How often should I pump around the clock?

The schedule looked slightly unhinged

When we were told to pump around every three hours, our first reaction was basically: so nobody sleeps now? It was a joke, but only just.

Early on, many parents are advised to aim for roughly eight sessions across twenty-four hours. Your own plan may be different, especially after a premature birth, so use the schedule given by your midwife, lactation support or NICU.If Mama produced more than Ari needed, we froze it in smaller amounts. We liked milk-storage bags with a little pouring spout: fill them from the top, then pour through the spout without covering the kitchen in liquid gold. Smaller portions also meant we thawed only what we expected to use. Once milk had been fully thawed, we followed the storage limit we had been given, never refroze it and used warmed milk promptly.

Write the real times down

‘Every three hours’ sounds simple until it is three in the morning and nobody can remember whether the last session started at midnight or finished at midnight. Papa tried several apps because Papa always tries an app first. In the end, pen, a paper journal and alarms worked better.While Ari was in NICU, Papa also woke up for moral support. Once she came home, that became impossible. One of us had to sleep, and moral support is considerably less useful when both parents are barely functioning.

That tiny bit of organisation removed one decision from an already exhausting day. A shared note also meant Mama did not have to carry the whole schedule in her head.

It is genuinely tiring

Producing milk takes energy. Doing it with a machine around the clock, while recovering from birth and visiting a baby in hospital, is hard work. Feeling exhausted does not mean you are doing it badly. It means it is exhausting.

If the plan is breaking you, say so. Ask where a longer sleep gap can safely sit for your situation instead of quietly missing alarms and feeling guilty afterwards.