The Breastfeeding Wedding Photographer

Practically all of 2014 Maggie spent pregnant, and that meant she photographed almost all of that year’s weddings pregnant. You can read about how that went here. Toady we’re looking back at how 2015 went for Maggie as mom who wanted to breastfeed her baby, and maintain a packed shooting schedule. We were able to come up with a plan for wedding season, that maintained her ability to breastfeed Chubby Cheeks, and we’re sharing some of our advice here today!

Disclaimer: We are not medical professionals. We are not lactation consultants. We are not breastfeeding experts. This is just what we saw work well for Maggie and for the two of us as a photography team. Take all we say as nothing more than advice from a good friend. Check Kelly Mom for really great advice on breastfeeding. This website helped Maggie breastfeed both of her boys well past their first birthdays. 

 

 

Step One: Establish a supply and breastfeeding relationship with baby

Nurse, nurse, nurse! Because we were lucky enough to have almost 3 months between Ian’s birth and our first wedding of 2015, Maggie was able to establish a nursing relationship and a natural supply. Blessed with a baby who latched well and a supply that came as needed, this part was easy for Maggie. It’s not for everyone. So please, do not get discouraged if you feel you need help. Seriously… read everything there is to read at Kelly Mom’s website, look for a lactation consultant and hire one if you can. Your pediatrician may not be a lactation consultant, in fact usually they are not. You most likely have enough milk for your baby! The best advice we can give, based off of Maggie’s experiences with nursing, is to nurse as much as possible. More than what you think you can do, basically all the time for the first 2 or 3 weeks. Establish your supply and it’s likely that you’ll be just fine.

Hold off on pumping. Don’t pump too early in the breastfeeding relationship. This will make your body think you need more milk than you really do. If you can, try not to pump for at least 4 to 5 weeks, 6 is even better.

Stay away from bottles as long as you can! If you can help it (and we know sometimes you can’t) refrain from giving baby a bottle of pumped milk. This might interrupt the establishing breastfeeding relationship you’re building, and it’s just not worth it. It’s harder to re-learn how to latch to the breast for babies than it is for them to learn to use a bottle. So keep them at the breast as long as you can without confusion.

 

Step Two: Prepare for your time away from baby

Stockpile! Now, you’re 6 weeks into exclusive breastfeeding, you’ve pushed through and you made it. Things are starting to get a little easier, and your supply is hopefully established. Your first wedding is a few weeks away, and it’s time to stockpile frozen milk for when you are away. For Maggie, this is about the time Chubby Cheeks started sleeping a little longer stretches. When he would usually be awake at 6am for a feeding, he was still asleep. Maggie took this opportunity to pump instead. The milk was still there, and her body was still expecting to feed the baby, but he was asleep! So this was a good time to pump every day for her. Waking up at 6am was a pain for sure, especially after being up all night to nurse the baby (several times) but building a milk stockpile was essential. Freeze this milk in 2 to 3 ounce bags. If you pump 6 or 8 ounces at a time, split that up into smaller bottles worth to keep from having to throw any excess milk away after heating it up.

Practice with the bottle. Now is also the time when you can start to let baby get a feel for how the bottle works. By the way, it works a lot differently than the breast does. Make sure to get a newborn flow nipple so it mimics the breast as much as possible. Maggie used this one, and Chubby Cheeks loved it. This will make baby happier. If your husband, a grandparent, a nanny, or any other care giver will be caring for baby while you are photographing weddings, it would be best if this person/these people establish a bottle feeding relationship with baby. If you can avoid it, don’t give the bottle to your baby yourself. This can become confusing, and you might realize that baby doesn’t take a bottle from mama. It might take a few tries, or several, for baby to get the swing of things with the bottle, but they will. Don’t worry.

 

Wedding Time: Tips and Tricks for pumping and shooting a wedding

Don’t cry. Baby will be wonderful. You will be amazing. You love your work, you love your couples, you love wedding photography. The day will be over before you know it, and you’ll be back home nursing that sweet baby. YOU. CAN. DO. THIS.

Hire a second shooter, the best you can find. So this is where we are spoiled and can’t give honest feedback as to what it’s like to be a single photographer who also wants to breastfeed. We are a pair, neither of us is a second shooter. Maggie did not have to worry about finding someone to trust and work beside her when she was pumping and shooting. Whenever Maggie needed to pump, it wasn’t a super big problem because Betty was there. No big deal. We didn’t have to worry about trusting the second shooter and all that. So again we say, we were spoiled in this area which is honestly the biggest part of making it work. So… all we can say is how important it is to find a second shooter you love and trust. Find them early, secure them for as many dates as you can. Consider a long term contract with this photographer to ensure they are by your side as much as you need them during this year of breastfeeding/pumping.

Build pump breaks into the wedding day timeline! You cannot show up and just wait until you feel full to go pump. No, that’s not going to work during the ceremony. You don’t need to be leaking during family formals either. Look at your timeline, decide when it makes the most sense to pump and write it in. That way your assistant knows exactly when they’ll need to be on solo duty, and you know when to break away. Of course, not many wedding days to exactly to plan, so understand that you might have to wiggle things around a little bit. Don’t be afraid to pump ahead of schedule, or pump extra times! Typically, you’ll need to pump every 3 hours. If you notice a big gap in the timeline where you can’t really take a pump break, don’t be afraid to pump a little ahead of schedule to ensure you are keeping your supply up. Here’s an example of a timeline from this year with Maggie’s pump breaks built in…

12:30 PUMP before starting

1:00 Getting ready and details

2:00 Bride gets into dress/bridal portraits

2:30 Leave for venue PUMP IN CAR

2:45 Decor photos at venue

3:00 Ceremony begins

3:30 Ceremony ends

3:30 to 4:20 Family and Bridal party formals

4:30 Entrance to reception

First Dance

Toasts

5:00 Dinner served – PUMP while Bride and Groom eat

5:30 Portraits of Bride and Groom

6:00 Parent Dances

6:20 Open Dancing

7:00 Cake Cutting

7:30 PUMP before send off

8:00 Send off!

Get a really, really good pump. Maggie used this Medela Freestyle pump and it was the best investment we could have made. Without this pump, it just wouldn’t happen successfully. You will have to be able to pump very efficiently and quickly on a wedding day and a hand pump will not do the job. A pump that requires electricity to work, will not work either. The battery power on this pump was very strong, and it allowed Maggie to pump wherever she needed to, whenever she needed to. Here’s a fun list of places Maggie has pumped this year while at weddings:

Passenger seat of a limo bus, while driving from the Jefferson Memorial to the Lincoln Memorial

At the Lincoln Memorial

In a moving car (usually once a day she’s pumping in the car between locations)

In the most beautiful bathroom at Hotel Monaco

In a porter potty at a barn wedding

In hotel lobbies

Top floor window seat of the Key Bridge Marriott, overlooking Georgetown and the river into DC (this was a favorite)

On the floor, in a corner of the room, of the empty reception space early in the day while florists set up centerpieces

In a barn. That used to be used for cows. For milking them. (So, so appropriate)

In a field

In a stairwell

Bring a nursing cover. Clearly, you never know where you’re going to need to pump and being able to do it discretely is key. Just put one in your pump bag and leave it there. These are pretty.

Storing your milk… Decide early on if you want to try to keep your milk that you pump on a wedding day. It’s liquid gold, and it’s a sin in the breastfeeding world to pour it down the drain, but it became clear early on that there was no good way to store the milk, keep it cold and get it home before it spoiled. So sadly, Maggie pumped and threw the milk out immediately after. Pumping all day long was meant to keep her supply up, and that’s exactly what it did. But storing the milk and bringing it home just wouldn’t work. This is where that daily pump routine came into play, because that gave her husband a ton of breastmilk to give the baby from home.

Clean your pump right away. This has been the hard part for Maggie. When pumping in a bathroom or near a bathroom with running water it’s easy to pump, throw out the milk and rinse the pump parts thoroughly. You want to keep them clean and functioning well all day long. You do not want to have to experience a malfunctioning pump or parts that are sticky and not working when you really need to pump. So keep it clean and you’ll be good. When Maggie was not near a bathroom or sink, she made sure to keep several bottles of water on hand. In a pinch, she could rinse the pump parts with the clean bottled water. You know, for when you happen to be at the Lincoln Memorial under a nursing cover 😉

Drink lots of water! It’s all about supply. Keep drinking lots of water, you’re going to need it anyway. Water helps that supply stay up!

Bring snacks! After not eating anything in 6 hours, pumping (which burns a ton of calories) and then standing up too quickly, Maggie would frequently get fuzzy and dizzy. Not good! So make sure to keep some Cliff bars or something easy to snack on with you in your pump bag. Try to remember to eat one before pumping to avoid getting low blood sugar and passing out on the job.

Bring back up nursing pads. Leakage is not pretty.

Wear clothes you can easily pump in. This doesn’t exactly make for the most stylish outfits possible, but you can still look professional and be able to easily pump. Black ankle pants and blouses were key this year for Maggie.

Hope this helps any new breastfeeding moms out there, especially any who are trying to manage the hectic process of pumping while photographing a wedding. Good luck! You’ve got this!