Still a working mom, not really a pumping mom.

It’s been a long time since I’ve blogged here, but it’s probably because the topic at hand is not really an active part of my life anymore. I’ll leave this blog up because I think there is some good info for new moms, but I may not actively contribute. (until next time???)

As it stands now, Winston is almost 9 months old and weighs over 28 pounds!!! Yes- he’s huge. My 2 year old son is only 31 pounds, and my 4 year old daughter is around 38 pounds.

I quit pumping at work when he was 6 months old, just like I did with my first son. I still go home at lunch and for a while I would pump at lunch, but that only lasted a few weeks. There just wasn’t enough time to eat for myself if I did that. I nurse him if he seems interested, but that is probably only once a week or so. I DO get to work from home most Wednesdays though now. I try and nurse him when he’s hungry or tired. He doesn’t get that much, but I think it helps keep up my supply. Otherwise we use formula (Walmart brand) as well as regular food during the day.

The other change in my work is that I haven’t traveled since I had to go 2 weeks in a row!!! YAY! That is mostly due to budget cuts and a new project I’m on. I like that part. I think if I did still have a heavy travel schedule I would make it more of a priority to pump, so there could be at least a small freezer stash when I was gone.

Breastfeeding at this age in general is just hard. He is so distractible. And his older siblings aren’t really a help in that department with all of their loud play. Most of the time to nurse him I have to go in our bedroom, turn off the lights, shut the door and lay down with him on our bed. I don’t mind it so much. It gives me a break and I can watch TV. He usually only wants to nurse if he’s tired. The last few times I tried to nurse in public were ridiculous. He finds the nursing cover super fun to play with. I don’t even try anymore. He gets a bottle, or real food.
About a month ago I decided it was time for my little guy to sleep through the night. He had been going to bed around 8, then getting up at midnight, then every hour or two after that. He was in our bed most of this time, so I didn’t have to get up to nurse, but it was disturbing to my sleep. Like the other kids, we had to resort to a little “crying it out.” This is never an easy thing to do, but as a slightly seasoned mom I know it’s worth it. The first night he only cried for 24 minutes. That’s a new record for our kids. We’ve had a few bumps in the road as far as continuing go sleep through the night, but for the most part, I just get up once with him.

Really- his nursing is fairly limited. Not by my choice (except for the sleeping through the night thing), but by his. I think he prefers the fast flow of bottles when he’s really hungry. Nursing is a thing to go to sleep with- not the main source of food. I still plan on encouraging nursing as long as I can, but if he seems very disinterested after his first birthday, I’ll be ok with that.

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.