Still a working mom, not really a pumping mom.

It’s been a long time since I’ve blogged here, but it’s probably because the topic at hand is not really an active part of my life anymore. I’ll leave this blog up because I think there is some good info for new moms, but I may not actively contribute. (until next time???)

As it stands now, Winston is almost 9 months old and weighs over 28 pounds!!! Yes- he’s huge. My 2 year old son is only 31 pounds, and my 4 year old daughter is around 38 pounds.

I quit pumping at work when he was 6 months old, just like I did with my first son. I still go home at lunch and for a while I would pump at lunch, but that only lasted a few weeks. There just wasn’t enough time to eat for myself if I did that. I nurse him if he seems interested, but that is probably only once a week or so. I DO get to work from home most Wednesdays though now. I try and nurse him when he’s hungry or tired. He doesn’t get that much, but I think it helps keep up my supply. Otherwise we use formula (Walmart brand) as well as regular food during the day.

The other change in my work is that I haven’t traveled since I had to go 2 weeks in a row!!! YAY! That is mostly due to budget cuts and a new project I’m on. I like that part. I think if I did still have a heavy travel schedule I would make it more of a priority to pump, so there could be at least a small freezer stash when I was gone.

Breastfeeding at this age in general is just hard. He is so distractible. And his older siblings aren’t really a help in that department with all of their loud play. Most of the time to nurse him I have to go in our bedroom, turn off the lights, shut the door and lay down with him on our bed. I don’t mind it so much. It gives me a break and I can watch TV. He usually only wants to nurse if he’s tired. The last few times I tried to nurse in public were ridiculous. He finds the nursing cover super fun to play with. I don’t even try anymore. He gets a bottle, or real food.
About a month ago I decided it was time for my little guy to sleep through the night. He had been going to bed around 8, then getting up at midnight, then every hour or two after that. He was in our bed most of this time, so I didn’t have to get up to nurse, but it was disturbing to my sleep. Like the other kids, we had to resort to a little “crying it out.” This is never an easy thing to do, but as a slightly seasoned mom I know it’s worth it. The first night he only cried for 24 minutes. That’s a new record for our kids. We’ve had a few bumps in the road as far as continuing go sleep through the night, but for the most part, I just get up once with him.

Really- his nursing is fairly limited. Not by my choice (except for the sleeping through the night thing), but by his. I think he prefers the fast flow of bottles when he’s really hungry. Nursing is a thing to go to sleep with- not the main source of food. I still plan on encouraging nursing as long as I can, but if he seems very disinterested after his first birthday, I’ll be ok with that.

Travel 2 weeks in a row??? Never again…

Last week was horrible… Left Monday at 8am and didn’t get home until Thursday night at 10pm. Between that time I was on 8 flights, went from Washington state to Washington DC (neither of which were intended locations). Had 3 hours of sleep the first night, 5, the second, and a little better with 6 the third. Many hours were spend in airports just waiting to see when the next flight was actually going to leave, if at all (weather delays, and President Obama in Chicago causing a 3 hour shutdown of the airspace). I stayed in three different hotel rooms, one without a refrigerator, and none with the little freezer part. As a result I wasn’t able to save any of my milk. It was a week of pump and dump in bathroom stalls. It would have been impossibly hard to save it, keep it cold, keep my pump clean, and keep track of my checked bag. Maybe I should have put more effort into it-I could have put ice in baggies and put that in my mini-cooler, but the trip was so mentally and physically exhausting that I wasn’t thinking straight either. I had to make the choice for those precious few hours in the hotel room. Pump, or sleep.

I was home for two days and now I’m on the road again. Thankfully this time, we drove and I will be in one hotel room for the entire trip (4 days 3 nights), with a refrigerator WITH a freezer portion. I’m hoping I didn’t kill my supply last week. When I was home for the 2 days, I felt like Winston wanted more than I could provide. Plus- I was actually TRYING to feed him some formula, so I could pump instead and leave him with at least some milk when I was gone. Last week was good because he didn’t have but a bottle or two of formula, but he whipped out the freezer stash. Had I know that I wouldn’t have been able to save any milk from last week, I would have saved half the freezer stash for him for this week. The poor thing is going to have 90% formula for about 4 days. I hope he’s not too gassy!

My husband also tried to feed him sweet potatoes last week and he wasn’t a fan. This baby doesn’t seem to like food.

Note to self – don’t skip pumping…

Yesterday a lot of “corporate” people were on location and we had conferences all day. Sure, I could have slipped out to go pump in my office, but I chose not to. I went home at lunch as usual, and tried to nurse, but Winston fell a sleep. So then, still feeling quite full I tried to pump, but realizing I had to get back to work soon, I didn’t pump but about 2oz each side. Now- considering my morning pumping usually ranges from 8-12 oz, this wasn’t very much. Then, again I skipped my afternoon pumping. By the time I got home I was feeling fairly uncomfortable. I nursed and pumped a bit, but the usual demands of my life left very little time for pumping. Winston ate pretty good that evening and before bed, so I figured everything was ok. Around 1am – Winston started fussing, which is typical. I got up to feed him and realized I was laying on a giant wet spot. It felt like the newborn/engorgement stage again- but just on my right side.
I fed him – he sputtered as I blasted him with milk, but eventually he got a full belly and went back to sleep. Usually I just keep him in bed with us, but I put him back in his bed and went to get some new, dry pajamas on.
Today- more conferences, but I pumped before work and again at lunch time. We should be dry tonight!

My excuse

For not blogging much- well, I’m a working mom. Nuf said..

At the moment I’m still pumping and nursing, although I’m usually lazy in the afternoons and don’t pump unless I feel like I’m going to explode, and we have started supplementing with a bit of formula. We had to when I was on my trip and my little guy out ate my stash, then again later that week when my husband took the boys to my parents house to baby sit while he took my daughter to the doctor. The milk was all packed and ready to go, but remained on the counter as my husband pulled out of the driveway. We live 50 miles away from my parents, so the only thing he could do was run to the store across the street from their house and buy formula and a bottle.

Since then, we’ve basically been supplementing when I’m lazy and don’t feel like pumping before I leave him somewhere. That isn’t often, but still…

So over the course of my trip, I pumped about 64 oz. Winston ate, over 100 that I had left at home, and then some formula. Now we have that 60 in the freezer for next time I have to travel which is next week. Going to leave on a Tuesday, early morning then fly back late Thursday night. The following week I will be leaving Sunday, and coming back Thursday.

We are going to start solids soon. I bought some baby rice cereal at the store this weekend and a jar of peas and a jar of sweet potatoes. Frankly, I’ve been too lazy to start solids. He’s not sitting up yet, but I imagine being the big ball of dough he is, it’s hard to support his own weight. I tried to weigh him at home the other day and I think he’s 21.5 pounds!!! Crazy considering his 2 year old brother is only 26 pounds.

So that’s all I have for now… It’s quitting time soon here at work so I can go home and see my babies!

First trip- day one

Over the weekend and towards the end of last week I tried to work a few more bags of frozen milk into the rotation so that I could save some fresh (refrigerated) for this week knowing I would be gone. Sometimes Winston doesn’t take a bottle for one reason or another, and it is always when it is frozen milk. I’m not sure if I have a lipase problem or not, but frankly, I’m too scared to check.

When I left this morning there was about 24oz in the fridge of fresh. Not much, but more than nothing. I fed him good before bed- per usual. He woke up at 1:40am, again per-usual so I just brought him to bed with us to eat as much as he wanted. Lately I have been putting him back in his pack n’ play as soon as I wake up again, or when he’s done eating (if I’m still awake), but last night I just left him in our bed so he had the all-night buffet option. My alarm went off at 4:30am and he was still snoozing away so then I picked him up and put him in his own bed. By the time I was ready to leave at 5, he still wasn’t awake –and isn’t it a sin to wake a sleeping baby? So away I went! Later I got a report from my husband that he woke up at 6am and took a bottle.

I got to the Denver airport shortly before 9:30am. I normally pump at 10am Mountain time so, the timing was perfect. First I decided to get some breakfast and then pumping was a must. I for some reason didn’t really feel like going to the bathroom and hogging a stall for 10 minutes, so I found a bench in an out of the way location in Concourse A, and went about my business.

I got out my little lunch box with all necessary equipment, put my laptop bag on top of my roller bag and rolled that in front of me, so I was actually quite shielded. I decided to just go one handed this time so I could fiddle with my black berry for entertainment with the other hand. After I had my nursing cover on I grabbed my favored pump- the Avent Isis and went to town. After the left side was done - about 4oz (and the capacity of the bottle attached) I poured the milk into a bag, and went to the right. Same story there. I poured the milk into the same bag, labeled it, and packed everything back up.

Now at this point, I don’t have any ice packs with me. I’ve read that fresh milk will stay good anywhere form 8-24 hours at room temperature. It will be about 8 hours until I get to my hotel so I’m not that worried. I suppose if I was I could go buy a cup of ice from somewhere, pour it into one of the Ziploc bags I brought and that would help.

Only one person looked at me kind of strange. It was right as I was starting. I probably did look a little funny- both hands under the nursing cover, moving around trying to get things sorted out. It was some old-man airport employee pushing an empty wheelchair. But what I’ve found is that if someone is looking at you- stare back even harder and they will usually look away!! Hahaha..

I didn’t pump again until around 5:30 (MT) after I was in my hotel room outside of Chicago and had my room service ordered. I pumped about 8oz total. I felt like I could pump more but I wanted to stop before my room service was delivered.

I told my husband to keep track of what Winston eats while I’m gone. You always hear that your pumping output is not a real indication of what the baby eats, so this should be interesting.

The hotel room fridge doesn’t have an adjustable temperature control, nor does it have the tiny freezer section. I can understand why, but it’s a bit annoying to me. I like to freeze my milk. I’m just going to try and prop it up against the back section where the cooling plate is. It feels like it could freeze thing. We’ll see!

Scary!!!

So we went out of town this weekend and had our neighbors come over to feed our dogs while we were gone. We just gave them the garage code and they came into the house that way. Sunday morning I get a text message from them saying they noticed our garage freezer door was open about 3 inches!!! CRAP!!! I had over 100oz of milk in there!!! I quickly called them and we determined that while some popsicles had melted all over, and a few things in the freezer door should be tossed, for the most part things were still cold, and the milk was in the very back so it was still good.. Thank God!!!! Next week I’ll be traveling for the first time since little W was born, and he has yet to have anything but breast milk!!!

Pumping while wearing a hardhat

I am a Food Scientist in product development by profession, so that means that I do a variety of things. At least 50% of the time, I’m just flying the desk, but for the rest of my time I’m in the lab, kitchen or factory. The location that I work at has a 24 hour factory. As one of the scientists at this location I need to be out in the factory from time to time conducting tests or observing. Today is one of those days. My schedule is going to be TOTALLY messed up and I’m a bit worried. For starters, there are two employees from our corporate headquarters here for the factory test. So not only am I going to be reliant on the schedule of the factory (which is always behind schedule) but I need to be available to entertain and tour around our out of town guests.

Right now it’s 9:58am Normally I am getting ready to pump. Not today! I’m waiting on the guests to be ready so I can take them on a tour of the factory. Then they are going to lunch (I told them I need to go home for lunch), and then we should be back at the factory around noon, which is when the test is schedule to start. Since nothing ever starts on time, that really means 1pm or so before the test starts and it is scheduled to last 4 hours. I don’t need to be out in the factory the whole time. I can come back to my office and pump, but I won’t know when until I’m there.

*****

Ok. I wrote the above this morning. Now it’s 4:38pm and the day has gone OK in regards to pumping, and I don’t have to be at work at midnight- that’s a relief!!!

True to form, the factory was running behind schedule. Our first test didn’t actually start until 2:30pm. I had gone home at 11 for lunch, to nurse W and to pump. I pumped one-handed while I ate lunch, only got 6oz total because I was in a hurry, nursed W – but he had just had a 4oz bottle before I came home so he wasn’t that enthusiastic about it, then got on a ladder and peeked up in our crawlspace because my husband had discovered that woodpeckers pecked a hole in our house and there was now a huge nest in our attic!! Great!!!

I went back to work at noon, and had a chance to pump briefly around 2. I only pumped 4 oz total, which is not a lot for me. I didn’t spend the time I needed nor, was I in the mood. I’m feeling mighty full right now, but I’ll be going home in a few minutes, so it should be ok.

I did discover one thing that made me pretty happy today. While I was in the factory I happened to see two doors that were labeled “lactation room.” Go my company!!! You rock!

Now time to do something about this hard-hat hair of mine!

Day to day pumping at work for me

This is my cute little lunch box underneath my desk with my two pumps and my morning bag of milk. (sorry for the poor image quality – cell phone picture)

Supplies: two hand pumps (since I’m too cheep to buy a dual electric- plus they are virtually silent), ice packs, milk storage bags or big bottle with sealing lid and a big lunch box to put them all in. Optional supplies that I find handy are napkins or a hand towel to wipe drips off of myself the pumps and my desk, a large water bottle since I always get immediately thirsty when I start to pump or nurse, and a sharpie to label the bags.

I don’t wash my pump after every time, or even every day. I keep it refrigerated when at home and in my lunch box with the ice packs when at work. I usually wash it every other day at home in the dish washer.

I’m fortunate to have an office with a locking door, and a semi-flexible schedule so I can usually pump when I need to. I have the reputation for eating a lot, so no one questions why I bring a lunch box to work, then go home for lunch, and THEN bring it back with me for the afternoon ;).

After I am finished pumping I typically pour the milk into a milk storage bag so it won’t leak out of the pumps reservoir while I’m carrying it home. I will pour it all into one bag- mainly because I’m cheep, but I don’t see the need to separate it into 2-3oz servings (what my baby typically eats at one time) because, if a bag needs to be thawed while I’m at work, I am probably gone long enough for him to need more than one bottle. I typically get anywhere from 5-8 oz in any one work pumping session. I keep the bag of milk in the lunch box with the ice packs and my pump until I get home. Then decide if it needs to be left in the refrigerator for the next day, or if it’s Friday, it can be frozen.

On Mondays W starts the day out with frozen milk that I stick in the fridge the evening before. That amount of milk will typically be replaced by the milk I bring home on Friday and put in the freezer. This is a good way to practice ‘first in-first out’ and keep the freezer stash from getting too old.

Mornings are always more plentiful than the afternoons, even if I do nurse right before I leave for work, and Mondays are always more plentiful than Fridays. I’m not quite sure why this is, but I’ve read that it’s pretty much the norm.

My husband is a stay at home dad, so I am fortunate I don’t have to deal with preparing bottles to take to daycare – then hoping they properly handle them. I imagine that is probably a big pain.

One other thing- we microwave the milk. Yes- I know that is supposedly the biggest sin you can make with breast milk, but here is my reasoning. The two arguments for not microwaving breast milk are- 1) it will destroy the living cells and antibodies contained in milk that make it so good for your baby and 2) potential hot spots that could scald your baby (this is true for any liquids you microwave)

My defense against point 1- is this really any worse than formula??? Formula doesn’t have living cells or antibodies, yet babies all across the world live and thrive on formula… Plus, my baby will still get the real stuff when I’m home. Point 2- just mix it up and test it first.. Really- it’s that simple.

I’m already sick of pumping…

I have no will power these days. With my first son P, I pumped twice a day at work for 3 months- until he was 6 months old, then I decided I would just try and nurse when I went home for lunch. That didn’t work out so well because he usually didn’t want to. Either he had already eaten, or he was sleeping. We started him on solids at 6 months too. I guess my goal again would be to pump twice a day at work for 3 months, but at this rate it just might not happen…

W has never had a drop of formula. P had formula from day one because he was a preemie (35 weeks), and in the NICU they pretty much make you supplement. At P’s one month appointment his pediatrician said there was no longer a need to supplement, so from one month to around 4 months he was exclusively breast milk fed. Around 5 months we started dipping into the formula a bit.

I was already getting lazy about the pumping. I wouldn’t pump that long, so I wouldn’t get that much, and my little 6 month old P had a growing appetite. It was just a downward spiral. Plus, formula was so easy for dad to do at home. Just add some powder to warm water and there you go! No heating and/or thawing of milk.

This formula use continued. I was guilty of it too. At night before bedtime I would nurse, but I would also try and give him a bottle too just to make sure he was nice and full and would sleep through the night.

By the time he was 9 months old I was having some serious supply issues. I tried to pump when I went on business trips, but got very little. It was making me sore- and I figured it was because I wasn’t used to pumping any more – but the soreness also detoured me from pumping. More downward spiraling.

When P was 10 months old I finally figured out I was 2 months pregnant with W. (I had no post partum period after P was born, so I didn’t know I was pregnant for a while- thought it was a stomach virus!) Supply issues and soreness were explained. Then I just felt bad that I might not make it to a year with P.

We did make it to a year, but it was hard work. I still had some milk through out the first trimester, but the weekend of P’s first birthday, I was 17 weeks pregnant and all dried up. It happened really fast. It was like one week I still had milk, the next I didn’t.

I had nursed my daughter for 20 months (up until I was 14 weeks pregnant with P), so I fully expected to make it past a year with P. Now I don’t know what to think about how long I will nurse W. For sure I want to make it to a year, but beyond that…


This week at work I have 3 days where I will be in all day meetings or be working with co-workers from out of town, so my regular schedule will be interrupted. I guess I feel lucky to be able to pump a fairly good quantity in a short amount of time. I shut my door at 9:45 this morning and was able to open it 10 minutes later with 8oz of milk bagged up in my lunch box. Grrrr… Monday…

The boobs are scheduled

I’ve pretty much designated 10am and 3pm as pumping times. I usually get up from my desk to fill my water bottle and go to the bathroom, so I come back to my office with clean hands to pump.

Little W must have eaten a lot last night because I woke up feeling completely deflated. Now that’s not a bad thing! I would rather feel that way than too full (like I have been feeling lately). That made me think that I wouldn’t have anything (or much) to pump at 10. We’ll it’s now 9:53am and feeling it. I don’t feel super full, but I feel like I would be much more comfortable if I pumped.

So I guess my boobs are on a schedule, and that’s a good thing!

Day 4 at work, Monday of my first full week back.

10am (pumping time) can’t come soon enough!!! Not sure what was going on with little W last night, but I’m pretty sure he didn’t nurse as much as usual. He’s the best sleeper we have ever had and is already pretty scheduled!!! He did this with no real assistance (i.e. sleep training) from me. W goes to sleep around 7:30- pretty much the same time as the other two kids. Then he hasn’t been waking up until around 2:30am!!!! I think it’s fabulous!!! He still sleeps in the pack-n-play right next to our bed, so when he wakes up at 2:30, I usually just bring him to bed with us so he can eat, and I can go back to sleep as quickly as possible. He typically has a good meal at this time, and then sleeps until around 5, when he fusses again, but this time he usually just snacks. My alarm goes off at 6:30, and if he’s awake, I try and feed him before he goes back in the pack-n-play and I get ready for work.

This morning he didn’t eat as hardily at 2:30, didn’t eat at 4:30 (rather, just got a fresh diaper) and at 6:30 when I got up he was sleeping. He started to fuss when I laid him down his bed, but I felt like I was running behind, so I handed him to my husband, still in bed and they both fell back asleep – it was way cute :)

The morning accelerated like all mornings do and before I knew it I had to leave. Sooooo- I’m feeling super full. Maybe I’ll pump sooner. We’ll see.

Update: I was super full!!! Pumped 12 oz. Maybe that will be a Monday thing. I feel much better now!

Why I love the hand pump

PRICE!!!!
Ok. In all honesty I don’t have a lot of experience with electric pumps, but to me the hand pump is ideal for so many reasons. For one, those double electric pumps are at least $200-300 or more. My first hand pump-the Avent Isis was around $40. My second was free (the hand adaptations to the Ameda I used at the hospital when my second was born- I probably DID pay for it, but that’s another story). I’ve had to purchase a few replacement parts for my Avent, but I bet the same thing would happen with an electric pump. The only thing cheaper would be hand expression, but I just don’t want to go there.

Silence.
At home I can pump while watching TV, at work I can pump with out my co-workers wondering what I am doing behind closed doors and the same goes for pumping in airports and airplane bathrooms when I have to travel for work. I would have never thought of this until I started shopping for pumps when I was pregnant with my first. I was looking at the overwhelming selection of them in Babies R’Us when one of their employees and fellow pumping mothers came to help me. She told me which one she preferred. She said it was only because it was quieter than the others and she could pump in the break room with out disturbing others.

I do have a fairly inexpensive electric pump that my friend gave me (it was still new) and I take it on business trips so I can pump the lazy way while I e-mail, or surf the net, but I can’t really watch TV or talk on the phone- which is what I really want to be doing while sitting in a hotel room by myself. The darn thing is too loud.

When I had my second son I used a hospital grade pump for 6 days while he was in the NICU. It was quieter, but there is still a certain amount of sound that comes with it.

Control.
It could just be me, but I find the actual pumping of the pump annoying and slow. For me, I just apply constant pressure until the horns partially fills up (10 seconds or so when I first start to pump) and then release to let it drain. A few minutes into the pumping session I may start the actual “pumping” but it’s more like 75% of the time I’m squeezing the handle for pressure, and only 25% of the time or less I’m releasing it. I’ve always done it this way, and find it’s much faster than how you are told to pump.

Day 2 back at work.

Lets see if I can re-cap what’s been going on since my last (and only) post. W is now 12 weeks old and a happy chubby baby. He has had the occasional bottle, but 95% of the time it’s all me. He now knows how to tolerate my over active let down, and I have around 60 oz in the freezer. That is by no means a huge stash, but it’s a start.

So I went back to work yesterday (on a Wednesday). Over the previous 4 days I had pumped enough to leave W with 3, 3oz bottles on Wednesday morning. If he drank those I would leave the milk I pumped in the morning at work for him to have that afternoon. From previous experience, I know that my babies typically only take 2-3 oz at a time. I was trying to remember, but I believe my first son P would at the max have 4-5 oz in the morning and 4-5 oz in the afternoon before he started on solids around 6 months.

At 7:40 I left for work. My boss had miscalculated my leave and didn’t expect me back for another week, so the pile of work I was expecting wasn’t there. Instead I just helped my other co-workers with their projects. This left me fairly flexable to pump when I needed to. At 10am I locked my office door to pump. About 10 minutes later I had 12 oz!!! I couldn’t believe it! I’m sure this quantity won’t last for ever, but it’s a good way to get a head start!

When I went home for lunch W and only consumed part of one bottle. He was awake and happy so I nursed him on both sides- more for my benefit than anything. He ate, but wasn’t overly enthusiastic about the whole thing. That afternoon he ate another half a bottle and I pumped 7oz around 3pm.

As soon as I got home from work I sat on the couch with W and the other two kids and nursed. W seemed a bit more hungry than before, but rather than overflowing with milk like I usually am, I was a bit drained, so W just sat and actually “nursed it” for a while. He seemed to enjoy not being shot in the mouth with an explosive stream of milk.

This morning, day 2, I had to go in early for a 7am meeting. W slept really well last night, only waking one time to really eat, and fussing another time for a few sucks. I assume he will be hungrier today than yesterday since he didn’t eat much during the night. He was still sleeping when I got up, so I went a head and pumped before work. I got 8 oz, but right as I was about to leave W woke up. I poured 3oz in a bottle and gave it to my husband to offer him. It’s now 10am an I have only received one text from my husband, so I’m assuming it’s a busy day with all 3 kids at home- but he did say, W didn’t finish his bottle, so while he was changing diapers, P walked up and grabbed the unfinished portion and drank it all… P is a notorious drink/sippy cup thief!

W is officially 4 weeks old. 8 more weeks to get a stash built before I head back to work. I’m not that anxious about it though… I don’t foresee any traveling for work until May (although that could change tomorrow), so as long as I have a small stash I should be able to pump enough during the first day to have bottles for the second day. Plus- by kid #3, I know that if my baby has to have a bottle of formula, the world won’t end. But ironically, W is the first of my kids to have never had a drop of formula. 100% breastfed so far!!

He has had about 4 bottles (of pumped milk) in his life. I gave him one and dad gave him the other 3. Usually just when I want to run to the store or pick up our daughter at daycare.