Made it through Friday

Last Friday, I spent all day at a conference. It was here in town, but TC took the day off so he could stay with X-man. I actually did pretty well...in spite of the little tear I had in my eye as I was leaving. Poor X-man had no idea that I wouldn't be back until well into the day.

I left bottles for TC to feed X-man. And they had a grand old time. X-man even made a nice, giant, smelly diaper for daddy. Good job, kid!

I took my pump with me to the conference hoping to pump at least once during the day. I pumped before I left in the morning since it was before X-man usually ate. There were two breaks during the day that corresponded with X-man's eating times, so I just pumped then. That was an experience.

There was an electric outlet in the bathroom...but there was no way my cord was long enough for me to go into a stall. And if I did, there would be a cord draped across the floor and that's just a tripping hazard!

So, I skipped out just a tad early from one of the sessions and made my way to the bathroom. Thankfully, there was a coat rack on the wall so I could hang the pump bag there. I also found out that there wasn't enough tubing to stand up while the pump was on the ground. I got myself all plugged in and hooked up and stood with my back to the door. Not because I didn't want the ladies to really see me, but if I faced any other way, I could have looked right out the door into the foyer...and anyone out there could see right in.

After about 3 minutes, the session got out and ladies started coming into the bathroom. The first few just stood in line behind me...I looked like I was waiting for a stall. After that, I would just tell ladies that I wasn't waiting, they could go on ahead.

Most of them had no idea what I was doing until they came out of their stall and saw me from the front. The bottles slowing filling up with milk was a dead giveaway! One lady around my age came over to me, patted my arm and said, "You are such a dedicated mommmy!" I nearly cried.

Some ladies would walk in, talk to their friends for a few seconds and then look around and say, "What IS that noise?"

"Um...it's my pump!"

I had several nice conversations with ladies of all ages about their experiences with breastfeeding (did for 14 months; could only stand it for 3 months), pumping (with and without an electric pump), and our babies in general. It actually turned out to be a really nice experience.

X-man was appropriately happy to see me when I got home!