Should I be pumping?

I think it wouldn't hurt to pump maybe once while you're at work. I personally would much rather my kids drink momma milk rather than cow's milk. If you have a break or two where you can pump, that would be great.

These kiddos especially need momma milk when momma works out of the home, since we bring germs home.

I'd definately pump once or twice at work. Eventually you're production will adjust if you decide not to pump, but I'd hate for you to get an infection. I'm sure your daughter will love having the extra mommy milk too. Also, it will keep your supply up and you'll have extra for her in case she gets sick. (I don't usually base things on the "what if's" of life, but when my daughter was just over one she contracted e coli and it would have been so, so much worse if she wasn't still nursing and getting that good breastmilk.)

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Well, yes and no. We may bring germs home, but just a few nursing sessions a day will take care of all the antibodies the child needs.

I would urge you to bring a pump with you to pump if you get uncomfortable. Do you have time to express milk at work? Do you mind? If you don't mind the pumping, by all means do so. How long have you been back to work? You may find that in a few weeks your body will settle into a pattern where the days are not uncomfortable anymore. If you find that you have supply problems when you are home, then that may be a reason to pump at work as well. Personally, I stopped pumping when my daughter was about 13 months, and I haven't had any supply problems when we're together.

If you are ok with the amount and balance of foods your child eats, then I wouldn't worry about pumping too much. It sounds like your daughter is still getting a lot of mama's milk.

You could pump, but that will send the signal to your body to keep producing a certain volume of milk during the day and you'll have to keep pumping. I had to go back to work when my son was 11 weeks old and I pumped until shortly after his first birthday. At that point, I was just very tired of pumping and ready to be done with it, so I switched him to organic cow's milk at the sitter's. I tried to taper off of pumping so that I wouldn't get full, but a number of events happened (sickness, travel, hurricane) that kept me at home with DS for 4-5 days a time around then, so I ended up going more cold turkey on pumping than I originally planned. For a few weeks, I did get pretty full by the end of the day. One time I had to hand-express some milk because I was in pain. But my body adjusted, and the fullness went away. And I always seem to have enough for DS still on the weekends still. Our night/weekends nursing relationship is as strong as ever!

Good luck.