When you’re an exclusive pumper, it’s important to make and stick to a pumping schedule in order to maximize supply and minimize issues like clogged ducts.
Figuring out a pumping schedule when you are exclusive pumping is a balance between your need to pump enough milk and the rest of your life. Think about how many pumping sessions you need in a given day, and then think about the best time to fit them in based on your life – whether you work, whether you are home with your baby, whether you desperately need more sleep or are doing okay.
Sample Pumping Schedules with a Newborn
With a newborn, most things that you read say that you should be pumping 8-12 times per day, because that’s how often newborns eat. I think 8 or 9 is a good goal to shoot for, with 7 as the lower limit and 10 as the upper limit. With many more than that, you probably won’t be getting enough rest or time with your baby. (I’ve written more about about how often and how long to pump for a newborn here.)
Below is a sample pumping schedule with eight pumps in 24 hours. A schedule like this will give you three and a half straight hours of sleep (from about 12:30am-4am, once you’ve finished pumping) – assuming your baby lets you sleep! These times can obviously be adjusted however you like.
7am, 10am, 12pm, 3pm, 6pm, 9pm, 12am, 4am
Below is a sample pumping schedule with ten pumps in 24 hours. This schedule will give you four and a half straight hours of sleep (from 7:30pm-12am), with the added benefit that if you have a partner he or she can care for the baby during this time before going to bed themselves.
7am, 9am, 11am, 1pm, 3pm, 5pm, 7pm, 12am, 3am, 5am
(Related: Finding pumping around the clock to be a challenge? Check out my pumping resources page for things that can make it easier!)
Sample Pumping Schedules with an Older Baby
Below are some sample pumping schedules for older babies. These aren’t rocket science, and you can adjust them to a schedule that fits your needs; I’m just including them as an example of worked for me as my baby got older. (Note: As you drop pumping sessions, you should increase the amount of time that you pump in each session.)
Six pumps in 24 hours (I used this from 10-12 weeks, until I went back to work and found the 6pm pumping session too difficult to manage):
6am, 10am, 12pm, 3pm, 6pm, 10pm
With this schedule you have eight hours of sleep in a row! Unless you are really working to build up your supply, I would recommend getting some sleep and dropping the middle of the night pump once your baby is three months old.
Five pumps in 24 hours (I used this from 3-6 months):
6am, 9am, 12pm, 3pm, 10pm
Four pumps in 24 hours (I used this from 6-11 months):
6am, 10am, 2pm, 10pm
Three pumps in 24 hours (I used this from 11-12 months):
6am, 12pm, 10pm
Two pumps in 24 hours (I used this from 12-14 months):
6am, 7pm
A one pump per day schedule is a supply killer for many women (including myself), so attempt it with caution if you decide to go this route. Between dropping to one pump per day (at 7pm) and getting pregnant again, my supply crashed to nothing at 14 months.
How Important is Sticking to a Pumping Schedule?
When you have a newborn, sticking to a defined pumping schedule can be a challenge – you are likely sleep deprived and busy, so it’s easy to forget to pump. Skipping a pumping session every now and then is not a big deal, especially if you are able to make up the time during a later pumping session that day or squeeze in a power pumping session.
If you’re finding that you’re missing pumping sessions regularly, there are a couple of tools that you can use to remind yourself. I got an Itzbeen as a gift when I had my first baby, and you can set an alarm with it (either a silent flashing light or beeping) to let yourself know it’s time to pump. Alternatively, the iOS Milk Maid app has a reminder function that allows you to enter your pumping schedule, and it will notify you every day at your defined pumping times.
With older babies (after 3-4 months), sticking to a schedule is less important. As long as you get your total number of pumping sessions (and pumping minutes) done in a given day, you should be fine.
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References- KidsHealth. “Breastfeeding FAQs: How Much and How Often?” https://kidshealth.org/en/parents/breastfeed-often.html
When you start to decrease your pumping sessions, does your milk supply drop too? Or do you pump an equivalent amount (ex pumping 2oz a session when 8x per day (16 oz/day) then say 3.5oz a session when 5x per day (still about 15 oz))?
You increase the length of the pumping sessions, and most of the time your milk supply stays the same – but anything can happen (it could decrease or even go up). 🙂
Thanks a lot for your post it is so helpful for working mom’s. Could you please provide pumping time with each schedule and if some of those times can be substituted with direct breastfeeding or this is aside from breastfeeding when with baby?
Hi Nina, to get the pumping time, you can divide the number of pumping sessions by 120. I’m not a nursing expert, but as long as your baby is taking the amount of milk that you’d pump, it would replace it. These are more for exclusive pumpers though. Hope that helps!
Alright! I may just hold off then 🙂 thank you!
Did you ever see a decrease in your supply when decreasing number of pumps, besides when you dropped to one pump? My goal is to make it to a year of breastfeeding, my son is 7.5 months now and I pump 4 times a day. Have been debating going down to 3 pumps, but concerned it’d drop my supply too much. Thanks!
Hi Lauren, great question! I did after dropping to 3, but I also got my period at the same time. Hard to know which caused the drop. Before that, no.
When you start decreasing pump sessions do you increase time of pump sessions? For example how many minutes are your sessions when there are 5 in a 24 hour period? Thanks
Yes! Your total pumping time in a day should be (at least) 120 minutes, so at 5, I was doing about 25 minutes.
Will do. Thank you so much!!!