A co-worker recently came back from maternity leave and asked me where the “milking” room was and what the code was to get in. I didn’t know if the keypad number was still in my longterm memory so I revisited the room. I had the number correct and entered the old pumping grounds.

The room was as I remembered - still very beige and drab. But new baby pictures were pinned to the wall, and a new stack of parenting magazines to assuage boredom. 

And there was the legal pad. The “mama-log” that May brought in back in the spring of 2006 that started a conversation between those of us sharing the room.  We didn’t know eachother. Everyone worked on different floors in different departments. But we all shared the stress and understanding of re-entry back into the 9-5 world. All trying to keep it all together and appear to your colleagues like your synapses are still firing and connecting. But the reality is you haven’t really slept all night after night after night and you feel like your brain is full of cobwebs. You’re mind is wandering to your baby while you’re trying to concentrate on Power Point presentations or the computer screen.  Breaking away to pump for 15-20 minutes is admittedly boring  - but a nice respite in the day to reflect and spend time dedicated for your baby while you’re not actually with your baby.

I sat down and paged through those entries of the first days back to work.

Questions:  “anyone elses hair falling out in clumps?” “is your baby taking the bottle?”  “my Medela pump tubes are turning black - what the heck is going on!?”
Rants: “Left my pumped milk in the hot car last night - so my husband poured my spoiled milk down the drain. It physically hurt to watch - he said - What’s the big deal? You can make more…. AAAGGGHH!”

I was so heartened to see that the log keeps being utilized after May and I left. There are welcomes and congratulations and good-byes from each new round of moms making the transition back into the workplace.  The conversations continue now online, and still on paper.  

 

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This entry was posted on Thursday, September 13th, 2007 at 8:54 am and is filed under Main, Nursing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.