hand held pump suggestions!

hi everyone, im totally in a pickle here. We have a wedding to go to saturday (its now thursday evening) and I just realized im kinda screwed here.....I pump every four hours, if I go anything more than 5 hour between pumping, it gets painful....now between the drive down to the wedding, the ceremony, dinner, dancing etc etc, we should be out of the house for 8 hours or more.

sooooooo, without dragging my hospital grade medela breast pump with me and plugging it into an electrical outlit somewhere at the wedding hall (which i wouldn't even dream of doing, lol) what do you all suggest I do (driving back home for an hour and pumping is not an option as LA traffic is HORENDOUS!)

are there any good brands but INEXPENSIVE hand pumps that you would recommend, something i guess thats smallish so I can just sit on a chair in the ladies bathroom for 15-20 mins and pump/dump to releave the pressure? and of course, since ive left this sooooo late in the game, Amazon is off the table....something hopefully at Target or Babies R US would be best as those stores are closest to me!

thanks in advance everyone

cheers, Lisa

 

I don't have any experience with the handhelds. Is it possible to get a battery pack for the hospital grade medela? I have the PIS and I used that in a hotel bathroom once when I was at an off-site training event for work. The battery pack for the PIS worked really well. I actually have been having to pump in the bathroom at work from time to time because the pumping rooms are all occupied. I use the battery pack then as well. Medela also has vehicle adapters for at least some of their pumps and I have pumped in my vehicle before(though using a battery pack). If you have a small car or one that has a lot of visibility, you can take a blanket or nursing cover.

The other thing I would suggest is calling the wedding hall up in advance and asking if they have anywhere available (other than the bathroom) that you could pump. You never know until you ask, right?

All that said, if you really have no other options, probably any of the handheld ones will do for a one-off event. It looks like the medela one is going to run between $40 and $45 at Babies R Us. 4 out of 5 of their stores within 50 miles of me carry that item and have it in stock tonight. Target's online price is $36, maybe they'll price match to their own site? And that's either in stock or limited stock for every store within 65 miles of me.

HTH!

 

I'd either bite the bullet and take the Medela or just do some hand expression. If you're only going to pump enough to relieve pressure it'll be just as efficient and effective to hand express and then you don't have to take anything with you.

 

I had a Philips Avent handheld pump which I loved (I even used it to pump in the office because I got a lot more milk with it than with even a hospital grade electric pump). It is widely available, I think.