Hey all, just thought I would share my work/on-the-go pumping setup as I've been pretty happy with it. I cobbled it together by searching Amazon and Googling various things and thought it may help someone else. I was kind of unsure of how exactly pumping, storing, etc. would work before I started and wish I'd had a li'l guide like this—it may be patently obvious to everyone else but oh well! All of this fits in one pretty-nice-looking bag and saves me having to put my stuff in the fridge at work. I keep it on the floor by my desk.
Disclaimers:
The pump, charger, backflow valve pieces, and miscellaneous stuff goes in the top part of the bag. There's a separate cold storage section of the bag at the bottom; in that I put the bottles (4 bottles with caps and flanges fit just right). I line the bottom of the bag with a cloth napkin then have another one to wrap my flanges in after use.
I like the bag because the cooler packs fit so nicely in it, but also because it has a loose pocket in the main compartment that is perfect to stow the backflow valves in; mine usually get a little moisture in them and I separate the silicone membrane from the plastic piece and let them dry in that little pocket between nursing sessions. The mesh pockets on the side perfectly fit the Spectra charger and extra duckbill valves in a Ziplock bag on one side, and my pumping bra folded in thirds on the other side. The other two pockets hold my nursing cover and some extra paper towels just in case I need 'em.
There's a zipper pocket on the back and in that I put a lil granola bar as an emergency snack, lanolin cream (mercifully I haven't needed that in a while, call me Super Nips), and a teeny bottle of hand sanitizer.
How I use it:
Since you're not supposed to combine freshly-pumped (warm) milk with cold milk, I do a little 4-bottle circus.
I've read (simply from blogs, can't find a "legit" source, to be fair) and feel it's safe for me reuse my parts if they stay refrigerator cold. I do this instead of washing them every time. (I wash them in the dishwasher every night along with the collection bottles and baby bottles from daycare.) The Cooler Shock pack keeps everything refrigerator cold for about 5 hours and cool for 8 hours. (As in it will chill milk from body temp to refrigerator temp for 5 hours—provided I replace it with one fresh from the freezer at lunch time.) I can't say I've measured the temp or anything so this is not scientific and take it with a grain of salt, but I've been doing this for almost 3 months with no problems.
Luckily I don't have to use the nursing cover much, it's a pain to arrange everything under it by ducking my head into it, but if I'm pumping in public I feel more comfortable using it so no one sees my nips peek-a-booing into the flanges every 0.75 seconds if they look close enough.
Disclaimers:
- FED IS BEST! I know this is not a breastfeeding/pumping sub, and certainly don't want to put anyone out who formula feeds; just thought some other working moms could use these tips.
- I'm not sure if links to products are allowed or thought of as shilling, so I'm just putting the names and you can search up Amazon. If anyone asks, I'm happy to add links later, but don't want to break any unwritten rules. I'm sure this goes without saying, but I am just a rando and in no way being compensated for mentioning these products.
- Viedouce breast pump bag
- Spectra (the blue rechargable one) and charger
- Maymom parts (comes with extra duckbill valves which in my experience are the first parts to go by far)
- Nenesupply collection bottles (the lids are nice and leak proof, I was intitially pumping into baby bottles but they leaked a couple times then I was done with that)
- Nursing cover (one of the stretchy polyeseter-ish ones)
- Simple Wishes pumping bra
- Cooler Shock lunch bag freezer packs (these are the secret sauce)
- Cloth napkins (ok, these are not on Amazon)
The pump, charger, backflow valve pieces, and miscellaneous stuff goes in the top part of the bag. There's a separate cold storage section of the bag at the bottom; in that I put the bottles (4 bottles with caps and flanges fit just right). I line the bottom of the bag with a cloth napkin then have another one to wrap my flanges in after use.
I like the bag because the cooler packs fit so nicely in it, but also because it has a loose pocket in the main compartment that is perfect to stow the backflow valves in; mine usually get a little moisture in them and I separate the silicone membrane from the plastic piece and let them dry in that little pocket between nursing sessions. The mesh pockets on the side perfectly fit the Spectra charger and extra duckbill valves in a Ziplock bag on one side, and my pumping bra folded in thirds on the other side. The other two pockets hold my nursing cover and some extra paper towels just in case I need 'em.
There's a zipper pocket on the back and in that I put a lil granola bar as an emergency snack, lanolin cream (mercifully I haven't needed that in a while, call me Super Nips), and a teeny bottle of hand sanitizer.
How I use it:
Since you're not supposed to combine freshly-pumped (warm) milk with cold milk, I do a little 4-bottle circus.
- I double pump (let's say into bottles A and B), combine the milk I've just pumped into one bottle (bottle A), and put my pump parts and bottles back in the cooler section of the bag.
- Next time I pump, I use the previously-emptied bottle (bottle B) and a fresh bottle (bottle C). Again, I combine the milk I've just pumped into one bottle (bottle B).
- By the time I've pumped again (2 ish hours), the second full bottle (bottle B) is cold enough to combine with the first bottle (bottle A), so I have two empty bottles again (bottles C and D) and can still double pump.
- After lunch, I switch out the Cooler Shock pack with one that I keep in the freezer at work.
I've read (simply from blogs, can't find a "legit" source, to be fair) and feel it's safe for me reuse my parts if they stay refrigerator cold. I do this instead of washing them every time. (I wash them in the dishwasher every night along with the collection bottles and baby bottles from daycare.) The Cooler Shock pack keeps everything refrigerator cold for about 5 hours and cool for 8 hours. (As in it will chill milk from body temp to refrigerator temp for 5 hours—provided I replace it with one fresh from the freezer at lunch time.) I can't say I've measured the temp or anything so this is not scientific and take it with a grain of salt, but I've been doing this for almost 3 months with no problems.
Luckily I don't have to use the nursing cover much, it's a pain to arrange everything under it by ducking my head into it, but if I'm pumping in public I feel more comfortable using it so no one sees my nips peek-a-booing into the flanges every 0.75 seconds if they look close enough.