Scheduling Pumping

In a recent mom group meeting one of the moms noticed that my baby was wearing a body suit that had been sent to me from the milk bank with their logo and slogan on it. On seeing it, she seemed to express concern about how pumping would work with scheduling if she did it, especially now that she has two young kiddos.

As many moms know, pumping with one little one is difficult enough. Moms that work rarely can depend on only the milk they pump while they are away from their baby. This pumping's primary purpose is to maintain milk production while away from the baby rather than provide the amount the baby would consume in that same time. It's well known that pumps are far from being as efficient as a baby at emptying the breast. A mom that works often must pump at home too, which may or may not cause scheduling conflicts when it comes to time with the baby. Add another munchkin into the mix and you can understand the difficulty.

When figuring out how pumping for the milk bank was going to work out for me, I had to consider my current schedule and how our typical day goes with both my toddler and my baby. I found that the easiest way to work in pumping was at times when my precious kiddos were either asleep or otherwise occupied and it has work out well so far.

In a normal day, I pump three times a day. I pump in the morning while my toddler is eating breakfast. He's typically pretty occupied with his breakfast and with the help of a little bit of children's television programming (which usually is all the TV he watches in a day), I'm able to keep him distracted enough so that he doesn't interfere or get too curious with the pump components. With the baby, I usually do one of two things. I can either place him in a bouncy seat close by (which now has become letting him play on the floor nearby now that he's a crawler) or nurse him on one side while pumping on the other. My mid-day pumping session occurs while the toddler takes a nap. Again, the baby is either nursing or playing nearby. If I'm really lucky, he's napping too. At nighttime, I typically wait until both boys are sleeping and take that opportunity to pump. With this schedule, I take advantage of times when the children don't need my undivided attention and they are less likely to be getting into things they shouldn't or hurting themselves while I'm "tied down." It allows me a reasonable amount of pumping. I occasionally add a second pumping session in the evenings, but it isn't part of my normal "routine."

I would say that for anyone interested in pumping for donation, this is an ideal way to approach pumping realistically. While we all want to feel like supermom, it's not always realistic. Each of us has obligations and our children and families must come first. When donating, it can be hard to set limits, but it really is to everyone's benefit. We (or at least I know I do) want so hard to make a big impact, donate all we can to help those little babes that depend on our contributions, but we have to be honest with ourselves and what is realistic. The best thing to do is look at a normal day and see when down times are. Those are the times to work in an extra pumping. Making sure we are taking care of our children and families (and of course, ourselves) is our first priority. Without that, pumping won't happen and those babes won't benefit at all, or significantly less. It is possible to work it in with multiple kids without your family suffering as a result, it's just a matter of finding the times that work best for you and setting realistic scheduling goals.

Happy pumping!