Let me tell you about my breast pump

Last night while John was at a Blazer game with a friend, I thought it would be a good time to try out my breast pump. I've been told that pumping at this stage in pregnancy helps create oxytocin receptors which can get your body closer to labor, and potentially helps you bleed less after birth. Also I was just curious how it worked! It's such a funny looking piece of equipment and I wanted to test it out.

I've done a lot of research on different brands and styles, and knew that I wanted a really nice pump. Since my plan is to breastfeed and bottle feed breast milk for as long as I possibly can, having a good breast pump will definitely help me do this longer. This is the pump I've had my eye on for months:


The Medela Pump in Style. It's a double electric pump that comes in a super fancy shoulder bag with all sorts of accessories. It gets great reviews and looks like it would be really easy to use. However, the thing is $280. Whaaa?! I know it would be a good investment but that's just an awful lot of money to shell out. Especially because I won't need to pump a whole lot. I'm on maternity leave until March 2nd, and then will be working part-time and from home enough that the baby will only be bottle fed once, maybe twice, a day when I'm gone. But look how fancy it is! I put it on my registry anyway because I could get a 10% discount after my baby showers if no one bought it for me (which I expected, hello, it's expensive!) So a few weeks ago I went over to Babies R Us to check out their selection, and of course they didn't have it in stock. They had an even nicer one that has a hands-free feature (cool, but SO weird looking!) but of course it was even more expensive at $350. I looked at a few other brands that were cheaper, but I hadn't read many great reviews on them. I also saw several manual hand pumps, but spending 15-20 minutes hand pumping doesn't sound like fun to me. I then looked down and noticed this little guy.
A Medela single electric pump for $60! I hadn't read anything about this but it looked perfect. The box said it was good for occasional use, and could be plugged in or battery powered. I figured this would work great for only needing it once in awhile, and it was so cheap compared to the other ones. But it's still Medela which is a good, trusted brand. So I bought it and hoped for the best. Last night I finally opened the box, plugged it in, attached it to my breast and hit START... Oh. My. God. It sounds like a lawnmower! I was so surprised how loud it was, and was then thrown off seeing my nipple being sucked in and out like I didn't think was humanly possible. Then, after a few minutes I realized I was actually expelling colostrum! There were several drops of the milky substance in the bottle, and I totally freaked out. I'm supposed to have that in my breasts right now so this was totally normal and actually a GOOD thing to see that my body is ready for a baby! But to SEE it in a bottle was so bizarre. So I stopped, cleaned the thing off and put it away. It was a very funny and weird first experience with a breast pump, that's for sure. At least I know what to expect the next time I use it!