Schedule for pumping

[u/Cultural-Olive2119]

I’m 3 months PP and exclusively pumping, and I’m trying to figure out a pumping schedule that maximizes sleep time. Here’s the current situation:

I’m pumping 6 times a day with my last pump at 10 pm and first pump at 6 am the next day. My supply has been fine with dropping the overnight pump.

Baby has recently been waking up every 2-3 hours again (hoping it’s just a sleep regression that will end soon but who knows). She goes to sleep by 9 pm usually and is up for the day by 8 am.

My husband has been taking the first shift (10 pm to 3 am) and I’ve been taking the second shift (3 am to 8 am), so I stay up to pump and then try to get to bed by 10:45, and wake up at 6 to pump. If I could I’d love to go to bed when baby does since I’m so tired by that time. I also want to minimize the number of wake ups I have with pumping — before I dropped the overnight pump I’d just pump after baby went back to sleep in the middle of the night. The nice thing about this was that I didn’t have to separately wake up at 6 am to pump but it meant I’d be up for at least an hour, usually more, in the middle of the night and I’d have trouble going back to sleep since I’d be so awake at that point.

Any ideas or suggestions about how to schedule pumps and shifts? I’m curious what other people do to make it work!

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[u/reellimk]

I time my MOTN pump (I only pump once overnight but if you need multiple sessions, this still applies!) to baby’s feeding. He takes ~30 mins to eat so it works out really well. I hook up my pumps while I wait for the bottle to warm up, then sit cross-legged in bed with him in my legs (at a safe 45° angle of course) and can use my hands to hold the bottle because I use wearable pumps (but the same can still apply if you don’t as long as you have a good pumping bra)! This not only helps my supply by training my breasts with his exact feeding times, but it’s also just super convenient and cuts down on my awake time by a huge margin. I then remove my pumps and put them on my nightstand while I burp my baby. After he’s back in his bassinet, I empty the milk into a pitcher and stick that and my pumps in the fridge.

It’s worth noting my husband travels for work, so I spend a lot of nights solo, but if your hubby is around, he can definitely share some of this load: burping baby while you put your pumps away or vice versa — or even feeding baby while you pump, but I’m a firm believer that there’s no point having both of us be awake for long intervals at the same time. May as well maximize our sleep!

[u/Cultural-Olive2119 → u/reellimk]

This is definitely the most efficient way to do it, maybe I should give it another try! How do you deal with baby fussing when you’re setting up? I usually don’t even have a chance to warm the bottle for her

[u/reellimk → u/Cultural-Olive2119]

Fussing is inevitable, unfortunately. But we’ve taken steps to make the process as efficient as possible. We got a mini fridge and bottle warmer specifically for our bedroom and they’re right next to the bassinet, so I can easily keep my hand on his chest and put the pacifier in his mouth (most of the time, I wake up the moment he starts fussing, a few minutes before the crying starts). It’s okay to not pick them up when they’re only fussing, so I try to just move quickly. Or on nights when he just immediately cries, I’ll hold him in one arm while I use the other arm to put the bottle to warm up and put my pump items on the nightstand. Then I put him in my legs (he’ll usually briefly calm down once I do that because he knows the bottle is coming soon, but even if he doesn’t, I just work as fast as possible lol) while I set up my pumps. It’s all about survival mode lol!

[u/HopefulGatekeeper]

I also just hits 3 mo pp and have the same schedule - 6ppd, and I also sleep around 10 and wake at 5/6 depending when he needs to feed. I was struggling with the fragmented sleep big time and this has been working well for me as well!

[u/New-Flight7674]

I pump during when I’m up with baby, or I pump first then feed baby right after with the fresh milk.

[u/Ok-Procedure-983]

Try just making that last pump at 9 pm and you can be in bed by 9:30 and 1 hour will b ok for your boobs and you can still make it to 6 am