#expressingmilk

[rachelcarpediem]

Early morning routine ... #workingmum #expressingmilk #medela #breastisbest #tfifriday ... Thankyou @louizakilcawley for the loan of the pump, you have been a lifesaver xxx

[graciouslittlethings]

Balancing between Work and Expressing Breastmilk in the Office

In conjunction with Baby Dozer’s upcoming 1st birthday, Gracious Little Things and Tiny Tapir are teaming up to give away GroVia cloth diapers worth RM240 each! This giveaway ends 31 July so find out how you can win them here! 

I am so thankful that I have very understanding colleagues and bosses. When I first returned to work, I had to express my milk every 3 hours. Needless to say, it was so disruptive to my work schedule. 

Today’s post is more about how to strike that balance between coping with the workload, observing eyes of the colleagues and needing to express milk at work! 

You probably know the standard tips: express before work, during the lunch hour, etc, so here are a few other tips which I found worked for me. Every Mummy is different so do use your creativity to tweak and adapt to what works best for you!

1. Express frequently but for shorter durations, rather than for half an hour every 4 - 5 hours

I practised this when Baby Dozer was below 6 months old. Each expressing duration was only for 10 minutes. That way, I didn’t ‘disappear’ too long from my workstation. Also, I was EXTREMELY worried about my milk supply. I had just enough for Baby Dozer with only a few bags spare in the freezer. I realised that expressing frequently, i.e. no longer than 3-hour intervals helped me to maintain that supply. Also, Baby Dozer was and still is, feeding once every 3 hours so expressing on a 3-hourly schedule matched his feeding pattern. These days, I express 4-hourly.

2. Bundle your disruptive activities together AND multitask

Initially, I felt so frustrated because just when I had started getting into the rhythm of my work and was on a roll, it would be TIME TO EXPRESS!!! I felt like I couldn’t concentrate at all. So, what I did was to bundle all my disruptive activities together as much as possible. This means planning my washroom break, snack time and expressing time all together so that it is less disruptive to my work. And I really mean TOGETHER. These are some of the things I’ve done while expressing: snacking (to the amusement of the other mothers in the Mothers’ Room), working on my laptop and phone meeting! Once I’m done with all these, I can get back to work uninterrupted for a longer period.

3. Plan my meetings 

The nature of my job requires me to have quite a number of discussions and meetings with various people. As much as possible, I tried to seek my colleagues’ understanding to plan the meeting / discussion times to fit my expressing schedule. The BEST way I found, was to try and have meetings IMMEDIATELY after or before expressing. Remember point no. 2? Bundle all disruptive activities together.

4. Pack lunch

Sacrifices are required and to catch up on work, I had to compromise on my lunch break. Initially, I would ask colleagues to help me buy my lunch back to the office, but soon I started packing my lunch from home. I found this to be healthier and easier because I have a very restrictive diet due to my own allergies and Baby Dozer’s allergies. You can read more about this here. 

5. Refrigerate the breastpump parts to save washing time

I’m probably going to get bashed for this, but…it worked for ME. Before Baby Dozer turned 6 months old, I painstakingly washed the pump parts and rinsed them with hot water each and every time I completed a pumping session. Once Baby Dozer started his solids at 6 months old, I decided that there was not much point in sterilising his bottles after EVERY use, so I started refrigerating the breastpump parts instead. 

Here’s how I did it. After each pumping session, I would wipe the parts dry with tissue and then place them in a Tupperware box. This box would be kept in the refrigerator in the Mothers’ Room until the next expressing session. 

What can I say, life certainly isn’t easy for women! So, if you’re a breastfeeding working mum just like me, you’re awesome!

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[graciouslittlethings]

How I Settled Into a Milk Expressing Routine at Work and the Magic Expressing Schedule

I think one of the hardest things to get used to when I returned to work after my 2-month maternity break was the need to express milk. I found it disruptive, tiring and inconvenient. Then, there were the worries. Worrying about how my boss and colleagues would feel about my need to regularly express and what would happen to my milk supply if I was irregularly expressing. 

I guess the golden question that every working mother has is…

What is the best pumping schedule at work?

Well finally, after Baby Dozer hit 8 months, I perfected my Magic Expressing Schedule that works wonderfully. 

So, what’s this Magic Schedule? 

It’s basically a….

FIXED PUMPING SCHEDULE! 

Below 6 Months (expressing 3-hourly)

7:30 am

10:30 am

1:30 pm

4:30 pm

6 - 8 Months Onwards (expressing 4-hourly)

8:00 am

12:00 pm

4:00 pm

7:30am / 8:00am: Before starting work, hence no disruption to work.

10:30am: Time to take a restroom break and do a quick 10 - 15 minute pump.

12pm: Just before going off for lunch so again, no disruption to work

1:30pm: After your lunch break, so no disruption to work as well. 

4:00pm / 4:30pm: It’s about time to wind down and get ready to wrap up to leave so minimal disruption to work

I’ll tell you why this schedule works beautifully. 

Minimal disruption to work, I think you’ve figured this one out already

Expressing at 4:00pm allows me to have enough milk to let Baby Dozer directly latch on for his next feed somewhere between 7:00pm - 8:00pm

Fixing my expressing times allows me to plan my work better. This means better efficiency at work and setting up a routine which is easy to get used to over time. Also, when given a choice, I can arrange meeting times that fit this expressing schedule

Another plus point about fixing my expressing times is that my body “knows” that I’ll be pumping at these times and I’ve noticed less incidents of engorgement. Before this, I had a rather erratic pumping schedule at work and as a result, I often experienced that “overly full” feeling if I didn’t pump out my milk regularly

On hindsight, I would have hit upon this magic schedule earlier if I’d done the following:

Step 1: Fix baby’s sleeping time

Every article, book and well-meaning mother will tell you this but somehow I never practised it religiously until not too long ago. A couple of months ago, I decided to fix Baby Dozer’s bed time at 8:00pm - 9:00pm. I’ve found that it works REALLY well because all the adults get their own time after Baby Dozer sleeps and Hubs and me still get to spend time with him after work. Once I fixed Baby Dozer’s sleeping time, I found that his feeding times became more or less fixed as well. 

Step 2: Work backwards

Since Baby Dozer sleeps somewhere between 8:00pm - 9:00pm, his last feed is also around 8pm just before bedtime. This means that for me to be able to ensure I’ve enough milk for him to directly latch on and feed, I can’t express my milk any later than 5pm because I’ve trained my body to express 3 to 4-hourly post-maternity break. I always make sure I express at 4.30pm latest though just in case Baby Dozer decides to feed around 7pm or 7.30pm.

Step 3: Stick to the schedule

For this routine to work, I’ve realised that I need to stick to it religiously. This means that I express at 8am even if I have just fed Baby Dozer around 6.30am before I left for work. Sometimes, I have to excuse myself from meetings - I’ve been able to do it relatively unnoticed because I only pump for 10 minutes each time. Some mothers express for up to 20 minutes so it might be quite challenging to do this. 

At the end of the day, every mother is different! There are mothers who need more time to express, express different amounts at each session, feed babies at different intervals and different amounts of milk required for each feed!

It’s not easy to hit upon your Magic Schedule but I hope that the 3 simple tips will guide you to find your Magic Schedule! 

Have a great weekend ahead!

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