Working 3Rd Shift and Milk Production...

Hi. I never breast fed so I can't help you there. But, I have two small kids and I work 3rd shift. My daughter is 3 and my son is 7 1/2 months old. The only difference is that I am married, however, my husband works during the day. This is what I do. When I get off work at 7:30am, I go home and get my daughter ready for daycare. She goes from 9am to 2:30pm. Once I get back home, I nap whenever my baby naps. Lately, that is from around 9:45am to 12:30/1pm. Before my daughter started daycare, it was a lot harder for me to get some sleep because she did not want to sleep when I did. Your baby is still very young and is probably still taking several naps a day. You will have to train yourself to sleep when the baby does. My salvation is that once my husband gets home, around 6pm, I go to sleep again until about 9:30/10pm. It is not easy, but I do it and so do a lot of other women at my job. You really need someone to help you out at some point during the day or evening so you can get at least a few hours of uninterrupted sleep. Best of luck to you.

Hi V.,
Congrats on becoming a mommy. I am also a single mother and when my daughter was born I was working dayshift, decided it was not worth paying for daycare and went to 2nd shift at a local hospital. I noticed a big loss in production when I switched shifts. I eventually switched to formula, and just nursed in the AM when we got up and pumped a small ammount while at work. At 8 months we were done nursing all together. I am now working 3pm-3am 2 days a week and its not so bad as for as sleep goes, I just get up when she gets up and then go back to sleep when she takes her afternoon nap. I have never tried 3rd shift, I imagine with an infant it might be easier since they sleep more than my toddler does. In any case I wish you the best of luck, if you ever need an ear Ive been single mommying for the last two years.
C.

Ive never worked third shift but I have heard that if your really worried about your milk production get a portable breast pump and use it at work take an insulated cooler to work to store the milk in and store it in the freezer at home for later use then just simply warm it and feed the baby it will keep your milk production up since you are used to breast feeding at the time you would now be at work as for the sleep problem Im not sure about all I can suggest is takeing a nap sometime dureing the day maybe when the baby takes hers which I tried when my kids were babys and could never do best of luck

I can tell you that i worked every shift 1st 2nd and 3rd and i honestly know that sleep depravation is something you don't want. I went 2 days without any sleep, and god was i draging, plus it makes it harder on you child too. Because with out sleep all of your actions lack. Your mood suffers too. You don't mean too but you will yell. You will feel bad about it but it's hard. There is something though that i can do to help you stay on the second shift job and pick up a part time job. If you enjoy like i do, you can leave your job and do it full time make great money. If you are into doing this you can make a 6 figure income in two years. Can you job do that for you? If you are interested you can call me at ###-###-####
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Hope to hear from you
C.