Pumping queen

This has become a very breast-centric blog of late, but not exactly the titillating kind. Hee hee.

I am going on my worst work trip since little Lena was born, and I have been furiously preparing for it. I will only be gone two nights and two and a half days, so I figured I could get by leaving T and her nanny 10 bottles of milk. The problem was I had exactly zero in my stash, and Lena is a hungry thing who doesn't generally miss a meal. So I got to work squeezing in pumping sessions here and there till I had a nice little stash of frozen milk.

This week I was still a few short, so I had to up the ante. I set the alarm for 3:00 a.m. the last two nights, sleepily affixed the pumping parts, and filled two more bottles. Despite a little extra exhaustion this week, and the smoke that will probably soon be coming out of my Medela Pump-in-Style, I have reached my goal of ten. I am ridiculously proud of myself.

Granted it wouldn't hurt to give her a few bottles of formula, and I honestly don't fault others who do that. We all have to do what works for us, and working mothers don't need another source of guilt from other women. But for me, I feel satisfied and fulfilled if I am doing all I can to give me children the best chance. Some would say I should feed them all organic food, give up working, and home school them. That just wouldn't work for me. If I tried to fit into that mold, it would make all of us crazy. But for me, this is what works. It is a challenge and a sacrifice, but one if feel good about doing for my daughter. Her two older brothers got a full year of mother's milk, and Lena will too.

--MM