Pump Room

In my last post, I mentioned having to pump in the “mother’s room” at work about 9 thousand times a day. In retrospect, I believe this to be inaccurate. Really, I have to pump 9,500 times a day.  And it’s hardly a “mother’s room.”

It’s an old office. They stuck a mini-fridge in there, some random old table and a couple office chairs. Really? Who needs more than 1 chair while they’re pumping? What, should I be bringing a friend? Are we using the buddy system here? I think the facilities person (obviously a guy) threw the extra chair in there to make up for the fact that it’s a crappy lactation room. “Hey, we can’t put a sink in here for washing pump parts. Let’s just add an extra rolling chair...no one will ever notice the lack of running water!”

My first day back at work I thought I’d have to pump twice. I thought I’d get 8 ounces each time. I saw a colleague outside the “mother’s room” and she mentioned that her lactation consultant advised her to pump 5 times a day. FIVE TIMES! I looked at her and said, “You poor thing” all the while thinking “that's not normal AT ALL.”

Then I pumped. And I got like an ounce from each breast. One measly ounce. I panicked. I went back to my desk and frantically Googled “how to increase milk supply”, “how to get more milk when pumping” and finally “best formula brands.”

Settle down, Miss La Leche League. I’m not giving up on breastfeeding and switching to formula, but for a brief moment I was convinced my child was going to starve if I didn’t start supplementing.

I discovered that I was going to have to pump more often. A lot more often.

So the next day, I took my Fenugreek supplement, ate my oatmeal for breakfast, drank my Mother’s Milk organic tea (all solutions uncovered during my panicky Google search) and faithfully toted my trusty pump back and forth to the lactation room 9,500 times.

And it worked! I have been getting more milk each time I pump, which hopefully means I will be able to decrease my pumping sessions next week. This is a good thing, because at some point I will actually have to do my job when I’m at the office. Pretty sure they’re not paying me to pump.

More later. Gotta go pump.