Mommy’s Adventures in Pumping

When my first son was born I needed to pump for him every 3 hours in order to keep my milk supply up while he was in the NICU. At that time, I had a plug in pump, which limited me to having to pump close to a power source.

Just before #2 arrived, I got the Freestyle, Medela’s handsfree re-chargeable double electric pump so that I could pump efficiently anywhere.

And anywhere I do…

Yesterday, I headed to NYC to attend a trade show and brought my pump with me so that I wouldn’t get engorged during my day away from the baby.

Finding a place to pump while not at home is a tricky thing to do especially when your pump sounds like – well – a vibrator.

After spending a few hours en route, I realized I needed to pump before the I got into the city or else it would throw my whole day and equilibrium off.

The cab it is! I pulled out the bag I packed with all of my stuff, dawned my nursing shawl and started to pump. While this was fine when we were cruising along on the highway, I got funny from the driver looks when the car slowed for traffic jams. I’m sure he was thinking, “What the heck is she doing back there?”

I said nothing.

After my day of running around NYC, I jumped back into a cab to head back to airport, and figured this would be a great time to pump again. This time I know the driver was wondering what was going on. Even though I sat behind him, I could see him looking around in his rear view mirror trying to figure out where the ‘pulsing’ sound was coming from.

Again, I said nothing. What was there to say? “Sorry, my boobs are so full, I think they’re going to explode?”

Once I had checked through security, I was informed my flight was canceled and I wouldn’t be able to fly out for 6 hours. (ughh!)

The airport was so busy, there were lines to use some of the bathrooms. Certainly not the setting for me to tie up a stall for 15 minutes while I pumped off 10+ ounces.

So, I waited for a couple hours for things to die down and then I headed to a stall at the back of the bathroom, hoping the noise from the bathroom would drown out the sound that had been heard around the city.

Thankfully, the constant flow of travelers didn’t stay in the bathroom long enough to wonder why the last stall had been occupied for so long.

I’m not sure that I would have been brazen enough to pull this off as a new mom, but I have found that I care less about what people think the second time around.

I guess the bottom line is that mommy has to do what she needs to. I’m just glad that this pump was able to keep up with my busy day.

Through my whole day’s travels, my pump only drained 1 out of its four power indicator bars. Pretty impressive!

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