breast milk Archives - The Brave Little Mama

I am going to let you all in on a little secret… pumping sucks. When my son was born, I was on a mission to breastfeed to at least a year, and nothing was going to stop me. My twelve week maternity leave came to an end and I was shocked at how much I hated the entire process of pumping. Carrying everything I needed to work was difficult. Storing all of my pump parts was a pain. Washing all those parts at the end of the day was such a strain on my husband and I. During my 14 months of pumping at work for my son, I picked up a few tricks to make the daily routine more manageable.

Invest in a Pump Bag

When I first started back at work, I would carry my purse, a lunchbox and a tote bag with my pump. I looked and felt ridiculous. At the three-month mark of pumping, I figured that there HAD to be a better option out there. Thankfully, there was! I discovered Sarah Wells’ pump bags and have never looked back! I am currently on baby number 2 and am using this Sarah Wells’ bag. It has two insulated pockets on the sides. I fit my Spectra S2 pump and parts on one side and use the other side for an ice pack and 4-5 5oz bottles. In the main compartment of the bag I can easily fit my wallet, 1 bag filled with snacks, a cosmetics bag, my lunch and an insulated water bottle.

I make milk. What’s your superpower?

Use a Hands Free Pumping Bra

These allow you to have free use of your hands during your pumping sessions. Need I say more? There are a bunch of different options out there. I prefer the Simple Wishes hands free bra, because it has a huge range that it can be adjusted. Compared to other hands-free bras that I tried, I also found that this one held its shape and didn’t get floppy over time.

Rinse And Refrigerate Your Pump Parts Throughout The Day

In between pumping sessions, you can store your pump parts in the fridge and reuse them for your next pumping session. Just give them a quick rinse to remove any milk after your pumping session. Full disclaimer, sometimes I don’t even rinse them and just stick them into my wet bag. This will save you space in your bag from needing to bring another set of pump parts. It will also save you time from having to fully clean the pump parts after each pump session.

Pump Into The Bottles You Will Be Sending To Daycare

Pumping into bags may take up less space in your bag, but unless you will be freezing the milk, you are making more work for yourself later on. If you pump directly into the bottles that your baby will be using tomorrow, you will save so much time prepping bottles once you are home. You can read about my daycare bottle set up here: The Best Way to Label Daycare Bottles

Keep a Spare set of Pump Parts at Work

This is a lesson that I learned the HARD way. I was already 20 minutes behind my pumping schedule, my boobs felt like they were going to explode and surprise, no membranes for my pump. There is nothing, I repeat, nothing worse than going to pump and discovering that you are missing parts. Balancing work and motherhood is hard enough without having a mid-day crisis. Do you attempt to hand express? Do you leave work and go home to pump? Learn from my mistake and have a spare set of parts at work as a back up. I use the Spectra S2 pump and found that these spare parts from Nenesupply worked just as good as the original parts! I recommend having 2 spare sets- one for work and an extra set at home.

I used to POP bottles and now I PUMP them!

If You Can, Leave Your Pump At Work

If you don’t utilize your pump at home or on the weekends, then there may not be a need for you to ever bring it home. My Spectra S2 weights 3.3 lbs. That’s a lot of extra weight to lug around when you consider all the other things that are also in your bag. If you do use it on the weekends, but not during the night, you can also leave it at work during the week and just bring it home for the weekend.

Use Machine Washable Wet Bags To Store Your Pump Parts Between Pumping Sessions

I have seen and tried a bunch of different options for storing my pump parts throughout the day. Tupperware is bulky in my bag and is not at all discreet sitting in the work refrigerator. Some bags specifically made for pump parts have to be hand washed and hung dry. I found this to be a pain in the butt during the week. Plus, those bags usually cost more. My perfect solution is machine washable wet bags. At the end of the week, they get washed and are ready for the next week. Having a bag ready to go the night before also helped by making it possible to pre-pack my pump parts the night before. The bags I use each have 2 compartments, so I can use each bag twice (one day in each compartment). At the cost of 2 for $8 on Amazon, they are extremely affordable.

Invest in a Bottle Sterilizer

I stumbled across these while pregnant with my second baby and I am still mad that I didn’t have one while pumping for my first. With my bottle sterilizer, I now only have to lightly rinse my bottles and pump parts. They then go into the sterilizer and 45 minutes later they come out completely dry. Every day we save at least 10 minutes that used to be dedicated to cleaning bottles and pump parts. I also love the fact that each and every day my pump parts are actually sterilized, not just washed. I can fit 6 bottles and my pump parts in this sterilizer. We purchased from Amazon and my husband refers to our bottle sterilizer as the best money we have ever spent.

I hope these tips help make your pumping journey better! Happy Pumping!