How To Set Up Your Pumping/Feeding Station

Disclaimer

Everything in this blog is my opinion. I understand some people can not afford to buy all of these things and I am not saying they are absolutely necessary, they are just nice to have. My must haves is just that, what I think I needed in my pumping/feeding station, not necessarily everyone’s must haves. As long as you are feeding your baby and taking care of yourself, you are doing a great job mama.  

Things to Think About

Location:

This is actually super important. Maybe you are thinking you will set up your pumping station in your bedroom where noone will see you and you will be in private. Well, F that. This is your house/apartment/home of whatever sort you have. Have your pumping station in the most convenient place for you. For me this was my living room. And guess what, my mother in law stayed with us for 3 months when I was pumping. For me, I prioritized that my pumping station be where I could set my baby down in his playgym to play or in his rocker to sleep while I was pumping. That ment in our living room. 

Having a portable basket for everything to go in was also super important, because on the off chance that maybe someone I did not feel comfortable pumping in front of was over I could go into my room. This was also great if there was a lot of noise or something and I wanted to go feed Aryi in my room. It is just all around great to have the option to be portable. 

You want to be comfortable. If you are exclusively pumping like I was you will be at your pump for maybe 4 hours a day. If you are breastfeeding or doing a mixture, you could still be hooked up to your pump or your baby for that long. You need to be comfortable. That is super important. For me, I was super comfortable pumping at my desk chair. I also found that being at my desk, I had a place to put the bottles when I was done and all of the other things I might need. I also pretty much used my pumping time to eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner, so being at my desk was super convenient. 

I would bottle feed Aryi the pumped milk on the couch near the desk. This made it more convenient to kind of combine the feeding and pumping into one feeding/pumping station with everything that I might need for either task. 

If you are breastfeeding, what is going to be the most comfortable place to sit back and feed your baby?

Budget:

Budget is important. Maybe you can buy the cute woven basket from Amazon. If not, there are baskets for $1.25 at the dollar tree that accomplish the same goal. If you can only afford the pump covered by your insurance, that is great, get that one. You do not need these fancy hands free pumps. They don’t work anyway (But that is another blog).

My Must Haves

Pump:

Of course, you need a pump in your pumping station. If not it is just a feeding station, which is also great, but not a pumping station. I got the spectra 2 with my insurance. I tried to have the pump plugged in and read with a set of bottles so all I had to do is sit down and pump. 

One of my biggest pieces of advice is buy so many bottles if you can. Washing bottles and pump parts is torture. I hated it. I had enough that I only had to wash them twice a day and my husband did it at least one of those times. 

Water: 

You drink so much water when pumping. I am talking about at least 4 Stanley’s worth. I kept a bottle of water next to the pump in case I forgot my big cup. My goal was always to drink a bottle’s worth of water every time I pumped. This helped me stay hydrated and keep up my milk supply. It also was not hard because I was sooooo thirsty. 

Snacks:

You are burning like 500 extra calories a day when breastfeeding or pumping. You might find that this is the first time you sat down today and realized you are starving. It is nice to have a snack ready to go when it is needed. I really recommend the lactation cookies. 

Saline nipple spray:

This was super refreshing on sore nipples. 

Lanolin cream:

Lanolin cream is a must have now forever. It is great for sore nipples and also helps with cracked lips or a cracked up nose. If I went back, I would start putting this on day 1 as preventative care before I started having problems. 

Prescription nipple cream:

My nipples ended up getting really sore from the exclusive pumping and I got a prescription cream from my gynecologist. It really helped and I saved it for when they got really bad. 

Nipple pads:

I had both disposable and washable ones. I definitely prefer disposable ones, they kept me a lot drier and I had less problems. I never wore the nipple pads in the house unless someone came over. I tried to stay braless in a big shirt as often as possible. I had these for when I left the house. 

Water wipes:

I used these for spills. It drips from the pump pieces, maybe you combined bottles and spilled a little bit. It was just super convenient to have the wipes nearby. 

Wash cloths:

It is nice to have these for bigger spills or to wipe a baby’s face. 

Bibs and burp cloths:

Aryi did not spit up much as a little baby, but I still put the bib on him just in case. But, he did not really burp much after drinking milk, so the milk usually stayed in his stomach. 

Swaddles/swaddle blankets:

A lot of the time after Aryi drank milk he would fall asleep. It was nice to have a blanket to throw over him for a contact nap or a swaddle to wrap him up in if I was going to TRY to put him down. That did not work often.