I'm hoping someone has some advice for me. I'm due to return to work in a month and I will be breastfeeding on my days off and giving the little guy EBM during day care hours. What I want to know is when to express etc on my three work days. I will be working tue-wed-thur 730am till 5pm. At the moment out schedule is
630-7am = wake up for morning feed
10-1030 = feed
130pm = feed
4pm = feed
6pm = dinner feed and bed
What I want to know is if I'm going to be doing it right if I express at 1030am, 130pm and 4pm? The 4pm feed is usually a snack/stocking up for overnight and sometimes he doesn't feed a heap but other times he has quite a bit. I intend to pump a full feed at 1030 and 130 but would u pump till empty at 4pm or would it be better to get hubby to tell me how much he has and pump that amount if possible? (hubby will have him at home by then.) I'm worried I'll pump too much at 4pm and won't have enough for his dinner feed?
Any advic would be great - also any tips on making pumping at work easier and more efficient wild be great.
I didn't attach my son after 9 weeks and just expressed exclusively so I'm not absolutely sure about how much to express at that 4pm feed. I was doing a standard schedule of 20 minutes (double) every 3-4 hours when my son was 4 months old. If I had to do a 2 hour pump it would be less volume pretty much according to the time I pumped. Maybe this specific question might be good to post in the general expressing thread as the ladies there might have dealt this situation before.
In terms of making expressing work at work, that I do have some tips. It really depends on your set up at work ie: own private office, space available for privacy, need to drive or go to multiple sites etc. Double pumping and hands free is great. You can keep up with some basic emailing, phone calls (for a noisy pump I put it on my knees to soften the noise) or reading. This also helped me take my mind off the clock. Having a pump that is easy to transport if you need to travel or just getting it to work. I also stored the flange in a sealed plastic sandwich bag in the fridge so didn't wash at work. The bottles I stored in a small cool pack with ice packs. Tissues to wipe down the flange, boobs and any drips on your desk. Having my kit organised when I went off site (tissues, sandwich bags, cool pack). I sometimes had to express in the car (and believe it or not did express whilst driving on a few occasions) due to time pressures. On these days I had a baggy jacket so I could cover myself and parked somewhere discreet when attaching and removing the pump.
Good luck, it's an adventure!! Good on you for having a go at expressing whilst at work. It took me a few days to feel comfortable.
Thanks Lisa - I didn't realise there was a general section will go to that and post for advice.
I don't think I'll be pumping At my desk lol I work for a private specialist so I am the receptionist and I'm not sure patients would want to walk in and see me pumping lol. But we do have a back room/ kitchen so I am hoping to pump out there and maybe just have a little sign so the other two girls know I am out there so to give me a little privacy. I think that will be fine. I think it's more the time it will take but I can normally get 120mls from one side under 10mins. I just have a single hand held pump ATM and will see how I go with that. If it becomes a hassle and I think a double would be easier I will look into purchasing one. I just dot want to waste the money if I don't need / or it doesn't work out. That is good to know about keepin flange in zip baggy - cuz I really didnt want to take sterilized with me to work lol! Do u keep all the pumped stuff in bags at work or just in one container? And there deal with it at home that night (meaning putting into "serving" sizes)?
I just kept the milk in the bottles at work. The same ones I used with my pump. I would tip it into 1 or 2 bottles. BTW 120mls off one side in 10 mins is great!! At home I kept the milk in bottles in the fridge and then just tipped what I needed to into another bottle when required for a feed. I can't remember now how long BM lasts in the fridge, but if I thought I had more than I could use in a fridge I put it into BM storage bags in the freezer. I probably put more than others would into a bag, this led to a bit of wastage as the keeping time of thawed milk is less than fresh but i could afford some wastage as I did end up with a lot in the freezer.
so have started back at work this week three days (Tue-wed-Thur) and my expressing so far has been as follows this week (i am feeding him 7am, 4pm and 6 pm at home this week) (each session is 10mins long with a Double Pump)
and then from tmrw i am home again from fridays till mondays. Should i be worried that my supply dips by thursday or is this something i should expect every week for this kind of pattern to keep giong? or is it really to early to tell anything at all? i guess i am just anxious today cuz i thought i was diong really well on tuesday but am worried that with the decrease by thursday i will have issues with supply?
was thinking of making some lactation biscuits up and having them when i need to boost my supply if it looks like im droppping in supply when pumping?
I would look much more at from week to week than what happens in a single day - it can be a measure of how cold the room was, or how stressed you were - not actually your supply.
I agree with kmn. After a few weeks you may (or may not) see a pattern but given this is your first week, I would not put too much weight on your results. I know from experience that's easier said than done but if you can just note down your figures and not get too caught up in it for now, I think that would be best.
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