Typical Pumping Day

Now that I’m back at work, it’s been a whole new adjustment with pumping. I used to love to pump when I was at home, it gave me a break from breastfeeding and it gave Chad a chance to bond with Grady. Now that I’m pumping at least 3 times a day, it’s a totally different pain level. Some days I feel like my nips are going to fall right on off. And date nights, those are out the window. I’m so over pumping during the week that on the weekends you can’t pay me enough to pump.

So here goes my day of a pumping momma.

Before I left to go on Maternity leave, I set up my pumping times for 8:30, 11, and 2:30 so while I was at home we worked really hard to get Grady on the same schedule as my pumping schedule. I did not want him to eat more than 3 times at daycare and expressed this to the daycare; it’s all about supply and demand. 8:30 is when I’ll get the most so sometimes I’ll go more than 30 minutes, I normally get a second let down around 20-25 minutes so I’ll stay on until it’s finished. I use a pumping bra while I’m pumping simply because my arms get tired if I’m holding them for 30+ minutes. After I’m done, I’ll put 5 oz(this is how much he eats in one setting) in a bag at a time. I normally pump around 8 ounces in the morning so I’ll put 5 in a bag and then put 3 in the extra bottle that I packed. I then pump 4-5 ounces in the afternoon sessions so I’ll combine the 3 ounces from the morning with my 4-5 ounces from my afternoon sessions to make up the 5 oz bag.* By the end of the day I average 17 ounces. 3 bags and 1 bottle with 2 ounces, I like to put the additional 2 ounces in ice cube trays so that if the daycare needs an extra ounce or 2 they can just pop a cube in a bottle instead of opening another bag.

I do not clean my pump parts after every single time. I put them in a Ziploc bag and keep them in the fridge with my milk until the end of the day. I will either use the quick-clean bags or I’ll take them home and clean them. I also have 2 sets of parts so I’ll always have one set drying and the other one packed, it makes the mornings a little less hectic.

*I made the mistake to mix cold milk with fresh expressed milk once and then was reading and read that you are not supposed to do that. Only mix cold with cold and fresh the fresh.