Homes Sweet Former Homes

Last week, my work took me to NYC and Chicago. It was so nice to visit my former home cities. There are things that I just love so much about both places, and at the top of the list is the people I know that still live there! In NYC, I got to have dinner with my friend Paul (Joo was out of town - boo!), and in Chicago, I got to have dinner with the Stubblefields and breakfast with the Martens. It was such a treat!

The bottom view is from the window of my hotel room at the Four Seasons in Chicago. Now that I work for Boys & Girls Clubs of America, I don't usually stay at places like the Four Seasons, so it was a real treat (due to the meeting I was there for taking place at the hotel). Now, I learned something very interesting on this trip. This go around with breastfeeding, I have found it much more difficult to travel and pump milk than it was five years ago. This is largely due to the fact that hotels used to be very accommodating with refrigerating things for me and freezing my ice packs, but I have had the hardest time getting hotels to do that now. Several hotels have cited something about health department restrictions on refrigerating things for guests, so I thought perhaps that there may be some new policies at play. But that theory was disproved when I asked at the Four Seasons and they were only too happy to take care of my milk and ice packs. This lead to the realization that the difference is most likely due to the very different quality of hotel that I was staying in five years ago when I worked in the corporate world versus now...

My Week (so far) In Numbers

5
talks and workshops presented

4
pounds of milk pumped, chilled and schlepped

3
nights in myrtle beach (and four very full days)

2
times I stepped foot outside of the hotel (and the second time was to go to the airport)

1
tired me


The upside of traveling: My boys were all happy to see me when I got home. John was the most expressive, but Carter warmed up when he realized that I was home in time to take him to the family reading night at his school (pajamas required). Thomas seems quite relieved to have me home. I'm trying to avoid mention of next week's trip for as long as possible.

Yep, that's 4lbs of milk

Business Trips

Yesterday I had a day trip to DC. And it was a LONG day. I left the house at 8am and, though I landed back in NY at 10pm, I didn't get home until nearly 1:30am because I had to wait at the airport until almost 1am for my pump, which didn't make it on my flight (and which I had to check due to its forbidden contents of milk and ice). Then, this morning, I discovered that a part on my pump had been broken in transit in such a way that the pump doesn't pump. And since I am headed back to DC well before the crack of dawn tomorrow (mere hours from now) for an overnight trip, I am having a replacement part overnighted to the office where my meeting will be tomorrow (thank you UPS - and a special thanks to my corporate expense account, which will be picking up the tab for the rush delivery).

I think that the universe is definitely trying to tell me that it is about time to give up the pumping! I'll be back in DC for another day trip on the 30th and am hoping to travel without my pump that day...

I'll be home from DC late Friday afternoon and am very much looking forward to the weekend.

Why I Love NYC

There are several reasons why I love NYC (and several more why I don't), but today I love NYC because when I left essential parts of my breast pump at home this morning, I purchased new parts and had them delivered (for free) to my office door by 1pm. You just can't get that kind of service most places.

Headed Home

I am headed home bright and early in the morning. This will be my second pre-5am trip to the airport this week. I am missing my boys, but they seem to have done just fine, and I have kept busy with work (and pumping... so far I have about 50 ounces to carefully pack up and take home!). I've been traveling to do market research this week, which has been very interesting - I have been behind the one-way mirror all week. I'm looking forward to being home with my family tomorrow night.

Gone, Baby, Gone

Since I had Carter, my major worries have been as follows:

1. What if something happens to Carter?
2. What if something happens to Thomas?
3. What if something happens to my frozen stockpile of breastmilk?

Sadly, we're about to discover the answer to #3.

I woke this morning to discover that the freezer door had been left open all night, likely spoiling all my milk. Unless you've toted a breast pump back and forth to work (and across the country on business trips) and hooked yourself up to it every 2-3 hours so that your baby will have his mama's milk when you are separated, you can't fully appreciate how distressing it is to have all that milk (and all your hard work) go to waste.

I don't have time to write any more about this. I've got three business trips planned for November - I have to get pumping.

Sick Boy

I got the call from daycare around lunchtime yesterday that Carter had been throwing up continuously for about 15 minutes. So we had our first rush to pick him up at daycare and get him to the pediatrician experience. In all, Carter threw up for about 30 minutes straight, was listless for another 30 minutes, and then was back to his usual charming self. Of course, his return to charming conincided with the doctor coming in to see him. She didn't seem particularly concerned about his vomiting, but understood why we brought him in.

Our best guess is that the milk that I pumped on my business trip Tuesday didn't withstand the 14 hours in the cooler pack (even though it is supposed to last 24!). So, basically, I gave my child food poisoning. Or else he had a very short lived bug, or possibly he swallowed too much of the snot that is continually draining out of him. Regardless of the cause, he isn't allowed to go back to school today, so Thomas and I are each working a half day. Carter is feeling much better this morning (and he slept better last night than he has in weeks!), as evidenced by this picture I snapped of him this morning.

He wore his baseball pjs last night in honor of the playoff game that he was supposed to attend last night, but which he and I skipped because of all the puking earlier in the day.

All Three of Us

Per my dad's request, here's a picture of all three of us. Sort of. Even with my long arms and amazing "thelma & louise" skills, it is hard to take a picture of three people. We had a pretty lazy weekend all in all. We attempted to catch up on sleep by napping whenever Carter did. Thanks to daycare, Carter does actually nap these days, which is nice! I'm off to DC early in the morning for a business trip. It's just a day trip, so I'll be home late tomorrow night. I'm taking the Amtrak Acela Express for the first time - I'm hoping that it will be somewhat easier with the pumping... If I fly I'd have to check my pump because of the liquid ban, which seems silly for a day trip. I have another trip to DC next week, so I'm going to see how the train goes tomorrow before I decide how I'll go next week.

A Report on My Trip to Seattle

It felt good to be flying alone, wearing a suit, running a meeting, drinking a martini, eating fancy food and sleeping in a king size bed (alone). It seemed a little weird just how natural it felt being sans baby. And then I remembered that I had about 28 years of life before he was born, so of course it felt normal. But I still woke up on Carter's schedule - every 2-4 hours at night. It certainly helped knowing that Carter was well taken care of by Thomas and my dad. I got back from Seattle very late Tuesday night and was glad to get back to my house-o-men.

Here are a few things I learned on my trip:

• If you just think about it hard enough, a refrigerator will appear in your hotel room. Like magic.
• Regardless, hotels are happy to cool things for you. In fact, they have claim checks specifically for this purpose - the claim checks even have check boxes to indicate whether your item is in the refrigerator or freezer.
• It doesn't matter if they are women, or if their bathrooms have signs advertising a Mom's Room. It is too weird to ask your client if there is a room where you can lactate.
• It is counter-productive to manually pump your breasts in a tiny airplane lavatory while experiencing mild turbulence.
• If you don't really get to know your breast pump bag, you will mistakenly believe that you've lost your battery power source, resulting in said manual pumping and making a tough situation even more stressful. Not to mention encouraging your husband to make fun of you when you find your "lost" power was with you all along.