Welcome to the Nursing Mothers group on Mayo Clinic Town Square

I'm Katie. I am mom two a 3 year old boy and 8 month old girl. I am in Rochester and have been here for about 10 years. My husband is also a Rochester native. I am a breastfeeding supporter and am working towards more professional capacities to use my passion for breastfeeding mothers and children.
I've lived a crazy life with breastfeeding and seen MANY providers through my time nursing my kids and look forward to hearing more about everyone's journey.

@giglykatie Thank you for introducing yourself. This is a brand new group and I am excited for others to join and "meet" other moms who are breastfeeding.

I'm Cyndi. I have two daughters, one is 2 years old, one is five months old. We live near Winona and both my husband and I commute to work--I drive to Rochester and he drives to Wisconsin. I breastfed my oldest for a little over four months before I stopped due to a needlestick exposure, but continued pumping to maintain supply. My supply eventually dwindled and I stopped three months after the exposure. Once I got the all clear from my doctors, we reintroduced the pumped breastmilk. I've had a much easier journey with my second! I'm a huge supporter of breastfeeding but I find it very, VERY difficult to balance working, pumping, driving, spending time with the family and still having time for myself.

I'm looking forward to chatting with other moms on here! Anyone else have the same issue with balancing work/family life?

Cyndi, Welcome to the group! I have also had the issue of balancing work/family/pumping.It is so hard to balance all of those things and sometimes nursing just seemed to get in the way. I just kept telling myself to keep going because that first year will go so fast. I always feel like i am not doing a good job at work by pumping 2 times a day. Trying to find those times to get away was so hard even though i have a supportive work environment. Hang in there!

Me too!!!

Cyndi, yes! Work and life balance is definitely a challenge. I commend you on your commitment after your exposure. So stressful!
I was 8 weeks pregnant with my son when I also had an exposure with known infectious agent--- it was one of the most stressful times of my life not knowing if myself and my child would contract this infection/disease. (Thankfully we're all clear and that was over 3 years ago now!)

Some things that I do to assure I achieve some balance is keeping work at work- no emails at home! It has made a world of difference for our family!.

I'm Jill. I have one daughter who just turned one last week. We live in Byron and my husband is a 4th grade teacher in the community. I commute to Rochester and I am a Pharmacist at the clinic. Both my husband and I are from Fargo and we have been living here for almost 6 years. The hardest thing for us is we have no family in town, so whenever we have visitors we try to take time away for a date night! I am very fortunate I have been able to exclusively breastfeed my daughter. Due to symptoms of possible dairy intolerance I cut dairy from my diet since my daughter was 8 weeks old. Thankfully she has started eating dairy with no issues herself and I have introduced it back to my diet. Yeah cheese! We are working on the whole milk transition now. My daycare provider thinks mixing whole milk and BM is gross and thankfully daughter is taking whole milk fine and I am still sending breastmilk to use up the small freezer stash I have. I am having mixed feeling about stopping. I am VERY ready to be done pumping at work. Recently I cut down to 1 pump session, and still nurse AM before work and evening to sleep. Incredibly thankful for a supportive work unit and access to a lactation room! I hope Mayo and the Rochester community continues to support nursing mothers. This has been one of the hardest but most rewarding things I have done. I agree with everyone the work life place is incredibly hard. My poor husband I admit I don't make enough time for him and have been at times obsessive over our feeding schedule. I am looking forward to more relaxed schedules and not having the constant feeling of when will I pump/nurse. I don't think my daughter is quite ready so we will see how the transition goes and will continue AM/PM for awhile. I couldn't have done this without supportive family, friends, and coworkers. I hope other moms use this thread to find help in their breastfeeding journey's and know they are not alone in the joys and struggles it brings!

How do you guys fit in working out? I admit I used pregnancy and then breastfeeding as an excuse to eat whatever I wanted and not work out but really want to fit this back in my schedule. Working full time and wanting as much time with my daughter as possible I don't know how to find the energy to fit this in.

@jostby Thank you so much for joining the group and sharing. I totally understand everything you are going through. Sounds like you are doing an amazing job! I found the breastfeeding "stress" and balance to be very different the second time. With my first son it was way more stressful i was so worried about making enough and pumping enough etc. My body actually stopped producing at 8 months due to the stress of everything. With my second son it has been so much better. i am a more relaxed mommy this time. It is still hard and i still struggle with the balance but something about it is just better this time. My son is now 13 months and still nursing morning, and night. I pump 1 time a day now and am looking forward to weaning completely in the next month. As for working out i found out that i cannot do it because my production drops dramatically. I barely make enough each day for him. I never had a freezer stock because i just couldn't produce much. I must just be one of those people that every calorie counts when breastfeeding. I found that if i didn't eat enough i didn't make enough. I am really looking forward to weaning so i can get back into my fitness routine. I am not sure what others have experienced. Thanks again for sharing!

Hello, I am Jayne. I have two sons, one 13 years old and a 5 month old. This is my first time nursing as it was unfortunately unsuccessful with my first born. I have lived in Rochester since 2007. My husband was born and raised here and is a realtor with Keller Williams. I was excited to see a group like this available, so thank you for creating it!!

Time for myself? What's that?!! I used to work inpatient at SMH 12 hour shifts .75 FTE, which at times I could have 4 days off in a row...now I am working 4 days a week and struggle immensely to balance time! Mornings are chaotic, nights are just as crazy with getting home, having to clean pump parts, prepare next day bottles for daycare and nurse a hungry baby... I could not imagine adding a drive on top of that--you go mama!! It's temporary is all I keep telling myself 🙂