Another cool website for working parents

As with Relish!, I originally tried Readeo through the Mamasource deals site, but it's now become a permanent part of my working mom bag of tricks.

Basically, Readeo allows you to read childrens' books on your computer. It provides a library of a bunch of books (I won't hazard an estimate, but suffice to say we've had the subscription for over three months now and are still discovering new books) and you can flip through them, pictures and text and all. Littles owns tons of real books and we check out books from the library, too, but since we discovered Readeo, she almost always bypasses the real books to ask for "books on the computer" for her nightly storytime.

That alone is probably worth the $9.99 monthly subscription fee. But what makes it great for traveling parents is that you have the ability to "BookChat" with someone on another computer. You can flip through the pages of the books together, and even bring in audio and video. (The video appears at the bottom of the screen with the book "pages" on it.)

So last week, while I was on a business trip, I was still able to do storytime with Littles. Littles loved it, I loved it, and it gave my husband a much-deserved break!

It's also great for distant grandparents and other family members. You can invite them to join the site and they can create their own guest accounts for free. Then, when they BookChat with you on your paid account, they will have access to the full Readeo library. (Guests not BookChatting with a paid subscriber have access to the book of the month, as well as a few other free books.)

Downsides? The audio/video quality is not as good as Skype or other dedicated video conferencing tools, but it's definitely serviceable, and the book-reading functionality more than makes up for it. Also, the site makes heavy use of Adobe Flash, so it's not usable from devices that don't support Flash, such as the iPad.

Readeo does offer a 14-day free trial, so sign up for it before your next business trip and give it a shot!

Hanging up the horns, round 2

Back in June, with my average daytime pumping output down to maybe an ounce a day, I decided drop my one pumping session. The pumping session was solely to keep my supply up and put milk in the freezer for donation, since Noob was drinking whole milk exclusively during the day, so it was no problem to drop that session. I dropped off my last milk bank donation shortly afterwards.

At the time, I was also pumping while on business trips. I'm currently on my third business trip in two months. On the first one, in mid-June, I brought my pump, but only pumped 3 ounces over two days. On the second one, two weeks ago, I brought my pump just in case, but ended up pumping only once, for a measly half an ounce. Back home, Noob did fine with no breastmilk.

So, last Tuesday, after dropping Littles off at preschool, I drove to the parking lot of a local 7-Eleven. There, I met up with the mom of a nine-month-old who is unable to nurse, who I had found through Eats on Feets. I handed over the remainder of my freezer stash, mostly milk pumped on business trips and therefore not frozen within the 24-hour window required by the milk bank. I really enjoyed meeting the mom whose baby would benefit from my milk. Donating to the milk bank has been great, but very anonymous.

Anyway. That donation meant I was officially hanging up the horns. I did not bring my pump on my trip this week.

When I reached this point with Littles, I wrote about a recent discussion over whether women should feel proud for breastfeeding their child, since after all, women have been breastfeeding for millenia. I said that I did feel proud, because women have not been pumping for millenia, and pumping was hard work!

I feel differently this time. Sure, I'm pleased that Noob is among only 10% of babies who are still breastfed at 1 year of age. But as I've explained in previous posts, I really didn't have to do a whole lot of pumping for him. He was home with family till just before his first birthday, and I work from home, so I mostly nursed him directly. And yes, women have been doing that for millenia. Not really an accomplishment, like something I should be really proud of doing.

I'm also pleased that I was able to donate over 400 oz of breastmilk (340 oz to the milk bank and a little over 90 oz direct to the mom I met last week). But again, I don't really feel like that's a special accomplishment. Women have been wet-nursing for millenia, too, and aside from my European adventures, it was really pretty easy to fit the extra pumping sessions into my day.

I am proud, and very very lucky, to work in a job and for a company that made breastfeeding so easy. Every woman should have the opportunity to breastfeed as long as she wants, even if she returns to work. It makes me sad that so many women find themselves in work situations that are not conducive or even openly hostile to pumping. It's just not right.

I'm also thankful that I still have the opportunity to nurse Noob. He's an early riser, usually waking up between 6-6:30 AM, and I am… well, not an early riser :) So most mornings, I get him out of his crib, bring him in bed with me, latch him on as we're both lying down, and catch a few extra minutes of sleep while he nurses. I love it, and I'm in no rush to end it.

But I do love the fact that this morning, I was able to go for a 30-minute jog on a beautiful trail next to a river, rather than spending 30 minutes pumping. It's been a great run, but I'm glad to be done.

Adventures in pumping, European edition

Just from a quick peek at my tag cloud, it's obvious that I have quite a bit of experience with pumping while traveling. So when I found out I had to go on a business trip to Munich, Germany, I wasn't particularly worried about pumping during it. How much different could it be?

It turned out to be quite the adventure :)

Before the trip
This trip was for a large meeting with some business affiliates that are based in Europe. To keep costs down, most attendees shared hotel rooms. This poses obvious problems for me with needing to pump, so I contacted the group in charge of organizing the meeting ahead of time to let them know that I'd need a place to pump and also a refrigerator in my room.

(As a quick aside: I have shared a hotel room while pumping, on two trips earlier this year with the lacrosse team that I coach outside of work. I had to coordinate with my roommates so that I could take over the bathroom a few times a day. Certainly not preferable, but it did work out.)

I felt a little awkward, especially since the main organizer was a man. But the other four members of the group were women, so I figured at least one of them had to have breastfed at some point.

There was a moment of confusion when the male organizer thought that I meant I was bringing Noob with me -- as in, bringing him into the actual meetings! He gently suggested that I might want to have someone to watch him during the day! I reassured him that it would just be me and my trusty breast pump, and he made the proper accommodations.

The outbound trip
I flew to Munich via London. My outbound flight left at about 9:45 PM on Sunday, so I was able to nurse Noob normally all day Sunday before getting on the plane.

I opted not to pump at all on the trip to Munich. Noob nurses little enough now that I'm not in discomfort if I go for a while without nursing/pumping, and it was much easier not having to deal with pumping on the plane. I might have tried to pump during my layover in London, but as it turns out, my director (my boss's boss) was on my flight from Dallas. We ended up chatting for most of the layover. It was nice not having to find an excuse to slip away to pump.

In Germany
I arrived in Munich a little before 6 PM local time (11 AM Dallas time) on Monday, about 18 hours since my last nursing session. I eagerly got my pump out... and realized that despite all my careful planning, I had forgotten one very important thing: A converter to allow my pump's AC adapter to run on European voltage. Oops.

Normally, I would have been able to use my pump's battery pack, which I always leave in my pump bag. The suction isn't the best, but it would have allowed me to pump enough to stay comfortable while I searched for a converter. Unfortunately, I had pulled the pump part of my Medala PISA out of the larger bag for this trip, to save on space in my jam-packed suitcase.

I quickly searched Medela's web site (in German, of course!) and figured out that there were a few "apothekes" (drug stores) in the area that were affiliated with Medela in some way.

I set off for the nearest one, which was in a shopping area directly underneath my hotel. It was a tiny shop, so I was surprised to see that they did have a sizeable display of pump parts and other breastfeeding supplies. They did not have any PISA adapters... but they did have an Avent manual pump available. These retail for around $30 in the USA. At this store, it cost €61.99 (just under $90).

Whoa.

But I was already late for a meeting, and I knew that the store would be closed by the time it was over. I didn't have time to shop around for the best price, nor did I want to wait to pump until it reopened the next morning. So I bought it.

I had trouble at first because the Avent only comes with a standard size (24mm) breast shield. I typically use a large (27mm) or extra large (30mm) shield with my PISA, so the smaller shield was very uncomfortable. But I found that I was able to insert the larger Medela shield into the Avent shield. It didn't look pretty, but it worked! This is not the greatest picture, but you get the idea. The clear plastic (and the white handle) is the Avent stuff and the cloudier plastic is the Medela shield:

Once I got that figured out, I actually liked pumping with the Avent. I got a decent amount of milk, and it didn't take much longer than pumping with the PISA. Actually, when Littles was the same age that Noob is now, I had retired my PISA and was pumping with a manual pump (Medela Harmony) on all my business trips. It might be time to retire the PISA again! The PISA bag takes up nearly half of my rollaboard suitcase -- compared to the Avent, which is just what you see above -- so it would be nice to get that space back.

Anyway. The Avent turned out to be so effective that I ran into another problem: I ran out of room for all the milk I pumped! I didn't bring milk storage bags (I had forgotten them, too, in my PISA bag -- yeah, I don't know where my brain was when I was packing!) and so by Thursday morning, I was down to my last storage bottle. I looked at a couple of stores to find some sort of container for my milk, and eventually saw the following box on a shelf at a different drug store:

Based solely on the picture, I quickly discerned that this box contained something breastfeeding-related, and then I read the (tiny) English text to confirm that it did indeed contain breastmilk storage bags. So that picture was a very effective advertisement! But I don't think it would fly in the USA, because it shows -- gasp! -- a naked breast! Funny how different things are in Germany :)

On Friday, with all that milk pumped and safely stored, it was time to head home.

The return trip
I had brought a small cooler bag to carry the milk home, along with a box full of sandwich size Ziploc baggies. I got the hotel bartender to fill up a baggie with some ice, then put it in the cooler bag with the milk before heading to the airport.

It just so happens that the male organizer of the meeting was on my flight from Munich back to London. I had met him during the meeting itself. He turned out to be a jovial older British man, quite open and likeable. As we were waiting to clear security, he said, "I just have to ask, because we were all wondering. I understand that you have a baby and that you had to pump milk. But what was the refrigerator for?"

I was confused by the question... "To keep the milk cold." Duh?

Him: "You're actually bringing it home with you?"

Me: "Yep. It's right here in my backpack."

Him: "It will last that long without refrigeration?"

Me: "Yes, it's in a cooler bag with ice, and anyway, it's good for about 10 hours at room temperature."

Him: "Wow! You learn something new every day!" Turns out that none of the female organizers have kids, so none of them had any clue about breastmilk pumping and storage :) Although one is pregnant now, so I guess she'll learn soon enough!

I was glad that the topic had come up prior to clearing security, because security turned out to be a pain. I got to the metal detectors, pulled out the cooler bag, and discreetly informed the security agent that it contained breastmilk.

Agent: "What?"

Me (a little louder): "Breastmilk."

Agent: "WHAT?"

Me: "BREASTMILK!"

So much for being discreet. At that moment, I was relieved that my director and his boss, who were flying out at the same time, had gone out of a different terminal and weren't with us at that security checkpoint. Nothing like discussing your bodily fluids in front of the people who control your promotions.

After that exchange, the agent directed me to put the cooler bag through the x-ray machine. This is something that I haven't been doing as of late when flying in the States, just to avoid any potential risks of exposing the milk to radiation. I simply tell TSA that it is "liquid medication" and they hand-scan it. But putting it through the x-ray machine is probably fine and I really didn't want to have the "liquid medication" discussion at that moment.

On the other side of the x-ray machine, another agent pulled the cooler bag off and said, "What is this?" in broken English. I replied, "Breastmilk," and she gave me a confused look. So I pulled an actual bag out, since the German-purchased bags helpfully had "breastmilk storage bags" printed on them in four different languages :) She gave me another confused look and said, "Where is your baby?"

Ummmmm, at home?

She called over a supervisor and we had the exact same conversation, including asking where my baby was. Eventually, they did a swab in the cooler bag and on the pump, to test for explosive residue. (TSA often does that in the USA, too.) When it came back clean, they sent me on my way.

Whew.

Just before boarding the flight, I asked at a small eatery for some more ice for the cooler bag. The cashier pointed to the front of the eatery and said "Ice." I was confused, as all I saw was a cooler for ice cream." The cashier was confused, too, and said, "Ice" again. "Ice cream, yes?" Ohhhhhh! I said, "No, I need actual ice" and she figured it out and gave me a cup full of it :)

And finally, my milk and I were safely on our way to London.

I had an overnight layover in London, which was good from a milk storage perspective, as it allowed me to dump out the ice and chill the milk safely into the fridge. The "fridge" in this room was actually the automated minibar, so I had to be very careful not to move stuff around, to avoid getting charged for it!

The next morning, I filled up two more baggies with ice at the hotel ice machine. I placed one at the bottom of the cooler bag, then put all the milk bags in, then put another baggie on top. This was at about 7 AM London time (1 AM Dallas time). Then I headed for the airport for the 10-hour flight back to Dallas.

I was a little nervous about clearing security in London. After all, Heathrow is the airport where the original liquid explosives plot was uncovered. But thankfully, compared to Munich, clearing security in London was a breeze. I did have the milk x-rayed again, but it didn't attract any extra attention.

On the flight, I was stuck in a window seat, so rather than disturbing my seatmate by getting up to ask for ice, I simply asked the flight attendants to give me a cup of ice whenever they came around doing beverage service. They were very accommodating. I kept the box of baggies in my seatback pocket, so I could dump the ice into a baggie and place it into the cooler bag, which I kept under the seat in front of me.

The milk was still nice and cold when I got home at around 2:30 PM Dallas time. The oldest milk was about 5 days old at this point, and had been refrigerated (not frozen) the entire time, but I did a quick sniff test and it smelled just fine. So into the freezer it went!

Overall, my first impressions were right: It really wasn't that much harder to pump while traveling internationally vs. domestically. But next time, I think I'll bring my pump's battery pack, my manual pump, and my milk storage bags :)

Where I pumped today (well, yesterday)

I was in my company's office in Los Angeles this week for a team offsite. On Wednesday, I pumped in the "quiet room," as this office calls it. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture, but it was a pretty standard setup with a couple of chairs and a power outlet.

On Thursday, I went to pump late in the day and discovered that the quiet room was locked. Fortunately, my teammates had all left for the day, and the conference room that we used all week had no interior windows and a locking door. So I just locked the door and used that room to pump.

Probably the best view I've ever had while pumping :)

Where I pumped today

I'm up in Seattle this week, for the same semi-annual technical training conference that I attended back in July, shortly after my return to work. This time, though, Hubby is not attending, so I'm all alone up here -- he's back home with the kids.

Again, the conference kicked off with a Sunday session. Thankfully, this time, they opted to do it at one of my company's offices, rather than at Benaroya Hall. Since all of my company's offices have rooms for pumping, that meant I had a dedicated spot to pump, rather than having to pump in the bathroom.

The setup in this office was similar to the one in most of the other offices I've visited up here, with three cubicles and a curtain for privacy.

Much better than a bathroom! And unlike back in July, when Noob was still exclusively breastfed (no solids) and I had to pump three times during the day to get enough milk for him, I only had to make use of this spot once. I love pumping for a nursing toddler. So easy.

Where I pumped today

My team here in Seattle moved to a new office building, so I've spent the last few days wandering around feeling like the new kid in school. It also gave me the chance to check out a new pump room.

It's interesting seeing the contrasts between different pump rooms, even within my company. Since I work in a male-dominated field, many of the pump rooms seem to be very lightly used. One sign of the light use? The receptionists at those offices have to look up the pump room location when I ask.

But my team's new office houses my company's sales and support arms, which tend to have more women. So when I asked the receptionist where the pump room is, she didn't have to look it up... she pulled out a stack of cards that had the pump room numbers and combination written on it, and told me, "Use the one on the fifth floor. It's nicer than the one on the second floor."

She was right! It's pretty darn nice...

I love the comfy couch (in the bottom right corner of this picture), and the artwork on the wall :) It also has a mini fridge for storing milk.

Oh, and if you're curious about what three days' worth of breastmilk looks like...

That's probably around 60 oz worth, all in freezer bags. The cooler bag is the little one that came with my Medela Pump in Style Advanced. For my flight home tonight, I'll put some of this milk in another cooler bag, so that I can fit ice packs in there to keep the milk cold.

Pumping changes

Business trips give me a good opportunity to see where my milk supply is at. I've had trips in July (Noob was 5 months old), October (8 months old), and November (9 months old). On these trips, I've generally pumped first thing in the morning, twice during the work day (around 11 AM and 3 PM), and once at night back in the hotel. I usually got about 12 oz at the morning session and 6 oz at each of the other sessions, for a total of around 30 oz. Meanwhile, back home, Noob was eating 4-5 six ounce bottles each day, so I was able to keep up with him fairly easily.

Over the last two months, Noob has dropped down to just 3 nursing sessions each day, as his solids intake has increased. So on my current business trip, I'm pumping 3 times a day as well: first thing in the morning, once during the work day, and once at night. Today, I got 8.5 oz in the morning, a a little over 3 oz during the work day (this was a short session), and 9 oz at night, for a total of just under 21 oz -- a definite decrease compared to my last business trip. Back home, Noob ate 17 ounces, so I'm still keeping up with him.

*Truly* full-time pumping

For the most part, during my nursing "career," I've managed to avoid truly full-time pumping -- that is, pumping all day, without nursing at all. Prior to Littles' first birthday (when she cut back to two nursing sessions a day), I only had one day when I did not nurse her at all, during a one-day business trip when she was 9 months old. As recently as early October, it looked like I'd have a similar record with Noob.

But I've ended up traveling a lot over these last few weeks, so I've gotten reacquainted with my pump, big-time!

This week, I'm in Atlanta for some training. My parents live here, so Hubby (who is on paternity leave right now) and the kids flew out with me, and we're staying a few extra days after the training is over to visit with my parents.

We decided that during the 3 days of training, it would make sense for me to stay in the hotel where the training is occurring. This is for a variety of reasons, but certainly one big reason is that it makes pumping a lot easier, because I can run up to my room during the day to get it done.

So I've been pumping full time. Here is what my pumping schedule has looked like for the past few days:

Tuesday
8:00 AM - 30 mins, 12 oz
12:15 PM (lunch break) - 20 mins, 6.5 oz
2:45 PM (break from training) - 10 mins, 3 oz
7:00 PM - 7.5 oz

Total = 29 oz
Noob's consumption = 27 oz

Wednesday
7:30 AM - 20 mins, 10.5 oz
9:55 AM (break from training) - 10 mins, 3 oz

I should have pumped at lunch, but I chose to spend the time doing some networking instead. That is one thing I really hate about pumping during events like this: Since I work primarily from home, I usually seize every opportunity I can get to network with people face-to-face, but having to pump means that I spend practically every free minute during the day "networking" with my pump, not my colleagues. But today, I had a friend who I really wanted to catch up with. Pumping could wait.

2:45 PM (break from training) - 10 mins, 3 oz
4:30 PM (after training) - 20 mins, 7 oz
5:00 PM - Nursing! Hubby brought the kids to my hotel to say hello. The visit was brief, as I had to jump on a conference call, but it was wonderful to see them.
11:30 PM - 20 mins, 3.5 oz

Total = 27 oz
Noob's consumption (not counting the nursing session) = 25 oz

As for milk storage, at home, I store milk in the plastic bottles that came with my pump (in the fridge) or glass bottles (in the freezer). This is an eco-friendly and cheap option at home, but it doesn't work well for extended trips. I can't store milk in the plastic bottles, because I need them emptied so I can pump into them again. And glass bottles take up too much room when you're talking about storing nearly 30 oz of milk per day.

Instead, I've been using Lansinoh milk storage bags. I pour the milk into the bags immediately after pumping. That frees up my plastic bottles for more pumping. And they are much more compact than bottles, which comes in handy when traveling home with my milk. On one trip a few weeks ago, I managed to fit 2+ days of milk (over 60 oz) into the small cooler bag that came with my pump.

Anyway, I'm excited for my training to end tomorrow, so I can spend less time with my pump and more time with my kids!

Where I Pumped Today returns with a vengeance!

Longtime readers may recall that when I was pumping for Littles, I did a series called "where I pumped today," documenting all the weird and wonderful places that I ended up pumping.

Pumping for Noob is much easier, because most days, I don't have to pump at all! Since we have family watching him at home right now, and I mostly work from home, I'm able to nurse him directly most of the time. It's so much easier than pumping!

Of course, on my business trip to Seattle two weeks ago, I wasn't able to do this, so I did end up pumping most days. To make things even more fun, my meetings during my trip were spread across various locations around the city. I logged a lot of miles with my pump, and pumped in a lot of different places!

On Sunday, I had a meeting in Benaroya Hall, which is normally the home of the Seattle Symphony. Despite the large number of attendees, I was not surprised when I inquired about a pumping room and was told that, well, there were always the less-frequently-used bathrooms on the second floor...

I pumped in bathrooms pretty often with Littles, but never took pictures of them because, well, no one likes to see pictures of bathrooms. But no more sugar-coating. This is the life of a working/pumping mom.

For my first session, I set up in a stall. This is my pretty typical bathroom pumping setup -- I hang the pump from a purse hook, and try not to let my pump parts touch anything. It's really uncomfortable because there is nowhere to sit, so I have to pump while standing. Also, stalls usually don't have power outlets, so I have to use the battery pack for my pump. The suction isn't as strong, so it takes longer to finish pumping.

For my second and third sessions, I got bold and decided to pump out in the main part of the bathroom. This way, I could use a power outlet. Thankfully, no one walked in while I was pumping. There was no way to avoid putting my pump bag on the floor, so I just dealt with it. Ick.

As is always the case with a long day of meetings, just finding the time to pump is a challenge, but I did pretty well this day.

Alright, if you're still with me... no more bathroom pictures. Promise.

On Monday and Tuesday, I worked out of the office building that houses the offices of my Seattle-based co-workers. It has its own pump room, which is typical of the pump rooms in my company's Seattle offices. There are two cubicles with curtains. Each cubicle has a chair and a desk. There is also a small refrigerator for pumped milk and pump parts, and shelves for storing pumps. This room does not appear to be used very much; I never saw another woman's pump or milk.

 

On Wednesday morning, I had a meeting at one of our offices downtown. The pump room in this office was very similar, although it also had a small sink for washing pump parts. I also saw another pump in there -- always nice to know there are other pumping moms out there! Unfortunately, I didn't have time to snap a picture of this one.

On Wednesday afternoon, I had to go to the convention center for another meeting. As I explained in my post about this trip, my company was running a big convention this week (which was part of the reason why I was there in the first place). So I asked about a pump room at the convention information desk, and was happy to find out that one was available! It was a small room, perhaps serving as a storage closet under normal circumstances? But it was furnished with comfortable couches and a table for my pump. Very nice, and much appreciated!

Thursday was my worst day for pumping. I had a meeting starting at 9:30 AM in yet another office building, so I went over a little early and did a quick pump session. This building had pump rooms on three out of four floors, so the rooms just had a single cubicle, rather than the double-cubicle style of most of the other pump rooms in our offices. There was also a sink and a small refrigerator.

 

My meeting ran until about noon, and then I had to grab lunch with my co-workers and head over to a team outing. So I didn't get the chance to pump any more that day :( By the time the outing was over and I got back to the main office, it was nearly 5:30 PM and I was dying to pump! I pumped about 12 ounces in one sitting!

On Friday, thankfully, I was out of meetings and back in the main office, and able to pump regularly again. My supply took a definite hit from the limited pumping over the course of the week, but starting Saturday, I was able to nurse full-time again and now my supply seems to be right back where it needs to be.

I'll be in our Dallas office a lot over the next two weeks, so stay tuned for a few more installments in the "where I pumped today" series!

Seattle

Twice a year, my company holds a big technical training conference for employees in Seattle. It attracts folks from all over the world! My fellow program managers and I don't really need to attend the conference ourselves, but one of the teams that we work closely with sends a number of people. So we run some sessions for them at the conference. Since the sessions bring remote employees like myself into town, our management usually uses that week to hold our quarterly team meetings and other events, so that we don't have to make multiple trips. Works for me!

This summer's conference was scheduled for the last week in July, so I anticipated that it would be my first business trip after my return to work on June 21. In early June, we found out that Hubby would be attending the conference himself. I quickly confirmed with my manager that I would need to be in Seattle as well that week, and that it would be OK for me to bring my family. We started making plans:

• Flights: Noob is home with family for most of the summer -- mostly my mother-in-law. (She's a teacher, so she's off work for the summer.)But the Seattle week happened to be the first of two weeks where my mother planned to come watch Noob. She was flying in from Georgia, and booked her ticket to go to Seattle before coming to Dallas. We also bought a ticket for Littles.
• Hotel: I booked a two-bedroom suite at a Residence Inn very close to my company's office. We've stayed at this same hotel in the past while traveling with Littles, and it always works out well. There is plenty of room to spread out, and having a full kitchen makes meal preparation/eating with kids much easier.
• Child care: Although my mom would be in Seattle with us, she did have some work she needed to do. With Littles out of preschool for the week, we knew that she would need some help with the kids. We used our company's backup care program to locate a nanny, "J," who would come to the hotel in the mornings, allowing my mom to get some work done. My dad also planned to fly out later in the week to help -- he wanted to see the kids anyway, and Seattle has much nicer July weather than Georgia does!

With all our plans in place, we took off for Seattle on Friday night, on Noob's first flight ever!

I brought along about 25 oz of breastmilk. About 15 oz was frozen milk from May, and 10 oz was refrigerated milk that I had pumped over the previous day or two. The frozen milk started to defrost on the way to Seattle, and therefore had to be used within 24 hours. So Noob got bottles all day Saturday, rather than breastfeeding, and I pumped. So at the end of the day, I had 25 oz of refrigerated milk that just had to be used within the next few days. That was more than enough milk for an average day away from Noob, along with some extra in case I fell short pumping.

The extra milk did come in handy, as I had a difficult time with pumping all week. I was in a lot of meetings, and often had to delay or skip pumping sessions. In fact, by Wednesday, I actually had to make a special trip back to the hotel in the middle of the day to drop off the milk I had pumped that morning, in order to ensure that Noob had enough milk to get him through the rest of the day. If I do a trip like this again, I'll definitely pump more in the days before our departure, so that I can bring more refrigerated milk with me as a safety cushion.

The child care arrangements worked out reasonably well. Noob did fine. At his age, as long as he's kept fed and rested, he'll be OK, and J and my mom did a good job of that. Nights were a little tiring for me, as the best way to keep him quiet with so many other people sharing the hotel room with him was to pull him into bed with me and nurse him all night. But that worked out fine, as I still got a good bit of rest, and having him nurse so much was good for my milk supply anyway.

Littles was more of a challenge. J had a different approach to dealing with Littles than Hubby and I do. Not in a bad way, really. To give an example, if I take Littles to the park, she never wants to leave. So a few minutes before it's time to go, I'll tell her, "OK, Littles, 3 more minutes, and then it's time to go home." She'll often respond, "5 more minutes," and I'll say OK. Of course, she has no concept of time, so a minute later, I'll tell her, "OK, 1 more minute," and she'll respond, "2 more minutes." And so on. But this gives her enough of a heads-up that she almost always leaves on her own accord within a reasonable amount of time, even if it's a little longer than 3 minutes. J, on the other hand, went to the park with her and told her "5 more minutes" and then counted down exactly 5 minutes. Again, this wasn't a bad approach, just confusing to Littles because it wasn't what she was used to.

On top of it all, obviously Littles was dealing with being in a different time zone. She was also missing both Hubby and me tremendously. I was working very long hours, and Hubby was actually staying in a different hotel -- he was downtown, close to the convention center, while the kids and I were out in a Seattle suburb close to my office. All in all, it was a bit of a rough week for her, and she definitely was not on her best behavior.

I felt a little bad for my mom. She doesn't get to see the kids all that often, so I know she was really looking forward to spending this time with them, but she ended up getting a bit of a raw deal under the circumstances. For example, when she came in to say "Good morning," Littles would cry "Mama!" and cling to me. It wasn't that she doesn't love her Nana, because she does, but just that she associated my mom with my leaving, and she didn't want me to go. Thankfully, my mom hung in there, and was a huge help on a couple of nights when I had dinner meetings. And then she flew home to Dallas with us and stayed with us the next week, where Littles got back on her normal routine and did much better overall.

All in all, it was a hard week in many ways, but I'm glad we brought the kids along. Really, the only other option would have been to leave my mom at home alone in Dallas with both kids. That might have given Littles a little more consistency, but she still would have been acting out some due to missing Hubby and me -- she does that even when just one of us is away. Pumping would have been a huge struggle for me. And it would have been a lot to ask of my mom, to care for both kids alone for a whole week. At least in Seattle, even working long hours, I could help her in the mornings, as well as most nights. So really, everything worked out as well as it could, under the circumstances!

Missing out

One of the frequently-fired missiles in the mommy wars goes something like this: "As a stay-at-home mom, I'm able to attend all of the class parties at my kid's school. I see all the kids who don't have a parent there because both parents work. I see how sad those kids are."

I always roll my eyes at that. "Well, I have a flexible work schedule. I'll be at every party. No problem. It's called work-life balance, duh."

At the orientation meeting for Littles' preschool, we got the calendar of all the important dates for the year, and I dutifully sat down and put every single party for the entire school year into my calendar. I wasn't going to miss a single one!

Fast forward about two months. I received a calendar placeholder for my training in Seattle this week, went to accept it -- and realized that the last day of training conflicted with Littles' very first class party.

An enormous wave of mommy guilt washed over me. I immediately pulled up an instant messenger window to tell Hubby to please, please, please make time to go to Littles' school on November 19th for a special Thanksgiving lunch.

He agreed. Mommy guilt assuaged.

That is, until my normal pre-bedtime phone call with Hubby and Littles tonight. Turns out it wasn't just lunch; the kids put on a little play for the parents. Littles' class sang songs, and apparently Littles (who loves to sing at home) just stood there and didn't sing anything!

I giggled at that with Hubby, and then it hit me: I missed my daughter's first school play :(

I pressed Hubby for more details, but I could hear Littles wailing for bedtime in the background. He said, "I'll tell you all about it when you get home."

I can't wait.

I almost didn't make it home

My recent travels have been so problem-free that I was due for a bad trip.

I left my conference early yesterday to stand by for an earlier flight, in hopes of making it home in time to put Littles to bed. I arrived at the airport at 11 AM and found out that the 8:35 AM flight was delayed till 2 PM. I knew that would make standby difficult, since presumably everyone on that flight was trying to get on to another flight.

Sure enough, the 12:55 PM and 1:55 PM flights went off completely full, with no standbys clearing.

Fine. I had a confirmed seat on the 3:40 PM flight, which would still get me home around 9ish, plenty of time to relax with Hubby before bedtime and then see Littles off to school the next morning.

At around 3:30 PM, the gate agent announced that there was a mechanical problem and they were investigating. Maybe 15 minutes later, she informed us that the plane was going out of service and the flight was cancelled.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

The 8:35 AM flight had also just been cancelled, so rather than go to the ticket counter and deal with the madness of two full flights attempting to get rebooked, I just called customer service. Initially, the representative tried to grab a seat on a nonstop US Airways flight later that evening, but she came back and told me, "I'm sorry, that US Airways flight is now sold out. The best I can do is a confirmed seat on our 6 AM flight tomorrow morning, arriving at 10:43 AM."

Pre-Littles, I would've happily grabbed a cab back to the strip and enjoyed an extra evening in Vegas on someone else's dime.

Instead, having gone from "I might see Littles tonight" to "I won't see Littles tomorrow morning" in the space of a few hours (and having way too many pregnancy hormones coursing through my body), I just broke down in tears in the middle of the airport.

I decided to go to the ticket counter to see what they could do. My hope was that I could get on a flight to the west coast (Los Angeles, San Francisco, or Seattle), because then I knew there were red-eyes that could get me home by 6 AM or thereabouts -- it would be a long night, but I'd be able to see Littles in the morning.

The line at the ticket counter was long and was not moving, so I called customer service back to see if anything had changed. The representative went to look at the same nonstop US Airways flight that the first one had inquired into, and I patiently waited on hold, knowing that the answer would be "Oops, nope, it's sold out."

I was shocked when she came back to tell me that she had found a seat for me! I didn't believe it until I physically walked over to the US Airways ticket counter and got my boarding pass.

I got home shortly after midnight last night. Bless that agent. Bless her, bless her, bless her.

When I walked in the door, Hubby told me that I might want to check on Littles, as she was grunting a few minutes earlier and might have pooped in her sleep. Sure enough, she had. I've never been so happy to change a poopy diaper :) Hey, it bought me a few sleepy minutes with my little girl.

We were late to school this morning because I was having so much fun playing and just being with her. It is good to be home.

Why I'm glad I'm traveling today, Monday edition

Today marks the beginning of a one-month stretch where I have three business trips. Three! Ugh.

Even the fact that this week's trip is to Las Vegas doesn't help. I'm not a real fan of Vegas anyway -- a city built around drinking and gambling is not much fun for a pregnant woman who doesn't gamble. And I was just here with Hubby for a vacation (our first one ever without Littles) about two months ago, so everything I see here reminds me of him and makes me miss him even more than usual.

But it is what it is, so I might as well look on the positive side by starting a new series called "why I'm glad I'm traveling today."

So why am I glad I'm traveling today? I just enjoyed a lovely room service dinner, where I ordered exactly what I wanted (no debating over what would work best for sharing with a picky two-year-old) and did not hear a single "I don't want it!" "Want more milk!" "Want a spoon!" "No, want a little spoon!" "I'm all done! All done! ALL DONNNNNNNNNNNE!"

Meanwhile, I was on instant messenger with Hubby, who was having his own "room service" experience. That's what we jokingly call it when Littles tries to stall on going to bed by making fifty zillion requests over the video monitor. "I want water!" "I want my Cinderella!" "Yucky water!" "I want monkey!" "I need to go potty!"

I will say, my version of room service was a little more relaxing :) So that is why I am glad I am traveling today.

Bad ideas

Bad idea: Having Hubby and Littles drop me off at the airport for my flight to Seattle tonight. As we drove up, Littles asked hopefully, "Go airplane?" and it broke my heart to tell her, "No, Mommy can't take you this time." :(

Really bad idea: Picking up a copy of Jodi Picoult's My Sister's Keeper at the airport. One of the central characters is diagnosed with leukemia at age 2 -- exactly the age that Littles is right now. As I read the passages describing her mother's emotions upon hearing the diagnosis, I imagined going through that with Littles. I seriously had to stop reading, because I was crying so hard that I was afraid my seatmate would wonder what the heck was going on.

Now all I want to do is go hug my beautiful, healthy little girl... but instead, I'm stuck in this stupid hotel room alone :(

I missed my daughter's birthday

Littles' birthday was last week and I was out of town on a business trip. She's only two and so I know she didn't know the difference, but I felt guilty not being there.

To make matters even worse, the meeting that I had to attend was really stupid and a waste of time. Yet it was timed perfectly to make it completely impossible for me to catch a flight that would put me home before bedtime.

Sometimes, being a working mom really sucks.

Officially DONE with pumping!

I've been in Seattle this week. Since Littles got through my last Seattle trip with no expressed breastmilk, I didn't even bother bringing my pump along this time. I'm officially done with pumping! Yay!

We're also getting close to full weaning. Our PM nursing session has been slowly dropping off over the past few months. I'm coaching a high school girls lacrosse team, so I have a practice or a game about 2-3 weeknights each week, and I'm usually so rushed with picking Littles up and getting over to lacrosse that there's no time to nurse. Now that we're out of that evening nursing routine, both of us tend to forget even when we are at home. I think Littles has only nursed in the evening a handful of times in the last month.

I was more worried about the AM session, as that one has always been much more consistent (after all, where else do we need to be at 7 AM?) and Littles seemed much more attached to it. But, well, after 22 months, I'm ready to be done. So last week, I just stopped offering to nurse or even mentioning nursing in the mornings. I just get Littles up, change her diaper, and then ask if she wants to get some breakfast. Some mornings, she heads straight downstairs to the kitchen; other mornings, she tells me, in her inimitable toddler way, "No! Num-nums!" And then we nurse.

I'm interested to see how she acts when I get home from Seattle. Maybe she'll miss nursing and want to do it more. Maybe she'll realize that she really doesn't need to nurse anymore.

Either way is fine. I'm ready to be done, but I'm also OK with giving her a little time to catch up to me if she needs it.

A big weaning milestone

I've had two days over the past few weeks where I left home before Littles woke up and returned after she was asleep, so we didn't get the chance to nurse all day. The first time, we were away from home, so bringing along expressed breastmilk would have been a huge hassle. Littles didn't seem to miss it. The next time, we were at home and could have easily given some frozen milk, but decided not to. Again, she didn't seem to miss it.

Last week, while I was in Seattle, Hubby and I decided to see if Littles could go the entire time (about 3.5 days, or 7 nursing sessions) without breastmilk. Not surprisingly, she did just fine.

It certainly simplified my life. I still pumped to keep my supply up, but didn't have to stress at all about how much I was getting, didn't have to carry the milk home, etc. Besides, I was pumping well under 1 oz at each session, so it really was hardly worth saving!

She's heading towards full weaning, slowly but surely. I'm ready when she is.

Almost made it

No tears today when I said goodbye to Littles. Hubby was taking her over to her sitter's as I got ready to leave for the airport, and it felt like I was just saying goodbye for the day, even though in my head, I know it's for three-plus days.

I flew through check-in and security, feeling like my old road-warrior self, with my brand-new carry-on luggage and no toddler on my back or car seat to struggle with.

I went to Starbucks for a venti latte that I could actually carry without said toddler and said car seat. I went to pull out my corporate Amex card to pay… and pulled out my zoo membership card instead.

That was something that certainly never happened to my old road-warrior self, who spent her weekends on the couch at home recovering from too much time spent in airplanes and hotels and airports, not walking around the zoo smiling at the look of absolute wonder on her baby girl's face.

And that's when I felt the tears coming to my eyes.

Ah well. I almost made it.

Tough times

So, the company where both Hubby and I work was one of the many that announced layoffs in the last week or so. Luckily, both of our jobs appear to be safe for now, but it still makes me a little nervous, especially since our company has already stated that it will be doing more layoffs over the coming months.

It does make me feel good about being a working mom, knowing that if, heaven forbid, Hubby got laid off, we wouldn't lose our family's only source of income. (Hubby and I work in different areas of the company, so hopefully we would not both get laid off at the same time!) I saw a post today on one of my mommy boards from a stay-at-home mom whose husband got laid off. She is pregnant again, and now has no health insurance. I cannot even imagine.

One upside of the bad economy is that our company is seriously slashing travel budgets. That means fewer trips to Seattle, and more time at home with Hubby and Littles! :) I had been going about once a month, but my trip next week will be my first since early November. It would be great to go another 2 to 3 months till my next trip!

Getting smart about business travel

Time for another trip to Seattle. I really can't complain because aside from the extra two days I spent in Wyoming about six weeks ago, I haven't had any business trips away from Littles since mid-August -- not a bad run.

I got smart on this trip. I have been flying out for my Seattle trips late Sunday night or first thing Monday morning, and flying home Friday afternoon or on the Friday night red-eye, so that I can get a full five days in the office (or very close to it). But I started noticing that my boss and his other remote employees (there are three of us now) usually flew in midday Monday and left Thursday afternoon or early Friday morning.

So this trip, rather than flying out on Sunday night or on the 7:30 AM flight on Monday, I picked a 10:10 AM flight today. Three hours might not sound like that much longer to spend at home, but to catch a 7:30 AM flight, I have to leave home before Littles wakes up, while a 10:10 AM flight gives me enough time to help Hubby get her up and get her ready. I was even able to drop her off at Kristi's today. This did cause me to miss baggage check-in by four minutes, so my checked bag had to go on a later flight -- a minor inconvenience in return for a few more minutes with my little girl! And thanks to "gaining" time traveling east to west, I still managed to get some good time in the office in the afternoon.

I'm flying home on the red-eye on Thursday night. I've been trying to avoid red-eyes because I am so dead the next day. These pictures were taken the day I arrived home after my last red-eye flight back in August :)

But I figure with a Thursday night red-eye, I can be in the office all day Thursday, still get home in time to help Hubby out on Friday morning, drop Littles off at Kristi's as usual, and then take a nap. From a work perspective, it's no different from if I flew home early Friday morning (either way, I would be inaccessible on Friday morning), but again, it makes a huge difference for Littles and Hubby.

I also spent last night cooking freezable food, emptying the recycle bins and the trash can, and washing and folding laundry. I remember when Hubby used to travel on business. Little things like cooking or finding a clean outfit become ten times harder when you have a baby pulling at your leg. I'm happy to know that Hubby has at least one night's dinner ready to go, that all the clothes are clean and put away, that he won't have to do an emergency emptying of the recycle bins or the trash can just to be able to throw something away, etc.

We'll see how it goes!