Going Back to Work Need Advice on Breastfeeding/pumping!!!

I'm just recently back to work, and have a Medela Advanced Pump in Style. It works well for me. I find that I pump about 8 oz total in 20 minutes. My advice to you is to try drinking Fenugreek tea. There is a blend available from Whole Foods specifically for nursing moms. As far as daycare goes, they'll let you know if they need more. I'd start with four ounces a feeding and go from there. She won't starve, and they'll ration it to make it work for everyone. The most important thing is to just keep pumping... the more you nurse, the more you produce. My midwife told me that a pump shouldn't slow you down, as long as you have a good one. She suggested I pump every day at the same time, and often- every 2 to 3 hours. Good luck! Pat yourself on the back for pumping at work...

My son won't take a bottle at all while I'm gone (7 hours). He was fussy at first, but now just nurses when I get home. I don't love this situation, but we've worked our way through it. They never seem to do what we think, but in the end, they're pretty resilient little creatures. Take heart that you're doing the best thing for her by nursing, and she won't let you starve her-

All the best-

First, CONGRATS on your dedication to breastfeeding and for giving your LO this amazing gift!! I am a Breastfeeding Peer Counselor and have been nursing my son for almost 17months and work outside the home most of the time.

As for increasing your supply... the key is not just to nurse often/pump often, but also to pump past the last drop of milk. If you pump at least 5 minutes past when the flow stops, you will trigger to your body to make more. Don't fret too much if you don't pump a lot when you go back to work, as long you you are consistent, taking care of yourself, and relaxed, you will begin getting more over time.

As for how much, my LO ate 3-4oz bottles ever 2-3 hours. I would recommend storing the milk in 2oz bags and sending enough for 4 ounces per feeding until you find out what she is eating. And don't forget growth spurts - when they start to eat more... this is when they are triggering you to make more.

Be sure to pump every 3 hours (or preferrably every time your LO would nurse) while at work.

Also, some children eat less at daycare and nurse more at night when their mothers go back to work. That is what Maddox did. He has always been a night nurser since I started back to work. It is hard on my sleep, but it gives us alone time and has kept my cycle gone this long! :-)

If you have any other questions, please let me know! You can message me on here and I will give you my email. I am actually getting ready to start giving workshops on BFing and returning to work at IUPUI, so I am very familiar with the issues! Take care and again, CONGRATS!! GREAT WORK!!

Drink at least 8-10 glasses of water and get plenty of rest. Honestly, it sounds like you're very worried/stressed about this situation - and we all know that stress decreases our milk supply. Make sure you pump at least every 3 hours (religiously) while at work - make sure you are relaxed (stare at pictures of your kids if you think this will help) and pump for approx. 15 minutes - make sure you have a great pump (I used the medela pump & style) - I think that's the key thing - having a great pump. As a mother/baby nurse and as a mother of 2, this is what I would recommend to you. And of course, while you are home, nurse, nurse nurse your baby. . .I hope this helps - keep us posted! Oh - I used ovaltine to increase my milk supply - something with the malt that helps increase milk supply - I laughed at first, but it worked very well (and I did try the more milk plus tea and the fenugreek). . .keep us posted!

Hi S.,

I'm a pumping-mom (lol) and I can answer some of your questions with what has worked for me...

- Since you have 2 weeks left on leave, I would suggest trying to feed your DD from the bottle during the day when you will be at work. You can still BF her at night. This way, you will be able to tell how many bottles she takes during the day.

- For her bottles, I would suggest starting with only 3 oz or so in the bottle and heat up some more if she wants more. It's almost painful to have to throw out the liquid-gold! You will get a good idea as to how much she wants for each feeding after a day or so.

- Daycare will not throw out your unused bottles. By the time you take her to daycare, you will know how much to put in each bottle and they will feed her accordingly. The remaining bottles will be kept in the fridge for you and they are good for 8 days from the day they were pumped. If it was frozen milk that you thawed, you have 24 hours to use it.

- When you get to work, pump as often as she was eating. I pump every three hours at work. My son is 10 weeks and goes through four 4.5 oz bottles during the day. I get about 5 oz or so each time I pump at work.

- I BF him at home as much as I can, but sometimes we aren't on the right schedule and pump and he bottle feeds...this way Dad gets in on it, too! Lol.

- To keep my supply up, I get up in the middle of the night to pump, even though our son usually sleeps through the night. I still TRY to maintain the three-hour schedule with pumping at night. That way, I usually have an extra bottle or two in the fridge. There are some nights when I will go 5 hours, but I'm uncomfortable at that point, so I have to get up to pump.

I hope some of this helps. Good luck and although it's a lot of work, I'm happy that I am able to provide the benefits of breast milk to my son.

If you have any other questions, feel free to email me. I'm by no means an expert, but I pumped with my first son and am currently doing it now and I can offer some support. :)

T.

Edited to add: One thing that has made the pumping easier for me is having a pump at work and one at home. I HATED hauling the pump back and forth everyday. I use the Medela Pump in Style and the case is pretty big, so it was a pain. I bought a second one to make it easier on me.

1. You need a really good dual breast pump.
2. For the rest of your leave, pump, pump, pump as much as you can. I was pumping every hour or so when I wanted to increase my milk supply (even at night). It took me a couple of weeks to get my milk supply up again, but it worked.
3. Drink a lot of fluids especially water, chamomile tea, that helps with the milk supply.
4. With the going back to work, try switching to the bottle. Pump and then feed it to her in a bottle for a few days, that way you will see how many ounces she needs.

Also, I have hospital grade pump for sale if you're interested. I also had a really bad pump with my son and I'm really surprised I lasted 6 months breastfeeding with that pump. With the second baby we bought a really good quality pump and it was really money well spent. I breast fed my daughter for 1 year.

Here are 2 websites that helped me when I was pumping:
www.workandpump.com - great info and support here.

http://www.fourfriends.com/cgi-bin/milk.pl - this one has a calculator where you put in the baby's weight and number of feeds per day and it give you an average of how much they need. This site was a great help to me in figuring out how much to send.

For keeping your supply up: drink lots of water, eat plenty of protein, drink mother's milk tea. I also took a supplement called More Milk Plus. You can find it at Whole Foods or online. It comes in tincture or capsule form. It is a blend of fenugreek, blessed thistle and nettle. It worked really well for me, especially during times when she was going through growth spurts.

Another thing is that I really had to spend a lot of time educating my caregiver about breastfeeding. My daughter was the only breastfed baby in the class and her feeding was not the same as a formula fed baby. While I fed her on demand at home, I found that it was better for me to write out a schedule of when she should be fed. Otherwise they would feed her anytime she fussed, and often times she was not hungry. Because eating from a bottle was much easier for her, she would suck down the entire amount and then have a belly ache or spit it up. :( Also, because of the supply and demand nature of breastfeeding, I had a strict rule that she was not to be fed 90 minutes-2 hours before I picked her up. I wanted to be able to breastfeed her right away to keep my supply up.

As far as pumping goes, I found I got the most yield first thing in the morning. I would pump both sides first thing and then feed my daugther right before leaving. There was always plenty of milk for her after pumping. Another thing that helped me was to pump on one side and feed her on the other at the same time. It's a little tricky at first, but I always got more from the pump with the baby also sucking. I would pump hands free by joining 2 rubberbands together, then one hook would go over the horn and the other would hook on my bra.

keep hydrated, get rest, eat right
mother's milk tea
fenugreek
try to take a couple of deep breaths before pumping, have a pic of the baby and don't try and multi task while pumping you will get more milk

I had an "avent" pump and the bottles are perfect for breast fed babies (the pump is like $50 at kroger or walmart) and the bottle nipples are shaped as a mothers breast. You will get a lot of milk with this pump, dont let the manual pump get you down though, it is so great! the pump and you should get 5-8 oz a sitting (10 minutes.)

I lost a lot of milk also when I stopped nursing, I am sorry to tell you but I think that is part of it. Drink a lot of water and keep eating lots of food to produce that milk, also nurse as much as you can!

Good luck!

You can find a lot of help (and support) at http://forums.lalecheleague.org.

the day care should not be throwing any of the milk out. If you have a little more than you need for one day, it can get used the next day. Here is how I did this. A baby needs approximately 2.5oz per lb per day. So calculate what this is and divide it by the number of feeds you usually give baby per day. Then work out roughly how many times during the daycare time that baby will be fed. So you then calculate roughly how much the baby will feed and send that amount or slightly more to daycare. I would send it still frozen. They can thaw it out as needed. That way if there is a little left at the end, it can be used the next day as it won't have been thawed all day.

Pumping will decrease your supply a bit but what you can do is nurse the baby a bit more to get it up and the weekends are great for this. everyone is different as to how much they get from pumping. pumping early in the morning gets you more compared to later in the day. drink lots of water too.

Also remember, it isn't the end of the world if baby gets a little formula. The more you nurse, the more the supply will come so if you notice a dip, try to nurse at home more.

good luck.