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Wednesday, February 09, 2011

Working Mom Wednesday

Linking to awesome working mom blogger Julia @ Work, Wife, Mom, Life, this weeks prompt is my own choice:

Adventures in breast pumping!

Yesterday I had a long trip to Orlando that involved 4 executives plus myself and scheduled stops for breast pumping! I warned all that I needed to stop every 4-5 hours to pump and we actually scheduled meetings around my schedule!! Imagine telling all the men of your company that you need a 15 minute break to breast pump! I did.

Prior to the trip I made a stop at Publix for 1.5lbs of dry ice and put it in the deep freezer over night to stay cold. The next morning I put it in a cooler to hold my collection of milk throughout the day.

The day started at 4:30am. I showered, ate, pumped and left by 5:55am. By 9am we had arrived in Orlando and stopped at a Starbucks where I pumped in their bathroom. It was actually very convenient because the changing table was located next to an electric outlet so I was able to set up on the table with my equipment.

Meetings were had from 9:30 - noon. We ate lunch at Wolfgang Puck's at Downtown Disney and afterwards while my team walked the stores of downtown Disney looking at our products I slipped into the handicapped bathroom to pump again. I found they also had an electric outlet. I did come prepared with batteries but it was nice to find electric as a backup.

Our second meeting started at 3 and was followed by a walk through Universal Studio's new Harry Potter theme park. That's right! Our buyer let us take an hour stroll through the new Harry Potter park. I may not be a huge fan but the detail is incredible and the products are outstanding. I bought my husband a Pumpkin drink for his Halloween collection and we got to ride the interactive broom ride. Really cool.

After the park we had dinner at J. Alexanders and while waiting for our food I slipped off for my final pumping of the day at 7pm. This was a little longer than my usual 4-5 hours but I allow for occasional extensions when necessary. I just don't let it happen every day. Once I was finished food had already been served!

In summary I pumped 3 times and no one was inconvenienced! It was a fun day and other than missing the kids completely and getting home at 11pm it was a very fun day.

7 comments:

crazywildberry said...

Sounds like your day worked out like magic! I am amazed that your fellow executives were so flexible and accommodating. That's excellent! Good for you!

Anonymous said...

This is an awesome account of pumping at its best! Congrats!

Mamma Kerr said...

Yay!! What a wonderful positive WMW post! Flexibility to allow breast pumping is a key factor for working mums! I really feel for mothers who find difficulty in expressing at work.

It was never an issue for me, as my twins were a year old by the time I returned to work, and I had stopped breast-feeding by then.

Annette
www.mammakerr.com

Julia Ladewski said...

wow girl!! awesome that your execs were cool about you pumping. i've had those days and it's so hard!! but way to go!!

Anonymous said...

Way to go, Mama!

By the way...I'm SO jealous of your job. You realize it sounds like the most fun job, ever, right?

Anonymous said...

Wow...not all women would have such a good attitude about stopping everything to pump. Or actually be able to keep a schedule. Good for you!

Nikki

Caterina said...

This was inspiring! Way to go! And DITTO what expat said, coolest job ever.