Pumping: my work routine

It's been a whole month since I've returned to work.  Took a bit of trial and error when it came to establishing my pumping routine.  Here's what I do now.

• I pump twice a day at approximately 10 AM and 2 PM.  I tried pumping 3 times a day but found that if I pumped the 2nd time at lunch, I really had very little, if nothing to produce.  Not worth the hassle, so I decided to skip it altogether.
• I put a post-it note on the doorknob so that people can't walk in on me (a lot of our doors don't have locks)
• It's still a challenge finding the space to pump, since we still don't have our "promised" office yet.  Oh well, that's life. 
• Using the expression bustier is awesome.  I no longer know how to double-pump without it!
• I usually hook up all the equipment first, then plug the flanges into the bustier (minimizes time I'm stuck in discomfort)
• The actual pumping itself takes only about 6-7 minutes now before the milk really dwindles.  I do a few compressions to get the extra out, then call it good
• When I'm ready to be done, I usually unhook the tubes from the flanges first, then coil 'em up while keeping them hooked up to the pump and store them right in the pump compartment of the Medela bag (for easy assembly next time) 
• I try very carefully to zig zag the a/c adapter cord (they're known to fray easily if you wrap them around the adapter)
• I no longer wash my supplies between pumps. I actually started this at day 1 after consulting my mommy friend.  I just wipe my parts down with a clean cloth (I have a clean one in my bag every day) and throw all the parts in a freezer bag and back into my bag.  The theory here is that BM has antimicrobial properties and we know that it's good at room temps for 6 hours (I never go more than 6 hours between pumps anyway)
• At the end of the day when I go home, I fish out the ziploc back and throw all the parts into the sink and the washcloth into the laundry (new cloth every day)
• I will then wash all the parts (and the bottles, nipples, etc from the day) in hot soapy water
• I still use a microwave sterilizer with every wash (I know, people make fun of me for being old fashioned), but my rationale is that the work environment in which I pump (a medical clinic) means that my parts are probably exposed to more pathogens than most others.  Now, BM has antimicrobial properties, but that's no longer valid after 6 hours right?  Better safe than sorry.  Plus, it's only an extra 1.5 minutes out of my day :)
• Our BM gets put in the fridge and therefore is good up to 8 days (I assign a beyond use date no more than 6 days from pumping).  Doesn't make sense to freeze it if you can eat it fresh and keep the supply up right?  Plus, fresh milk is better (from an immune health standpoint) than freezer milk. Our freezer supply really is an emergency supply.

In my experience, I've also noticed that without the letdown there's very little milk I can collect.  This usually isn't a problem during a normal pumping session (I let down very reliably) but is sometimes a problem if I have excess I want to pump out from one boob after AJ's eaten from the other.  In this case, I almost always get one or less ounce.  My solution?  Pump it later when I can reliably get the let down.

That's all for now.  More learnings later.