My "Green" Pumping & Baby Bottle Routine (Video)

Well greenies, as if I haven't blogged about it enough, today I'm going to share about my "green" pumping and baby bottle routine. When I first started my journey as a working/pumping mom after Avery was born, I was a bit overwhelmed with the process (read here).  But after a lot of researching, trial and error, and of course, some spilled milk, I feel like I've settled into a routine that works for me and that is "green" as well.

As you know I'm onto my second child now, Mila, who is almost 4 months old and so after two years of pumping for Avery, I've tweaked a few things and this is the new routine I the one I currently use now that I'm back to work in my job as a preschool teacher.

Let's take a glimpse of what a day in the life of this pumping
mama is like...

Learn what supplies I use, how I make the routine work, and even how the milk is given to Mila in this week's video...

Now before we get started with my pumping routine, let me tell you a little bit about the supplies that make it work. Sorry to those long-time followers of my blog, as some of this information will be a repeat of what I've posted about before, but the pictures are new and if I'm still doing the same thing, then you know it must be working! 

The star player in this routine is obviously my pump. I ended up going with this pump by Hygeia, which is one of the greenest pumps around because after I'm done using it, I can return the mechanical portion of it to the company and they will reuse it with another mom or recycle it for you. No worries, all the parts that touched or were even remotely near my milk stay with me. The pump's official name is: Hygiea Enjoye LBI Rechargeable Battery Pump Deluxe Tote Set for $279. Another benefit is that all parts that come in contact with the milk are BPA/DEHP free.  You can read more here.

Okay so that now you know which pump I use, let me break it down for you:

Here's the pump, flanges, and tubing.

Here's where you turn it on and you can control

the speed and strength as well as where the tubing connects to the pump.

These are the flanges...you can probably figure out where
these bad boys go!

The tubing connects here in the back and it is what controls
the suction...the milk does not go through these!

Now since this pump is not hands-free, I needed something to make it that way, because this mama loves to multitask! So I purchased something called an Organic PumpEase Nursing Bra ($42) that can make my pump hands free and it's been awesome. Here's a PG-rated view of it in action...

It hooks around in the front like a strapless bra...with
little slits in it.

The slits hold the flanges, then BAM!
Hands-free pumping fun!

Now that you know the pumping supplies I use, here's how I make it work for me...

1. Before I leave in the morning for work I always feed Mila one last time.  Then about an hour later after I've dropped her off with our sitter (her grandma and my aunt alternate days), commuted to work, and got all my things put away, it's time for my first pump.

Let me welcome you to my pumping station, which is located in the bathroom in my classroom.  I feel so lucky to be able to have the convenience and privacy of this room, and although it's not all roses and butterflies...since it's a bathroom for preschoolers, I still love that I'm able to close the door and pump in privacy.

My pumping station...in the kid
bathroom of my classroom!

I use a simple TV tray to put my laptop
on and a chair to sit in while I pump.

It reads: "STOP.  It's Avery Time! (aka...I'm pumping!)
Come back in a few minutes." Avery's quote reads: "Yep, that
milk is for me!"

2.  When it's time for this first pump, I bring in my laptop and set it all on a TV tray while I pump.  Now it's time to put on the hands-free bra, hook up the flanges, and connect it to the pump.

Time to turn it on.

The pumping view from above. 

Here's the goods from my morning pump. Now it's time to transfer and store.

Now that I have the milk pumped, it's time to store it. My head was spinning originally when I was pumping for Avery because nearly all the breast milk storage I found was plastic, and just as Avery loves to say these days, "It's not my favorite!"  So that's when I got creative and called on a good friend...glass mason jars. Inspired by some "breast milk storage pots" I'd seen at Babies R'Us I figured why not just use some glass mason jars? So I got some half-pint mason jars from the store...a whopping $7 for 12 jars and they have really been great! I also use large mason jars for my day-to-day breast milk storage, which you'll see later.

If I ever need to freeze breast milk I use these smaller bottles. 

My little mason jars in action...holding some frozen milk in
freezer.

3.  Now that the milk is stored,  I break out this handy dandy little drawstring bag my aunt sewed for me (not for this purpose, but I've found it works great!) and I put the flanges and bottles in it.

My drawstring storage bag.

I keep these parts in this bag so that everyone doesn't have to see my breast pump parts every time they open the fridge in my room.  Another note, I do not wash the flanges or bottles from the pumping after each pump.  I read that by refrigerating them, you don't have to worry about bacteria growth, which works out great because I do not have time to wash them after each pump. Instead I just wash them when I get home.

Then I place the milk in the fridge and the pump parts
which are hidden from view in the bag. Don't worry vegan
friends, that Kraft Ranch dressing bottle is not mine-lol!

On a side note, usually once a week I try to remember and charge up the pump, otherwise the battery will die in the middle of the pump, which has happened way too many times already!

4. Then it's time to teach! Fast forward 4 hours later and it's time to pump again, this time during my lunch break.  So off I go to my pumping station with my laptop and lunch. Let the multitasking begin.  During this second pump at lunch, I pump for about 15-20 minutes. 

Milk from the lunch pumping session.

5. Next it's time to ...clean all the pump parts from the day.  I like to let them air dry on my favorite "grass drying rack"...I love it! So green and cute.  It's official name is: Boon Inc. Grass Countertop Drying Rack in Spring Green and White ($15) which you can find here.

I wash them with Dr. Bronner's Castile Soap.

My fun, green drying rack.

6.  Then I teach, teach, and teach some more.  If Mila was younger, I probably would pump one more time, but now that she's 4 months old these two pumps give me just the right amount of milk to get her through the next day.  When it's time to go home for the day, I pack up my milk and head home. Now back when I was first pumping for Avery, I would put it in an insulated bag to keep it fresh but these days, it's only out of the fridge for 20 minutes or so on my drive home so I just stick it in my bag and call it good...gotta love how laid back things get with a second kid!

7.  Next, I drive home, pick up the girls and then head home.  I unpack all my food/dishes from the day and transfer the pumped milk from the day to the fridge.

8.  The next morning, I stick the jar of pumped milk from the day before in Avery's diaper bag along with one glass bottle that milk will be put in throughout the day.  So every day she gets milk from the day before (on Tuesday, she gets Monday's milk, on Wednesday, she gets Tuesday's milk, etc.), except for Monday...for this day she gets the milk I pumped Friday and kept in the fridge over the weekend.

Can't forget to pack the milk in the diaper bag.

One glass bottle makes it's way to the diaper bag as well.

In case you're wondering why I use glass baby bottles I feel like it's safer.  I can trust that no pesky chemical is going to come leaking out or I don't have to worry about the properties changing of the food inside of it if the temperature changes.  Plus, after months and even years of using it, it can still come out looking sparkly clean; not cloudy and scratched like plastic.

Now if you look on the "green market" of bottles there are some pretty fancy, schmancy glass bottles out there, some of which cost $15-20 per bottle! Ouch. I love being green, but not that much! That's when I began to research again and I came upon some bottles that I always kept seeing on my bottle shopping expeditions, but I always brushed aside...Evenflo Classic Glass bottles.  These little bottles are simple enough, they don't have any fancy claims about mimicking the breast, or more preferred by new moms, but they are called "classic" for a reason, they've been around for 60 years! Also, I found some rocking reviews of them on Amazon.com that really encouraged me to give them a try.  *Update in 2015: Looks like they might have discontinued the original bottle I posted about here and replaced it with a "twist glass bottle" you can find the 4 oz. bottles here (6 for $17) and 8 oz. bottles here (6 for $17). Not sure why they are the same cost, but different size? Or why you can only get them in packs of 6, but either way, still a good glass alternative.*  These are the bottles I used for Avery and they're still holding strong for Mila, and I continue to enjoy knowing I don't have to worry about any chemicals leaking into the milk.

Curious how long pumped milk stays fresh? Here's the guide that taught me, and here's the cliff notes:
Room temperature: 3-6 hours
Refrigerated milk: 8 days
Just thawed refrigerator milk: 24 hours
Frozen milk: 3-6 months

One last thing about milk...how do you thaw it? This part baffled me for awhile.  I obviously knew never to microwave the breast milk, but I was confused as to how I (or Avery's sitters) would warm it up quickly and safely? I thought for sure I needed a bottle warmer, but after talking with others and experimenting, I learned that you so do not! Well, if you have a plastic bottle maybe you could try one, but here's an easy, green, and cheap way that I warmed up a bottle for Mila.

My easy, green "bottle warming method".

Just bring a 1/2 cup of water to a light simmer on the stove top (or in the microwave for 1 minute) in and then pour it into a glass measuring cup.  I then place the fridge-temperature bottle in the warmed water and allow it to warm to desired temperature, making sure it's not too hot or too cold.

"It's just right! Thanks mom...but by the way, why
are you taking my picture and not giving me milk?!"

One last thing, if I ever need to use some frozen breast milk, I thaw it out by placing it in the fridge the night before.  Usually it's thawed and ready to go the next day.

Well there you have it, my entire green pumping and baby bottle routine!  I probably went on and on with lots of details, but when I was entering the vast world of bottles and pumps my head was literally spinning and I wanted nothing more than to find mama who was going through the same thing who I could learn from.  So I hope this helps someone out there.  Got any other pumping tricks or favorite green bottles? Post them below, we're all still learning in this...

Nursing or pumping for a toddler? Here's a post I did when Avery was a toddler... "Nursing & Pumping for a Toddler"...

Nursing a 17-month-old= a whole new ball game! ( :

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Placenta Encapsulation: How & Why I Did It

Guess what? I ate my placenta after Mila was born! Now before I lose you completely, know that I did not eat my placenta for dinner or even blend in a smoothie, instead I dried it and took it daily in capsule form.

This practice is called, placenta encapsulation...or in other words, putting your placenta into pill form and taking it like a supplement in the weeks following birth. Now you may be thinking, why on earth would you want to do that? And the answer is that it helps immensely with the postpartum recovery, both for moms and babies.

WARNING: Graphic pictures of my placenta below. Scroll quickly past if you don't want to see!

Consuming a placenta following birth has been found to:

• Help prevent postpartum depression
• Increase energy
• Help the uterus return to it's pre-pregnancy state quicker
• Helps shorten postpartum bleeding time
• Increase breast milk production
• And it is high in iron and other B vitamins 

The placenta is an organ that grows during pregnancy and helps to support the baby. During delivery, the baby is born first, and the placenta follows. In most hospitals and even some home births, the placenta is then discarded and thrown out. But with placenta encapsulation, the placenta is saved. A number of steps are then taken to turn the placenta into pill form (which I will show later) and then these pills are taken daily after birth to support moms and babies during the postpartum period.

Here's what my placenta looks like as we prepared it
to be encapsulated.

According to Jodi Selander, founder of PBi states in the article, "The Care and Keeping of Placentas": "The placenta, grown in her (the mother's) womb and symbiotically integrated into her system, can replenish and revitalize her, giving her the energy and resources she needs for the most importance endurance challenge of her life: motherhood."

Like most moms, I can attest to the term "endurance challenge" that comes with becoming a mother. After I gave birth to Avery I remember going through several "weepy days" as  would call them, where I would cry for no reason at all. I thought I was just having a difficult time transitioning to my life as a parent, but really I think my body and hormones were struggling to make sense of my new life...and the result was weepy tears. After a few weeks, these feelings went away and things got better. But I had to wonder if it would have made a difference if I had encapsulated my placenta.

I heard about placenta encapsulation during my first pregnancy, but it sounded a bit "too hippy like for me," so when Avery was born, we looked at the placenta and then it was just thrown out.

Fast forward 2 years later to when I found out I was pregnant with Mila. I knew that this time I would  give this whole "placenta pill thing" a try to see if I could reduce the amount of "weepy days" I had and to see if I noticed any other benefits during the postpartum period.  So when the delivery day came, out came Mila and then my placenta. We allowed it to remain attached for awhile, and then we "cut the cord" and placed the placenta in a Ziploc bag in our fridge.

Here's a step-by-step guide of how and why I encapsulated my placenta:


Here's how we encapsulated my placenta: (I say we, because it was mainly my midwife (Lisa from Awakened Birthing) who helped me do it...oh and my husband too, he defiantly needs a round of applause for helping with this one-lol!),

1. First we washed the plactena and squeezed the extra blood
out of the blood vessels.

2. This is about what it looks like when you're done.

3. Then we blended it in my blender until it was smooth.
Hello, box of Larabars in the background...
talk about a post-delivery craving!

4. Next we spread the "placenta mixture" as thin as we could
on special dehydrator baking sheets (Excalibur brand),
but parchment or waxed paper would have also worked.

5. Then we placed the trays in the dehydrator at 105 degrees
for 8-12 hours.

6. We knew they were done when they were thin and crispy
kind of like a chip.

7. We then broke up them up and placed them into a coffee
grinder.

Here they are getting ready to be ground up.

8. After being ground in the coffee grinder they were in a
powder form and ready to be made into capusles.

9. Using something called a "Capsule Machine" we placed
empty vegetarian capsules on one side of the machine and cooresponding
capsules on the other side of the machine. We then filled them with
the "placenta powder".

10. Next we placed the lid on the machine to create the capsules.

Here's the end result: placenta capsules, or "placenta pills" as
I call them. My batch made about 120 pills, but this amount
can vary depending on the size of your placenta.

Storage: To store my pills, I kept them in a Pyrex container in the freezer.  Mainly just in case there happened to be any moisture in the pills after dehydrating (which would be rare), they wouldn't go bad.

Dosage: So now that you saw how I made the pills, here's how I took them. Basically I took 4 pills daily, 2 with breakfast and 2 with dinner. The pills lasted me about a month. I read online that some people may experience a bloody-like taste in their mouth after they take the pills, so to avoid this I took them with food and didn't really notice any after-taste. Also, the dosage is up to you, some moms start with a larger dose and slowly wean off of the pills. I just went with the 4 pills each day, for the whole time and it seemed to work for me. You can do whatever works for you.

Some women even save some of their pills to help when their periods return, when they have to go back to work, and some even keep them until menopause. Obviously you would want to keep them frozen if you are saving them for these extended periods of time.

After encapsulating my placenta this time around some benefits I noticed were:

1. Better mood- If I can attest anything about placenta encapsulation, it's the change it made in my mood during the postpartum period. I had one weepy day, when my milk came in, which was on the 2 or 3rd day after labor. But that was the day before I started my placenta pills. After that, I felt much better mentally. Granted life for those first few weeks wasn't a walk in the park, I still had my fair share of tears now and then, but during those times I at least had something to cry about (my house being a mess and no time to clean it or a toddler screaming at me for attention).  Where as with Avery's post-partum there were times when I would cry for no reason.
2. Increase milk production- Granted I'm tandem breastfeeding, but a lacking milk supply has not been my problem at all. In fact I practically have too much milk. It took me a while to realize I needed to change up my positioning of Mila to allow her to pull off if needed when my milk let down because there was just so much! So if you've ever struggled with a low milk supply, placenta encapsulation may be helpful for you if get pregnant again.
3. More energy-I remember reading about women going on cleaning sprees after they started their placenta pills and I can relate to this as well. The night I started my pills, I went on a little cleaning kick and boy did it feel good. On top of this I was able to return to a workout routine (gently) just a week after Mila was born, and have been able to keep it up since then. 
4. As for the other benefits:
• Faster recovery? Seemed about the same as Avery. I had postpartum bleeding for about 4 weeks with both pregnancies
• Uterus shrinking back faster? Actually seems slower, but it could be because it's been stretched out more? Not sure, but better than nothing. 

A few things to mention:

• I kept my placenta as raw as possible, others cook the placenta then consume it (in the Traditional Chinese Medicine approach). I believe most of the nutrients are kept intact when in this raw state as opposed to being lost during the cooking/steaming process, so the raw method is the one I chose.
• No other herbs were added to my placenta pills. Sometimes herbs are added to aid in the recovery process or support milk production, but I left these out. My midwife noted that the trouble with adding a variety of herbs is that if a bad reaction to the pills occurs, it's hard to know which herb is to blame, so then the whole batch is bad.
• To do placenta encapsulation, you do not have to do it yourself. There are often midwives, herbalists, or other individuals in your community that can encapsulate the placenta for you, for a fee of probably $150-200. Just a simple Google search should turn up some options and individuals if this is something you are interested in doing (but don't want your blender used for blending up your placenta!). 
• The same goes for if you've had a hospital birth. You can still bring your placenta home with you . Some hospitals will let you keep it in a fridge until leaving, or you can bring your own cooler and keep it in there until you get home or give it to the person who will be encapsulating your placenta for you.

Well that wraps up probably the most graphic and hippy-like post I've ever written! What is your experience with placenta encapsulation? Sound like something you might try? Or have you tried it before? Share your experiences or any questions you may have below.

My advice to any expecting moms out there is to give placenta encapsulation a try...no matter how weird it may seem.  If someone told you there was a natural pill that could help prevent the baby blues, increase your energy, increase milk production, speed up the healing process, and give your body boost of much needed vitamins and minerals, you would be crazy not to take it right? So now's your chance! Give placenta encapsulation a try. Your body, your baby and your husband (trust me) will thank you.

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