurses when I am with him, including during the night, which I don't mind.
Hope this helps! Neither of my sons ever had to have any formula. It was a heck of a lot of work, and I think lots of people thought I was nuts, but it was a huge priority for me.
I am just starting my 2nd week of being back to work full time while my 3 month old is at day care. I want to breastfeed until he is at least 6 months old.. So far I have found it very time consuming at work - one - 1/2 hour day total pending how many times I have to pump to get the full 15-20 ounces per day at work target I have set. I do have a desk job but I also am involved in a lot of meetings and pumping is a little difficult around this schedule.
To help maximize my time I have purchased a hands free "bra" to wear so that I can work on my emails while pumping (I seem to relax better working rather than thinking about the hour plus I am not working due to pumping).
I appreciate all the tips how to keep the supply up. I drink the tee, take supplements.
Since I am the insurance holder, I had to return to work when my son was three months old. Until this time, breastfeeding was going great for us and we had "it in the bag." I pumped a few ounces a day every day in the weeks leading up to my return to work. I had about 50 ounces stocked when I finally started working. It took about two weeks of working before things went sour. Pumping at work was a nightmare, so I rarely could pump more than three ounces at a pop because I was stressed out. Consequently, my supply went down and it began to take my let down a very long time. As a result of this, my son began fussing and fuming at the breast, which stressed me out even more, which made let down take even longer...Eventually I had to rent a hospital grade pump from Debbie and lug it up to my third floor classroom and back down again in what looked like a body bag so I would have enough milk for my little guy. I also ate oatmeal for breakfast and took Goat's Rue and something else I can't quite remember now. The hospital-grade pump changed everything, as did the six-pack of formula I bought and put in the pantry "just in case." I never used it, but it was a source of comfort to me if I couldn't pump enough. I just liked knowing my son would have a plan B, should my pumping efforts fail him. I did pump twice at work, once before I went to bed, and once before my son woke up in the morning for about two months. I was home and nursed all summer long without a hitch and pumped with my hand held pump for another 8 months when school began that fall. I stopped pumping when my son was 15 months old and just nursed when we were together in the morning, at night, and on weekends, which we still do. He doesn't nurse much during the day anymore, but he has the option whenever he feels like it. My advice: just persevere. You will be tired and you will always be calculating how many ounces you need in your head, but it will all fall into place. It is worth all the extra energy and effort. We were meant to be mommies long before we were meant to be employees.
Pump a lot before I went back to work to build up a freezer supply was key. I second Carrie's comments that the babe drinks more from the bottle than from the breast and you may or may not be able to keep up with this via pumping. This was certainly true for my son. Luckily, the freezer supply (100 ounces) supplemented his breastmilk needs for his first year of life! I pumped after almost every feeding to build up the freezer supply, but it was worth it. I went back to work when he was 14 weeks old. I had supply issues during my maternity leave (he had a posterior tongue-tie) which only got worse when I went back to work. I worked mon-thurs (8 hrs per day + 1 hr of commuting round trip). In the beginning, I pumped b/f work, twice while at work, after his bedtime feed and again b/f I went to bed. I eventually cut out the pumping session b/f work, but continued to pump 4 times per day until the 12 month mark. I stopped pumping at work when he was 12 months old, and planned to continue nursing in the AM and before his bedtime, but once he starting eating more solids and drinking out of a sippy cup, he had no interest in nursing for more than a few minutes. So, he was completely weaned ~13 months. I also wanted to mention that not every working mom has supply issues when they return to work full-time. My friend used to pump once per day and kept up with her daughter's needs throughout the entire first year (she would pump up to 16 ounces in one session!). She did not co-sleep either. In terms of motivation, mine came from guilt. If I couldn't be a stay-at-home mom and breastfeed him during the day, at least I could give him breastmilk. My advice is to figure out whatever motivates you and hold on to that tight during the trials and tribulations of working & pumping!
P.S. One thing I forgot to mention was that renting a hospital grade pump was a godsend. I bought a medela freestyle (a great product), but the hospital grade pump was in a class all it's own. I even traveled with it. I COULD NOT have been successful without it.
Thank you Debbie, for starting this discussion! For me, the big issue with going back to work is keeping up my milk supply. I'm told that if you don't bring your baby to your breast, your supply goes down. So if she has a bottle, and you don't pump, your supply will go down. If she has rice cereal, to fill up at night, then she'll take less from you, and your supply will go down. So I don't know how to keep my supply up without nursing her whenever she wants. So I nurse her whenever she wants, including at night, but I am paying the price with exhaustion. Last night I was up at 1:30, 3:30 and 5:30 - for the 5th night in a row! I'm barely able to function at work. Something has to give.
I am that sleep deprived mother Debbie mentions in her intro - I'm sure some of you have been there before. Any suggestions/help would be most appreciated! Thank you!
I DEFINITELY agree that baby drinks more form the bottle than she does the breast! Also I think its easier to put the bottle in her mouth to calm her down than to entertain her...but regardless they should sell not just a SLOW-flow bottle but a SUPER-SLOW flow bottle!
My baby seems to get a little pissed at the time it takes for letdown on the breast...she's so used to immediate gratification...she gets all pissy when it takes 45 seconds on the breast!! GRRrrr
HMMmmm I wonder how much better the rental grade Breastpump is to help increase my supply? It would be covered under my insurance....HMMm...?
I went back to work when my baby was 11 weeks old. I started by pumping 2 times per day, then after a 1-2 months realized my supply could be maintained by only pumping once/day. I nurse my baby before I go to work and after work. He only drinks 9-15oz of breastmilk at daycare. I think my supply is maintained because he has always been a 'snacker' at the breast and we co-sleep so he nurses whenever he wants at night. Now that he is teething, he seems to comfort nurse more which helps my supply. Many times I think he takes more milk during the night than he does at daycare. If my supply were to decrease I would try to fit in a second pumping session at work.
While on maternity leave, I had a hospital grade pump, but then my insurance decided not to cover it any more, and I changed to a Medela pump-in-style around the time I went back to work, at thirteen weeks. I had managed to build up around 60 ounces in the freezer, and it would cover the extra needed if I couldn't pump as much one day as my baby drank. I tried to nurse before leaving for work, but my baby usually was too sleepy at that hour to nurse much, so eventually I would pump before work. I would leave the house a little early to pump again at work, since I had a 1 hour or longer commute . Then, I would pump on my morning break and again at lunch. If I got out of work on time, I would race for home, but if I was stuck there late, I would often pump before leaving work as well. We would nurse when I got home, again when I went to bed, and, since we co-sleep, a number of times during the night. Some days I could work from home, and I took an old sports bra and cut two holes in it to make a hands-free pump holder. Those days I would pump every two hours, for as long as I could stand it without getting sore, usually half an hour at a time, even if there wasn't much milk coming out. I would pump a little more on the weekends to bring my freezer supply back up to between 60 and 80 oz. I would get a total of 12-16 oz of milk per day, which was about what my baby drank at daycare. What was really key for us, however, was nursing in bed. My baby would nurse at least three times a night, but I would only wake up to get him latched, and then I would fall asleep with him happily sucking away. Sometimes in the morning I wouldn't even know how many times he HAD nursed!
I definitely agree that they should make a super-slow flow nipple for bottles. I asked my day-care provider to use the slowest nipple I could find, and when she wanted to give him a faster one as he got older, I didn't let her, reasoning that if he was hungry, he would keep working on that bottle until he finished it, no matter how long it took.
To get my milk to let-down at work, I had the best luck with a little t-shirt that my baby had worn and which smelled like him. At work, I would sniff the shirt and imagine I could feel him nursing, and it worked like a charm!
I did spend a lot of time worrying about my milk supply, and I ended up quitting my job when my baby was around 8 months old, but we managed 5 months of me working around 50 hours a week with no formula, and I know that we would have managed to continue if I had stayed at work. It was a lot of work, but I felt better about being apart from my baby if I knew he was still getting my milk, and it was so rewarding to watch him growing bigger and fat on breastmilk alone.
Does anyone have any tips on feeding comfortably at night, while co-sleeping? I'm not able to sleep while my daughter is sucking. But that aside - it probably would be more comfortable if I could get into a position in which I could sleep. I'll get into side lying position, with her latched on, but my arms are uncomfortable, and my back is kind of twisted. I wish there was a special pillow meant for nighttime nursing.
Breastfeeding comfortably at night while co-sleeping...well I couldn't be more comfortable really...this is how i do it:
Assuming I'm feeding from the right; I lay on my right side facing the baby...i lay the baby on her side facing me, baby's head near my chest, my head on a pillow and my right arm under the pillow above my head, left arm keeps baby on her side tucked against my body. I just position the boob near her face and she starts sucking...she's at the age where i don't even have to line it up on target =) (4.5 mo.)...once she's on i kinda take my left arm and put that above my head on a pillow and fall asleep.
The key i think is to not feel like you have to lean back when the baby is feeding on the side...if anything its more comfortable to lean a bit forward (towards the baby)