This is the Simple Wishes hands free pumping bra. It is the bomb. Best thing out there.
Simple Wishes pump bra hack, nurse one side
At Finn’s two week checkup we found out he wasn’t regaining his birth weight. So we rented a scale and were heartbroken to find he wasn’t getting much out of me, despite marathon 1 1/2 hour nursing sessions. Our lactation consultant said the nipple shields I was wearing for my inverted nipples were interfering with delivery. So since then I’ve been pumping exclusively and then bottle feeding him breastmilk with some formula supplementation as needed. Now that my milk supply is established we haven’t used formula in a couple weeks! Awesome right? Except that it’s exhausting, and a huge time suck, like pretty much my whole day.
When he’s feeding every two hours, it goes like this. Bottle feed him about 4 ounces, burp him and keep him upright enough so he doesn’t spit up. Change the inevitable poopy diaper that he thanks me with. That’s 30 minutes. Then put him in the swing next to my pump chair, hook up, and pump. Another 30 minutes. Wash the bottle, pump parts, label and put away milk. Now we’re at about an 1:15-30 if everything went smoothly and he didn’t fuss in the swing too much. So it’s almost time to feed again! OMG
My right nipple has healed enough and he’s old enough to feed directly from the breast again (it’s touch and go but we’re working on it). So I have one more wish. I’d like to pump one side while I nurse Finn on the other, maybe take a nap between feedings. Apparently not so simple a wish. There aren’t any good bras for this. My mama ordered me this one, the best we could find after hours searching online.
La Leche pump bra
You can see the fit of the outer bra is perfect, and it’s comfortable. But it’s useless as a pump or nursing bra.
La Leche pump bra, inner pump flaps too loose and outer flaps in the way of nursing
The inner flaps are way too loose, even though you can see I hand stitched a couple darts in the near one to take up some slack. It could use two more darts. But I didn’t bother, because after a trial run I realized an even bigger flaw, the outer flaps won’t get out of the way. It’s as low as it goes, this takes any difficulty your baby has latching on and makes it worse by covering up half your boob, right up to the nipple, with two layers of thick padding. Maybe if you had nipples the size of shotgun shells this bra wouldn’t be in the way but my little .22′s are lost in here.
So I came up with this.
Simple Wishes pump bra hack, nurse one side
The bra comes in 3 pieces, that velcro and zip together, with an optional center spacing insert. Cut the spacing insert it in half, now you have a perfectly mated zipper piece, for either breast. I left it thicker where it attaches to the elastic then thinned it out, trying to expose as much of my breast as possible, but it would’ve been fine straight.
Then sew on 2 lengths of 3/4 inch non-roll elastic to the zipper side you need. I used some scrap white denim to make the other end. Then sewed on a couple strips of velcro. I made it the same length as the original, knowing there is plenty of room for adjustment.
Simple Wishes pump bra hack, nurse one side
Ignore the messy sewing, I eyeballed everything, didn’t get the iron out, and my machine’s tension is broken, ugh. But you get the gist. Here’s the velcro side.
Simple Wishes pump bra hack, nurse one side
And here it is in action.
Simple Wishes pump bra hack, nurse one side
Simple Wishes pump bra hack, nurse one side
Now if I can just get the little man to stop squirming and kicking at the pump side we’ll be in business.
