Day in the Life of a Full Time Working Pumping Mom

When you are a working pumping breastfeeding mom, your life revolves around your boobs.  I thought i would share how an average day goes down for this working pumping mom. This was my schedule 9 months in.  Previous to that, LO would wake up multiple times per night. I am convinced the working pumping mom is the busiest of them all.

5:00 am: Alarm goes off, snooze for a bit.  LO used to wake at this time to nurse.

5:30 am: Wake up, start pumping. While pumping I eat breakfast and usually catch up on shows that came on the previous night after I was asleep.  I would like to say I was productive during this time, but I generally would watch TV or look at facebook.  When I get done pumping, I clean pump parts and prepare little one’s (LO) bottles for the day.

6:20 am: I try to let LO sleep as long as possible so I can get everything done.  I Wake up LO, nurse him, change diaper, and put on his day clothes.

7:20 am: Pack up everything for work.  Get LO in car seat, drop him off at daycare.  I am a bag lady getting everything in my car in the morning and brought in to work.  A future post will go into detail about all of the needed gear.

• Pumping Bag
• Lunch Bag
• Daycare bag with the Milk
• Nursing pillow to use at lunch
• Laptop if I brought it home
• Purse

8:00 am: Arrive at work.

9:00 am: Morning Pump for 30 minutes, plus setup and clean up time.

11:00 am: Drive to daycare to nurse LO.  I take my nursing pillow inside with me.  At first I felt embarrassed bringing in the nursing pillow, but that is the only way I could consistently nurse my LO. Going to daycare at lunch over the past year I learned an incredible amount about babies.  Having never been around kids before, it gave me an idea of what to expect.  For example, I saw the older kids grab each others paci’s, and realized there was no way to prevent that from happening.  When the day came that Alex grabbed another paci, my stress level was greatly reduced.  It made me more confident with the teachers.

2:30 pm: Afternoon pump for 30 minutes, plus setup and clean up time. Mommy guilt that I do not work during pump breaks.

5:00 pm: Hubby picks up LO from daycare so I call to see how LO is doing and what the teachers said about him.

6:00 pm: Can’t wait to see LO again.  Get home, nurse LO.

6:30 pm: Hubby feeds LO supper. Lately this has been mandarin oranges, cereal puffs, and a little of whatever we ate.

6:50 pm: Nurse LO until he falls asleep, hope that he doesn’t wake up while we move him to his crib.

8:00 pm: I Fall asleep. When LO was 3 months to 6 months, I would pump at this time.  I fell asleep pumping multiple nights – it helps to have a pump that shuts off automatically.  I stopped this pump session because I realized I was dreading this pump, not getting much milk production, and stressing about it,  I don’t regret stopping that at all.

1:00 am: Wake up to screaming baby, nurse him in my bed.  After nursing he is ready to party, so move him to his crib where he cries.

3:00 am: Wake up to screaming baby. Debate on letting him cry for a few minutes, or to nurse him.  Mommy guilt engaged while letting him cry because surely he is not hungry again.

Sleep – Repeat!