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.