Our Routine

I've been meaning to write about the sleeping and eating routine that we've adopted since I went back to work. So here goes:

Our day usually starts sometime between 3am and 4:30am. Either she'll wake us up sometime in there and want to eat, or she'll sleep through and I'll wake up to my alarm at 4:30am. Usually, even if she hasn't been forcefully demanding food at that point, she'll have been at least periodically waking up and fussing and then going back to sleep. So if she's slept through until 4:30, we go ahead and feed her at that time anyway. It's nice to feed her when she's not totally hungry and freaking out.

Ben and Greta before the sun comes up. 

This early-morning feeding is one that Ben gives to Greta from a bottle. This became our habit when we were living with Ben's parents because when we were on a schedule and waking her up to eat, they would often take the late night and early morning feedings so that we could get some more rest. I'd get up and pump and then go right back to sleep, instead of nursing (which still can take a very long time). It worked well for us then and it's continuing to work well for us now. The nice thing is that because it's been longer since her last feeding, my supply is usually bigger. So I can produce enough for two feedings during one pumping session at that time. It's a nice little safety net to be able to get an extra bottle's worth of milk each day. I know that many breastfeeding sources say that if you are pumping and working, you should nurse your baby at all other times. But I like the way that things are going and I'd like to keep it up.

So I get up and get a snack and a tall glass of water and heat up a hot pack to help get my breasts fully drained. I pump for 20-30 minutes while Ben gets Greta changed and gives her the bottle that we prepared the night before. Then usually he snuggles Greta back to sleep and when I'm done pumping I empty the dishwasher of the pump and bottle parts from the previous evening. I pump three times while at work and I don't have the time to wash or rinse the supplies in-between pump times, so I just bring three full sets of pump parts and then wash them all in the dishwasher overnight. It means some extra time loading and unloading the dishwasher, as well as some time spent on shaking and wiping the water off of the clean parts when they come out of the dishwasher in the morning, but it's still less of a hassle than standing at the sink and washing everything by hand. Plus, I can pre-assemble just about everything ahead of time and put it into my pump bag ready to go. If I have enough time, I also make up the next couple bottles that she'll have while I'm at work and empty the rest of the dishwasher so that it's ready to be filled throughout the day.

Then I usually get dressed for the day, make my lunch, finish packing up the pump and supplies, and eat one more breakfast snack before I leave for work. I leave at 6:30am.

When I get to work, I go up to the "pumping room" (really just a bathroom that is no longer used) and set up the pump and my supplies. Then I check the clock and see if I have enough time to get some caffeine before I start teaching. (So far, I've managed to get out for a caffeinated beverage everyday that I've been back at work -- bad for my wallet, but great for my sanity!)

Then, at 7:10am, I start teaching my Geometry class. I teach for an hour and then go up to pump during the schoolwide advisory time. This is my most constrained pump time of the day. The bell for the end of my Geometry class rings at 8:10 and I have to be back in the classroom at 8:35. I take the elevator up to the "pump room" so that I can avoid going up three flights of stairs amidst the hubub of passing time. Then I hurriedly take down the front of my nursing tank or bra and put on the hands-free bustier right over it. I put the flanges through the holes in the bustier and check that the nipples are centered by using a handheld mirror. Then I attach a pre-assembled set-up (the connector, valve, membrane and bottle) to each side and start the pump.

At 8:30, I turn off the pump, remove the hands-free bustier, and blot the milk off of myself. Then I carefully remove all the pieces except the bottles and put them in a gallon bag that I use to bring the used parts home. If the pump session has been productive, I will have about 2 ounces in each bottle. I carefully pour the contents of one bottle into the other, so that I have one empty bottle (to be put in the gallon bag and washed later) and one 4 ounce bottle of breastmilk. I cap that bottle and put it in my little cooler.

Then I do one final check to make sure that my shirt is not still up around my chest and go back down to my classroom.

When the lunch bell rings three hours later, I head back up to the pump room and repeat the process -- the differences being that at this pump session I have a buddy (another lactating teacher whose daughter is older and so she only needs to pump once a day) in the pumping room with me, and I also am eating my lunch while I pump. I have 40 minutes for lunch, so it's a little less stressed, but because I often have to heat up my lunch before going up to the pump room, it can still be a bit of a strain to be back in time for my next class.

Then I have three more hours of teaching before the end of the schoolday. Right away when the bell rings, I go up and do another pumping. If it's a day when I have a meeting afterschool, then this last pumping is also very rushed because I am trying to get to the meeting 10 minutes late instead of 20 minutes late. If it's a day when I don't have a meeting, then I can take my time, but I try not to dawdle because I want to get stuff done so I can get home to my baby. I try to get as much done as I can before 5:15pm, so that when I go home at 5:30pm, I can just commit to family time.

What's Greta been doing all this time? That varies a lot. Usually after I am done pumping in the morning, she will snuggle with Ben until she's ready to eat again (usually sometime between 8 and 9am). If Ben's parents will be watching her for the day, then they come over around 9am and Ben gets ready and goes in to work. She's not on any particular schedule yet. Whomever is watching her will feed her about every 3 hours and fit in naps and tummy time and strolls whenever it seems to make sense. Throughout her day, she ends up taking about the same amount as what I've pumped during my three pumping sessions at work.

Playdate!

When I get home, we check in about how long ago she ate last (usually sometime between 2:00 and 3:30) and make plans for when I'll nurse her next. I nurse her and we do her meds sometime between 5:30-7pm, just depending on how things shake out. We try to aim for her meds being as close to 6pm as possible. We used to be more stressed about not feeding her until she'd had her meds because we were so afraid she'd spit them up. But now that we're a little more comfortable, we've found that it often goes better if I nurse her on one side to make sure she's calm and maybe a little "milk-drunk." Then we do the meds and then I offer the second side.

Ben and I squeeze in dinner for ourselves sometime in there -- sometimes before I nurse her and sometimes after . . . sometimes during, if dinner is a food that can be eaten with one hand and is unlikely to spill on the baby (or, at least, is not going to hurt the baby if it does). Around 8pm, I usually jump in the shower while she chills on the playmat or Ben snuggles her. When I get out of my shower, she's usually ready to nurse one more time before bed.

Sometime in the evening, one of us will make up the bottle for the next morning's 4:30am feeding (and, if there are more clean bottles available, the next feeding or two) and load the dishwasher with all the pump parts and bottles. We only have three bottles that we rotate through, so usually one of them will be clean (from being handwashed at some point in the day) and can be used for the 4:30am feeding, and the rest will go into the dishwasher. Yes, we wish our dishwasher had two top racks! Gone are the days when we'd put soup bowls or glassware up on the top -- everything that gets top-rack treatment nowadays is stuff that is "top rack only."

After she nurses again, Ben swaddles her up, puts a cap on her head if it's chilly, and brings her up to the co-sleeper that's attached to our bed. I brush my teeth, start the dishwasher if it isn't already running, and get into bed too. Ben sometimes stays up later, but bedtime for me and Greta is usually sometime between 10-11pm.

And then at 4:30am we start the whole thing over again!