When did BFing and pumping at work become hard?

murphyec · January 2009

So far, it is a mild annoyance, but nothing too bad. Was there a point where you just hit a wall and had to work your way through it?

molldoll71 · January 2009

I think when Billy was 9 months - it got to be a pain and then when he was just about 11 months and I started having supply issues so it was stressful and I was also pumping 4 times a day to try get enough - that's when I began hating it. But I pumped until he turned a year and it's one of the things I am most proud of.

MKE6115 · January 2009

It depends on your work/work environment. Some days I didn't even get a break until the end of my shift so I was stressing that I didn't pump for 8 hours and then DS wouldn't have enough milk for the next day. I took it 3 months at a time. There are always good weeks and bad weeks.

beckys96 · January 2009

When I got to about 7 months. I hated to pump and was barely getting anything. I made it to 8 months. My 1st goal was 6 so I passed that.

GL

momofolivia · January 2009

9 month supply dip was stressful, but otherwise I think it got easier as I went along.

bluecookie · January 2009

Pumping was the most difficult for me when DS was around 5 months old. He was consuming up to 22.5 oz of BM while at daycare and I was pumping around 18 oz a day while at work. I had to dip into my freezer stash and was pumping before I went to bed and on the weekends in order to catch up. I was stressed about not keeping up and made the decision to start DS on solids when he was a little over 5 months old (I had hoped to EBF until 6 months). DS is now 9 months old and gets both solids and BM. I pump more than he drinks, so I think I'll be okay until I wean him.

Even though it has been difficult and stressful, I think it is worth it.

ai&Jas · January 2009

I was getting close to quitting at the 7 month mark as my supply really dipped and I really had to dip into my frozen stash. Knowing i did have milk stored up did take some of the stress off but for quite a few weeks i was pretty close to tears! Also hitting the 11th month mark was tough because I knew the end was in sight and by then I was really tired of the pumping sessions since i had major deadlines at work. But I just kept pushing through and today we made it to a year! Its been stressful and a real pain in my butt but totally worth it!

flyer23 · January 2009

Yes, there were lots of points like that Smile I had a challenging work schedule due to occasional onsite customer visits, so it wasn't too bad when I was at home but any customer visit day was a huge PITA. I also had supply dips every few weeks throughout the last few months, and that was tough to work through.

I would say that months 5-7 were the hardest. By 8 months of age, she was pretty well-established on solids and I was able to drop a pumping session (from 4x/day to 3x/day) and pump less on customer visit days without having to worry too much about my supply. The occasional supply dip did scare me, but I always recovered within a few days.

azuremama · January 2009

For me, the hardest part was right around 5-7 months. That's when he was eating the most and I was struggling to keep up. Now he's drinking way less milk since he's on solids.

I don't know that pumping is hard for me now, necessarily. I have an office and I can pump while I work, and I have my routine down. It's just tedious to have to do it every day and I feel like I'm hooked up to the pump all. the. time. Some days it's bad if I have meetings. And I don't like having to think ahead about when I'll have to pump, etc.

I just feel tired all the time, though. My coworker just stopped nursing and pumping and said she got a lot of energy back, so I'm hopeful that in a few months, I'll feel better.

Pesky · January 2009

Early -- about 3 months. I was not a big producer by any stretch of the imagination and I was only able to pump small amounts that could not keep up with DD's demand which swung up again about 3 months. It was really disheartening to spend the time to pump (15-20 minutes) and only get 3-4 oz max. I finally just accepted what it was and began a slow wean, just BFing at night and in the morning and that was working well for everyone. I finally went to 100% FF at 4 mos.

energyzer · January 2009

Around 9 months. It got harder and harder to fit it in at work and I was so tired of pumping. I did make it to 12 months though and he self-weaned.

roseroseroseroserose · January 2009

It was never a problem for me. I just pumped once a day from 8-11 mos and stopped pumping at 11 mos. No biggie. I am lucky, I guess.

When did BFing and pumping at work become hard?

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