I don't want to bring my pump to the Inaugural Ball

[Anonymous]

On Tuesday I'll be spending 5 hrs+ in a fancy dress at an inaugural ball. I normally breastfeed my 10 week old daughter every 3 hours on average and pump when I have to miss a feeding. Times that I've gone more than 5 hours without nursing or pumping, I've ended up sore, leaky, and grumpy. I'm really not keen on lugging my pump downtown (although it's got a fairly nice black bag, I'm not sure what security would think!) and yesterday's attempt to learn manual expression wasn't very successful. Any other suggestions on how I can prevent/relieve this engorgement while wearing my party attire?

[Anonymous]

You could get a manual pump (medela harmony) it would be much smaller/easier to carry around, is very small you can break it down into seperate parts and can fit in a small purse. And depending on what you want to do with the milk you could just bring one small medela bottle and dump some out when it gets too full. If you don't want to waste the milk you would have to bring a cooler depending on how long you will be out and then you might as well bring the big pump since you can just fit everything in that bag. The manual pump and dumping the milk would be the easiest. You could even pump in the handicap stall and pump into the sink if you don't have room for the bottle. I had to do this once when I forgot the bottle that attaches to the manual pump while I was at the airport. Good Luck

[Anonymous]

If you bring a small manual pump along and want to save the milk without bringing a cooler, it shouldn't be an issue to do so as long as you are keeping the milk at room temp. for less than 8 hours or so. (Some say 6 others say 10). Just get it into the fridge as soon as you get home.

Just remember to bring a lid for the bottle, and a plastic baggie to throw the pump parts into when you are done.

[Anonymous]

Medela Swing pump -- very small electric pump that has a battery pack that can fit in a purse (not an evening purse though). You could pump and dump somewhere in the hotel if need be. No need to bring a cooler -- BM can stay at room temp safely for quite awhile.