Did anyone of you pump milk while at office... please give your suggestions and tips

Re: Did anyone of you pump milk while at office... please give your suggestions and t

i expressed milk when my baby was 3rd month because i had to return to work when he was 5th month begin .... i express twice at work and once at evening after i fed him directly ... more often you pump you will get more milk .... i didnt know the secret ... i learnt it hard lesson .. unfortunately i fed my baby with mothers milk until 9th month only

 

Re: Did anyone of you pump milk while at office... please give your suggestions and t

Hi shashiprp,

I am pumping @ work currently. Was back to work when DD is 3 months old.
Now actively pumping @ work. This is what I did. when I bought the pump, I pumped once a day for 2-3 days to get a feel of it. @ that time my baby was 4 weeks old. She was taking bottle without much fuzz. Then I stopped pumping and directly fed her till one week before return to work, hoping she will take the bottle effortlessly . From last one week, I pumped once and gave her bottle to get her used to the bottle. But she did not take bottle as easy as it was before. But by 3rd or 4 th day, she started to take bottle. I would suggest you to give bottle once in a while or once in a week to avoid struggle. But don't exclusively bottle feed or give majority from the bottle. I guess babies will prefer bottles then.i think, because I directly fed most of the day, my DD prefers direct feed than bottle even now ( she is 5 months old now). I know many of my of friends turned to exclusive pumpers after going back to work, as the baby prefers bottle. They all used to give more/ same number of bottle feeds compared to direct feed for getting the baby familiarize with the bottle from a very young age.

Coming back to your questions.
1)I started pumping 2 weeks before joining to work. I pumped one side (so that baby can have from other side)once in e morning and saved the milk in the freezer, in the fear that what if my pumped milk is not enouh for her. I pumped in the morning because, supply will be more in the morning. One thing I used to do is I will give only one side to the baby whole night so that there will be ample milk to pump and store.

2) when I got back to the work. I used to pump one side in the morning, and twice from office( first @ 11. 30 and secong at(4 or 4.30). You can space the timing according to your convenience. It's better to pump at least twice or thrice at work to maintain supply ( this is my ped's advice). Before I leave to work, I will feed her and start.

I am no longer pumping in the morning as it turns out that there was more than enough milk and my freezer is full.

I would suggest you to get a handsfree bra for pumping. It will be very helpful.
Avoid bottles when you are at home. This way you don't have to worry about supply+ less work/ cleaning. From my experience, if you directly feed the baby after work + weekend, the supply will be at par with demand. My baby is EBF till now.