returning to work tips

Unfortuantly I have to return to work in 2 months time. Quark will be 6 months old. She is currently BF, I want to have her have EBM via bottles while I am away. My parents will be doing a majority of the babysitting to start, then maybe when she is over a year I will put her into daycare with her sister.
I'm only going to be working 2 days a week max.
Please share your routine, how do you do it? when do you express? how do you store the milk? I will have to travel over an hour with the milk too as I work in a town 110km away (my folks live in the same town though, so when I am at work Quark will only be 5 mins away)
I want to know everything!! as with Spock all I had to do was whop the boob out for everything and she was happy. Quark also refuses to comfort suck, she does only feed to feed. so that will make it a bit easier.
Thanks!

Hi tt40,

I went back to work with both Boys at 6mnths of age. Ds1 was a champ with the bottle but ds2 was a nightmare so if suggest pumping now and trying the bottle to get her used to it.

S for pumping if ur wanting to build up your stash ahead of time, morning is always best as this is when u hve the most milk. I use to do a daily pump about an hour after the first morning feed. If. U do this now you should be able to build up to get nearly a whole feed from one pump (well I could, but I have been known to produce milk like a cow!)

With the driving with the milk, perhaps if when u are driving home it's after finishing work and u don't need the expressed milk at your home could you leave at parents for the next shift? U can freeze in milk storage bags for up to three months in a seperate freezer section (meaning like a seperate door freezer of a fridge/freezer)

Oh and so for me, my routine at that age was to pump twice a day (boys were probably one three feeds during my work hours on my days off, but I could produce enough milk from two pump sessions to cover the three bottles they had at daycare.) I use to pump wih my double electric for 10mins and get probably about 350mls in the morning pump and maybe 260mls in the arvo time?

I'm on my phone so hope that typed ok and makes sense.. If I think of more or u have questions feel free to ask!

Here's a link to a sticky where I did a thing about this a while ago :)

https://www.bellybelly.com.au/forums...-study-184150/

Good luck !!

ETA: I've said that I recommended getting a manual one - I mean an electric one of course!!

Wow, thanks! That is so much more full on than i thought, esp. With all the stuff you needed!! I have alot more planning to do.
I have a medulla swing, and currently get about 50ml. But i only pump once a day atm, might bump it up to 2 a day.
We have a car fridge, i might see if it works and use it for travel.
If you got milk out of the freezer and just left it out to thaw how long would it take?
What about bub side of it all? How did your boys go with adapting to the bottle? What was the routine of who was feeding them?

Definitely try pumping more than once a day - plenty of the time, your body gets more used to it, and responds better to the pump, and your body will also get used to the increased "demand".

Milk from the freezer - from the deep freezer, we'd get it out in the evening, and defrost it in the fridge, and it would be thawed within about 24 hours. it lasts 4 days in the fridge, so we'd just get out a days worth basically a day in advance.

For the boys, they were fed EBM by DH for one feed a day from the day they were born - originally by syringe, then bottle. Because we always knew they would have me at home for only a couple of months before I returned to work, we wanted them used to DH feeding them from birth, and that worked really well for us. When I was in hospital, he'd do the first feed of the day after visiting hours started (so 7ish) and then when we were home, he'd do the first after-midnight feed, so I could get at least one block of sleep in.

Thanks for your help! When i pumped yest i got a whole 5ml! We weren't having a good day so i left it. Today i will aim to fit in a couple of sessions.
Do you store in bags or containers? Im sure this is really a personal preference thing, but pros or cons for either?

I store in bags. It's easier to keep them flat in the freezer for storage.

As for defrosting. A bag of milk defrosts really quick in a container of hot water from the tap. I have been surprised how quick it does :)

We used both - bags when I was pumping for deep freezing, and cups (Avent ones, which screwed right onto the pump) when it was just going into the fridge.

How long do you pump for? Eg only do a certain time on each side eg 10mins, or just keep pumping til flow stops?

I generally did it until the flow had stopped, or significantly slowed, or until I ran out of time.

I'm sure I was told that you get x% in the first y minutes though, and anything else was a bonus ... It was 80% in the first 10 minutes (per side) or something, but my boobs seemed to ignore those rules ... I think that was from the lactation consultant - maybe someone here from the ABA might know??

I did massage, press etc my boobs as I pumped (particularly on the lower edges of the sides, where it seemed to particularly help for me) to encourage the different ducts on the different sides, though, and I'd sometimes look at pics of my baby and imagine their noises in my mind etc, which I'd heard helped.

When I went back to work I was given lactation breaks. I expressed twice a day for 10 months. Occasionally my husband brought my son in for a feed if it worked around nap times.

Have you looked up your workplace entitlements for lactation breaks?

Yes, I had lactation breaks too ... I think I was entitled to them, under my workplace agreement. But they were pretty flexible about it. I think I was entitled to 30 minutes twice a day, but realistically it was taking 45-60 minutes each time, but as long as I get my work done, it was never an issue. They understood that it takes as long as it takes.

Yea...im sure ill be entitled.to them too, but in my line of work sometimes im lucky to even get lunch, cause there is no relief for me, so i just take it when i can, but some days i cant...

Yes, I tend to not take lunch too, but I would have leaked everywhere, got mastitis and been off for a month ... all of which may be offputting for clients ...

I went back to work when ds was 6 months too. 2 days a week with family coming over to look after him. I was very lucky I work close to home so could go home to feed him at lunch time. I expressed before I left so ds could have his late morning feed and late afternoon feed. He always drank less than he would when I was home but make up for it in solids (we did blw). Ds wouldn't drink from a bottle but would from a sippy cup. Now he is fine to go all day without a feed, just a big feed in the morning and again when I get home.