Anyone EBF while working?

[dakover]

Is anyone else working (full-time or part-time) while extended breastfeeding?  My son is 3.5 yrs old and I feel like I'm the only person I know who both works outside the home full-time and is breastfeeding a child this old.  I have lots of LLL friends nursing this long, but they are all SAHMs; and I have lots of working mom friends, none of who breastfed past 1 year.  Anyone?  I'd just love to have a buddy! (Cross-posted in Breastfeeding Beyond Infancy)

[columbusmomma]

I'm your buddy lol!  My DD is almost 4 and I WOH.

[Poodge]

I will be your buddy too, I WOH full time, and I am still BFing DS who is 26 months old. I am hoping we can nurse through my pregnancy.

[Faither]

I work full time outside the home (librarian) and I'm still nursing DD who's now 18 months. Not a long time at all but I am still pumping at work. I never thought I'd be nursing/pumping this long! We had so many problems at the beginning. I am thrilled! And so is DD.

[egmaranian]

I'm breastfeeding DS who is 23mo and I'm 30wks pregnant with #2.  I WOH FT, but I don't pump at all. DS drinks formula from a bottle during the day while I'm at work and nurses in the morning, at bedtime, and sometimes during the night.  He nurses a lot more on the weekends when I'm home.  I also plan to tandem one the new baby makes an appearance.  I really want to wean him off the bottles before the baby comes even though I have no intention of weaning him from nursing.  Anyone have any experience with weaning a nursing toddler off the bottle, but not the breast???

[Poodge]

Well we did it earlier than 23 months, because our daycare requires them to be off the bottle before they can move to the young toddlers room, which may have made it easier but here is what we did.

We started by giving him water in a sippy cup, then once he was use to that I started sending BM in a sippy cup and they gave that instead of a bottle. It was actually really easy. Around 15 months or so I stopped sending any BM (because I stopped pumping and had worked through my freezer stash) and he had whole milk while he was gone during the day and still nursed on demand at home. Now he nurses just at night and in the morning and drinks milk, water, and some juice while at daycare out of a regular cup.
 

Originally Posted by egmaranian 

I'm breastfeeding DS who is 23mo and I'm 30wks pregnant with #2.  I WOH FT, but I don't pump at all. DS drinks formula from a bottle during the day while I'm at work and nurses in the morning, at bedtime, and sometimes during the night.  He nurses a lot more on the weekends when I'm home.  I also plan to tandem one the new baby makes an appearance.  I really want to wean him off the bottles before the baby comes even though I have no intention of weaning him from nursing.  Anyone have any experience with weaning a nursing toddler off the bottle, but not the breast???

[CatsCradle]

Hi Dakover!  DD is almost five, but she breastfed until she was about three, and I went back to work full-time when she was four months old.  I pumped for about year, and then she breastfed only at home.  It worked out well for us, but by the time she weaned, I think I was ready for it.  Sorry to say, but there came a time when I just wanted my boobs back and I think that she began to lose interest too (I think there was very little supply in the end).  I don't know if any of my WOH moms took the same path, as I was always fairly private about that stuff. 

[caenach]

Us too! DD will be 3 in September and is still going strong in the nursing arena.

[JudiAU]

Both my kids were EBF while working full time. DS self-weaned at 22m. I pumped until 18m (bonus points!) but he pretty quickly weaned after I stopped pumping + I was pregnant. I was really sad.

DD is 22m and still going strong. I cosleep still and that seems to help. Pumping was much harder for her and I had to pump a crazy amount to keep up. I still pump at work (yes, 22m) and she still drinks expressed bm mixed with some cow's milk now. She still has it in a bottle, which I don't care about. She only ever has them when I am gone so the number is pretty limited. I might make an effort to ditch them after I stop pumping if I feel like she needs a supplemental milk when I am around. My kids don't have bottles around me, ever.

I don't really consider 22m "an older nursling" but in the realm of wft it probably is. I have mixed feelings about true CLW but I am really pleased that she is still nursing and I will be very, very proud if we make it to two.

I still dream of #3 and not working ft. I never ever want to see a pump again.

(I am a librarian, too. Must be all that smarty-pants research we are capable of...)

[dakover]

So good to hear from everyone and in all kinds of places too!  I pumped until about 18 mos the same way a lot of you did, and then switched to just nursing in the morning and at night (and ALL weekend).  I know it's probably a private thing and I don't hear about many, but I'm just surprised there are so few of us out there.  My husband and I are thinking about getting pregnant again, so it's good to hear the weaning stories too.  Not sure if DS will wean while I'm pregnant or will end up tandem BFing...we'll see!

[honeybunmom]

I went back to work when each of my children were 6 mos old.  I exclusively breastfed them until 12 mos.  I hang up the pump at 12 mos!  Then, my daughter continued to nurse until she was 34 mos and I was 2 or so months pregnant with ds.  I am now 10 weeks pregnant and ds is showing no signs of giving up the boob.  He's 26 mos old and still nurses mornings and most nights.  He just night weaned the month before his second birthday.  I work full time out of the house as an attorney.

[Ellien C]

I BF my daughter until she was 4.5 yo (and in day care still)  when I mommy-led weaned her because I was really done then. I'm now BF my son who is 14 months. We'll keep on until one of us is ready to quit.

I didn't have much trouble weaning her from the bottle only. It was kind of a day care thing anyone (no need for one at home). And they just sort of phased it out. I don't recall it being any issue at all.

Like others, I was pretty private about it at the time, although I'm a bit more vocal now about my daughter.

[Sharlla]

I BF my 16 month old and will until after shes 2.  i stopped pumping a couple months ago though

[liberal_chick]

Originally Posted by honeybunmom 

I went back to work when each of my children were 6 mos old.  I exclusively breastfed them until 12 mos.  I hang up the pump at 12 mos!  Then, my daughter continued to nurse until she was 34 mos and I was 2 or so months pregnant with ds.  I am now 10 weeks pregnant and ds is showing no signs of giving up the boob.  He's 26 mos old and still nurses mornings and most nights.  He just night weaned the month before his second birthday.  I work full time out of the house as an attorney.

 This is what I hope to do.  My ds is currently 8.5 months old and my plan is to quit pumping after his first birthday but to keep nursing him whenever he wants while I'm at home.

Perhaps I'll be joining this thread officially in October!

[~pi]

I've been WOH since DS was 6 months. He's nearly 5yo now and has nursed through all sorts of WOHM issues, including a heavy travel schedule for the last two years and half of a pregnancy so far.

Welcome to MDC!

[dakover]

Good to hear from the last few of you who've posted!  I travel occasionally for work, but usually for pretty short trips and I actually brought my fam with me on one of the trips and made it into a vacation.  Also good to hear from you ~pi that your DS is 5 and still going thru another pregnancy so far...that's what I'm hoping for!  Thanks everyone!

[LilMomma83]

DS1 got bottles of formula at daycare (I was never a great pumper), but, we nursed at home until he was around 3...when I believe he self weaned...I don't even really know when he stopped lol...it was like I just suddenly realized it had been a month or more since he had asked to nurse; I asked him if he wanted to and he said he didn't! LOL

[t2009]

Wow! Good for those of you who pumped past a year. I was so ready to be done pumping... I think at 11 1/2 months I started sneaking some cow's milk in with my breast milk... I was THAT ready to be done with the pump! I cringe thinking about that torture device...

Luckily, DS continued to nurse happily after I stopped pumping & is still nursing at 26 months. I'm home more now (working part-time until I start a new job in the fall), so he seems to be taking advantage of that & is nursing a lot during the days. I don't see it stopping anytime soon, especially with a number of transitions coming up (moving, new job for mama, just growing). We'll see!

[Anna Phor]

egmaranian, we tried to shift him to milk in the sippy and he would have none of it! So we subbed out BM for cow's milk in the bottle, and then moved him on to the sippy a few months after that.

[_betsy_]

I went back to work at 7 weeks PP with my first, and she nursed till 20 months, when I was in my first trimester with my second. She was just done, and so was I. I pumped until about 18 months, found out I was PG and stopped, she quit soon after that. She had been down to nursing once a day at that point anyways.

With DD2 I went back to work at 11 weeks PP, and she's 2.5 and still nursing once a day. I stopped pumping months ago, and she still nurses to sleep for her nap. (I work nights.)

My coworkers had NO IDEA what I was doing, where I was going, what was in my bag... maybe they were just clueless young/non-parents, but really, no one cared, noticed or said anything, ever. And we have an open, no cubicle desk farm office, so everyone sees everyone's coming and goings.

My employer was VERY helpful, providing a dedicated, discrete, locked space with a couch, table and mini fridge, near the ladies room. If I didn't have that lactation room and HR's and my boss's blessing to pump whenever and how ever frequently I needed to, I never would have made it to 18+ months with either of them.

To get them off the bottle, we went cold turkey with both. With DD1 we went on vacation and told her we didn't bring any bottles, and she took milk in a sippy and was fine. She had been drinking water in sippy for months and milk sometimes, too, without a problem. We just switched fully to sippies. With DD2, DH was home with her (again, I work nights, and she was down to one before-bed bottle) and was emptying the dishwasher when he pulled out a bottle, smelled it, was grossed out, let her smell it - and that was the end of bottles for her. We let them both have a bottle well past the one-year mark that peds recommend taking them off bottles by. Neither was ready to give up the bottle at age 1.