Finding time to nurse, pump and go to work?

[kblackstone444]

I breastfed my first son with no problems for 2 1/2 years. He came out knowing how to suck and I had an abundance of milk supply.

I'm due with my second son in January. I unfortunately have to go back to work when he's 6 weeks old. I will be breastfeeding, but he will have to drink from a bottle during work hours. My work has no place to pump and no place to store milk until work is over. I will be unable to leave work to nurse, even though I live across the street from my job. I may have to move, in which case, I will be adding up to another hour, two hours of my workday, depending on the commute, making it about 10 hours a day of no nursing and possibly no pumping. I can't sit and nurse constantly when I'm home- I have another child to take care of, two dogs to care for, and no car, so every errand I go on (grocery store, laundomat, walking to appointments, etc) will take at least an hour, often more. Plus, where will I get the time to pump for during the day? Nursing all night will not be an option because I won't be cosleeping (I will be sidecaring the crib) and I will need to actually sleep during the night as well. I don't think I'd mind supplementing a little, with formula, if need be, but I don't want to start a cycle of making less and less milk until I have none left. How can I work this to me and the baby's best advantage?

[annettemarie]

I'm going to move this out to main forum, as per the forum guidelines. You may also want to post in the working moms' forum.

[crystal_buffaloe]

Could you at least pump on your lunch break if you're not able to go home to nurse over lunch? Expressed breastmilk can be safely stored in a cooler with icepacks until you get home, if there's not fridge available to you. Is there absolutely no place you could pump while at work? An empty conference room? A supply closet with a sign on the door? Your car?

You can also pump at the same time each day while at home. Mornings are great if you can swing it, but at night after your kids have gone to bed would work, too. Pumping at the same time signals to your body to make extra milk at that time.

Another thing you can do is work on nursing in a sling or other carrier -- that way, even if the baby is nursing all the time, you can still get other things done.

Good luck!

[kcstar]

I returned to work at 8 weeks, and maintained nursing. For months, I split my lunch hour into two or three shorter pumping breaks, then ate while working.

Legally, workplaces are now required to provide a place other than a bathroom for pumping. You might be able to coordinate using a manager's office or something.

DS reverse-cycled, so we nursed first thing when I got home, had some breaks, and then he nursed much of the night through. At about 3-4 months, sometimes it was literally ALL. NIGHT. LONG. Cosleeping became a necessity. I was not able to build a freezer stash during my maternity leave, and about that same time my pumping output during the day tended to stick at the ~6-8 oz, usually ending up 2 oz less than DS needed. I'm not entirely sure whether DH as caregiver might have contributed to the problem.

The lack of sleep combined with stress over my hungry boy were what finally convinced me to allow formula supplementation. Only after he'd finished what BM there was from the day before, almost never when I was home, and not within ~1 hour of my coming home. When I was home, it was breastmilk. We nursed for 34 months.

Before I returned to work, DH could take DS in the morning while I slept in. An hour or two usually did the trick. Once I returned to work, though, that wasn't an option.

One thing I didn't know about until after I'd pretty much stopped pumping, was that they make hands-free bras to hold your pump together & in place while you're pumping. I will DEFINITELY get one of these before nursing another child. THAT would be how some mom's have been able to pump one side while the child nurses on the other. Without that tool, I found pumping at home pretty much impossible.