One of the biggest problems that I had with middle of the night pumping sessions was getting back to sleep afterwards. I’d feed the baby, pump, clean everything up, and go back to bed – and lie awake, thinking about how I only had two hours to sleep before getting up to do it all again. If you’re in the same boat, one thing that might help you go back to sleep is keeping the lights low while you pump! There is a special light for pumping flanges called Lactalites that allow you to pump in the dark so you can still see what you’re doing.
(Transparency note: I did not receive free products or compensation for hosting this giveaway; I just think it’s a great idea!)
The owner and creator of Lactalites, Patrick O’Malley, was nice enough to answer some of my questions about how they work.
What gave you the idea to create the Lactalite?
When our son was born and my wife was pumping, I could quickly see how stressful this was. One afternoon, I had come home from work and Kelly was in our room sitting on the recliner pumping. Even though it was light out, our room wasn’t very well lit and she was using her cellphone light to see if she was expressing anything.
I just had a lightbulb go off in my head, so I went to the garage and found an old foam “pool noodle.” I cut a small piece of foam out so that it would fit into the back end of the breast shield and then put a small thumb light into the foam. It fit perfectly and she turned it on.
The only way to describe it is that I could see the stress melt off of her face. She no longer had to worry about being able to visualize whether or not she was expressing milk or not. She started to use it at night and quickly commented that she could not pump without it. I was doing some medical device work on other projects, so I took it to this team I was working with, and we sped it through the process and came up with the design we currently have today. We got a patent and began manufacturing!
Can you walk me through how a Lactalite works? How does it attach to a breast shield? Are they easy to attach and turn on in the dark?
Lactalite is pretty simple to use. There is a clear plastic clasp that snaps over the tunnel portion of the breast shield. It is flexible, so it can fit on the majority of breast shields. There is a slight tapering of the clasp to coincide with the slight tapering you see on the breast shield.
It can be spun around the entire circumference of the shield so that you can find the position that works best for you. Having it on the underside with the light directed upwards seems to provide the best visualization, but you can play around with it.
The on/off button goes from off, to a white light, then blue light, then off.
There is an automatic 30 minute shut off to prevent the battery from burning out, and the battery is easy to replace if it runs low.
Do most moms keep the light on for their entire pumping session? Is it primarily for positioning and knowing when your milk lets down, or are there other reasons to keep it on?
From what we hear, moms will attach it to the breast shield and leave it on during their pumping session. It doesn’t really interfere with anything so leaving it on makes sense. Almost all of our orders have been as a pair, since most women pump both breasts simultaneously.
We got a lot of feedback from IBCLCs stating that Lactalites have been helpful in showing moms proper nipple placement, especially when moms are just getting familiar with the pumping experience. It can help demonstrate proper flange sizing as well because you can really see how far the nipple is being pulled in.
Its a personal preference as to whether or not mom wants to leave the Lactalite attached throughout the whole pumping session. I think leaving it on allows for a quick “spot check” to see how the flow is going. Another great use for this is being able to see how manual massage can affect milk flow. As a physician, it was really fascinating for me to be able to visualize how massaging different parts of the breast almost “activates” or recruits additional milk ducts. You can see flow from several ducts, and then with massage, 2-3 additional sprays started up.
My attempt to show how the Lactalite lights up the flange in the dark.
Do Lactalites work with all pumps? (What about manual pumps, like the Medela Harmony?)
No, it doesn’t work with all pumps. It doesn’t work with Freemie, Willow, and may have a tight fit with some of the Evenflo shields.
It does work on Spectra, Medela, Ameda, Lansinoh, Ardo, Bailey, RumbleTuff, and Tommee Tippee. We have not tried it with every single breast shield, but we estimate 90% or greater will work. Very tiny or very large flanges may or may not work.
We have tried it with several manual pumps and it has fit just fine, but again, we have not tried it with every single manual pump available.
How long does a Lactalite battery last? Is there any other maintenance needed?
Lactalites come with CR2032 button batteries installed, so it works right out of the box. Battery life can vary, but from our own testing, we have gotten 60+ hours out of the batteries. If they start to dim, you can replace the battery.
No other maintenance is needed. You can wipe it off with an alcohol prep pad, damp cloth, or baby wipe should you get some breast milk on it. It’s not waterproof, so make sure you don’t accidentally throw it in the sink when washing all those wonderful pump parts!
Updated 9/12/18: This post was originally a giveaway and has been updated to removed outdated information about it.
The hardest part of pumping in the night is almost every part of it! Waking up, staying awake getting everything hooked up in the dark, and getting everything off and put away in the dark. I use my cell phone light for it all amd many times it ended up straight into my eyes! This Lactalite would help wonders!! Great invention!! Thank you!!
The hardest part of night pumping is getting back to sleep after forcing myself to stay awake for 30-45 minutes.
My biggest challenge with pumping in the middle of the night is having to use my cellphone flashlight so I can see if milk is coming out. When I use the flashlight it wakes me up and it hurts my eyes from how bright it is. Lactalite would help me out so much and make things easier for me. Thank you!
The hardest part for me is feeding baby and pumping at the same time. I usually have to feed first and then pump which means I’m up for even longer!
What isn’t hard about pumping at night? Getting up, setting up, staying awake while you wait to empty. The worst is trying to position my cell phone light so I don’t wake the baby and I can see if I have a good position. This would be amazing to have! Thanks for the chance!
What a great idea! Hardest part for me is waking up.
My biggest challenge pumping at night (really anytime) is trying to see when a occurs so I can change my pump settings. Right now, I use my cellphone to light up my flange so I can see as I don’t feel the letdown happening. I hope the lactalite will help me to see so I’m not stuck pumping while sitting wth my phone in my lap forever.
the hardest part of pumping at night is dealing with the jealousy that my husband gets to stay asleep while i fumble with my cell phone (for light), pump parts and smashing my breasts all around to find the perfect fit in the dark all while trying not to wake him up!
Hardest part would have to be waking up and once awake, trying to stay awake.
The most difficult part for me is having to juggle twin boys while pumping in the dark while I am mostly asleep! I don’t have enough hands to feed them and also hold a light to the flanges to see if I’m expressing milk, need to change settings, etc.
The hardest part for me is waking up and getting out of the bed. I set my alarm 15 minutes earlier and snooze so at least it feels like I’m prepping my body to wake up. I also use my cell phone light to see how much milk is expressing and to see if no milk is expressing to know if I’m empty.
This is such a cool idea!
The hardest part of pumping at night is making sure my nipples are positioned right in the flanges. I am an H cup so it’s really difficult to maneuver at night with cell phone light and my pumping bra.
The most difficult thing about pumping in the MOTN is staying awake while pumping! Followed closely by the challenge of putting everything away after vs leaving it out and going straight back to bed.
The hardest part for me is waking up to my alarm and staying awake.
The biggest challenge for me is actually waking up but then also relaxing enough to go back to sleep!
This looks really great! Would help not use my cell phone at night.
The hardest part for me is waking up and not waking everyone else up too. Baby sleeps in our room so when I start turning on lights I’m disturbing my husband and son. The light would also help me see if my milk is still coming out. It would make a great asset to my middle of the night and early morning pumps.
Going back to sleep after getting up! And actually waking up and not sleeping through my alarms! Yes alarms, I have to have multiples to get me up!
The hardest challenge I have with pumping at night, is feeding baby and trying to pump at the same time. Although my boppy pillow comes in handy at that point, little man just likes to be held and snuggles at his middle of the night feeding/my pump session.
Even when it’s not the middle of the night, I have a hard time seeing my flow of milk and will use my cell phone flashlight. This is hard because I also need to do breast compressions or message to get the milk out! These sound like an amazing solution. Thanks for the opportunity!
My biggest challenge is wanting to stay awake long enough!
Hi! I really just would like to purchase these, but I’m getting invalid errors when I try to use the coupon code. 🙁
Thanks for letting me know – I’ll check with Patrick!
The hardest challenge I have at night is constantly having to use my flashlight on my phone to check my flow and ounces. My son sleeps in my room so I’m always worried about waking him with it. This would be perfect for us! Thank you!
I find it difficult to wake up and stay awake for the motn pumps. I try not to turn too many lights on so I don’t wake the baby and that makes it hard to see what I’m doing and also hard to wake and stay awake.
This invention read my mind!! The hardest part of pumping at night is seeing if I’m expressing milk and If my nipple is properly positioned! I have to Use my phone flashlight to constantly check! Otherwise I turn the bright light on and blind myself at 3 am!
I would have to agree that balancing a phone light while trying to get placement right is a challenge. Especially when you can’t find the phone??♀️
Hardest part it trying not to fall asleep!
these would be awesome! besides the obvious of waking up and staying up for those late night pump sessions I struggle with lack of light- so NEED. I always use the flashlight on my cell phone as not to have the bright light that will wake my son
The hardest part about middle of the night pumping sessions is waking up (I often sleep through my alarm), watching my newborn and husband sleep, and blinding myself with my phone light to see when I’m in letdown. I could probably go on. Everything about pumping at night sucks.
The hardest part is getting my twins back to sleep after they eat so i can pump.
The hardest part of pumping is getting up in the MOTN in and of itself. It’s so exhausting. This light would definitely be helpful!
My biggest struggle with MOTN pump is waking baby and husband with the bed side light. It’s so brite and seems to wake baby up every time. I use my phone to see if nipple is in correctly, then I just sit in the dark. I would love to have these, it would make night pumping so much easier!
The hardest part is when the baby wakes up too! I go into the other room but that doesn’t always help. These are a great idea as I too try to use my cell phone to see what is going on.
My biggest problem when pumping in the middle of the night is of course no light (which is why these are genius!!) also my twins sleep through the night (yay!!) but when I pump I like to pump in bed so I can go right back to sleep but I swear they can smell it and will get restless but luckily it’s just a bink in the mouth and they’re back to sleep! (They sleep in a pack n play beside my bed). Other than that all the normal pains of pumping in the middle of the night or any time really lol I hate that I have inverted nipples bc it is harder for me to make sure the flange is on correctly I have to see to do it and can’t do it out of feeling…I can’t believe I’ve never heard of this product! My cell and I have become good friends lol
The hardest part about pumping in the middle of the night is getting and staying awake while everyone else in my house is sleeping peacefully!
The hardest part about pumping in the middle of the night is waking up to my alarm! It’s also hard knowing that when I’m done I can’t go right back to sleep, I have to wash stuff first.
The hardest part of night pumping is using the light on my phone to check if my flanges are placed correctly and if I’ve had a letdown, so this product would improve my pumping experience greatly! Thank you for the opportunity to win
Lighting has always been an issue for middle of night pumping. I usually use the flashlight on my phone which is too bright and sometimes wakes my baby. Following a schedule at night is sometimes difficult if my little one is waking for feedings at different times then when I pump.
The hardest part about MOTN pumps are getting back to sleep when I’m done. You would think that because I’m so tired I would get to sleep right away but it’s the hardest thing ever!
My biggest struggle with pumping in he middle of the night, is finding the motivation to sit up and pump while my fiancé is laying down next to me snoring lol
The hardest problem I have while pumping is not waking my husband and the baby up with my cell phone light! I use it to get all my stuff ready, and then to check how much I’m pumping, pour it into the bottle everything!
The hardest part about pumping at night is staying awake. Thankfully I have my pup that stays up with me while my husband and LO sleep.
The hardest thing about my MOTN pump is waking myself up. My baby doesnt wake up to eat anymore at night but I’m an underproducer so I still have to pump at night to keep up with him. I usually end up missing my alarm and waking up to a soaked bed.
The hardest part about pumping in the middle of the night for me is actually waking up to my alarm and not turning it off and stay sleeping. Especially now since baby is starting to sleep through the night!
My baby is very light sensitive, she’ll wake up if she catches the glare of my cell phone! This would be amazing for middle of the night pumping for us!
Having to hold my phone light and massage the boobs at the SAME time (aka the most impossible thing ever)
the hardest part about pumping is keeping my little one happy while pumping!! and looking over to see my husband sleeping the night away!
The hardest part is wanting to wake up lol… then it’s seeing the amount of milk I’m pumping and making sure my flow is still going. I almost always blind myself using the flashlight on my phone to check and to the point I moved to living room just so I could have more light.
My biggest challenge about pumping in the middle of the night is looking at my pumps position on the nipples and watching my letdown without a light. I usually have my cellphone flashlight pointing towards me…which is not the most desirable.
The hardest part of motn pumping is getting up and then going back to sleep. love the idea of lactalite!
These lights would greatly help my nightime pumping! Such a great product!
The hardest part for pumping during the night for me is exactly this! its pretty frustrating trying to see if theres still milk flowing or not. and I dont dare tuenbon a light because that would wake my little milk monster! So these look wonderful! Im really scratching my head as to why no one thought of these sooner!
The hardest part pumping in the middle of the night is being so tired. It is hard to stay awake and then when its time to sleep again you are wide awake. There is nothing enjoyable about the MOTN pump.
The hardest part about pumping at night is when either my toddler or my baby – or both – wakes up. Since my husband works midnights, it’s just me & getting my pumps done and cleaned up is sometimes a challenge.
The absolute most difficult part about pumping at night is still dragging yourself out of bed to do it when everyone else including your baby is sound asleep.
Very cool!
The mlst challenging part of pumping in the middle of the night is trying to pump without being able to see the flow!! It is anxiety-inducing! This is a fantastic solution!!
The hardest part of pumping at night is for sure being able to see nipple placement and how well my milk is coming out! I’m constantly turning on and off my phone flashlight to see— which then affects my husband and baby. Love that you’ve created a product to solve this problem!
I think the hardest part of a night pump/feed is getting back to sleep.
The hardest part of night pumping is definitely getting UP for those night sessions.
Ugh…pumping at night is my least favorite time! My biggest worry is all the light from my lamp to get set up will wake my baby and I’d have to unhook. Sounds like this product is great at helping with that!!
The most difficult part about pumping at night is walking up, going back to bed after pumping because now I’m awake, and then seeing if any milk is coming out (this is an issue many times during the day since we keep it daughter’s room dim). This light is a great idea!
Simple and functional – make the best inventions! I share the pain of waking up and using my cell phone flashlight to confirm positioning, expressing, and making sure I don’t overfill the bottles. The only thing worst than pumping in the middle of the night, is spilled breast milk in the middle of the night!
Our son just turned 3 months old, so he still sleeps in our bedroom. My husband has to get up early for work, and my pumping area is on his side of the bed. I am always trying to use the display screen (not the flashlight) in order to pump at night. It is so difficult to position the phone in a way that allows the light to shine without it being in my husband’s line of sight. I think it’s wonderful that a husband created a product that helped his wife in her pumping experience and realized that so many others could benefit as well ♥
The hardest thing about night pumps is getting the best nipple position & holding it, while praying the light doesn’t disturb my LO or husbands sleep. Otherwise, I can pump & sleep.
The hardest part pumping at ? night for me is being massively full and trying to get enough light to pump…. It’s hard enough with the lack of sleep and keep your eyes open. This light would be great !
Waking up, staying awake during, and then getting back to sleep afterwards. It’s all hard! I’ve been using my cell phone to make sure my flanges are positioned properly, so this is a really good idea.
The hardest part is getting up and then getting back to sleep.
The hardest part of pumping in the middle of the night is actually getting up and staying up. Generalloy my alarm goes off and then I say I’ll get up 2 mins later and sometimes its 15-20 or a hour later. It is especially hard when your little one sleeps through the night. I use my phone as a light so it’s hard to massage and hold your phone as well. Love this idea how brilliant!
Turning the lights on the pump to wake up my 20 month old and 4 month old. Anything to help me pleaseeeee!
The hardest part about pumping at night is what you mentioned about going through all the motions half dead tired and then being too awake trying to go back to sleep. And then boom there goes the alarm to get up for both jobs. Taking care of baby and somehow working at home.
My biggest challenge is actually waking up when my alarm goes off so many times I’ve slept through the alarm and woke up an hour later.
The hardest thing about night pumping is not being able to see very well. I’ll try and prop my cellphone light up but it always ends up falling and shining in my eyes. It’s very frustrating especially when you’re just so tired and want to just go back to bed.
So true!!! Turning on the light (or forgetting to and having to get back up and turn it on) always makes both me and baby wide awake!
Im sure im not the only one, but definetly not seeing if my nipple is in a correct position and then after 15 min i would like to see if the milk still flowing so i have to turn on the cell phone light which is so bright and uncofortable , its very annoying .
The hardest part is staying awake while pumping. I found myself two hours later still pumping with milk overflowing ???
So great!
The hardest part is going back to sleep after pumping. Pumping wakes me up enough that I get too awake to fall asleep easily.
My biggest challenge is to balance the phone light while doing breast compressions to ensure that milk indeed is flowing ! Hope this product will ease one of these tasks !!
The hardest part about pumping at night is waking up for it! I’m at the point where I’m so tired all the time that I tend to sleep through my pumping alarm and then wake up engorged (and pump insane amounts since I likely missed a session!)
This is so timely for me. I just went on a trans-atlantic trip and in terms of timing had to pump on the plane. After doing some research, I just brought my car seat cover/privacy thing and did it right in my seat, but you sure can’t see anything in a dark plane in the middle of the night! I ended up shining my phone’s flashlight to see what was going on, which isn’t exactly covert in a packed plane. This is very much a “why didn’t I come up with this?” product.
The biggest challenge of night pumping is staying awake! And sometimes remembering to screw the bottles on haha!
The biggest challenge for me is waking up! and washing everything up if I wasn’t smart enough to leave everything ready for later!
The hardest part about pumping in the middle of the night is not falling asleep in the middle of it. This light will help because I can see when the bottles are full instead of turning the bathroom light on and possibly waking my husband.
The hardest part of pumping at night is getting the flanges to fit without hurting myself or turning on a light and waking up the whole house.
The hardest part of my MOTN pump is waking up! I set 2 alarms. And if I’m half asleep I almost spill milk every time. Ugh!
Pumping is hard! We have dedication to wake up in the middle of the night to pump.
It’s hard to hear my alarms! It’s hard to wake up & stay awake. I try to set up in the dark & try not to wake up my wife or my twins. My twins were sleeping through the night. Lately they’ve been waking up. It’s hard to pump & I’m about to finish & one twin wakes up to eat. Or one twins wakes up to ear before I pump & then the other twin wakes up 10 min after I finished to eat.
Pumping is hard!
The hardest part about pumping in the middle of the night is falling back asleep afterwards!
Maybe biggest hurdle is being motivated to pump at night. I’m so tired and I never get much out during my last session of the night but I know that I need to keep it to maintain my supply.
The hardest part for me is getting up in the first place. Sleep feels so good!
OMG! I just discovered this product a week or so ago & I had the website pulled up & wanted to buy it so bad but I’m just not able to spend the money at this time. The tab is still open on my browser though, so weird that this contest is happening now! I would LOVE to win & get this wonderful product!
All parts of pumping are challenging, but nighttime is truly the worst. Waking up, sitting up, positioning baby, attaching the pump, operating the pump (while holding the shields in place and the baby) and struggling to see what is happening while staying awake is where I struggle every two hours!
The hardest part about pumping at night is waking up! So tired!
Willing myself out of bed when the baby sleeps through the night!
With our new 12 day old sleeping in our room, we now sleep with our light and on, dimmed to a lower setting. It would be amazing to sleep with the lights off again with the the help of the Lactalites!
I’m 8 1/2 months into EP and until last week was still waking in the MOTN to pump, but almost always struggling to go back to sleep for a few hours. I couldn’t handle it anymore and have used the tips from this website to adjust my times and move the last pump back to 10pm. This has been such a blessing!!! Thank you for this website ?✝️ I’d love to win a pair of these lights to help with pumping in the early morning and at my 10 sessions!
The hardest part is trying not to wake the baby!
So hard to wake up for the MOTN pump!
The hardest part is losing sleep. I already feel sleep deprived and getting up to pump is so hard! We love our babies!
The hardest part for me pumping in the middle of the night was 1 getting up but 2 getting back to sleep after everything! Turning on a lamp just wakes you up so much more so having a tiny light right where you need it would be perfect.
It’s dark…awkward using my phone for light…and I simply must see the milk spraying. 🙂
The hardest part about pumping at night is staying awake and not waking up the rest of the household by turning on all the lights. I use my cellphone light to see when I pump.
The hardest things about pumping at night — not turning my alarm off AND not being able to see if my nipple is positioned right. I’m constantly using the flash light app on my phone!!
The hardest part of pumping at night is waking up with out waking up the baby and husband. Once I’m up then I stumble around trying to get enough light for me to see but not waking up every one. I have found I some times use my cell phone light but it isn’t the best.
The hardest part of pumping at night is making sure I don’t wake anyone up. Especially the baby! I’ve been using my makeup mirror light but it’s not well lit so I always end up using my cell phone light to pump.
The hardest part—especially in the beginning—is staying awake! Inevitably a few times a week, I wake up and the pump has automatically turned off who knows how long ago, and my neck is sore! 😉
The hardest part for me is waking up to pump and also to position my mobile phone to see if the flanges are placed properly without waking my older child and SO.
The hardest part for me is getting up to pump at night! That kills me! I love my sleep! Haha these lights would be so helpful instead of using my cell phone!
Pumping at night in general is the hardest part. Being oh so tired and usually feeding a little one at the same time.
Its hard to pick one thing that’s the hardest. Setting my alarm round the clock to pump is hard!! And not being able to do much in the beginning is hard, since we pump so frequently and then have parts to wash and a pump to prep for the next session, not to mention then feeding the sweet little baby and spending time with them, but it’s ALL WORTH it to me to provide our sweet babes with breastmilk. It is hard going back to sleep after pumping for 30-45 minutes and being on my phone to stay awake, hard to turn off my thoughts so quickly. But again it’s so so worth it.
The hardest part of pumping at night is Blanca g my cell phone just right so the flashlight doesn’t wake the baby, but is shining on the pump so I can see if I’m still expressing milk or not. I hate that I end up with the flashlight shining right in my eyes and I can’t use my phone for entertainment/to help me stay awake while I’m using the flashlight. These would be great!!!
Waking up to bottle feed and then having to pump after. I end up being up for almost an hour. After that it can be really hard to back to sleep. I am exclusively pumping for my preemie born at 31 weeks.
Hardest part of pumping in the night is staying awake while pumping & getting up and out of bed! I like to keep it dim for myself so I can easily go back to sleep after, so I use my phone light constantly, would love the convenience of a lactilite!
The hardest part is waking up! I just slept through my MOTN pump! ?
The hardest thing for me is waking up in the middle of the night! The thought of having to interrupt my sleep to go through the whole process can be mentally draining. But thankfully I have pretty much mastered the trick of falling right back to sleep after!
The biggest challenge for me is waking up to that alarm when the baby is still soundly sleeping. Hooking myself up to the pump, storing the milk, cleaning up the parts and then getting ready to go back to sleep, only to be woken up by the baby who is now ready to eat!