Full-time working mom trying to keep up

[happay]

My son is 16 weeks old. He has had nothing but breastmilk. I returned to work when he was 8 weeks old. I have no other option and I can't leave work to feed him during the day. I pump at work 2 or 3 times a day but usually only get 8 ounces total. When I pump in the evenings, I get pretty much nothing.

When I am not with Elias he has been getting my milk from a bottle. But, he has suddenly started eating twice as much as he was before and I can't keep up. He is over 16 pounds and has plenty of poopy (goes every morning) and wet diapers so I have never worried about him getting enough to eat before.

I'm not sure what to do now. I have not taken any supplements so I have a question about that - will they increase the amount of milk I get out during a pumping session? I have never been able to get more than 4 ounces at a time.

Second question - If I send more bottles to the day care with smaller amounts in each bottle will he eat less during the day? I had been sending 8 ounce bottles and he is downing all of the milk at one time.

I'm just so confused and worried, I don't want to give him formula. I am allergic to milk and I don't want to find out if he is too until he is older.

[JennP]

First thing I would do is make up 2 or 3 smaller bottles. Somebabies will eat from a bottle till milk stops dripping in their mouths.

My dd has always taken 4 oz bottles. If your ds is not satisifed you could always freeze some milk in an ice cube tray 1 cube = 1 oz. They are quick to thaw and can be added if ds is still hungry.

If you need to pump more milk you might try adding a session, maybe you could feed ds at home in the am then pump before going to work. Other options might be some herbs or Mother's Milk Tea. I have also heard that eating oatmeal can help.

Good luck
JennP

[A&L+1]

I am having a similar problem and I am trying to approach it in two ways; increase supply and control demand.

I pump three times a day at work and then once again before bed because my baby sleeps through the night. Recently my baby upped the amount that she eats each day while I am at work and I resorted to using a lot of my freezer stash. Now I am pumping 4 times per day at work plus once before bed. It has increased my production a little so I expect that over time this will be successful. I just started taking More Milk Plus today and I am considering eating oatmeal everyday too.

At the same time, my partner is testing to see if our baby will take less in her bottle if she only gives her 4 oz. at a time. That seems to be helping too.

It's a struggle to figure this out...being a working mom adds a lot of difficulties to mothering but I know it can be done!

Let me know what works for you.

[Geofizz]

s. Pumping at work can be quite a trial. You sound pretty well informed about pumping issues, so I'm assuming you know the basics.

(1) Do you have a double electric pump? If not, look into getting one.
(2) Is the pump in good working order? Take it apart, wiggle the pieces, make sure everything is working.
(3) when your child goes through a growth spurt, he'll also start sucking with a different force and frequency. Play with the suction strength and rate. You may find that your optimal settings have changed.
(4) I swear by oatmeal. Everyday.

Originally Posted by happay

I'm not sure what to do now. I have not taken any supplements so I have a question about that - will they increase the amount of milk I get out during a pumping session? I have never been able to get more than 4 ounces at a time.

Here are some additional tips I wrote up a while ago. Maybe you can find something there to help.

Second question - If I send more bottles to the day care with smaller amounts in each bottle will he eat less during the day? I had been sending 8 ounce bottles and he is downing all of the milk at one time.

This will most likely help. Also, you may want to call the dc when you're about ready to head over to pick him up so they don't end up feeding him right before you get there. Talk to the dcps about how they are giving the milk. Ask them to keep him fed, by all means, but talk to them about the supply and let them know that he should be fed smaller quantities more frequently than larger quantities less often. They are most likely used to working with formula-fed kids, who seem to take a lot just a few times a day.

[Eman'smom]

First yes smaller bottles.

I had a very demanding schedule and could pump only twice during my work day.

I drank abundant milk tea www.growinglife.com it's kind of yucky but I made it half strength and it wasn't bad. Also oatmeal every morning for breakfast, make some oatmeal cookies too.

Pump as much as you can, this is what I'd do. I'd pump first thing in the morning before work, I had to get up so early that dd wasn't awake yet. Then I'd pump again 30 minutes later in the car while driving, you can get a car adaptor for the pump and a special bra. Then I'd pump at lunch, then my prep, and then on the car ride home.

Your body eventually will figure out when you are asking it for milk and start responding, I would get 4 ounces in the car even though I had just pumped 30 minutes earlier, my body learned "the baby must be hungry" early in the morning LOL. Also make the pumping sessions as long as you can, if you are pumping for 10 minutes make it 15, if you are pumping for 15 add even a minute or two, in the begining you might not be getting any more milk but your body will start responding.

Oh and congratulations on giving your baby the best milk in the world Working and pumping is hard work but oh so worth it.

[happay]

Thanks for all the advice everyone! I did make smaller bottles for Elias today and I had a talk with the day care workers. I did leave extra frozen milk for him but left instructions that it was only as back up.

Eman'smom, I love the idea of pumping in the car. Luckily, my DH and I work at the same place (well he's a student and I work at the university) so we drive in together. Maybe he will let me pump in the car on the way in. That's such a good idea! Thank you!

[Janice in Canada]

I would suggest trying to add a pumping session in the very early morning - perhaps you could wake up before baby, and pump, and then nurse the baby when he wakes. My baby was a good sleeper and I'd often wake up engorged and soaked, to that was a great time to express.

When I was hand-expressing before returning to work, I always found that I had a lot of milk in the morning. By evening, I felt drained and dry.

Are you co-sleeping? that was my savior when working - baby would nurse at night, and then less during the day - its called reverse cycling.

Janice

[Benji'sMom]

I agree that you should try smaller bottles. My son took 4 oz bottles till very recently and he was satisfied with them. He was close to 7 months old before he went up to 6 oz at a time. I've noticed he'll often drink till the bottles empty, but if I try to give him another bottle he doesn't want it. So I think just because he's drinking it, that doesn't mean he couldn't get along well with less.

Oh, if you want more info on reverse cycling, I think the book Nursing Mother, Working Mother has info on how to do that.

[Eman'smom]

Also if you do a morning/evening pump do it on the weekends too, not only does it keep your supply up but you can get extra for those hungry days.

[jraohc]

My dd has always eaten a lot at daycare (she's been there for two months - she's 5 months old now). Smaller bottles definitely help. I also find that every few weeks I have to remind them what she should be eating because they slowly add more and more to her feedings. At first she was doing 4 bottles of 3 ounces each. Then she was doing 3 bottles of 4 ounces (okay, same amount of food). Then it turned into 4 bottles of 4 ounces. Then it was suddenly 20 ounces in a day. My mom watched her for a few days and she only had 12 ounces in a day. So, when she went back to daycare I told them to try to keep it to 3 bottles of 4 ounces and gave them specific times to feed her based on my mom's experience. I'd much rather have her fed on demand, but daycare can obviously not handle that. So often she just wants to be held and they were feeding her in addition. Good luck!

[happay]

jroahc - question - what times did you have them feed her? I think this is one of the biggest issues. Elias has been fed on demand but I don't think that's going to work with the daycare. I just don't have a good idea of what times he should be fed.

I am also going to ask them to not feed him after 4 pm. I pick him up at a little after 5 pm and yesterday they had fed him 4 ounces at 4:30. He always wants to nurse when he sees me so he still nursed when we got home but he ate way more than he needed to yesterday because of that. I was a little irritated at them for giving him the milk too because it was an 8 once container of frozen milk that they defrosted and put all of it into a bottle. So, the other 4 ounces were wasted :

I don't think that night time feeding is going to be an option for me. It just drains me and then I can't get anything done at work. I have a thinking job, I hardly move from my desk during the day. If my brain is not rested, I can't get anything done. Yesterday I did get more than I normally do by increasing the number of times that I pump. I had started that earlier in the week and I think that I just started seeing the results yesterday. I was so happy with my 16 ounces!

[Ellien C]

Hapay-

Keep going, keep pumping, keep nursing. I don't have anything else to add beyond what's already been given. I work at a "high thought" job too, chained to a desk all day. My day was pretty flexible, so I could pump when I needed to. It does get easier.

Also, I got to a point (probably after 6 months though) where I stopped "measuring myself" by what flowed into those little bottles and bags. It was destructive to my confidence. Trust in your body. It WILL work out. I think the babies can just suck MORE out when they are home. Remember, if you weren't pumping, you wouldn't even know how much he was eating. Keep going. It's totally worth it.

[jstar]

do you have pictures of your son to look at while you're pumping? i find that really helps me. and i was skeptical at first when i read that in books. but i noticed that if i'm talking about my ds i'll have a letdown boob contraction and leak some milk (mine are quite strong and painful). so i look at my pictures and think about him when i'm pumping. i don't look at the milk coming out or anything. just meditate and relax and think of your bebe

i have backup formula (horizon organic) at daycare in case my ds runs out of breastmilk if he has a very hungry day. we have no allergies at all on either side of the family though so he hasn't had any problems. he's only had it a few times and they mixed it with the bm if they could see he was going to run out. its better than a hungry baby imho

[jraohc]

Well, I thought we had solved the daycare problems, but apparently not. When I got to daycare on Friday I was told by the director that dd was hungry and the teachers were trying to not feed her based on the schedule and that she needs to eat more. In addition I was told that babies often need more at daycare than at home - that they need more calories. Has anyone ever heard this before? It sounds sort of reasonable, but since it was followed by "you should start solids" and solids have less calories than breastmilk I doubt that the daycare director really knows anything about this.

As for the schedule, when grandma babysat she noticed that dd liked to eat at approximately the same time every day. I had also begun noticing a trend. Finally, daycare provides me with information on when she's eating each day. I just used all of the information to decide approximatly when dd likes to eat.

I haven't had supply issues so far. My concern is that they are completely overfeeding dd. I have never placed a restriction on how late in the day they should feed her. Fortunately my dd is okay with being held when she gets home if she has just eaten. Could you try that on days when they feed baby too late?

Good luck!

[happay]

jstar - I know what you mean about painful let down. I have heard of bringing in pictures and plan to do that. I have noticed when I think about the baby I get more milk so I spend my pumping time thinking about how he looked that morning or the last time that I fed him.

jraohc - I'm sorry that you had to get news like that on Friday. I don't really see the connection between day care and needing more food, except that they just feed them more food! I wish that I could find a pattern in when Elias eats, but he doesn't have one - at all.

Anyway, I'm still avoiding the formula but it's getting harder everyday. Especially when I do something stupid, like try to pour milk into a bottle that doesn't have the bag in it yet and lose it all on the counter. Or, forget to take my milk out of my lunch box on Friday and find out about it on Monday. Yeah, I've had a 1 star day today. Hopefully tomorrow will be 5.

[Geofizz]

Originally Posted by happay

Anyway, I'm still avoiding the formula but it's getting harder everyday. Especially when I do something stupid, like try to pour milk into a bottle that doesn't have the bag in it yet and lose it all on the counter. Or, forget to take my milk out of my lunch box on Friday and find out about it on Monday. Yeah, I've had a 1 star day today. Hopefully tomorrow will be 5.

Oh, you poor thing!

My winner is not screwing the tops on the bottles and tossing the bag into my backpack with my laptop. 6 oz of breastmilk in a laptop does nothing good to the computer.

Keep at it, mama!

Can you add morning pumps?