May 2020 Moms

Feeding

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Re: Feeding

  • @pirateduck, in my case my DD started refusing the breast at 12 1/2 months. I introduced cows milk at 12 months and she loved the cold milk! I would have loved to kept going beyond 12 months, but overall it was a good chunk of time. 

    Many have said most of the good advice/concerns/challenges here. I think once you get past the first few weeks, it becomes a much more enjoyable and convenient experience. Once we had hit our stride I loved our moments together.

    For STMs, was the breastfeeding experience different/similar between babies?
    ******TW******Siggy warning
    BFP1 04/24/2015 EDD Dec 2015 MMC 10W5d;
    BFP 2 09/25/2015 EDD June 2016 MMC 9wks; 
    BFP 3 03/22/2016 EDD Dec 6th 2016 

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  • I know many women go back to work after baby is born.  Where did you pump at work?  What kind of accommodations did you employer make for you?
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  • @pirateduck I believe it’s a federal law that your company has to provide you a room to pump along with available refrigeration. I was in Washington state with DD and that was true. So when I came back to work they had picked a conference room to remove from the available rooms and added extra blinds and a mini fridge. Bonus for me: they had a computer and phone in that room so I worked during pumping sometimes when needed. 
    At my current job, I have an office with the door window as the only window and the ability to lock the door. So I’ll just be requesting a mini fridge in my office. 
  • The federal law actually only applies to non-exempt employees (those employees that the Fair Labor Standards Act applies to). Many "professional" employees are exempt (if you aren't required to be paid overtime, essentially). However, I don't think many companies draw that distinction in their pumping policies, thankfully. The federal law also does not say anything about refrigeration. Another misconception is that you have to be paid for your pumping breaks. This is not true. They don't have to pay you for any more break time than anyone else gets. So if you get a paid lunch and pump then, they have to pay you for that time. If you take two other breaks to pump, they can make you clock out for them. 

    https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/fact-sheets/73-flsa-break-time-nursing-mothers

    I worked for a tiny nonprofit that had an office on a shared floor. The front desk people on the floor would have to open an empty office for me. I would store my milk in my lunchbox in the regular office fridge. My boss didn't care at all that I left to pump 2x/day (the other pumping time was during lunch.) 
    DD #1: April 2017
    DD #2: May 2020
    Baby #3: EDD May 2023; MC October 2022

  • +1 for storing milk in my lunchbox in the fridge at work. I had an office door that didn't even lock. I'd just put up a post-it asking for privacy. I've heard of some employers clearing out closets to accommodate. I often had to pump in my car when traveling, even though I was working. I was never offered (nor did I ask, to be fair) breaks for pumping. I just did it when I needed to in the most private place I could find.
  • I am 100000% in the "fed is best" camp. I didn't have any traumatic experiences while BFing, but there are so many things that are challenging about parenting and having a newborn that if you need to make one of them easier on yourself and especially on your baby, absolutely do it. It's so much better for your baby to get the nutrition they need than to try to force BFing if it's not working for you.

    Personally, I BFed DD for about 9 months before she quit. Like others have said, she grew to prefer the bottle and the ability to look around and didn't have the patience to nurse. I was fine with it because it allowed me to quit pumping at work.

    Speaking of which, I went back to work when she was 3 months old. I have an office inside my classroom, so I put up a curtain on my office window and would draw the curtain and lock the door while pumping. I'd usually pump 3x a day: 8:45 AM, 12 PM, and 3:45 PM (before students came, at lunch, and after students were gone). I also have a mini fridge in my office. I had an Ameda pump, which was free through my Kaiser insurance, but it wasn't very good and I think it contributed to my supply dropping when I went back to work and was mostly pumping rather than mostly BFing. A month or so into going back, I started needing to supplement her prepared bottles with formula, however much was needed in addition to the breast milk to get each bottle to 5 oz. Over the next few months I found myself having to add more and more formula as I produced less and less milk during pumping sessions. That is one of the reasons I plan to spend the money out of pocket for a Spectra pump this time around––I think a better quality pump will help us go longer, and it is nice to have the convenience of BFing anywhere and avoiding the expense of formula and carrying it around everywhere. But if that's what ends up being best for my baby, that's what we'll do.
  • @soprano19 I had the spectra2 free through insurance and loved it, though I wished I had the 
    S1 occasionally when the nurses office was occupied and I had to find another place to pump. I don't know what next year will be like now that I have multiple classrooms and there aren't free rooms now that we consolidated to one school pk-12. I plan at looking at the costs of some of the handsfree ones because I think I'll get walked in on a lot more at this school. 
  • Every single woman I know has had trouble breastfeeding their first baby. It seems to go much better the second time around. For me, my son had trouble with weight gain and I did the breastfeed, pump, refeed process for six weeks which was miserable at the urging of our lactation consultant. When I couldn’t keep that up any longer, We ended up doing a formula chaser after each feed and this got his weight and strength up to the point where he could suck more effectively. Supplementing with formula can be frowned upon, but I think it saved our breastfeeding relationship. We never had any problems going back and forth from bottle to breast. I ended up breastfeeding nine months and My son got formula at day care or when with daddy because I didn’t pump enough milk to supply him fully. For us, the combo life was the best solution, so I encourage women to be less black and white when considering their options. Now that I’m having three they will definitely be combo fed because I will have more babies than I do breasts! 
  • Not sure if this is a product spotlight or just a feeding question in general. If I get the babybrezza Formula Dispenser do I also need a bottle warmer or does the formula come out warm enough? 
    How warm should baby’s bottle be anyway?
    Sorry FTM questions!
  • @babyfoxden10 I didn’t use the breeza so I’m not sure if it warms. If I were you I would try to feed the baby room temp or cold bottles first. They may take to them and then you don’t have to worry about warming. Otherwise you can just do a coffee mug of warm water and put the bottles in that to warm.
    _______________________________________________
    TTC#1 July 2015 
    • BFP: 9/16/15 — MC: 11/8/15 Blighted Ovum
    • BFP: 3/10/16 — Baby Girl born 11/20/16
    TTC#2 April 2019 
    • BFP: 9/12/19 — EDD 5/15/20

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