Yeah, That'll Never Happen

So, obviously, I still have my breast pump since I'm breastfeeding and working.  I've been keeping up with it faithfully for almost a year now and find that as the year-end approaches, I have mixed feelings about quitting.

I like breastfeeding because it's something only _I_ can do for my daughter.

She likes her Mommy Moo, too.

But, I'm definitely looking forward to NOT getting up twice a night to pump and clean the equipment. 

ESPECIALLY cleaning the pump lines. They are ALWAYS getting milk in them.  I remember when it first happened, my husband and I were dumbfounded about what occurred- and what to do about it.  We had to look it up in the little booklet that came with the Medela (pronounced ME-DEE-LA, evidently) pump.  The booklet says that some "moisture" may occasionally get trapped in the lines and to just blow it out with the pump after you're done.

But this isn't just a little moisture.

It's straight up milk that gets sucked up the lines because the little silicone valves don't open properly to drain the milk into the bottles.  We've spent hours looking for what's wrong with the pump.

Hours online.

Hours just inspecting the pump.

We finally just gave up looking for the reason and accepted the fact that we had to clean the pump lines with little syringes all the time.

Then, when my daughter was in the hospital, they gave me the Medela steam cleaning bags for my equipment.  On the back of these bags, taking up 1/2 the instructional space, are very specific instructions for steam cleaning the pump lines.

Of course, it is prefaced with "This should not occur, but if it does.."

You know, if a company spends that much product real estate to give you instructions on how to do something, you know that it's NOT a rare occurrence.

But when I used the cleaning bags to clean the pump lines, despite what the instructions said about not affecting the performance of the lines, the lines became hard and won't stay attached to the machine anymore.

When I called Medela to complain and ask for more pump lines, they wanted to know why I was sterilizing the lines to begin with.  

Uhm, there's milk in the lines!?!

They gave me the same song and dance spiel about that shouldn't ever happen.

After several minutes of me explaining that not only did it happen, it happens all the time and I followed the instructions on YOUR product to the letter for YOUR pump lines, they finally agreed to send me new pump lines.

So, the moral of this story is:

If it doesn't ever happen, there wouldn't be step-by-step instructions on how to fix it.