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

[lidiayy]

Hi Kerrie,

Yeah, I remember myself with all those fears of weaning DD prematurely, crazy pumping to have enough BM to my DD...    I know that she doesn't actually NEED my milk as she's consistently on solids and cow's milk for a few months, but when I think that I'll have to wait some years to come to have this great feeling that is nursing....   
LOL on Hunter talking non stop. I can imagine and keep myself wondering if Holly understands and replies to her older brother, don't they have a chat sometimes? 

[MommytoJashn]

Hi
need help on info on expressing breast milk
1.what is the ideal time?
2.how to store it?
3.how to warm it?
Will be getting back to work in 3 weeks
don't want to give her formula
TIA
richa

[clh]

Welcome Richa!  I'll try to answer, at least for some things that I did.  How old is Jashn?

In general, I have found these sites helpful:
http://www.medelabreastfeedingus.com/for-expectant-mothers/tips-and-solutions (especially http://www.medelabreastfeedingus.com/tips-and-solutions/11/breastmilk-collection-and-storage for info on storage)
http://www.kellymom.com/bf/pumping/index.html

1.  Varies on the woman...  If you're single-side feeding, a lot of women have success feeding lo on one side while pumping on the other.  Takes a bit of coordination, but baby being AT the breast helps with letdown.  If you can't do that (I never did, as I always double-side fed), then try maybe an hour after lo feeds.  That'll give you plenty of time to get ready for lo's next feed.  Also, at work, I always started by pumping every time lo would be having a bottle (so every time I would have nursed at home).  And a good "catch-up" time for me was the dream feed time after lo had gone to bed for the night.  This was after they were sleeping longer stretches & didn't take the dream feed.  I pumped essentially right before my bedtime, and that really helped make up anything I was lacking. 

2.  This is what I did:  I'd pump into bottles at work & use ice packs to keep the bottles cold thru the day.  Then at night, I'd make up bottles for the next day.  If I had extra, I could leave that in the fridge for a day or 2, but any longer than that you need to freeze it.  I would pour it into storage bags in 4ish oz quantities.  (Lots of companies make bags especially for this.  I used these:  http://www.lansinoh.com/index.php?src=directory&view=Products&category=Breastmilk%20Storage&query=category.eq.Breastmilk%20Storage&refno=23&srctype=Products_detail)  Freezing the bags flat (the frozen milk ends up in a kind of thin rectangle) helped both with storage space and makes thawing quicker.

3.  Daycare put the bottles I made in a bottle warmer with no problems.  At home, we would heat a bowl of water & set the bottle in that.  That worked for both warming from the fridge and for thawing frozen milk.  You can use the microwave to heat the WATER, but DO NOT use it to heat the milk directly.  The microwaves kill a lot of the good "active" cells that are in the EBM.

Hope those things help.  Keep coming back with questions, & we'll try to answer.  It CAN be done.  I started back to work when each of my boys was about 4 months, and they weaned at 14 and 16 months. 

[olkan]

Hi ladies,
Thought I'd let you know I stopped pumping finally, took me about 2 weeks by cutting pumps to 2 only first, and then pumping for just comfort, and then 3 more days on 1 pump, and then it was it. DD still has about 2 months worth of frozen milk supply in the freezer. I offered her cow's milk at day's bottle, took it right away the whole bottle, so didn't have to go slow route. So she now has cow's milk for her 2 pm bottle, and my milk for the bed and in the morning. I'm currently swithcing the morning one.
She has also switched for 1 nap, too early for her as she isn't yet able to go 5.5 - 6 hours, and she never takes longer than 1.2 h nap, so tough times. She also walked, so now she's officially a toddler!
As I went back to work at her 3 months full time, never thought I'd make it to 6 months, and ended up making 13. Could go longer, had no issues with supply whatsoever, just grew tired of pumping. Still very happy I did it, was worth every second!
Will still be checking out from time to time, Candice, best of luck and warmest wishes on your new arrivial!

[lidiayy]

Hi Ladies,

Where are  you?
Hope everything is fine to you all.
A quickie update on us: I quit BF'ing last sunday. Not exactly super happy with my decision but it seems that everybody is happier with it. DD hasn't asked for it since then and DH seem to be happy to have his "wife and girlfriend back"   

Hope to hear from you all

Lidia

[shark]

Hi Lidia

Congrats on making it as far as you did!  You gave your DD a great head start in life!  How are you doing emotionally?  I remember when I quit I felt a big sense of loss.  We're here to comisserate if you need to!

PS "wife and girlfriend" = lefty and righty?

[ArdenJean]

One of the best things we did was DH took my first week back to work off to stay with DD.  We were able to determine how much she needed at each feeding and get a feel for how she would handle receiving a bottle only for the whole day.

Another tip - I found a trick for no-hands double-pumping where you use two hair bands looped together and one end goes around the pump shield and the other loops over the tab of your nursing bra.  Voila!  Now, I can type and pump at the same time with the production benefits of double-pumping.

[Yazzie]

Hi working mamas..!

I have a 6 months lo, who's started solids with two meals.day.I'm due back to work in a few weeks & was initially planning to drop the midday feed, as I won't be around, but have finally decided to do my best to keep this feed till @ least 9 months...

I am now trying to pump as much as I can to have a stash, but will need to probably pump @ work. Problem is there isn't much space there & I won't have loads of time, so was thinking of getting a battery operated pump, anyone tried that before?

Thanks,
Adam's Mom

[shark]

The Medela PISA has a battery pack.  I used it a couple of times when we were on the road and it worked well but it sure did drain a lot of batteries!  I could only do 3-4 pumping sessions (~20 min each) per set of batteries.  If you are going this route you might want to invest in some really good rechargeable batteries that you can charge overnight as needed.

I would strongly encourage you to pump at least once in the workday (if not twice) for both comfort and supply.  Plus it will be virtually impossible to build up a big enough stash I think.

Good Luck!

[Yazzie]

Hi, thanks for the rechargeable batteries idea, love it..

I was thinking of getting the Medela swing pump, have you heard about that one..?

[shark]

All the Medela pumps are really good.  As far as a I recall the swing pump is a single pump.  If you have limited time for pumping, you may want to consider spending the extra $ and investing in a double pump so you can get more milk for whatever time you have to pump.  Just a thought.

[olkan]

Hi Adams mum,

You might really want to try (if funds permit) different ones. Everyone praised Medela so much and I bought their fancy backpack electric 2xpump, and it only bruised me though I tried all regimes . I ended up going though 14 months with my DD full scale (with full time work as well) and pumping up to 20 - 30 oz a day with Avent manual, it was so good and easy, and fast. I also have limited space and time at work, as all our offices are clear glass, so I ended up in the toilet 20 min for both breasts, going from 3 times a day to 1 time later. Also found the manual one much easier to carry around, I travel a lot, and used it in airport toilets, restaurant toilet - clean and fast and no noise.
So, hire if you can to try, but I think it's important to find what suits you.

[Yazzie]

You definetly have a point...!...& u might actually be the first positive review abt the avent pump....thanks for the advice,will keep u posted as to what I end up doing.

[calebsmama]

Hello Ladies!

I've been EBF my very-soon-to-be-11month old son and I will be heading back to work at the end of January and have a few questions and was looking for some advice.

Currently he always feeds in the AM when he wakes and before bed in the PM and depending on his day, sometimes once or twice during the day. He hasn't had cows milk yet - but I plan in the next few days to introduce it in a sippy cup (he's had since 6mths). For the ladies that have done this, do you warm the milk? or offer it cold?  I want to keep the AM & bedtime feeds for now - but do I need to worry about the daytime feeds? I mean if I'm not around do you think DS will miss the feeds? He's going to daycare fulltime. I can't pump...I'm a terrible pumper...have been from day one!

Aside from introducing cows milk before I go back to work, is there anything else I should be doing?

Any advice is appreciated!!!

[Yazzie]

Hi there..!

Am in the same boat, about to go back to in a couple of weeks, but my lo is 6.5 months, so I don't have much to say about cow's milk, however my advice would be prep your ds for not being with you, is he ever without you? Are you planning to be with him for the first week of day care.

Something else that I've found useful is to try & simulate what his feeding routine is going to be like & start practicing early on to handle any unexpected surprises...!...that might actually give you a clear idea about what can be done when he wants that midday feed.

Goodluck..