Any Nursing Moms?

[jnemartin]

I recently posted about returning to work last week after mat leave... and I'm back to ask for some advice about pumping schedules. If you find this topic uncomfortable or too personal, please stop reading here.

A little background: I will need to pump 3 times during the school day to keep up with my home schedule: 9am, 1130am, and 2pm. I'm making significantly less at school than at home, so ideally I could add a fourth session in, but that's not super realistic. I've started pumping in the car to/from work in increase supply. We have 4 other nursing moms at school and we do have a pumping room, but I prefer to pump in my office because set up is so much faster, but this may change if I start getting a lot of phone calls or knocks on the door.

I haven't made an official statement to staff about my schedule (ie, an email saying to please avoid sending students during the following times) because I haven't found my groove yet and don't want to be sending multiple emails on this topic lol. What I've been doing is hanging my "Be Right Back" sign on the door and putting up a post-in that says "please come back in 20 minutes."

It's not perfect, but it was pretty much working until yesterday when I went to reopen my office after pumping and there were 5 kids standing outside the door waiting for me. They claim that they saw the note, returned to class, and "came back in 20 minutes"... but I suspect they all just waited there for 20 minutes. Their complaints: kid 1: asking for dayquil after I told her earlier I cannot dispense that. Kid 2: hang nail. Kid 3: rash that she's had since Saturday d/t gardening/weeds touching skin, hasn't treated at home, would like something for it now... (omg). Kid 4: buddy of Kid 1. Kid 5 was actually sick (puked in PE).

I gently chastised them all for hanging around and missing class, but really my system is not working and I need some tips so that (1) I can pump in peace and have this time respected by students and staff (without getting sending too many boob-related emails lol), and (2) still be appropriately available for the kids.

If you guys have any tips or strategies that worked for you - let me know!!!

[NutmeggeRN, BSN]

On 2/4/2020 at 1:51 PM, jnemartin said:

Our front desk lady is horrible at simple triage. She either gets the kids worked up over their issue, or calls me. She feels it's not her place to triage kids, and I get it.

Truthfully, kids should not be coming to me OR the front desk for minor complaints (MS/HS) like bandaids, because each classroom has a little first aid kit. And for HA/menstrual cramp or things like that, it's pretty much safe to say that the kids can wait about 20 minutes (in fact, often their complaint will resolve in that amount of time lol). I spent ALLLLLLL last year working with the kids on using the nurse's office appropriately, and they're pretty good about it. I say all of this, because if I give them another option - i.e. going to the front desk for help - they will do that. You know how kids are.

OMG, have you taken up a satelite office in my building???? Mine, who is a mother and grandmother (and does have common sense), is unable to discern between a headache and something horrible. Her feeling is that I am to be INSTANTLY available, regardless of the situation. Oye...

[jnemartin, BSN, RN]

2 hours ago, NutmeggeRN said:

OMG, have you taken up a satelite office in my building???? Mine, who is a mother and grandmother (and does have common sense), is unable to discern between a headache and something horrible. Her feeling is that I am to be INSTANTLY available, regardless of the situation. Oye...

LOL! My front desk lady is also a mom and grandmother... I honestly don't know what's going through her head half the time