Breast Milk Pumping
Pumping and breastfeeding while caring for a baby can really hammer home the dairy-cow theme of early mothering. Over the years we've come up with a few ideas that can help you streamline a day's worth of sucking/suction:
Pump when there's someone else around to hold the baby if possible. If you have a partner who goes to work, pump before or after the workday.
Make pumping a hands-free experience. This is accomplished by finding some means of securing the suction cups (flanges) to your breasts, leaving your hands free to pursue some other activities. Various contraptions are available for this purpose. Or, you can just take an old bra and cut holes in the nipples (very sexy). If you use a nursing bra for this, you can feed your baby and pump at the same time. This solves the problem of finding time to pump, though some babies do not appreciate being fed alongside all that chug-chug-chugging and plastic tubing.
Cut down on prep and set-up time. Try to clean up after you pump so that you never have to futz around with a scrubber before the actual session. Or keep a bowl of sudsy, hot water next to the sink so you can dump all parts immediately after use and clean at night. If you can, delegate the clean-up to someone else. You could invest in an extra pack of plastic pump parts so there's more to go around. Put the pump in a convenient place and leave it there, plugged in. Make sure whatever you need is also nearby... Read more from Parental Advisory: Who has time to pump?
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