breast pump question?

Hey Ladies! I am nearing the end of this pregnancy and hope to breastfeed. I plan to breastfeed exclusively and would like to get some sort of pump. I'm not quite sure what the best way to do this is....should I be buying the expensive electric brands? Renting? Or are handpumps sufficient? I plan on being a SAHM, so I don't need to worry about pumping at work. I'm just not quite sure where to begin on this....what brands are best and what works best if you're intentions are occasional pumping? Any thoughts/suggestions?

TIA!!

Julie

I had the Medela Pump in Style and the Avent Isis. The Avent is still sitting in a box somewhere since the electric one was so much more convenient for me. I had a lot of trouble getting Faith to latch on, so I had to pump for a couple of minutes first, then feed her. (Note, I quit doing this and just let her use a nipple shield till she learned to nurse on her own. She is still nursing and was 18 months yesterday.)

When we were working on her sleeping through the night, I would pump before I went to bed, then my husband would give her the 3-4 oz the next night before I nursed her, to make sure she slept through. So for that alone, the PIS was worth it.

A lot of people swear by the Avent one, but being that I needed to pump more frequently, I didn't want to spend the effort on with a handpump. Oh, we did rent the hospital grade one for the first month, but ended up just buying the electric one (4-5 months of renting it was equal to buying one).

I would suggest that you wait to purchase. The hand pumps are great for occassional use. However, there are times when a more elaborate pump may be useful. If you end up needing one in the hospital, the "kit" that you use with the hospital pump is yours to take home and it can be used as a hand held. If you need a high grade pump short term, then renting might be the way to go. If you have reason to believe you will need it longer, then buying may be the way to go.
So, I wouldn't want you to spend the 200+ on a nice pump that you might not need much at all....
Glad to hear you plan on breastfeeding. It is best for the baby and for you, too!

I bought the Medela Pump In Style and love it! I bought it for cheaper than retail at kidalog.com I heard about this site in my breastfeeding class. I saved about $100 getting it from this site.

I used the Medela Pump In Style - and loved it.

Ditto. Twice while lugging it to work in the elevators I was told I had a nice attache case LOL. One lady asked where I got it........very funny conversation to have in an elevator with strangers.

It was a great pump. I tried the handheld twice - talk about carpal tunnel.

I used the Medela also, but not the pump in style. Mine was only like $75. I would highly recommend Medela. Ellie could not latch to the left side for the first month or so. I pumped that side and nursesd on the other, then I returned to work for 3 months and I was very pleased with my pump. Good luck.

Thanks so much guys! It's so helpful to hear from experienced moms....especially since I have no idea what I'm doing....yet. :) Sounds like the Mendela is the overall favorite. I have a breastfeeding class at the hospital in a couple weeks, so I'm hoping they'll give us a little advice as well.

Thank you!

Julie

I, too, have both the Medela Pump In Style and the Avent Isis. I have used the Isis maybe twice. Never could get it to work right consistently, though I did have better luck when I pumped one side when Charlotte was nursing on the other (not the easiest juggling act). My Medela is wonderful. It's fairly expensive, but I knew I would use it a lot (esp. with another baby--someday!).

I did wait to buy the Medela, though, until after breastfeeding was established and I knew everything would work OK. I rented a hospital grade Medela pump for the first month. The lactation consultant said it was the only one of sufficient power to initiate lactation (Charlotte was in NICU and I couldn't feed her myself for the first 8 days or so because she was under an oxygen hood). It was so nice that I may rent one next time, too, even if there are no complications with the delivery.

If you are only going to use it to pump a bottle here of there I would defintely go with the Avent. It has actually been proven to work as well or better than most electric pumps. I have one that I show to clients if you would like to check it out. It is not that expensive. You can buy them for about $45. I highly highly recommend it!!!! Why spend $100's if you are going to nurse exclusively and be a SAHM.

I have the Medela PIS and think it is great. I had problems with nursing and probably would have given up if I didn't have the Medela. It made pumping really easy. It came with a hand pump that I have tried to use. I could never get my milk to let down with the hand pump. I needed to concentrate to get the milk to let down and having to hold on to the pump while pumping it just distracted me. I'd say the Medela is worth the money. You never know what is going to happen once that beautiful baby comes along. You may never use the pump, but if you have problems it is a great back up to keep you focused on giving your baby the very best, breast milk. Plus, they last forever if you have more kids. If you don't plan on having more, you can recoup some of the cost by selling it to a friend or on ebay.

Colette
Oh, yeah. It is great for long car trips. We just bought the adapter for the lighter plug in the car. If I plan right, I can pump a bottle and then give it to Caleb when he wakes up hungry. We drive to Houston pretty often and he usually eats once during the drive.

oh yeah, the days of pumping in the car. I did that on several ocasions. A few times when we were travelling and a few on the way home from work if I missed a pumping session. Throw a recieving blanket over the pump and breast, and there you go, you have an extra bottle before you get home. I did get some strange looks though, LOL.

I used the Medela Pump in Style as well. It worked great. Unfortunately I used it only MAYBE 15 times b/c I stopped breast feeding right after we bought it...1 week later. I b/f for 6 weeks total and we bought it the 5th week. If I bought the pump then why did I stop? My husband was asking the same thing after he spent the money! B/c my dd wasn't getting satisfied and all I was doing was feeding her ALL day :)
Dee Dee

I use the Avent and it's great. I do pump most every morning. Isabella's sleeping longer at night now and in the morning I'm very full and she usually only nurses from one side so I pump the other. I don't have any problems with using the manual pump and now that I've really gotten used to it it only takes me about 10-15 min to totally empty out. I'm a SAHM and I BF exclusivly but it's helpful to have the extra bottles in case we ever want to go out and get a babysitter!

Ok...so I have started looking at the Medela pump in style as it seems to be the most recommended both by you guys and a few of my bf'ing friends in my coppell moms group. So my next question is.... Are there different levels of cost and comfort to this? I was looking on ebay and they seem to range from about $30 to well over $200 but they all say Medela PIS. Is that simply new vs. used or are there other feature differences you can get such as manual vs. battery powered etc.?

Julie

They have a web site that might answer you questions. They had a new one out last year that looked like a backpack...

Thanks Maggie! I guess I should go check that out.....:)

Julie