Wednesday, April 18, 2012

The Art of Pumping

Day 3, entry #2...oh, the irony of the daily writing plan.  I am better than this.

I suppose I should just write about what’s on my mind, which, to be fair, is approximately 1 million and ½ things.  Today I think it’s mostly about pumping.  That’s right, pumping breastmilk.  Run for the hills folks.  

Is this a mommy blog?  I don’t think so.  It’s a life blog.  And what’s going on in my pedestrian life right now is pumping.  I had a baby at the end of last year, and just recently returned to work, so that’s what’s on my mind.  Milk.  My milk.  Making enough of it.  Keeping it cold.  The thousand details and planning that go into a working mom’s breast milk routine.

I rented a hospital-grade pump for a month after the baby was born and although the suction was great, it was too bulky and heavy to make it portable.  I am now using a Medela Pump-in-Style purchased from a very lovely lactation consultant.  It’s not as efficient as my little man, but it definitely gets the job done.  Zero complaints so far.  

My routine goes something like this.  I try and nurse right before I leave the house.  My little guy is a good morning sleeper, so this doesn’t always work out.  I fret over whether or not I should wake him and make him eat, or just let him snooze.  I’ve done both, and I’m still not quite sure what the best choice is.  Since I’m usually running late these days, I prefer not to have to shut my door and pump and soon as I get to the office so I try and get him to eat if I can.  

If all goes well and he nurses right before I head out the door, my first pumping session is sometime between 10-10:30.  I get the most milk from this first pump of the day, usually 5-6 oz.  This milk goes straight into the fridge, and I rinse my pump parts and bottles and store them back in the lunchbox style cooler bag I bring to transport the milk home at the end of the day.  From start to finish this whole process takes me 15-20 minutes, and it’s definitely getting easier with practice.  Repeat at 1-1:30, and then 4-4:30.  I get 3-4 oz each time.  Boom.  Done.  I feel like I have mastered the universe when I come home at the end of the day with 12 oz or so of freshly expressed breast milk to feed my little guy the next day.  Hooray for me.  

Right now I’m liking the 5 oz Medela bottles that came with my pump for expressing and short-term milk storage.  For long-term freezer storage I love, love, love these Snappies containers that I was introduced to when my little guy did a brief stint in the NICU.  I have no alterior motives here, I found these containers on my own and it’s been freezer milk storage monogamy every since.  I don’t trust storage bags because I work too hard to make and express my milk to lose any to faulty bags, and I’ve heard horror stories.  The Snappies lids are permanently attached, so there is no fumbling for a lid and you can snap them shut with one hand.  They hold about 2.5 oz which is perfect for individual feedings, and you can write the date on them with a sharpie and then rub it off with a paper towel to re-use.  I have these guys stashed all over my freezer.  Like I said, love.  For feeding, the only bottles I’ve ever used are Dr.Brown’s, both glass and wide-neck.  If it ain’t broke, why mess with it?  

And if I could give one piece of advice it would be this: drink water.  I find the amount of milk I’m able to pump is directly related to the amount of water I drink.  If I get busy and don’t remember to drink as much, the amount of milk I’m able to pump nose dives.  So, yeah, another reason to drink water.

I also recommend that you start pumping a few weeks before you return to work to help build a little freezer stash of milk.  I pumped in the morning, after nursing the baby, and sometimes in the middle of the night when the baby started to sleep for longer stretches between feedings.  You’ll need it to feed your baby the first day you return to work before you start pumping full-time, and it helps to take some of the pressure off in case of emergency.  You know, like the you-have-one-too-many-glasses-of-red-wine-to-nurse-the-baby kind of emergency.  It was a long 9 months.



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All in a day's work

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