Working moms/mums - come share tips and get support too! #2

[clh]

Hi, Kerrie-- Doing decently well most days.  And then I start to freak out a bit.  Otherwise I'm OK. 

[campbellchick]

Well, glad to hear you are good for the most part!  I have to admit, I would also be freaking out too - but probably ALL of the time, not just some of the time  .  Good to hear from you anyway 

[GaynorWoods]

I am now back at work full time.  I breast feed my baby in the morning before he goes to nursery and send him in with two 125ml bottles (and he drinks it all).  However - I am expressing at work twice a day and only getting out 80ml so having to express again in the evening to make sure I am getting enough for him to go to nursery with the next day.  Is this right, or am I doing something wrong?  Alex is now six months old - I know that is a good start but I would like to continue supplying him with breast milk until he is a year old.

I think he has taken a liking to being bottle fed - he seems to get frustrated that my breast doesn't supply him instantly!

To be honest, I am feeling a little depressed about it.  Any advice / suggestions / comfort appreciated!!!

[clh]

Welcome Gaynor!    Good for you, continuing with the bf'ing! 

Do you mean you get out 80ml each pumping session?  (I think I'm interpreting that right.)  Anyway, it is really common to have to pump more than once for each bottle.  When I was in the thick of it the most recent time, I did like you:  pumped 2x @ work & once more at home (3x total) to make 2 bottles to send into daycare. 

I don't think you're doing anything wrong.  The pump is just less efficient at getting milk out than your lo (little one) is.  That also means that you can't rely on pumping output to tell you about your supply.  With my ds1 (dear son 1), I struggled to pump enough for him, but if I nursed him directly from the breast, he came off happy & satisfied every time. 

About the bottle...  I'd stay on the lowest flow nipple they have.  It helps a bit.  There are also bottles that better mimic bf'ing itself.  I think there's the breastflow bottles & the medela special needs feeders.  They make the baby suck more/harder to get milk out, rather than just letting it drip in their mouths like "standard" bottles.

You're doing a great thing for your son! 

[lidiayy]

Hi Girls,

GaynorWoods - by reading your post it was like looking back to myself... I started working when DD turned 4.5 mo (months old) and also had to pump loads of milk to get enough for her feeds. At that time, I would pump 3 times, just as you said, to get 2 bottles - so it's normal. As your LO (little one) gets older he tends to reduce the number of bottles he gets as you're probably going to introduce solids and then you can reduce a pumping session. My DD (dear daughter) is turning 1 next week and I'm still breastfeeding her (in the morning and before going to bed). I started giving formula to her when she turned 10 mo. I just wanted to share my experience for you to know that it can be done.
Oh, one more thing: if you could use newborn nipples it would be nice. I used Breastflow bottles until she was 9 mo. HTH!

Candice - good to hear that you're doing well. I admire you because you're always so nice to people by sharing your experience! 

Kerrie - it's a shame that my holiday went to pot. DD got a bug and has mouth, hands and feet disease    She had fever last sunday and monday and still has her hands and arms plus feet and legs covered in tiny red spots. It's not itchy though. The doctor examined her and told us that her throat is sore as well.    The good thing is that even being sick, she's not refusing to eat / drink and always comes back to my boobs! 

As a friend of mine said, daycare is very good for kids' development but it has a cost, they'll get sick, no matter how hygienic or clean it is.

Hugs to all

Lidia 

[olkan]

GaynorWoods - hi there and good job in getting your lo take the bottle on the first place - took me 2 weeks of painful screaming to teach her, but I have the same thing now: she only nurses well at night or before bed, and takes the bottle during days, so I pump even on weekends before giving her the bottle.
I can tell you you are lucky she's takng 2x 125 ml bottles - my lo was taing 230ml at the age of 6 months from the bottle and that was a pumping challenge. I reallys struggled pumping to begin with, but it's a learned skill, it took me probably around 1 - 1.5 months of regular pumping to learn how my breasts respond to stimulation, and what works for them. For instance, they always say "concentrate on your baby", but for me it worked the other way around - the more I concentrated, the less I could pump, and I found out if I start thinking work and other stuff, just totally distract from the whole pumping goal, I get the letdown. And I learned to get 2 letdowns per breast later on, first took me 40 min, now about 15 to get the same 180-200 ml. My DD is almost 9 months now, I've been working full time since she was 3 mo, so 6 months of daily pump - still going for it. So hang in there and it will all fall into places.

All - great to see everyone doing well, Lidia congratulations you've made it to a year and happy coming birthday to your DD, hope she gets well soon!
As for me, I had been ill for a week and my supply dipped for the first time and I'm producing only 160 ml per pump with DD needing 180-200 ml, so I had to get into the DF pump which I always used to put in the freezer. I know I can't complain really, but will see if I can get it up. DD is turning 9 months shortly and doesn't drop the EBM consumption really. She still wakes up for BF once a night around 3-4, I hoped she'd drop when I was travelling, but she didn't. Anyway, I guess she will eventually at some point.
I struggled to find a daycare and just yesterday finally found a nanny both me and my DH adored, so I'm quite relaxed DD will have someone to take care of her when my MOL leaves end of March. We are in the middle of separation anxiety, she is again pretty hard to put down to sleep or leave to play, + learning to stand up, or well, it's just a phase. Hope she'll be alright as I have to travel again next week for 3 days. Ok have to run she just realised I wasn't by her side for 30  seconds:)

[lidiayy]

Olga, in my case, when DD was 7 mo I got sick and my supply dipped too and as you said, I had to start using the dreampump to send to daycare and I gave up freezing. I could only freeze a bag or two on weekends when she would have her lunchtime milk from me    .

But you've being doing a great job! No doubt she'll drop this night feed soon. The thing is once you get used to STTN yourself, it's just sooo annoying when they have NW... 

[Lissybits]

I just found this thread by accident and have started reading from page 1
Wow, I wish I'd had this support when I went back to work after Nicholas 

And very happy to see you are an expert, Candice I'll be PMing you all the time in November
Lis

[GaynorWoods]

Thanks for all your comments and advice ref expressing milk.  Definately makes me feel better and my determination to continue hasn't wavered at all.  It seemed so much easier with my first baby (who I breastfed until he was a year old).  Alex is doing well though and seems a happy boy.

Work have been really supportive - equipped the sick room with a changing mat, and put a fridge in there where I can put my expressed milk.  Had a few interesting situations though.  One time I had locked the door and was mid-flow when the maintenance guy decided to unlock the door to let a couple of people in there.  Didn't seem to matter that the sign on the door said the room was in use, and that the door was locked!!!  Got me very flustered and needless to say the 'flow' stopped instantly and I had to come back later on and try again.  Just thought I would share that little gem!

With my first baby, I was travelling around the country alot.  Expressed in train stations, stationary cupboards, store rooms - but always drew the line at toilets.  Why do people always offer that?  Would they make their lunch in there??!?!  Generally, people were very supportive thankfully.  I did have to explain in detail to one guy what I meant when I talked about expressing milk.  He thought I was going to pump it and then get a courier to take it to my son in nursery!  THAT really is a gem of a story...

Thanks again folks.

[campbellchick]

Hi girls - just wanted to say hi and that I've missed you all...

Gaynor - sounds like you have some great advice and I'm really pleased it has lifted your spirits.  It isn't easy working and feeding a baby so it is such a fantastic thing when you can do it.  I did it until dd turned 11 months at the beginning of the year.  I travel for work too so often (almost every fortnight) and had very limited time to express during my training sessions, so my milk supply took a big dip, but I am so happy I made it so far and that was only with the support of my work too.  They also built a mothers room for me out of an old kitchenette.  WOW on your story of being walked in on though.  I was so paranoid about that happening so I could only imagine how you must have felt!!!  I would not have been very happy at all....  PS - I also only used a stage 1 flow nipple the entire time she was bf'ing so she wouldn't have any trouble going back to the breast.  It didn't even seem to phase her, then when we gave up bf'ing I put her on a stage 3 and she quite easily took it.

Olga - so happy to hear from you and that it is all going well.  Sorry to hear you have been sick though.  It sounds like overall it is going really well for you, so I am so happy about that.  How have you been coping with being away from your dd for work?  I still struggle going away from mine even though she is on the bottle now.  Thankfully our company is currently working on a new global strategy for training and most our our training delivery will be put on hold until the end of May so we will be mainly doing project work during that time for the new strategy.  Which means - far less travel until almost mid-year for me!!!  YIPPEE, I am so happy because over the next few months I had a trip planned every fornight, which I wasn't looking forward to.  Anyway also glad you found a good nanny that you liked.  That is hard.  We switched daycare centres recently after moving and I was very stressed finding one that we liked.  We finally did and it seems to be working out really well.  The kids just love it there and they love the kids and we are happy too as they all seem quite switched on there, so all good so far.  I hope your new nanny goes well when she starts in April.

Lis - I know what you mean about this support during the first lo.  I wish I had known about BW in general let alone BF'ing support.  It would have been great.  Good luck with your pregnancy and hope the bf'ing & expressing goes well for you..

Lidia - that is such a shame Milena got sick on your holiday .  I do hope she gets better soon though.  On a positive - at least you didn't have to take any time off work to take care of her since you were already home.  She would have really needed you with all of those fevers.  xoxo

Hi Candice - hope things are going well for you... 

As I said, Candice, Lidia & Olga, have been missing you all - so nice to see a bit of chatter on here

[Lissybits]

Lis - I know what you mean about this support during the first lo.  I wish I had known about BW in general let alone BF'ing support.  It would have been great.  Good luck with your pregnancy and hope the bf'ing & expressing goes well for you..

Oh Kellie, I totally agree with you there! I could just weep when I think how I struggled with BF and expressing and a load of other stuff in general with Nicholas    If only I'd known about BW I only found BW when N was 13 months
Before that, II spent most of my days on the phone to NCT at great expense since we live on a little Greek island

Still, this time I am so confident that everything will be a piece of p!$$
After all - I have you lot

And well done to you Kellie for making it to the 11 month mark
I'm really going to try for longer this time. I had to go back to work when N was 2 months (great maternity leave here ) and only managed 7 months BF N started to refuse the breast and I knew nothing about Breastflow teets then

Anyway, Going back to re-read this thread. I only mananged until page 5 last night

Lis
 

[olkan]

Lidia - IKWYM about annoying, Tessa used to STTN at 3-4 months, just 11 hour stretch no probs, but then came some developmental stuff, turning, waking,  - that was annoying really, and I was too tired to do any sleep training and just nursed to sleep, so here we go, totally habitual waking well into the 9th month and no sign of relief. I'm not too desperate though as long as we stick to once a night (recently again had these 3-4 NWs nights), it keeps the supply up.

Gaynor - lucky you having the room and the freezer! I do have my personal office with 4 glass walls ha-ha, so I'm doing toilets  and toilets all over the globe when I travel, those in the restaurants are which I hate most:)) I even fell asleep for the short nap once right after pumping sitting there, not sure whether it's funny or pathetic though:

Kerrie, great to hear you've found a new daycare you like and you los enjoy it! I wasn't that lucky, I guess the culture of daycare here in the UK is so different from what I'm used to, I don't think I'll do it till Tessa is at least 3. Talking about leaving her - that's the whole story, I think I've got a little witch out there. Imagine: I waved her goodbuy, took to airport, then sat on the plane for 5 hours, after which the flight was cancelled, waited in the queue for 2 hours to rebook, booking system went down, then the shift was over, so I stayed in the hotel to catch the early morning flight, then London was notoriously hit by the snow, spent further 2 hours trying to get to airport, then 2 flight cancellations, then 4 hours getting home had to cancel the first part of the trip. Went in 2 days later to catch up on the second part, got the flight cancelled, spent 5 hours waiting, ended up flying an awful overnight flight so no sleep at all and off to work - really felt my little girl is getting even on me for leaving her Had same luck on the way home + waited 2 hours on the plane after it landed, taxi broke down on the way - you name it.
Have to go for my next trip the day after tomorrow, the MET said snowstorm is likely to come I'm not surprised any longer and actually not even count much on being able to fly out
On a side - very happy for you for less travel, we also had some cost cutting on T&E so all had been advised to cut travelling a lot, suits me well - love this credit crunch!

Great to hear from everyone!

[campbellchick]

Olga, it definitely does sound like Tessa was getting even with you for leaving her    Glad to hear that you will also be travelling less too 

[clh]

Lidia, thanks for the compliment.  You made my day!    I know how hard it can be, so if I can help even a little, I'm glad to.  And so many congrats on making it to a year!    You've put in a lot of hard work.    So sorry dd got sick on holidy.    How is she now?

{{hugs}} for you, Olga.  I hope your nanny works out well.  (And I, too, had to ignore what I was doing when I was pumping.  Otherwise, I'd be too uptight about what I was doing & hardly anything would come.  )

Any time, Lis! 

Missed you, too, Kerrie! 

[lidiayy]

Hi!

DD's viruses cleared up but she's not eating that much as she used to. I don't know if she's teething as her first bottom teeth came without any problems. I'm getting a little worried as it's been almost three months that they came and no sign of her top front... Does anyone know if it's normal to have this space between the bottom ones and the top ones?

Well, I have to say that I'm very happy that I made it. I really didn't believe that I could come this far. I know that it won't last long as short trips are on my way (opposite to you, Kerrie and Olga). I'm not pumping anymore as DD is only having 3 milk sessions a day (first and last thing + lunchtime feed) but I've been thinking whether it would be better for me to carry my pump with me so as to  keep my supply up.

I took her to the doctor and he said that we can start with cow's milk to see how she gets and DH got really excited as he'll be able to have a moment with her     So, not sure what to do.

Now onto personals:

Candice and Lis - good vibes for the babies! Hope everything is ok with them. DH and I think that Milena will need a brother or sister to play but not planning to have another LO for the next 2 years to come, as we are still learning to deal with 1, let alone 2.     

Kerrie - missed you too. I've been very busy and it's been so hot in here so sometimes I just don't have energy to come home and turn the computer on...    Good to hear that you'll be able to stay more with your kids. Enjoy them a lot!

Olga - IKWYM - when DD had NW and I BF'ed her part of me said that I shouldn't be doing that as she would get used to nurse to sleep. The other part said: at least, my supply will increase... Can't be too rational when you are sleep deprived and behave as a night zombie, though. 

Gaynor - I remember when I was pumping at work and there was no special room for that, I tried to do it as fast as I could because I always wondered that someone could enter the room, even with the sign on the door and keeping it locked.

Have to go now... DD is napping for almost 2 hours and I have to wake her up otherwise she won't sleep at night.

XOXO

Lidia