Building up a backup freezer supply before starting work

[kim41977]

My sweet baby girl was born just 6 days ago and already I am beginning to plan for when I go back to work. I also breastfed my son (now 4 1/2 yrs old) and when I went back to work I had a job where I was able to pump 3 times a day for 15min. I ended up having to supplement some formula around 9 months of age due to a reduction in supply. I want to avoid that this time if I can. The problem is I am a teacher now and we only get a 40min prep period and a 30-40 min lunch daily. I am not sure how flexible my times will be. I am hoping to work something out so I can split that prep period into 2 20min breaks so I can pump 3 times a day but I don't know if that is going to be possible.

I am thinking I should build up some extra milk in the freezer for when the time comes. Can someone give me recommendations on the best way to achieve this? Is it to soon to start pumping and storing milk for future use? Also I do have a deep freezer so I know I can store it in there for 6 months but I am not sure how to cycle through the milk I have in the freezer with the fresh milk I will be pumping while at work is. I wouldn't want the milk in the freezer to go bad before I have a chance to use it as with my son I didn't have the supply issues till around 9 months.

Any advice would be great :)

Oh and I am using the Pump in Style Advance pump and will be away from my daughter from approximately 7:30am till about 3:30 or 4pm :(

[Babyhellfire]

Just because you had supply issues around 9 month with your son does not mean you will have them this time around. I can't count the women here who have said it is different every time.

I wanted to warn you though, because I had this thought when my 4 yr old was a baby..that I would start pumping between dds feedings, before I went to work and store a whole bunch... that was bad!
Not only was I ill prepared to go any length of time in between pumping(and I only got to pump at lunch or a 15 min break), I gave myself some terribly OVERsupply and had issue with OverActiveLetDown.
On the one hand I never came near having to supplement, but on the other that wasn't good either , and could have been much worse as far as infections go. So just be careful with it. Don't push yourself, it's all supply and demand and you REALLY don't want an oversupply either!

When I did pump(and god 4yrs is like forever ago now)I only really got one break to do so... But I would nurse before I left, and pump the otherside, and then do the same when I got home and it always worked out really well,but tended to work a shorter shift in the earlier months.

I always had trouble with the cycling thing myself. The obvious answer is to do oldest frozen first and freeze as you go constantly rotating,but I dunno ,really.

[s446784]

I started to pump very soon and got aoversupply issues a month later when I tried to pump during the day for when I returned to work. My DD slept through the night from day 1 so I only pumped in the middle of the night. I now block feed and only pump in the am. I also have a freezer filled with over 300 oz. of breastmilk.
I would just pump after your first feeding in the morning.