We are doing an adults-only trip for a few days, leaving the 8 month old at home with Grandma. Does anyone have suggestions for a manual breast pump that is reliable and ideally light-weight? Any other suggestions for a successful away-from-baby trip?

(I know this topic is the opposite of this board and I'm not looking for debate as to whether we should take the baby with us or not)

It has been awhile but I always relied on my Medela manual that I got from a girlfriend when she was done with it. Worked well for me on my breaks at work.

The modern model is the Medela Harmony and it gets great reviews. Suggestion from the Babies R Us site says to make sure to try it out ahead of time to be sure the shield size is right for you so you can get another size if needed.

I used the Medela too on our trip and it worked really well. Regarding other suggestions- I left one of my t-shirts with my folks as we discovered that when my mom layed it over her shoulder the 'smell' of me seemed to really comfort the baby (I did my trip when our child was younger than yours). Have a great time!

Have an awesome trip!

I was a pumping queen back in the day with a preemie and then later working and pumping with my second, but never used a manual pump. Good luck to you. With a baby that age it should be enough to just keep the milk flowing and not worry over much about supply, as long as you nurse a lot once you are back.

I had a friend who only used a manual pump and she could get 8 oz, easy. I never got that even with a hospital grade pump. So results vary. That was 13 years ago but she had a manual Medela pump.

Yup,9 years ago I did a women's bw 3 months after our first baby was born and the Medela manual pump worked perfectly.