Pump While You Blog!

No meme today - this is just my own (I am NOT getting paid to write this post).

When I was pumping for my son last year, I kept telling my husband "I have an idea for an invention!" Every day I was amazed that my idea was not already in stores. I was not the first woman to pump so I couldn't be the first woman to have had this idea. Turns out I was right. Early this year Medela came out with the Freestyle: a pump that a woman can wear and therefore continue her usual day and night activities without having to sit and hold the cups for twenty minutes.

I blogged a lot about my experience with breastfeeding (my posts are located here). Pumping was the only way I could keep my milk supply up until my son weaned himself at nine months old, so I pumped just as much as I nursed him. My life revolved around pumping. So to be "hooked up" so often was hard.

Especially once my son became mobile - he would crawl into the cords and he needed me more, which meant I sometimes had to stop in the middle. This was messy, inconvenient, uncomfortable, and definitely not relaxing since I never knew if I'd get to pump for the full twenty minutes. I might have done it more often and longer had I been able to continue what I was doing rather than find the time to sneak away to pump.

I also wanted something in the middle of the night during those first few months so that I could continue to lay in bed rather than get up, go over to the outlet where I had my pump plugged in, get situated on the chair/couch/floor, turn on the TV, and hold the bottles to my chest for twenty minutes. It sounds like this is possible with Medela's Freestyle - you can pump while you use the computer, read a book, put your make-up on, wash the dishes, etc. I even heard an actress on TV say she drives to work while pumping! You don't have to stop what you were doing because you don't have to give up your hands. It's small and has a battery so you can even do it easily as a passenger in the car (something I was never able to do even though sometimes it was "time" while I was on the road).

I'm hoping that next time I don't have to pump as much. I'm a stay at home mom and I've already had the experience so I'm soooo much more comfortable, confident, and knowledgeable when it comes to breastfeeding. Also, the reason for my slow start was because my son had severe jaundice. I didn't pump for his first two weeks and because he was too sleepy to nurse, my milk supply almost dried up completely. Once he began nursing flawlessly I noticed that the less I pumped, the more my milk wanted to dry up again. This cycle continued all nine months. As long as I was pumping, I had enough milk for nursing. If my next baby doesn't have jaundice or any other issue then hopefully my next experience will go smoothly. But still, I want to be prepared. So I am 99.9% sure I will buy the Medela Freestyle pump. Because, even if next time is easy, I don't think it will be possible not to pump at all. I got spoiled by always having a bottle in public so I never had to worry about finding a place to nurse or ever having a crying baby anywhere. And, I liked my family and friends being able to help me which gave me a break since my son wanted to eat ALL of the time!!! I could go to the grocery store or get my hair done and not have to worry about hurrying home because he would starve.

From everything I've read, this pump has been getting excellent reviews. The only downside is that it's about a hundred dollars more than the one I bought (Medela's Pump In Style Advanced). The Freestyle typically goes for $379.99. But, I was starting to have issues with mine near the end anyway (it was starting to wear out and get moldy). I already have a back up (I actually FIRST bought Medela's Harmony hand pump) but I found that to be almost useless (sorry), so I feel more comfortable knowing that I have two electric pumps in case of emergency. Although. . .now I better have three children to get full use out of having three pumps. . . :p