Working moms/mums - come and share tips and support!

[LyndaManus]

You can try pumping after about an hour or an hour and a half.  That should give you enough time to replinish.

[jbepko]

Agree with pp. I started iwth morning nursing- nursed then 1 1/2 hours later pumped. THen after a couple days add mid-morning, etc. It depends on your goals for a stock and how effective you are as a pumped with how often you will need to pump.

[littlebea]

I am going back to work when my little one is 8 weeks old.  he nurses and takes breastmilk bottles.  I'm trying to do easy now and get a routine going before i leave him with dad during the day.  I am concerned about sleep.  I don't know how i am going to function at work when my babe wakes up at 12am, 2am, and 4or 5 am ... and hubby doesn't seem to be able to help at night.
 amy

[LyndaManus]

My husband doesn't help at night because I want to breastfeed.  Once you get him firmly established on EASY, it will get a lot easier.  My ds is on a 4 hour easy.  We do a df at 10pm, he wakes around 3am and then I feed him around 6 before I go to work.  It is definitely tough, but you will get the hang of it. 

FYI - dh has offered to get up, but he never wakes up before I do.  Most of the time I figure since I am already awake I might as well be the one to get up rather than interupting his sleep.  DH felt really bad that I was doing so much so we agreed that, at least on he weekends, I would wake him up at any time other than the feeding time.  Really helps me catch up on much needed sleep.

Do you do a dreamfeed?  If you add it around 10 or 11, it may help iliminate the 12am feed so you can get more sleep.  Then you are only getting up twice a night for a while.  By the time lo is 3 or 4 months you will be down to waking up once a night or not at all if you are lucky.  It isn't too far away.

[littlebea]

thanks for answering.

I have just started and haven't gotten the hang of the dream feed yet.  nursing isn't as easy to do as bottle.  when i nurse i never know if he's had a good feed or not.  also can't seem to get him to nurse without waking him...yet...  i'm going to try and dreamfeed tonight..
another question... last night lo woke at 12 am and wouldn't go back to sleep... i nursed a 2am.. then he slept..  could he have gotten too much sleep during the day?  I found that he tends to skip one or two nap times during the day... but yesterday i put him down anyway because i was trying to follow easy routine....  and it says one month olds should sleep .... i'm not really good at recognizing sleep signs... and feel like i was forcing naps yesterday.  last night he cluster fed at 5, then bath, then tried to put him down - but he wouldn't sleep.  tried sh/pat ... and ended up putting him in the swing... he hung out till 7 pm for feeding... then promptly slept after the next feed. 

[LyndaManus]

Keep with the nursing.  If he stops eating then he has had enough.  I use to have a lot of problems with ds falling asleep.  I would change his diaper to wake him up (even if it didn't need changing) - that helped him stay up until he was done. 

Good luck with the dreamfeed.  To start off, ds took a much shorter eating at the df than at any other time, but it got gradually longer so don't be surprised.  Anything will help fill his little tummy so you can get more sleep. 

On the sleep, try not to let him sleep more than 3 hours consecutively.  Any more than that will take away from night time sleep.  Beyond that, don't worry about how many naps or how much sleep he gets.  Everything I have read and experienced is that if he sleeps well in the day, he will sleep well at night.  If you have bad naps during the day - you can expect a bad night.  LO's can't "catch up" on sleep like kids and adults can.

The sleep signs will come after you get him on a good routine.  Right now, just try to go by the clock.  If he doesn't go down, do calm activity time for 15 or 20 minutes and then try again.  Some babies need more sleep than others and you are still learning to communicate with each other. 

I use the swing too but be careful.  One thing I didn't know until recently is that in the swing they hang out in a more restless stage of sleep and don't get as much deep sleep (leading him to be more tired than you think he should be later).  I still think it is better than no nap at all, but I try to at least slow down the speed once he falls asleep and I use it as a last resort.

Hope that helps - good luck!!!!!  Work will be hard, but after a few weeks you will fall in to a pretty good routine.  I went back after 8 weeks also (ds is 4.5 mths now)

[littlebea]

thanks.

i'll keep you posted.
learning as i go.
amy

[jbepko]

Littlebea- how old is your LO?
I returned to work at 6 wks and 8 wks with both of mine. And it seemed that hit "4-6 hours" of sleep just days before I went back to work. They knew how to provoke some serious anxiety! Going back to work is hard...all the way around. It is possible to work, pump, nurse, adn resemble a human being! I think trying to establish a routine is crucial and their is lots of help from Sleep/EASY/Naps mods on other forums...so try those also. I tried EASY from the start but it really takes until 4-6 weeks until is seems to fall into place.
On teh DH matter....he can always help with diaper changes, putting back to sleep, getting you water, etc. My DH and I made a deal. One night was all me, the next night he would help (bring baby to me, change diaper, help put back to sleep etc), next night all me, etc. That worked for him and to be honest 50% of the time on 'his" watch I would just put LO to sleep anyhow- mine seemed fairly easy to settle at night. We have a nice deal of weekend to- Saturday is my day to wake-up with kiddos and he snoozes until 0730-/0800ish and Sunday after nurisng LO, I go back to bed. Its not 50/50, but it does help.
I don't have much time....at work still but will post again later. 

[littlebea]

Thank you so much for saying that you went back to work... and nursed, pumped, and it can be done.
very helpful to know that the sleep thing didn't work it's way out till days before...

Today has gone well.  My son, Leo, is one month old.  He has already gained almost 2 lbs since birth.  born 5,12 and now 7lbs 11oz.  Now he's a much better nurser than at weeks one / two.
Leo just stayed up between the 12:30pm feed and the 3:30pm feed.  I have found that he skips sleeping one or 2 naps during the day.  When he doesn't - he's up at night.

Tonight my goal is to try to cluster feed and dreamfeed at 10:30.  We'll see.
Last night for the first time - hubby did a bottle feed and didn't wake me.  I slept from 8pm til 2 am! glorious!!  Leo woke up at 12 midnight and dad gave bottle. then Leo stayed up til 2 when dad woke me desperate.  hoping that the dreamfeed helps today.

thanks for your support.
amy

[LyndaManus]

Congrats on the 6 hours sleep even if it came with dh's help!!!! I think I have only gotten that on a couple of rare occasions   Good luck on the df tonight - let us know how it goes. 

[jbepko]

My DD did wonderful with a dreamfeed- it was so easy- I just "topped her off" before I went to bed. My DS- never worked either with breast or with bottle. But try several times before giving up. DS did well clusterfeeding, so that made up for the missed DF. Kellymom has some wonderful info on working BF moms- http://www.kellymom.com/bf/pumping/index.html and a great forum, http://kellymom.com/smf/index.php?board=15.0. Your LO is still really young at one month- things will be alot better in 2 weeks when he is a little older, your supply is better established, and he is able to stay awake for some A time. It seemed to me that just as my LOs were getting fun to be around, it was time to go back to work!

[mchoong]

I am in my first week back at work and my LO is only 7 weeks old (love the US leave policies). I have been pumping on average 5 oz per session every 3 hours at work which is more than enough for her so far. My main concerns have been that I now only get 2-3 breast sessions with her on a workday, and even that is threatened. We feed DF her a bottle at 11:30 pm so that we know she is getting enough and will sleep through, but she really really sleeps through, sometimes past when I have to leave the house for work (7:15). Don't get me wrong, she'll wake up around 4 am screaming to be changed, but after I change her, she is right back to sleep and not interested in the breast. So I pump before work, put it in a bottle for 'when she wakes up' and go. I've tried putting her to the breast when she is sleepy but she stubbornly won't open her lips (part of the reason we DF her a bottle instead of me). If I am able to DF her by breast, will she really eat enough to sleep 3-4 hours?

Yesterday I got caught in a wicked traffic jam and missed her 5:30 feeding so I only got to do the 8:30 feeding before bed. I am feeling like I have more of a relationship with the pump than my baby and just in general I'm feeling out of the loop with her and fear she'll relate more to her grandmother (our child care provider) than me. Last night was the first night she really let us sleep, she finally took to the swaddle, so hopefully it will get better from here but until last night, she was fussy (not hungry) so much at night I was exhausted by mid day, so I found myself going to bed around 9:30 pm, waking to pump while they DF and going back to sleep as much as she lets me. So this week at work, my awake time with her has been very brief.

I know it will get better but it's hard to keep my chin up between missing her, feeling guilty about being back at work etc etc. Hormones don't help either. I guess this was more of a vent session than anything else and I apologize for that. I really enjoy reading these posts as they are very helpful.

[jbepko]

I just typed all kinds of info and poof...its gone! 
I completely understand about missing your LO- I average just over an hour with my one year old! But I have a 2-2 1/2 hours with my DD- so it does get better. Remember going back to work is an adjustment for you and your LO, so give it some time.
Pumping every 3 hours is great for maintaining your supply and nurse whenever possible as that will help also. On the weekends, avoid the bottle as much as possible. Those weekend nursings really help re-inforce your supply.
At 4am, your LO isn't interested in nursing at all? It would be nice if she was! How about waking LO for a nursing prior to leaving? I routinely wake my LO up in the am I work and then take him to school.
DF from breast or bottle should yield same amount of sleep...its just a matter of getting her to take the breast. Have you tried un-swaddling her for DF with breast?
Hang in there-- you are being a terrific mom for your LO! 

[LyndaManus]

echoing what jbepko said, I do the df from breast and ds gets plenty (at first he took only a small amount but the more often we did it the more he got used to it and started taking more).  Once he is used to bfing for the df I think night feedings will get easier.  I do another df type feed at 6:00am right before I leave for work (even if he woke at 4am for a feeding).   The 6 am starts his schedule for the day and keeps him on track.  Good luck!!!

[tisdallmcphee]

Hi! I was so happy to see this strand!  My DD is 4.5 mths and I will be returning to work in 3 1/2 weeks.  I figure that this should give me enough time to get a solid routine down for her.  We had one before the summer, but we have been travelling and now we are all out of whack.  I think we'll get into her routine again now that we're home, but I do have a few concerns:

She was waking at 7am and feeding every 3.5-4 hours...going to bed at 7pm and waking for a 3 am feed and back to sleep until 7. It was wonderful! Now she is waking at 5:40.  She is wide awake and wants to play.  What should I do?  Do I get her up?  I have tried putting on the mobile and she usually will hang out with that for 10-15 minutes then wants up and cries.  I would like to get her up at 6:30, so I can feed her before I go to work at 7am.  How can I get her to sleep until then?

My other problem is with breastfeeding.  She is really fussy on my breast now and I am worried that she is beginning to like the bottle better (pumped b.milk).  She feeds fine for 5 minutes then bobs on and off and won't take anymore.  If I switch her to the other side she will drink another 5 minutes.  I think she doesn't want to work to get the milk and is only taking the fore milk.  What can I do to get her to stay on one boob and take more?  Has this ever happened to anyone else?

Thanks!  Cindy