This afternoon I pumped my breastmilk for the first time in about 3 months! I had stopped pumping during my time of unemployment, and actually could not produce any milk for pumping even before I had stopped work. But today, my 3rd day working at my new office, I was thrilled to be able to pump again! (No more sore breasts) However, to my dismay, I was only able to squeeze out 1.5 oz. Which is minuscule compared to the amount I was able to pump out before! Eesh.
Which only means that I have to start drinking more water everyday. It's 3 liters of water or more. This morning, I drank maybe only 1.5 liters. So next time, I have to drink 2 full Tupperware tumblers before I even walk into the lactation room!
The organization that I work for now provides a heavy duty electric pump for all the lactating staff to use, the Medela Symphony. You can use any existing Medela sunction cups with the Symphony. So I just used the cup from my Mini Electric, and it worked just fine. The machine pumped gently, but with good force. And you can choose between 2 types of pumping styles. So it was great. It mimicked the suction of an actual baby. Well, to me at least it felt like that and minus the pain of gritty teeth! My baby Salma has teeth now, and sometimes if she is sleepy she'll bite, and it hurts. With the portable Mini Electric, it can hurt a bit if you have been on it for quite some time. But it is smooth and relaxing pumping with the Symphony.
The one thing that surprised me though, because I had not pumped in so long, while I was pumping, my hands shook. It was as if my body was using so much energy to express milk that my hands shook as I held my cell phone to look at my daughter's photos (it helps me to produce milk while looking at her pics). And instead of looking at the photos, I was just staring at how my hand was shaking. Weird…
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