from a farmer/rancher who pumps & nurses daily.
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Grab Your Elvie Stride | Target | Amazon | Walmart
My go to pumping bag. It has a built in cooler for storing milk. – Amazon | Walmart
Emptying Capabilities
I wish my Motif Luna wouldn’t have died so we could have done a side-by-side test! With the Motif, I was pumping 10 minutes. Keep in mind, I struggle with over supply, so I want to be empty enough to be comfortable and not get mastitis, but not so empty that I trigger more supply. Now I feel like I need to pump 20-25 minutes to get the same empty feeling and about the same amount of milk. This is all anecdotal, because as I’m switching pumps, I’m also starting to nurse more and pump less. If I had to choose the Elvie Stride as my only pump right now, I’d still be sure to have a manual pump for occasional, full emptying. With that said, it’s doing the job on it’s own for me right now.
Battery Life
Needs to be charged daily. Wish it was longer for the days I would forget, but maybe that’s intentional? Get in the rhythm of washing and charging.
Washing
Speaking of washing — it’s easy. Really, really easy. I take mine apart and set it in the dishwasher. Washing it by hand would be fine too. All the parts are easily accessible to get clean. It comes apart and goes back together easily as well.
I wash nightly. During the day I keep everything in the cooler with a big ice pack so it’s always ready to grab and go. My cousin shared these wipes with me to use after each use then put in the fridge/cooler!
Transferring Milk
I haven’t gotten the hang of this yet, after a week of using. I’m still making a little bit of a mess. Perhaps if I had a table or something rather than my lap in the ranger it would be different. No scratch that, the point of this pump is to be on the go — it takes brain power to pour without making a mess. They say to lean forward before stopping pumping to empty the center, I forget most of the time. I have found to open the cover before taking it out of my bra helps as long as I don’t tip it too far while I’m taking it out. It’s totally doable and fine, but I am still spilling some.
Workability
The first day I loaded vaccine coolers with it. Bending, reaching, up and down from the fridge into the coolers and it worked great. The day I wrote this we sorted pairs. I felt comfortable walking to sort them but didn’t feel it was secure enough to run. There isn’t much extra room in my bra with these, so maybe a larger bra would hold everything securely enough to pick up the pace faster than a walk.
Appearance
Under a sweatshirt, I don’t think it’s super obvious. At least for me looking down it doesn’t appear to be. With only a t-shirt on, it’s definitely noticeable.
Sound Level
Super quiet.
Disappointments
I have to have the app open to see how long I’ve been pumping. The app is nice, but I also like to be able to pump without my phone, which I can, I just don’t know how long I’ve been pumping. The battery indicator is also on the app rather than the device. When I’m exclusively pumping, my first morning pump is too big to fit. It’s tricky to watch it fill, stop, empty and begin pumping again.
Overall Thoughts
I like it. It’s comfortable, I much prefer the way it feels over the way the bottles hung off me before with my other pumps. Being able to do something while pumping is also a treat. Disappointed I have to pump longer to get the same results and wish I didn’t need my phone. So far it’s been totally worth the savings over the wearable pump that doesn’t have the tubes.
