Pumping at Work Schedule and Planner: For the Day Before, and Every Day After

Returning to work while still feeding a baby is a logistics problem the world is not set up to solve for you. This planner is the version of that problem broken into pages you can hold in your hand.

It does not assume an employer who has done this before. It does not assume a private pump room. It does not assume your supply is what you’d like it to be. It assumes you are doing your best, with the body and the boss and the building you have.

What’s inside

Thirty-two pages, undated, used over the first year back:

• The pre-return checklist, two weeks out. Tour the pump room. Have the conversation about timing. Order one set of replacement parts. Pack a backup of everything.
• A pumping schedule template, weekly. Three pump sessions for an 8-hour day, with realistic timing.
• The freezer-stash plan. How much to bank before day one. How to rotate. How to know what’s enough.
• The milk inventory log, weekly. Ounces in, ounces out, ounces frozen. So that you have data when you wonder whether supply is shifting.
• Conversation scripts for the supervisor, six of them. First conversation. Second-time-asking conversation. The schedule-conflict conversation. The reduced-supply check-in. The “I’m weaning” announcement.
• The “pump room is bad” page. Pump room is a closet without a lock. Pump room is the bathroom. Pump room is in use by someone else when you need it. Each scenario, what to do.
• A travel-day plan. Pre-flight strategy. Cooler logistics. Hotel-room setup. The “where to ship the milk” page if your trip is more than 24 hours.
• A symptom-and-supply tracker, weekly. Body changes, schedule changes, how supply is responding.
• The “I’m done” decision page. For whenever you decide to stop. No timeline, no shame.

Who this is for

You, two weeks before your return.

You, six months in, when the supervisor has forgotten three times.

You, who has decided to wean at month nine and needs a gentle path.

You, on a business trip, in a hotel bathroom, doing your best.

You, who returned to a job that does not legally have to accommodate you, and is anyway, kind of, mostly.

Not for: the version of you who is exhausted and considering stopping. That version is allowed to stop. This planner doesn’t have an opinion about that.

Format

Instant-download PDF, US Letter + A4. Print one week at a time, or keep on your phone. Personal use only.

From Soothemade Notes, a small apothecary of printables, planners, and cards for the unphotographed parts of new parenthood. Made slowly, in plain language.