Breastfeeding exclusively 3-6 month old infant while WFH

[wisper]

I have 3 months of maternity leave... which I know is a blessing, in this country. However, many refer to breastfeeding as a bit of a full time job, especially during the first 6 months of a baby's life, where they feed quite a bit and aren't yet eating any whole foods.

I'll be working from home, but I'd like to exclusively breastfeed for the first 6 months. How does this work with a full time job? My experience so far with feeding is that it's not something I'd feel good about multitasking during... no judgement on anyone who feels differently, but my baby will often (albeit not always) have pseudo conversations/interactions with me while feeding. I think they're precious, or hilarious, or... whatever, but always fascinating and I'd feel rude not giving him my full attention while he eats, unless he's telling me he doesn't want to interact (he'll literally give me a 'look' and/or proceed to block eye contact when this happens lol). Point being that prior to his birth, I imagined finding creative ways to breastfeed and work simultaneously and feeling proud of that, but now that he's here, I don't want to miss a single moment / attempt at communication with me and I actually love/delight at our feeding sessions. Struggling to imagine being able to both feed him and start working full time again; feel like I'm barely managing taking care of him, let alone him and me/house/life/training and everything else I hope to be doing at 3-6 months post partum. Can someone who's done both please paint me a picture of what this'll look like? Doesn't help that I've read articles comparing it to a full time job for the first 6 months, or advocating that our country needs to extend leave to 6 months if we want to encourage mothers to breastfeed for that long (something I definitely now wish the US would implement, but they haven't, so I'll still need to make do regardless).

Newborn phase has been utterly magical and I couldn't have imagined how fascinating and personality-filled he is. The hard parts have, in my opinion, been far oversold. It's going well overall and beautiful, and sleep is surprisingly easy to come by (apparently I'm not too bothered by getting up at night, and just take more naps to compensate); just not sure how a full time job would fit in with all this! It'd be different once he was no longer breastfeeding nonstop, and my husband could take over non-breastfeeding meals.

EDIT: No, I'm not about to try to have a FT job, take care of a child FT, and also have an outside life. This post is solely about breastfeeding exclusively while working FT in a flexible, WFH position. BFing during a pump break is only an option when WFH, usually. It'd be particularly useful to hear what your baby's feeding schedule / time commitment was like during this period.

 

[ilovejesusandgod]

@wisper I am about 2 weeks back from my 4 month maternity leave. I also WFH full time in a fairly flexible role, and my baby is EBF.

I put “milk break” on my calendar and just go nurse her for like 10 mins. We have in-home childcare during my working hours of course, but it’s super quick for me to just go nurse. Dealing with the pump/bottles/storage/cleaning really gives me anxiety and I don’t respond well to the pump. Other folks might find pumping and bottles less stressful which is fine as well! Whatever works for you and your work schedule.

 

[natk]

@wisper I pump into bottles, and then whoever was taking care of him would feed him. I get 3, 30 minute pump breaks as my accommodations, I don't see why you couldn't nurse instead of you'd prefer and timing would work out. For me, it was easier to pump and not need to be on demand for his hunger.

 

[ldrkert4]

@wisper I went back to work (from home) at 3 months and my husband took paternity leave for months 3-6. I pumped and he bottle fed. I felt pretty strongly that it was important for both my baby and his primary caregiver that they not be dependent on my work schedule for feeds - it wouldn’t have been fair for either of them to wait until I was off a call to feed. And I could work while pumping but not so much while nursing. Plus my baby was a slow feeder and pumping was quicker.

As for pumping, sure it sucks and no one loves doing it, but I found it quite doable while WFH - WFH makes the logistics much easier. I pumped until my baby turned one.

 

[wisper]

@ldrkert4 If you had a WFH job that had few to no calls/meetings, would you have still pumped instead? And can I ask how much time you spent pumping during months 3-6?

 

[ldrkert4]

@wisper Yes, because I think it’s really important for the person taking care of the baby to be able to be actually in charge of feedings. That was the key thing for us, it wasn’t about me or my schedule.

I pumped for 20 minutes 3 times during the workday. The setup and cleaning time was minimal, less than 5 min per session, and I pumped at my desk and could work throughout so schedule-wise it was no big deal.

On terminology - pumping is breastfeeding. You might want to use “nursing” or “direct breastfeeding” to distinguish.

 

[opaldigger]

@wisper Is someone else watching him while you wfh? I had 4 months off and then my husband was home for another 2ish while I worked from home. I BF instead of pumping most of the time. You’re allowed to take time to pump so if you can block your schedule around feeding it would be the same.

Working from home while doing full time childcare is a different issue. I don’t recommend it.

 

[wisper]

@opaldigger Yes, husband and I plan to work in shifts and have an in home sitter/nanny for X hours. I'd come out when he was hungry. My schedule's flexible; just need to be able to put in enough work throughout the day's course.

ou’re allowed to take time to pump so if you can block your schedule around feeding it would be the same.

That's fantastic; hadn't realized this was a thing. In a WFFH situation, this should be interchangeable, right?

I'm glad you were able to do it! Can I ask how much time you'd spend daily on breastfeeding?

 

[sanjose1982]

@wisper Legally you are only required to have breaks to pump, not time to breastfeed (just how the law is written). So I would just not mention to anyone at work which one you’re doing, if you think they’d push back.

 

[opaldigger]

@wisper I would block off 30 minutes bc that’s how long I’d need to setup to pump/cleanup, but BFing would take maybe 15. I didn’t advertise that I was BFing vs pumping bc that’s no one’s business, but I’d use the mothers room when I went into the office so it was clear what I needed the time for

 

[grossfeet]

@wisper If you need to discuss it to have your time protected, etc, just call it a lactation break and you shouldn’t have to explain beyond that.

 

[lsume]

@wisper It’s not legally interchangeable (the PUMP act gives you the right to time to pump in the US, but not to nurse). However, you don’t need to mention it, and also, nursing almost always takes less time than pumping.

Nursing doesn’t take so long or happen so often when they’re older. You will be able to fit in a full day’s work and take short breaks to work.

 

[copelasm]

@wisper Pumping and giving bottles of breastmilk still counts as far as “giving babies breastmilk exclusively until 6 months.” Breastmilk is still breastmilk regardless of how they get it.

If you intend to actually BF during the day you’ll need to block your time off because there’s no way you can realistically do this and work. If you pump that’s much easier to do while working. (If I needed to take calls while pumping I would put a kitchen towel over the pump and that muffled the sound sufficiently.)

 

[natk]

@copelasm I need to try this towel hack. I decline everyone because I work with 90% men, and I just think it would be too weird for them to hear.

 

[hopeful08]

@wisper I did this for a year in 2020-2021. For me nursing was way faster than pumping. Baby ate in like 5 min flat. I had a nanny and she and I would coordinate over text during the day about feeding times vs meeting times and both work with each other. And when it was feeding time she brought me baby, then came to get him when done. There were times when I had to be on a critical meeting and schedules didn’t align, and then I’d pump and he’d get a bottle. Or if things were hectic but I didn’t need to be on camera, I would feed off camera sometimes, too.

Anyway, it was all totally fine, better than fine, it was lovely. Having a fair amount of control over your calendar / being able to move things helps.

My daughter was born last year and I’ve mostly been in office, but for days I WFH we follow the same plan.

Good luck, you can do it!