What Exactly is "Pumping"?

A new mom's discovery of the "breast pump" and how her life was changed forever

Before baby #1, I had no idea what a breast pump was. I think my sister-in-law had one, but I never really understood what it was, and I certainly had never used one. When compiling my baby registry, "breast pump" was listed among the essential items. Some basic research revealed this mechanism would help me transition my baby to a bottle from nursing once I went back to work. Ok, no problem - on the list it went, along with a few parts and pieces they said I'd need. Then the pump, bottles and bits were filed away with the "stuff I'll need in 3 months" pile. Little did I know that my pump would become my best (breast) friend for the next year.

Like everything else about babies, they never do what you want them to do. (As a new mom, I had no idea what I was supposed to do either!) My naïve plans of peacefully nursing my newborn were smashed to smithereens within a day, thanks to my anti-nursing firstborn. After two days of tears, struggling to latch, pain, and frustration of not being able to feed my baby, my night nurse (the good one) asked if I wanted to try pumping as a last resort before starting formula.

(Important note: I'm not against baby formula at all. I'm 100% for whatever works for you and your baby - formula, nursing, pumping or some combination therein. Do what makes YOUR life better, and that of your BABY. To hell with everyone else. Soapbox done.)

20 minutes later, I'm hooked up to this whooshing machine, with tubes and plastic bits attached to my "girls", praying something would work to calm my crying baby. Miraculously, a few drops fell in the bottles. And when my baby finally had her first taste of milk, and I started an incredible journey of bottles, hoses, baggies, freezers and other pump paraphernalia I never knew existed.

A quick scan of Google and the guidance of my nursing staff helped me with the basics of pumping. From what I read, I could already tell pumping was going to be a HUGE time commitment: lots of parts to wash, pumping 20 minutes every 2-3 hours, and everything pointed to requiring a lot more production to keep a growing baby happy. Plus, there was all this stuff about storage, sterilization, etc. It was a lot to take in on zero sleep.

BUT, that same quick research also uncovered a bunch challenges about nursing, like taking forever to latch, lots of breast pain, lopsidedness, the "foremilk/hindmilk" conundrum (what?), biting (YOUCH!) and the "anchor" effect = baby can ONLY eat with you, every time, always. I think in the end, the constant occurrence of 'pain' is what scared me off trying to nurse again. LOL.

So when we got home, I weighed my options and made the decision to exclusively pump. I was happy with my production (little did I know what the human body was capable of), my husband and parents could help share in the feeding, and I knew exactly how much food my baby was getting. And, if I was going to exclusively pump, I was going to learn EVERYTHING about how to do it quickly, easily and safely - through research and through trial and error.

After exclusively pumping with three babies, here are my credentials to back up my tips and tricks to pass along to other moms interested in pumping (whether exclusively or in addition to other feeding methods):

1. 3,124 pump sessions

2. 1,109 hours pumping

3. 34816 ounces pumped (272 gallons)

And here's what I learned...