Slow Pump

Tuesday afternoon, I pumped about 9 or 10 ounces of milk; expected for 3:30 in the afternoon. Tuesday night / Wednesday morning at 1:30 am, I only got about 4 ounces; about half what I expected. My breast pump, an Ameda Purely Yours 2005 now pumping for my second child, sounded like it was hesitating halfway through the suction portion of its cycle. It started off fine, then had a few hesitations, and by the end of the 10 minutes of pumping, it was hesitating all the time. (I only pump for 10 minutes now; it was the happy medium time for the first child, and I'm willing to go on experience this time around.)

I was sure it was broken and not sure what I was going to do. I can't last long (and go to work, and stay sane) without my breast pump! Just in case you're in this boat, don't stay up all night wondering what you should do, like I did. Use my backup plan instead. You go to the nearest hospital (I know my nearest hospital has excellent lactation services) and you rent a breast pump until you have a replacement!

So Wednesday morning when I got up, Daddy headed to baby food and I headed to breast pump. I wanted Mr. Fix-It to hear the pump's hesitation. Well, it didn't make the bad sound at all, so that idea fizzled. I even went to 12 minutes! However, I got less than 4 ounces, which was less than I expected again. So then I had the terrible mom-guilt of self-doubt: did my milk supply drop off already? Uh, dropping by half in less than 12 hours is highly unlikely!

I pumped again this afternoon, later than I should have, at 4. I got almost 12 ounces of milk, as expected, and I'm no longer in a panic about my breast pump or my milk supply. In fact, given that the wiring in our house is known bad in some places, I wonder if I just had it in a bad outlet Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.

So I still love my Ameda Purely Yours. I bought that model, even though it was more expensive than similar recommended models, because my dear hubby (after he recovered from a split second recoil of "you want me to pick out what?!") selected it from a line-up of breast pumps in the breastfeeding class we took before Karston was born. He looked at them with his engineer eyes, and very quickly pointed to the Ameda. When I asked why, he said it had the least chance for contamination with the most power. Guess what? The Ameda was one of only two models there with FDA certification, and yes, the Ameda has more power and more suction variability control than the other model. As I said at the time, it's not cheap, but what's the point to marrying a mechanical engineer if I don't trust his opinion on mechanical equipment? He was right then, and he's still right.

I hope not to suffer another round of doubt about my breast pump, but at least I've got the backup plan if I do need to wait for a replacement.