Medela In Style Double Electric Breast Pump FREE

I ordered the Medela through my insurance not thinking I'd ever use it. It was free so why not? I'd found out about this freebie for moms while lurking on the Babycenter forums. Most insurances provide for a free breast pump in support of a bill that promotes breastfeeding in PA. I got lucky with the Medela In Style - apparently all some moms got was a manual pump. That's $200 vs $20 worth of pump gadgetry.

I actually loved my Lansinoh manual pump and had been using that to keep my supply going while sick and on meds. But having to work it for 30 minutes eight times a day gets old pretty fast so I broke out the Medela. 

As usual I ignored the instruction manual and dove right into the goodies in the tote. I had to pull open all sorts of Velcro to get to the pump. Such poor design, so difficult to access this pump, I thought to myself. The I realized the flap on the front of the tote zips down to allow that. After that I figured I really should read that instruction manual. :)

The hassle of washing the parts and air drying them after every pumping session hasn't been bad at all. Well I'm not too concerned about being super sterile because its me who's drinking the milk haha. So I just swish in hot soapy water then rinse after each pump and let dry till the next session. Easy. 

I made the mistake of pumping on the max setting. Ouch. My boobs get milked just fine on the low now. 

I'm too cheap to buy those special hands free pumping bras. So I just hold the things in place with my left inner forearm and hand, leaving my right hand free to accomplish important tasks like writing this blog post or scratching my ear. 

Twenty minutes goes by okay. You're supposed to keep pumping five minutes after the milk has stopped flowing to stimulate the boob to make more milk. And pump between 15-20 minutes. 

Here's my set up - doesn't that look comfy? :D