My New Toy -- Medela Pump in Style

Yesterday, I finally got my hands on a Medela Pump In Style Pump! This piece of equipment is Godsend! :-)

The day Bethany and I got discharged at the hospital, I went and picked up a Medela Swing pump. While the Swing pump works fine, and I survived the first 1.5 weeks being a pumping mom, and that Bethany had "beefed" up quite a bit (from 6lb 15oz, then down to 6lb 5oz, then up to 7lb 2oz , then again to 7lb 7oz), I spent about an hour just to pump, and mom had to help me with the feeding as often times, I was completely exhausted when the pumping was done.

Two days ago, when I was pumping at 1:30am, a thought suddenly came into my mind. If I do 8 feedings per day, each feeding (from start to finish takes about 1/2 hr) and that I need an hour to pump prior to each feeding.
Pumping: 8 hrs per day
Feeding: 4 hrs per day
That means I only have an hour in between last feeding and next pumping. With mom leaving in October and Joe at work, how is that ever possible for me to do all other stuff (i.e. laundry, bathing Bethany, running errands, cooking dinner and cleaning the house)? Cold sweat was creeping on my back!

At the 8:30am feeding, I discussed with my mom on the possibility of getting a double breast pump and theoretically, it will cut down the pumping time by one-half. I quickly made a call to my new friend, who is also the owner of a home-based cloth diaper business here in Barrhaven (www.amotherstouch.com) and discussed my concerns with her. To my surprise, she told me that a lot of new moms are going through the same experience as I am and that while a single breast pump works fine for once-in-a-while pumping, it can turn into a nightmare if a mom relies heavily on the pump 8 times a day. We quickly narrowed down my choice of double-breast pump and I placed an order right away.

My new toy, Medela Pump In Style double breast pump arrived yesterday! I brought it home at 1:50pm, and with the 10 mins sterilization in hot boiling water, I started expressing milk at 2:08pm, by 2:20pm, I had expressed 3.75oz of milk (it would have taken me about 1.5 hrs to express this amount of milk had I sticked to my Swing single breast pump!) I was sooooo amazed at the result! Yesterday afternoon, for the first time since Bethany was born, I, once again, experienced the feeling of F.R.E.E.D.O.M.! Last night, I managed to sleep for 2.5 hrs instead of 1.5 hrs, great thanks to my new love of the life!

For those expectant moms out there, who are considering buying a breast pump... you can never go wrong with a Medela Pump In Style or Medela Freestyle breast pump. Before Bethany was born, I had never thought that I would need a breast pump to express milk, so I did not do any research on breast pump! Being the queen of google, I kick myself every time when I think about how naive I was at that time, thinking that breastfeeding would be a breeze!