Oh the places I've pumped

When I was pregnant with Theo, I knew that, unlike with Sophia, I would be returning to work shortly after having him, thus requiring me to be an active pumper. I have two pumps - one for home and a smaller, more portable one for work.

I have chronicled the amount of my stash of liquid gold in previous posts. Pumping takes dedication and, in talking with fellow working moms, a sort of creativity is required  amazing to keep our supply up.

I found that traveling for work, while not all that frequent, added a whole new level of experience for pumping. As anyone who does so can attest, your schedule is not your own. At least in the confines of my office, I know when and generally, where I can pump.

I thought I'd outline the places I've pumped over the past year, more for my own posterity than for anyone else's. And don't worry, there aren't any pictures.

Top 4 most common:
1) My house (duh)
2) Work - the "Pumping Office." Because I sit in pod-land, this is a room that was to be an office but during a transition and after I made a bit of a fuss of the lack of space for pumping, turned into a "first dibs for pumping moms" room. Has made for some close accidental encounters with co-workers.
3) Work - the 5th floor bathroom - the "office" room isn't always available. I made due with pulling a rolling desk and chair into the bathroom to do what I needed to get done. People always comment on all the "stuff" I seem to lug with me to the bathroom.
4) My former office - my last job was at Marian Court College - a gorgeous mansion overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. My office was a former third floor bedroom with 4 window seats. Sigh...

Top 4 oddest:
1) My car. This was also one of my most frequent when I was commuting to Marian Court. I miss my buddies on Rt. 16. I'm sure they don't miss my draped, multi-tasking self. It's very useful and easy once you have a system.
2) The bathroom at Rue 57 in New York. After a client meeting. Clean, door locking stalls. No complaints.
3) The bathroom in our NJ office. Motion sensor lights. Having to get up and make enough motion hanging half way out of a stall to get them to turn back on. While attached.
4) Airport bathrooms. Not odd in themselves, but just somewhere I'd recommend avoiding if you can. I felt especially bad when I was in a family restroom at Logan and a woman was furiously knocking on the door saying she needed to use it to breastfeed before getting on the plane. She left before I could unhook and pack up.

I'm not going to miss the bulkiness of carrying "Don Ho" around with me or the time suck in my schedule, but I will miss the mental break it gave me for 20 minutes in my day.

The stash...

Because I was home for almost the entire 1st year with Sophia, any pumping I did was purely for convenience - a bottle before bed or when I when out. I was diligent about pumping in order to keep up my supply, but I knew that I could always just feed her if I needed to and there wouldn't be an issue.

With Theo, it was different from the get-go. I was back at work 2 weeks after having him, so pumping started very very early. I was convinced I had a low supply, so I started in on Fenugreek and eating lots of oatmeal. I soon realized that it helped a lot, but that I was also producing what I needed too as he was still so young and not taking a ton at one time.

Even through my delayed maternity, I still kept up a rigorous pumping schedule so I could stockpile milk in the basement deep freezer. There is something gratifying about seeing the ounces accumulating (and equally demoralizing when they don't.) Luckily, I was able to make some good headway and accumulate quite a few ounces so that when I went back to work it wouldn't be session to session coverage.

I had always planned to breastfeed through a year, as I did with Sophia. But I wasn't sure with the almost full-time pumping if I'd be able to make it. I also knew that I would introduce cow's milk at some point in his 11th month (as I was clear there was no dairy allergy - this child lives on yogurt & cheese and anything else you'll give him). The introduction of cow's milk a little early would also give me some wiggle room on the pumping. I was currently pumping 4-5x/day to cover his feedings. (2 of those pumps were at work, 1 was before work and 2 were dinner/before bedtime.)

Over the Christmas break, one thing I checked off my list was taking stock of what was downstairs ounce-wise. I pulled all the bags and counted. And counted. And counted some more. 97 bags. 6 ounces each bag. Basically I was looking at almost 600 ounces of liquid gold!!

I was amazed, gratified, and frankly, really damn proud of myself. After some quick calculations, I realized I could begin dropping to 3 pumps/day (ahh - the time this frees up is amazing - trying to facilitate breakfast for both kids while pumping concurrently...it's a sight no one needs to see.)

The pressure is off and I can slowly whittle down my stash and know that little man is covered with mama's goodness. I'll happily keep breastfeeding him past 1 (our morning time together is so precious to me) but I am thrilled to have the end in site with the pump.

Keeping Up...

I made the choice to go back to work 2 weeks after having Theo. I decided this for a number of reasons and so far, all in all, it has worked out. I'm greatly looking forward to my delayed maternity come June & July. While I hate to miss out on these beginning months, I luckily have a job that has afforded me (or I've created) some balance. I work from home Mondays & Fridays, allowing me to be there to nurse Theo, and on Wednesdays he comes with me to work. I'm thankful for those Tuesdays & Thursdays where Lidiana takes care of both kids. There is much comfort in knowing someone who has gotten a full night's sleep and doesn't have baby brain is caring for my child. I can muscle my way through meetings and presentations (no lives are a stake there) but I do miss the naps. :)

One small hurdle I've encountered is creating enough milk supply for Theo. It's been hard to pump and keep up with the supply & demand, but I think I'm making some headway. I actually don't mind the pumping that much and my goal is to not let my head get the best of me. The more stressed I get about not producing enough, the more my supply goes down. I've also come to grips that if I'm not producing enough one week or another, than the occasional supplement of formula isn't going to hurt anyone. And in fact, it'll help.

It amazes me the stigma placed on formula in certain social circles. With Sophia, I completely abhorred the idea of supplementing. It was like you had suggested I feed her razor blades. This is extremely humorous in retrospect, being that I was a completely formula fed baby and I turned out just fine. I was rarely sick, I knew my mother loved me and I didn't grow any additional appendages. My best friend supplemented her daughter because of low supply (and god knows she tried each and everything to increase it under the sun!) and clearly I respect her, her parenting choices and her daughter turned out just fine.

My hope is that I can give Theo as much of my milk as humanly possible. I enjoy it for so many reasons - bonding, health, all the good antibodies that he gets as a result. But stressing over it isn't going to be healthy for either of us. I have my pumping schedule (don't mind if you see me in the car on the way to work, draped & taking advantage of the 40 minute commute). Sophia has also joined in the encouragement during the morning session as she shouts "Mama's Pumping!" (From what I've heard, most kids imitate their moms breastfeeding...well, we're almost there :) )

I'm drinking my tea and eating my oatmeal. The rest is up to my body. In the end I know it'll all work out for what is best for Theo, for me and for us as a family.