…and by pumping system, I don’t mean the lovely Medela Pump In Style Advanced my dear friend has indefinitely loaned me. I mean the complex system I have come up with to make exclusive pumping while being a working mom to two young kids as efficient and non-time-consuming as possible.
I am a very system and schedule driven person, so it’s important to me to have an efficient system that runs smoothly every day. There are a lot of moving parts, but after about 3 months of exclusive pumping, I think I’ve finally gotten my system down. Here it is.
Supplies:
- Medela Pump In Style Advanced in tote bag
- 2-3 sets of pump parts and at least 10 bottles
- Bowl for dirty bottles and pump parts
- Bottle drying rack
- Bottle brushes
- 2 insulated bags
- ziploc bags
- 2 ice packs
- Breastmilk freezer storage bags
- Mini fridge and chest freezer (ours are right outside our bedroom door in the hall)
- Smartphone to stream Netflix shows while pumping (I just caught up with HIMYM and now I’m starting Frasier from the beginning)
Just to set you up with a visual idea of my setups, here are the three “stations” of supplies:
- Hallway outside our bedroom: chest freezer; mini fridge with dirty bowl and drying rack placed on top, along with breastmilk freezer bags, a pen, and a bottle of tri-vi-sol
- Bedroom nightstand: pump bag placed on top, power strip underneath for pump and phone
- At work: This is how I unpack my pump bag and set up for a pumping session.
Morning (usually starts at 6:00am)
- Wake up, wash hands, retrieve pump parts and bottles from fridge, pump in bed (9-12 oz).
- Freeze 6 oz bag of milk, store remainder in fridge. Rinse out pump parts, attach to empty bottles and store in fridge.
- Finish packing up the pump (insert ice packs into both insulated bags, coil up a/c adapter and tubes).
- Get ready for work and leave.
At work
- Depending on my meetings for the day, I pump at both 11:00am and 3:30pm OR I pump once at 1:00pm.
- Go to bathroom appointed for pumping (it’s a single room with two cushioned stools). LOCK THE DOOR, tie my hair into a bun, wash hands, set up, pump (6-9 oz).
- Rinse out pump parts, store them in ziploc bag in insulated bag, store milk bottles in insulated bag, pack up pump.
At home
- As soon as we arrive at home, put milk pumped at work into fridge, store ice packs in freezer, put pump parts and used bottles in dirty bowl, put pump bag in bedroom.
- If I’ve only pumped once at work, after putting the kids to bed I set up the pump on my nightstand, retrieve the refrigerated pump parts and bottles from the fridge, and pump once at 7:00pm (8 oz). If I pumped twice at work, I don’t pump again until right before bed.
- Store milk in fridge and put used pump parts and bottles into dirty bowl, bring bowl and empty drying rack downstairs.
- After dinner, wash all dishes, then wash all bottles and pump parts by filling dirty bowl with hot soapy water. Scrub all bottles and pump flanges with the bottle brush and all nipples with the nipple brush.
- At bedtime (around 10:00pm), bring up empty dirty bowl and drying rack and place on top of mini fridge. Pack pump bag (a set of pump parts in a ziploc bag in one insulated bag, 4 bottles and tops in the other insulated bag) and put away all clean pump parts (I have a clean bowl by my nightstand). Prep one set of pump parts and bottles for pumping.
- Get ready for bed, then pump in bed. Rinse out pump parts and attach to empty bottles and store in fridge. Prep 4 bottles for the next day’s feedings and freeze any extra milk.
It sounds seriously complex, but after 3 months of working and pumping, it’s become total routine to me and it’s not even annoying anymore to wash the pump parts. (The only annoying thing is if the sink is already full of dirty dishes!) I used to keep a bottle brush and dish detergent in our hall bath to wash pump parts so I’d never have to bring any of my system downstairs, but it’s just easier to wash things in the big kitchen sink, so I just bring the dirty bowl and drying rack down and up each evening.
What’s your pumping system?
Pumping & Increasing Milk Supply part 3 of 11
1. Increasing Your Milk Supply by Checklists2. Pumping Up the Volume by Mrs. Bee
3. My Pumping System by mrs. wagon
4. Don't Pay for a Breast Pump Until You Read This by Mrs. Tricycle
5. More milk, more milk, more milk! by Mrs. Hopscotch
6. Building up a Breastmilk Freezer Stash by mrs. wagon
7. Exclusive Pumping vs. Breastfeeding by Mrs. Bee
8. How To Clean a Medela Pump by Mrs. Bee
9. My Pumping, Freezing, and Defrosting Strategy by Mrs. Bee
10. Project Milk by Mrs. Bee
11. Feeding and Storing Expressed Breastmilk by Checklists
Exclusive Pumping part 3 of 4
1. Exclusive Pumping vs. Breastfeeding by Mrs. Bee2. Building up a Breastmilk Freezer Stash by mrs. wagon
3. My Pumping System by mrs. wagon
4. My Exclusive Pumping Journey by mrs. wagon
GOLD / cantaloupe / 6703 posts
Thanks for this! We’re just starting to discuss how to pump at work and to be as exclusively pumping.
guest
Thanks. Very thorough! Only question I have is how long would you say each pumping session lasts?
blogger / watermelon / 14218 posts
@camille: From beginning to end with setup and cleanup I take about 20 minutes. The pumping itself lasts about 12-15 minutes.
hostess / wonderful persimmon / 25556 posts
Thank you for posting this! Are you planning on donating any extra milk you have?
I’m pumping at work but breastfeeding at home. Pumping is hard but it’s worth it. I’ll admit I’m forgetful, though. I have three sets of parts and 12 bottles I rotate through. Sometimes I forget to bring my bottle caps to work. I’ve gone home with my milk in a Gatorade bottle. Haha. Talk about grossing your husband out when you put a Gatorade bottle of milk in the fridge. Lol.
blogger / nectarine / 2010 posts
I used to be so diligent about pumping the side M didn’t nurse on in the morning while he had his tummy time, but then the rest of the day totally fell apart. I can’t even count how many time 3pm has rolled around and I’ve totally forgotten my mid-day pump! You’re a rock star for getting a system down! I’m seriously impressed
I forget, did you try to nurse LMW or did you plan on EPing from the beginning?
blogger / wonderful cherry / 21628 posts
Wow, pumping sounds like a lot of work!
apricot / 370 posts
i applaud you @mrswagon, EP is one of the hardest things to do, it surely takes passion, dedication, commitment. thank you for sharing your setup and system.
blogger / watermelon / 14218 posts
@mediagirl: hehe that would be kind of a gross mistake to take a swig expecting some lemon-lime gatorade!! ;D
@Mrs. Stroller: thanks!! like I said, I’m totally schedule-oriented so it really works for me. I exclusively nursed for the first 9 weeks while I was home (with one bottle of pumped milk a day), then when I went back to work I nursed in the mornings and night for about another month. Since she was having a lot of trouble nursing (always pulling off and getting sprayed with milk, fussing at the breast, etc) and I’ve never loved nursing, I switched to exclusive pumping.
@Leialou: it’s a lot of work, but compared to how difficult nursing was for me (physically), I don’t mind it at all! especially since I need to pump at work anyway.
@kakimochi: thanks for the kind words!!!!
nectarine / 2192 posts
This is great! Awesome post!
kiwi / 511 posts
I also exclusively pump and have from the beginning, we have had latch issues and working with my lactation consultant really didn’t help in that area but she was a great help for my mental well being. I highly recommend working with a lactation consultant, I started in the hospital the day after DS was born it was part of my hospital stay and post natal care. It took a while to get wrap my head around the fact that nursing is hard and I was not a failure because DS and I couldn’t get it going together. The lack of latch I really do think it has made my supply weak so we have been supplementing with formula, I call my baby a hybrid
and he goes back and forth between the two pretty easily. The benefit for me is I get to sleep at night, my DH gets up in the middle of the night to feed him, granted he goes to bed early and I stay up for a late night pump so we don’t really see each other 
we do feel that this is best for us as a family for now.
Working with my lactation consultant I have found the only things that really help me maintain my very limited supply is (1) pumping every 3-4 hours; the exception is overnight then I go from last pump at 10:30ish to first pump at 5:30ish (2) lactation cookies. Stress and lack of hydration are certainly detrimental to my supply (I am sure they are to everyone but I notice it a lot) but so far once I reduce stress and rehydrate my supply goes back to my normal.
My schedule is roughly 5:30 AM, 8:30 AM (@work), 12 PM(@work), 3 PM(@work), 7 PM, 10:30 PM, and I refer to it as “Time to make the donuts”. Each session is roughly 20 minutes; 15 minutes of actual pump time and 5 minutes for set up and breakdown. My office has a mother’s room so I do have a nice oversized closet/room with a locking door, chairs, table, and a space heater it gets cold in there. In my pump pack (Medela Advance) I have my various parts, which I keep in a gallon plastic baggie (not Ziploc), my power cord (I use twist ties to keep the cord the length I need to go from the pump to the outlet the rest is tied up, it makes it smaller and easier to keep in the bag, and coincidentally enough it is the same length needed for work and home, I also have my pump bags (because I pump 3 times at work it is a space saver to use and pump directly into the bags rather than bottles), lanolin, my modified sports bra that acts as my hands free system, my insulated bag and ice pack and of course my tubes which are stored un attached but coiled in that compartment where they are attached to the pump.)
At work I will set up and while pumping I will prep for the next pump, which means I will open the next set of bags because those Ziplocs on the Medela bags are tough. While pumping I will either, take a mini nap, play angry birds, read a book, make to do lists or crochet. After the pump is complete I seal up my bags, and put the pump parts on the new bags and everything goes in the cooler. Another tip from my lactation consultant (after she noticed my raw hands) was not to wash the pump equipment every time, but treat it like breast milk with the 5-5-5 rule. So I keep the parts chilled until next use, and reuse 3 times after that they go in the dishwasher. At home the setup is similar however at home I pump into bottles.
DS is now 7 months old and so far I am keeping it up. Exclusive pumping is so difficult, 2 precious hours of my day are taken up by this endeavor but it is worth it to my DH and I. We are a team in this battle because while I am pumping that means I am not doing other things around the house, we as a team make the decisions about what is best for our son, us individually and as a family (we have 2.5 year old as well). Since it is my time I get the overriding vote on if we continue or don’t continue but I take his input into consideration.
Because I was so discouraged at first, after much discussion about what was right for us we decided to take it in chunks of time, I would pump for 3 months I could make that commitment and then when the 3 months were up we would re-evaluate. Things were going well so I re-upped so to speak for another 3 months, and now that we are in the 7 month I am taking it on a month by month basis and if can no longer produce 15 ounces (on a consistent basis) in a 24 hour period that is when I will stop pumping. At that point we feel we will have reached the point of diminishing returns. Making that plan has helped me a lot and reduced my stress level, because I have established a criteria for how long I will go.
pomelo / 5628 posts
@Mrs.Maven: My schedule is very similar to yours! But I play Scramble or Sudoku or cross-stitch when i’m at the hospital.
I pump at 5:30, 8:30, 12:30, 5:30, 8:30, 11:30. I have 4 complete sets but I could probably get by with less if I remembered to refrigerate in between.