Travel 2 weeks in a row??? Never again…

Last week was horrible… Left Monday at 8am and didn’t get home until Thursday night at 10pm. Between that time I was on 8 flights, went from Washington state to Washington DC (neither of which were intended locations). Had 3 hours of sleep the first night, 5, the second, and a little better with 6 the third. Many hours were spend in airports just waiting to see when the next flight was actually going to leave, if at all (weather delays, and President Obama in Chicago causing a 3 hour shutdown of the airspace). I stayed in three different hotel rooms, one without a refrigerator, and none with the little freezer part. As a result I wasn’t able to save any of my milk. It was a week of pump and dump in bathroom stalls. It would have been impossibly hard to save it, keep it cold, keep my pump clean, and keep track of my checked bag. Maybe I should have put more effort into it-I could have put ice in baggies and put that in my mini-cooler, but the trip was so mentally and physically exhausting that I wasn’t thinking straight either. I had to make the choice for those precious few hours in the hotel room. Pump, or sleep.

I was home for two days and now I’m on the road again. Thankfully this time, we drove and I will be in one hotel room for the entire trip (4 days 3 nights), with a refrigerator WITH a freezer portion. I’m hoping I didn’t kill my supply last week. When I was home for the 2 days, I felt like Winston wanted more than I could provide. Plus- I was actually TRYING to feed him some formula, so I could pump instead and leave him with at least some milk when I was gone. Last week was good because he didn’t have but a bottle or two of formula, but he whipped out the freezer stash. Had I know that I wouldn’t have been able to save any milk from last week, I would have saved half the freezer stash for him for this week. The poor thing is going to have 90% formula for about 4 days. I hope he’s not too gassy!

My husband also tried to feed him sweet potatoes last week and he wasn’t a fan. This baby doesn’t seem to like food.

Note to self – don’t skip pumping…

Yesterday a lot of “corporate” people were on location and we had conferences all day. Sure, I could have slipped out to go pump in my office, but I chose not to. I went home at lunch as usual, and tried to nurse, but Winston fell a sleep. So then, still feeling quite full I tried to pump, but realizing I had to get back to work soon, I didn’t pump but about 2oz each side. Now- considering my morning pumping usually ranges from 8-12 oz, this wasn’t very much. Then, again I skipped my afternoon pumping. By the time I got home I was feeling fairly uncomfortable. I nursed and pumped a bit, but the usual demands of my life left very little time for pumping. Winston ate pretty good that evening and before bed, so I figured everything was ok. Around 1am – Winston started fussing, which is typical. I got up to feed him and realized I was laying on a giant wet spot. It felt like the newborn/engorgement stage again- but just on my right side.
I fed him – he sputtered as I blasted him with milk, but eventually he got a full belly and went back to sleep. Usually I just keep him in bed with us, but I put him back in his bed and went to get some new, dry pajamas on.
Today- more conferences, but I pumped before work and again at lunch time. We should be dry tonight!

My excuse

For not blogging much- well, I’m a working mom. Nuf said..

At the moment I’m still pumping and nursing, although I’m usually lazy in the afternoons and don’t pump unless I feel like I’m going to explode, and we have started supplementing with a bit of formula. We had to when I was on my trip and my little guy out ate my stash, then again later that week when my husband took the boys to my parents house to baby sit while he took my daughter to the doctor. The milk was all packed and ready to go, but remained on the counter as my husband pulled out of the driveway. We live 50 miles away from my parents, so the only thing he could do was run to the store across the street from their house and buy formula and a bottle.

Since then, we’ve basically been supplementing when I’m lazy and don’t feel like pumping before I leave him somewhere. That isn’t often, but still…

So over the course of my trip, I pumped about 64 oz. Winston ate, over 100 that I had left at home, and then some formula. Now we have that 60 in the freezer for next time I have to travel which is next week. Going to leave on a Tuesday, early morning then fly back late Thursday night. The following week I will be leaving Sunday, and coming back Thursday.

We are going to start solids soon. I bought some baby rice cereal at the store this weekend and a jar of peas and a jar of sweet potatoes. Frankly, I’ve been too lazy to start solids. He’s not sitting up yet, but I imagine being the big ball of dough he is, it’s hard to support his own weight. I tried to weigh him at home the other day and I think he’s 21.5 pounds!!! Crazy considering his 2 year old brother is only 26 pounds.

So that’s all I have for now… It’s quitting time soon here at work so I can go home and see my babies!