Working Moms
pumping @ work (cross post)
I am at a job with a wellness room that has a refrigerator, so I just
leave my pumped milk and pump parts in there during the day. The milk
is in the medela cooler, the parts in a Tupperware container and I put
all of that in a WholeFoods lunch size insulated bag. I am out of the
house for 10 hrs and it's probably 8 hours from my first pump until the
end of the day.
I'll be moving to a job where I'll have to
pump in my office. I have to scope out if there is a fridge nearby, but
want a plan in place if there isn't one.
Does anyone keep their pump parts chilled in a cooler during the day? What kind of set up do you have?
Thanks!
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Re: pumping @ work (cross post)
Baby Girl #2 is on her way!
I will be pumping in my office, and the faculty lounge is on another floor. I have a bathroom sink near my office, but I'd rather not use that. I think I'm going to get wipes, and wipe down my parts and keep everything in a portable cooler for the day.
This all hypothetical though. I'm very interested to hear what others do.
I pumped every 2 hours at work so I brought 2 sets of flanges each day. I used 1 set for the first two sessions, and the other set for the last two sessions. I kept the flanges at room temp between pumps and did not rinse. I found that rinsing caused the valves to lose their tight seal (Ameda pump) and I would end up pumping much less but still feel uncomfortably full. I also did not like the feeling of refrigerated flanges! :-)
Then I stored the full bottles of BM in the cooler at my desk. I am away from home for 11+ hours each day, and the BM was still cool to the touch when I got home.
I had to do most of my pumping in the car- I used the little lunch coolers with 1-2 ice packs (like the ones you get for free with the formula kits in the hospital) and put my pump parts in a ziplock bag in the cooler bag between pumpings. I just wiped out the excess milk with one of the medela wipes before putting in the bag....I figured if the coolers kept the milk cool all day, any milk trapped in the pump would be the same temp. I kept the pumped bottles in the little Medela cooler that came with the pump.
I was usually going 10-12 hrs/day, and everything was still cold when I got it home, and we never had a problem in the year that I did this. I did sterilize my pump parts and bottles every night since they were sitting with milk all day and DS's empty bottles were in the fridge all day (DC doesn't rinse out).
I just leave them on my shelf and let them air dry. I've never had an issue using wet parts (sometimes they are still wet from the dishwasher too). I'm generally not worried if a few drops of tap water get into the milk. Just make sure you run the pump with only the tubing attached if it gets condensation in it (because of wet parts?) because it will grow mold. I ended up having to get replacement tubing because I didn't realize this soon enough. Different methods work for different people, but this has worked for me for almost 9 months.
Baby Girl #2 is on her way!
No need to dry nooks and crannies. Shake them out after you rinse. A little water (i.e., a few drops) isn't going to cause a problem.
I had to use a spare office, with no readily available restroom to inconspicuously wash pump parts in. I used a Playtex Fridge Cooler (or something like that) - it had room for 4 small bottles and kept them cold for 8 hours. For pump parts, I actually bought an extra 2 sets of everything (I pumped 3 times a day to start out), and used a fresh one for each pumping, then washed all 3 sets every night at home.
For the inconvenient setup I had, it worked alright.
I used to pump 2-3 times at work and just kept the parts at room temp, without even rinsing. I never had a single problem in my 18 months or so of pumping. The milk stays good at room temp for 8 hours or so, so the parts were fine. I just ran everything through the dishwasher at night.
My theory was always that the more work it was to pump, the less likely I was to pump as often as I needed, so I just tried to make everything as simple as possible.