Hi Everyone !
Career and family belongs to two different worlds. Balancing both these worlds becomes a huge challenge. When you are a working mother you learn the art of managing every thing as though you are a pro and have years of experiencing in this aspect. Time teaches you everything. That’s the beauty of being a mother.
I am a software engineer, and software schedules and dates are not easy. The deadlines, tasks for the day, efficiently developing the programs, to add to it the customer call conferences and above that the big manger unnecessarily creates hype.
My profession and work environment did not give any support and excuse for a new mother. (Well, most companies lend a lot of helping hand to new parents. But my bad luck, I was in a company that was bound to bring military rules to its employees.)
My breastfeeding day’s routine
My daughter relied only on breast milk until she was 5 months. Past 5th month I introduced her to semi solid food along with breastfeeding.
I had to join back to my workplace 81 days after delivery. My daughter was not even 3 months old then. I had a wonderful product that would help me feed my daughter in spite of me being in the office. Pigeon Electric Breast Pump. This pump extracted the excess breast milk and was stored for later use.
Well, here goes my routine until she was 5 months old (recalling 🙂 )
- I had to leave my residence at 8.45 in the morning. Before leaving for office I used to breast feed my baby.
- At around 10.30AM she would be fed with my stored breast milk in the feeding bottle (that was extracted using an electric brest pump and stored).
- At around 11.00 AM, (I am still in office. I carry the pumping set to office. Phew, everything is tight scheduled.) in the ladies rest room I extract milk from my breasts into the feeding bottle using the Pigeon breast pump.
- I get back home at about 12.45 in the noon. Immediately put the feeding bottle with the collected milk into the refrigerator for later use. And then, sit down to breastfeed my daughter.
- I leave to office again at 1.45 PM after lunch.
- I again use the breast pump to extract milk into the bottle in between the office hours before evening.
- I leave my desk sharp at 6.00 PM and reach home by 6.30 PM.
- Put the extracted stored milk into refrigerator. Now, this will be used next day (at around 10.30 in the morning). Take a quick bath and breastfeed my daughter.
Now that I am home, no worries until I leave to office next morning.
I could come home in the afternoon since the commute distance was very short. I had to travel only 6 km from my residence to office campus. Leaving my office at sharp 6.00 in the evening was possible only for few days. My work demanded more hours. So, eventually my daughter had to be introduced to formula feed during late evening hours.
Storage of breast milk
Storing and using breast milk is another important challenge to handle as long as your infant is only on breastfeeding.
Thorough knowledge in this aspect is necessary to put it to use. Pediatricians give the right guidance. I have the below information for you from my knowledge and experience.
- Breast milk can be kept at room temperature for about 3 hours.
- If you are sure that you have to store the breast milk for more than 3 hours, then refrigerate the extracted breast milk.
- I have stored my breast milk in the refrigerator for nearly 12 hours. It can be stored till about 24 hours.
- Before using this refrigerated breast milk, thaw the breast milk by immersing the milk container into warm water and bring it to room temperature.
- Do not heat or boil the stored breast milk.
- Once the breast milk is thawed, do not put it again into the refrigerator for further storing.
- Once extracted breast milk is kept aside, the fat begins to separate from the milk base. Breast milk will appear as though it is very watery. This is normal.
- Finally, keep observing your baby’s toilet for few days when you put this to practice.
If you learn the art of storing and thawing the breast milk, your baby will not be deprived of the breast milk even if you join back to work after delivery. Hope this was helpful.
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