Pumping at Work: Supplies, Schedule, Struggles

I'm no expert, but I have learned a few things over the last couple of weeks while breastfeeding and being away from Allison.  Pumping at work is almost just as difficult as learning how to breastfeed was.  There is the constant question of 'will I produce enough to satisfy my very hungry daughter's appetite?'.  Allison is almost 5 months old and has been eating 3-4 ounce bottles at daycare each day.  Our daycare has just recently requested 4 bottles of milk per day to make sure that Allie has enough to eat.  Cue Chelsea freak out...I certainly don't have time to pump 4 times each day but I really don't think Allison is ready for solids yet.  I'm hoping once we introduce solids between 5-6 months, her milk intake will settle back down.

So, our set up looks something like this:

1. Medela Advanced Personal Breastpump with On the Go Tote--I have no complaints about this pump.  The bag is kind of large but with everything in there that I need, there's not much left over space.
2. Dr. Brown's 8 oz Bottles--We have 8 Dr. Brown's bottles that we send to daycare with Allison.  Yes, there are a lot of parts but Allison eats from them with no problems.  We had such a hard time getting her to eat from a bottle in the first place...maybe later down the road we'll try to transition her to a bottle with less pieces, but these work great for now.
3. Parmolive Baby Dish Wash--I like this soap MUCH better than the Medela brand bottle soap.  There is no residue left in the bottles when we wash them and the price is a million times better.  I got 3 very large bottles for the price of 1 small Medela bottle.
4. Insulated lunch bag--I use a very plain insulated lunch bag from Target to carry her bottles to daycare.  If I know I'll be out longer with her bottles, I'll stick a freezer pack in it.
5. Bottle Brush--We keep a bottle brush stuck on our kitchen sink pretty much all the time.  I like the ones that are able to stand up--either with a suction cup or holder like the one in the picture.  If we have guests over, we stand it up in our baby cabinet.

I filled our freezer with milk while I was on maternity leave.  At first, I was really confused about when to pump and there were a few times that I burned myself because I pumped both sides and then had an awake, hungry baby earlier than expected.  Then, out of the blue, Allison began to sleep through the night.  For a few weeks, I was able to pump every morning and get at least 6 ounces and still have plenty left over to feed Allison when she woke up.  That's all well and good but now I have bags upon bags of 6 ounces in the freezer and I often only need 2 or 3 ounces to supplement what I was able to pump at work.  I'm kicking myself for not splitting it up now.

I pump 3 times every day at work--9:30 am, 12:30 pm, and 3:30 pm for 10-30 minutes.  I can get anywhere between 2-6 ounces each time.  I'm currently only pumping one side at a time--that may change when she gets a little older.  I'm lucky enough to have a private office that I am able to pump in at work.  Before I get started, I make sure I have water and don't have to pee.  I bring an extra sandwich bag for my pump parts so I can keep them refrigerated in between pumping sessions.

Every night, Carson washes all of Allison's bottles and my pump parts.  We use a giant pot but if we had a sink stopper, we would use that instead.  We also have a very simple bottle rack that I picked up at Target for $6.  If for whatever reason bottles don't get washed at night, I have a few Medela sterilizer bags and I just toss everything in the microwave before I leave for work.

There have been a few times that I became pretty concerned with my supply and I did some research and decided that I HAD to have lactation cookies to boost my production.  The only ingredient that I was missing in my cabinets was brewer's yeast.  When Carson couldn't find brewer's yeast in the store, I turned to plan B--drinking beer.  Maybe it was the placebo effect or maybe it actually worked, but I do notice a slight different in my supply when I have a beer a few nights in a row.

If you asked me for my advise, I would say:

-Take advantage of your baby sleeping longer increments to build up your freezer stash
-Freeze your milk in 2 ounce increments always
-Don't waste money on the hands-free pumping bra
-Set a reminder on your phone or computer to pump
-Sit up straight
-Ask for help

I was never able to find much online about pumping at work so hopefully this helps at least a few people!

four months

Our little baby is four months old!  I can't believe how much she has changed and grown.  Throughout the month, Allison has gotten stronger, more vocal, and has been all over the place with her sleeping patterns.  She laughs and rolls and sleeps on her stomach now (as of a few days ago).  She also took a break this month from growing hair to grow some eyebrows.

Allie weighs 15 pounds, 13 ounces now (84th percentile) and is 25 inches long (79th percentile).  Her head is 15.5 inches around (20th percentile). She had her second round of shots on the 4th and she handled them so much better this time.  No change in hair color and eye color this month--still light brown hair and dark blue eyes but it does sometimes look like the center has started to turn brown.  She is still drooling all over the place (some days are worse than others) and she's putting more and more things in her mouth.  No signs of teeth yet though.  She has had more cradle cap issues but again, coconut oil clears it up pretty easily.

When Allie hit 15 weeks, we had a few nights with two night feedings (which was killer) but it didn't last long at all and we're back to just one night feeding.  She typically sleeps between 7:30-3:30, she's back to sleep by 4, then I wake her up at 6:30 to feed her again before leaving for work.  I really don't mind waking up with her in the middle of the night and I actually think I'll be kind of sad when it's over.  She is always so happy to see me and when I lay her down, she's still cooing and smiling.  Sometimes after I lay her down and start to walk out of her room, she'll say something else and I can't help it, I have to run back to her and talk to her some more.

Yesterday, Allie woke up early from a nap so I thought I would let her cry it out a little to see if she would go back to sleep.  After about 10 minutes, she was still wailing so I went in to check on her and she had gotten her arm stuck through the crib slats.  (Obviously I deserve the Mom of the Year award for that one.)  I ran out to Target and bought one of those breathable mesh crib bumpers.  She scoots and rolls SO much that I knew that wouldn't be the last time that happened if I didn't do anything about it.

I returned to work on October 21 and Allison has been doing great in daycare.  It took about two weeks, but I think things are starting to become more routine.  I feel really at ease with the person watching Allie during the day, Christina.  She actually reminds me A LOT of one of my college roommates.  At first, Christina mistook Allie's tired cues for feeding cues so she was eating 16 ounces each day.  Every day I worried about that because I only get between 10-15 ounces a day at work so I was constantly having to dip into the freezer stash.  The past couple of days though, Allie has eaten 12 ounces during the day so I feel better about the feeding situation.  Pumping at work though is a whole other story.  It's really difficult to take a break 3 times a day to pump.

Allie is still wearing a mix of 3, 3-6, and 6 month clothing.  Some of the 6 month clothing is too big but we went ahead and washed everything so we could use the clothes to layer.  Now that we have to actually get dressed for daycare/work every day, we're doing a lot more laundry.  No more staying in our jammies all day.  She's still wearing size 2 diapers.

This month, Allie is really starting to love playing with all of her toys.  After I feed her in the morning, I put her in her Rock N Play with her toys hanging over her and she is perfectly content swatting at them...especially her monkey.  When we lay her on her playmat, she loves throwing her arms all around and hits all the hanging toys.  We keep her Oball in the car to keep her occupied and she knows how to shake it to make it rattle.  During tummy time, she can come up off her elbows and supports herself with just her hands.  She rolled from her back to her stomach the night of November 7th and it seems like that has completely changed the way she slept.  Before that though, some nights I would lay her down facing one way and when I got her in the morning, she had completely turned around.  But she was always perfectly the other direction...never at an angle.  She's quite the scooter and it really blows my mind how mobile she is.  She REALLY wants to crawl but can't quite figure out how to make it work yet.

Carson and I have discovered the hard way that it's pretty easy to spook Allie.  I had done it once or twice when she was younger but it seems the older she gets, the easier it happens.  If we sneak into our room and she catches us, she'll look at us and just wail.  It's so sad/funny.

Allie is laughing more and more every day.  Sometimes when we find a word that makes her laugh, we just repeat it over and over until she's no longer amused.  2 that we know work?  Costco and Jamjams.  She loves it.  She continues to amaze us and others with how totally relaxed and calm she is.  We're able to take her with us and she takes it all in stride.  Last weekend, we actually took her to a bull riding competition and she just sat on my lap and looked at everything and just soaked it all in.  She even took a little catnap on my lap.  She didn't cry once.  And then she slept through the night that night.  Perfect baby?  I mean, I don't want to brag.

My hair loss is definitely much worse than it was last month.  It almost looks like I cut bangs in the front.  Other than that, there's still the constant struggle of juggling being a wife, a mom, and now I have to add work to the mix again.  It's been difficult not being able to stay late at work anymore and it makes me really stressed sometimes.  Working out is totally on the backburner these days.  I just can't seem to find the motivation to do it.   Especially now with the time change...the sun is setting as I leave work.  I have lofty dreams of waking up really early to work out before work but I'm already supposed to wake up at 5:15 and find myself waking up at 5:30 most days.

All in all, the transition back to working hasn't been as hard as I thought it would be.  I struggle constantly with the guilty feeling that I'm picking something totally meaningless over raising my child just for money.  However, with my extra income, we will be able to fully fund Allie's college education and will be able to take trips and give her experiences that otherwise we wouldn't be able to afford.  And then that leads me to conflicting feelings that it absolutely wouldn't hurt her if she had to pay for some of her college (I turned out okay) or have a job when she's 16.  I suppose we could still have her do those things to a certain extend.  The point is, I'm working on being comfortable with my decision.