All you moms out there working full time I give you serious props! I work 2-3 days a week (and honestly just started a few weeks ago) and being a mom, working AND pumping/breastfeeding is HARD. I love feeding my baby but it's not easy to pump along with that so here's some tips and tricks I've learned recently:
1. Make sure you have a nice bag to store all your pump "stuff" and keep a wet/dry bag to hold your clean breast shields and tubing and what not! I just happened to get one as a gift but you can find a similar one here. I learned this one after using countless plastic bags and tossing them at the end of the day because of the moisture. This solved that problem. I use an oversized vera bradley bag to carry my pump in.
2. Have your storage bags in your bag too! I use lansinoh storage bags that you can find here.
3. Bring a small cooler bag and ice pack. I was fortunate to have this given to me from a neighbor but you can find a similar one here.
4. I also like to use a sterilizing wipe to clean between sessions during the day. I like the medela wipes that you technically don't need water with but I use them because it's easy to wipe them and rinse them in the sink in our pump room. These can be found here.
Those are the supplies I needed to make my life a little easier while pumping at work! For those of you in hospitals we have the hospital grade medela "symphony" pump and I purchased the set here. It's a life saver from having to carry my whole pump with me everywhere. So much easier.
The other thing I want to share is the schedule I work with because if you're anything like me you research this stuff ahead of time and aren't really sure how you're supposed to make it work as a first time mom so here's my schedule to make sure my baby is fed and has supply every day she's away from me:
6:45 am - feed my little girl or pump if she's not hungry yet and put it in a bottle that my mom will feed her once she gets hungry
9:30 or 10 am - 1st pumping session
1 or 1:30 pm - 2nd pumping session
5 or 5:30 pm - 3rd pumping session OR if I only work 8 hours that day I just head home and feed the little one when I get there. If she's recently eaten I just pump at home and store for the next day!
My mom may feed her 1 additional time during that time but she will take anywhere from 2-5 ounces each time. Most pump sessions I'm pumping 4-8 ounces so I'm still keeping up with her even if I'm not pumping at the exact same times as she's eating with my mom.
That's it guys. This gets me anywhere from 8-16 ounces which is more than enough to feed her the next day. I actually have a stash going since I started at around 1 month where she dropped a feed around 9 pm and I would pump that session because she wouldn't eat until about midnight and it also helped so I didn't feel engorged. She was sleeping her first 5 hour stretch at 1 month but you can figure out what's best for your baby. Some babies still need to eat every 2-3 hours at 1 month and some are going a longer stretch. My suggestion is find that long stretch and pump between. I waited until she consistently did this so I wouldn't have her wake and have no supply to feed her. It worked out great and I have to have around 60 ounces stored in the freezer at this point!
Also, I had a huge issue last week where she WOULD NOT EAT from when I last fed her at 6:45 am until my husband finally came over to feed her at noon. It freaked me out and I rushed home at 3 pm to make sure she ate again. I spoke with some other momma's at work and they suggested this bottle. It was a lifesaver. We'd been practicing with dr. brown bottles for months but I think having my mom feed her instead of my husband was too much. Fortunately the avent bottles saved us. She has had no issues eating since. Thank goodness!!
Feel free to reach out if you momma's have any questions about mom life, pumping life or work life!