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BFing: 1 yo & returning to work ?

Zoe'sMamaZoe'sMama
in Attachment Parenting

I've been really lucky to stay home with DD so long, but now my time is up and I'm headed back to work. DD is still nursing 5-6x/day, with about 4 of those falling during working hours. If she were little, there'd be no question about pumping like crazy at work and sending EBM to daycare with her. But she'll be 1 yo (!) when she starts, so should I back off on the daytime feedings? I have no desire to ween her, but is it crazy to try and keep up this schedule? I'd like to keep those morning and evening sessions as long as possible, I'm just unsure of how to handle the days. 

Also, I've always pumped a little at home with the manual pump to keep a rather puny freezer stash. If I'm pumping at work, should I go rent a powered one? I've definitely noticed that I get less with the manual that I used to.  

Ugh- I'm not looking forward to this at all.   :( 

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Re: BFing: 1 yo & returning to work ?

  • Harper'smomHarper'smom
    If you are going to pump at work you need to get a double electric. Renting a hospital grade pump will give you the best yield. I would not advise just dropping your day time feedings even if you give lo cows milk while you are at work. Even if you do not pump for long I would use it to wean your body from producing as much during the day. I've been pumping at work for 17mos so perhaps this is not the most objective advice...Good luck, I know it it can be a tough transition.
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  • KateLouiseKateLouise member

    I'll be facing the same decision when I return to work in January.

    My creche is on grounds at work so I do have the option to pop down and nurse her during the day, and the daycare staff are very encouraging of this. 

    The reality of my job, however, means I simply may not be available at the same time every day to nurse her.

    At this stage I'm leaning towards nursing her in the morning and evening (and possibly mid afternoon as I'm a high school teacher and so can walk out the door at 3.30pm most days) but giving her cows milk for during the day.

    I could send formula along, but for some reason I'm resistant to this, I need to do more research on it. 

    The idea of pumping during the day, at work,  sounds awful to me. It would mean doing it in our scummy toilets or in my scummy office with students banging on my door ughh.

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  • penguinempenguinem member
    I am still bf 3x per day and 1-2 at night but stopped pumping at work at age 1. DD nurses when she wakes up, has a cup of soy milk around noon, and then nurses when inget home from work and before bed. She still wakes 1-2 times. The nice thing about starting at 1 is that you can always Offer other foods instead of relying on bm as the only sustanence. My DH is a SAHD so he really helped me figure out a schedule that worked for us both, but even with DC there will be a schedule the other kids are on and she may naturally fall into eating less bm during the day if you're not available. That's what happened to us!
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  • Lotte134Lotte134

    You don't have to pump if you don't want to.  I went back to work when DS was 3 months old and pumped until he was a year.  Since then I've just been nursing him when I'm home.  It started out as pretty much all the time when I was home, but over the past 6 months or so I've managed to cut sessions so he now only nurses before bed (if I put him to bed, if DH does then he skips this session), when he wakes up, and before his nap on the weekend.  He drinks cows milk the rest of the time.  I would bring your manual pump with you the first few weeks so you can relieve any engorgement that occurs, but your supply will adjust quickly.  And of course if you want to pump that's totally fine!  I just wanted to let you know that it's not necessary and stopping pumping doesn't mean weaning will happen.

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  • makclairmakclair member

    I never pumped at work after a year- I went back around 7 weeks, but stopped pumping at 11.5 months totally and continued to nurse morning and night till he was 19.5 months old.

     

    SO you definately don't have to pump.

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  • anna7602anna7602 member

    I agree with Harper's Mom, you are probably going to want to pump for some amount of time at the beginning just for your own comfort. It's not a great idea to just jump from all those feedings during the day to nothing, but I don't think you need to wean him from the daytime feedings right now, either. If your workplace is pumping-friendly (not everyone is), consider pumping at the beginning, even if you'll be giving LO other milk during the day.

    Also, I nursed until DD was 25 months old, but when I was away from her, she didn't drink an amount of milk equivalent to what I thought she was getting when I nursed her. There were many, many days when she didn't drink any kind of milk at all if I wasn't with her.

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