Today’s topic: Pumping and driving - and I’m not talking gas. 

I was perusing a parenting message board earlier this week and a woman was gushing on about how she used this contraption to express milk hands- free during her commute. 

Oh my. 

Now, I am all for finding short cuts and efficiencies for busy moms - but really?  This is a whole new kind of distracted driver that I hadn’t been aware of.  What if the ganglion of tubing gets caught up in your steering wheel? What if one falls out while you’re making a left turn? What about the guy in the semi in the next lane? What if you get pulled over? I know that some breast pumps do come with a car charger but I always assumed that was for a road trip to be used once you reach your destination.

I appreciate the multi-taskiness of the halter for reading and typing. Let’s face it - pumping milk can be a chore and would be nice to be able to easily flip pages in a book or magazine whilst doing so. It’s actually a pretty ingenious invention. (And look! The models seem so HAPPY!)   But nowhere on the site does it say “great for driving!”

So my question is - was this just a random scenario on a message board or are women out there really expressing themselves in the other lane on 35W ?Â

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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We’ve seen a bunch of stories in recent months on mothers getting in trouble one way or another while nursing. There was the nursing mom who got thrown off a plane, the nursing mom who got sent to her room at Ronald McDonald House, and now, a nursing mom embroiled in a custody battle who’s been told to stop nursing her son.

Christa Burton of St Cloud takes four types of meds. She also nurses her 14-month-old son, Carter, who was born prematurely. Now her court-appointed guardian has asked her to stop and a judge will make a decision next month.

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Ahhh sleep, so delicious and oh so elusive for new parents. Now multiply that by two.  Today our guest blogger and mother of twins Jennifer (who you may remember from Expecting the Unexpected; Twins Update; or Twins Double Header) shares a day and diapers from midnight to midnight. (I’m exhausted just reading it!)

The following takes place between 12:01 a.m. and 11:59 p.m. on Saturday, July 21, 2007.  

12:25 a.m.  Rowan is crying.  He’s only been sleeping for 2 hours, but he’s hungry again.  Anneke is sleeping but we wake her up so we can feed her too.  As I groggily put together the bottles, suddenly the Beastie Boys song “No sleep ’til Brooklyn” pops into my head.  I take Rowan and Adam takes Anneke, and just my luck: Rowan is super fussy and doesn’t get back to sleep until 1:45 a.m.  Diaper tally so far for today: 2

2:25 a.m.  I hear Rowan crying again.  I assume he must have a tummy ache since he only finished eating 45 minutes ago.  I never really did fall asleep, so I let Adam sleep and I get up and start rocking him.  Suddenly Anneke starts screaming.  She’s hungry, so I start feeding her while Rowan relaxes in his vibrating bouncy chair.  Then Rowan starts screaming so I call for Adam and he gets up and feeds Rowan.  The whole thing goes relatively quickly; we are back in bed at 3.
Diaper tally: 4

5:45 a.m.  Both babies awake and fussing.  It’s nice when they are both awake because then they both eat really well.  If they are too sleepy they just don’t eat much and then are up again an hour later.  I read Harry Potter as I pump (because I don’t make enough milk for both of them, we are pumping and bottlefeeding–much easier to add in a little bit of formula that way), and we go back to bed at 6:45, taking Rowan with us since he is fussy again.
Diaper tally: 6

8:55 a.m. Both awake again and eat really well.  We are still exhausted, but it is beautiful outside so we want to go for a walk before the day gets too warm.  I pump and read again while Adam takes out the bag from the Diaper Champ (we empty it almost once a day).
Diaper tally: 8

11:04 a.m. We just finished feeding them and then eating breakfast ourselves and are ready to go for our walk, but we realize we better quick feed them again before we go.  Rowan doesn’t eat a whole lot but Anneke is ravenous.  We have 7 diapers left so we debate whether I can wait until later to go to Target or whether I need to go now.  We decide to chance it.
Diaper tally: 10

11:45 a.m. They finish eating, Anneke has another big diaper, and we are finally ready to head out.
Diaper tally: 11

1:25 p.m. We get back from our walk (we like long walks, what can I say?). Rowan starts screaming the minute we get back so we feed them again.  Next up: emergency diaper run to Target.
Diaper tally: 13

3:25 p.m.  I get back from Target and both kids start screaming again.  We feed them again, but neither eats a whole lot.
Diaper tally: 15

4:45  p.m. Both hungry again, even though its been less than an hour since we finished the last feeding.  Not sure if I am going to get to a shower today or not.  Decide that a lunch/supper combo is more important.  As soon as we get done eating the babies are hungry again, so for a change of pace we watch an episode of Sopranos while we feed them.
Diaper tally: 18 (Rowan needed one before AND after the feeding)

7:40 p.m. Bath time, then another feeding.
Diaper tally: 20

8:30 p.m.  My flowers and tomatoes desperately need watering, so I go outside and Adam is on baby rocking duty.  They are both fussing.

9:15 p.m. Both babies fall asleep and we finally take showers and go to bed.

11:50 p.m. Both up and ready to eat again
Total diaper tally for this day: 22 diapers.  We learned quickly to not bother with the small size packs of diapers.

So that’s a day in the life with newborn twins.  I honestly have no idea how someone could do this alone, but I know people do.  Fortunately my husband is a teacher so he is home on summer break while I am on my maternity leave (we timed this well).  This stage is challenging, but I know that things are about to get way more interesting when we go back to work in a few weeks and then again when the twins start getting mobile.

Question for readers: anyone out there who has had preemies, did you find that developmentally you had to count from their due date instead of the day they were born?  It seems discouraging to think that we have to wait 5 extra weeks for each milestone, but I also think it is probably unrealistic to think they are going to progress normally for the day they were born.

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Looks like the nursing mom kicked off a Delta Airlines flight last year has won the latest round against the airline. Vermont’s Human Rights Commission has refused to dismiss the complaint against Delta by Emily Gillette. A settlement or civil action could come next.