On being a working, traveling, and nursing mommy

I used to travel a lot.  I took a 40-day backpacking trip all over Europe when I was in graduate school.  I traveled at least once per year to attend scientific conferences both domestically and abroad.  I would make the ~8 hour one-way drive back to visit my family in the neighboring states at least every few months, and while I didn't enjoy the long drives they were pretty easy to take.  I used to fly on United so much to try to earn premier status, and two years in a row I even obtained 1K status (when I was traveling to Australia and back a lot for work).  Then, the year I got pregnant was the year I lost that sought-after status.

Now, two kids later and I don't travel much at all, and if I do, it's work.  No, I don't mean it's for work. I mean that the whole endeavor is a lot of work.  It's so much more challenging to plan for and pack for, and the trip itself can be just that much harder, not to mention it's way more expensive (especially if we're flying somewhere as a family).

Let's start by examining the planning and packing for trips aspect.  This is complicated when planning and packing for toddlers and infants and the whole family for sure.  But it can still be complicated if I have to take a trip by myself (which I only do right now if it's for work).  Since I'm nursing, being away from Emma means that I must pump.  That of course then means that I must bring my pump with me on the trip, as well as any supplies I'll need to pump and store the milk while I'm away (storage bags, bottles, ice packs, etc).  I also need to make sure that my hotel room will have a refrigerator to store my milk in.  It must also have a freezer compartment in the fridge for me to freeze my ice packs in (to keep my milk cold while away from my room during the day and especially for the long trip/flight home)…and I've learned not all hotel mini-fridges have freezer compartments the hard way!  Bringing all of these items means that it's just easier to check a bag rather than try to carry all of this on the plane with me.  Plus, I figure by checking the milk as I bring it home might help keep it cold better given the cargo bay is colder and not heated like the passenger area of the plane (except in the case of my recent trip to Arizona where my checked bag sat out in a baggage cart out in the 100F heat for a few hours…luckily that was on my way to my destination so I didn't have any milk packed yet, but the ice packs I brought were not cold at all after that).  However, as in the case of my last four work trips, it seems so silly to have to check a bag when I'm only away for 1-2 nights.  My checked luggage was pretty much one (or two) change(s) of clothes, some toiletries, a pair of pajamas, and then all of my pumping stuff (which definitely took up more space than my clothes).

Now on to the trip itself.  When it's the whole family with toddler and infant, the tantrums, outbursts, and long days with skipped naps are big concerns. Yet, it's no walk in the park for me as a nursing mom to take a trip by myself either.  First of all, I have to plan out when and where to pump.  On the plane?  At the airport?  During my work meetings/conference?  Nursing mother rooms are not very prevalent here and so my pumping locations have gotten creative sometimes.  I've found myself pumping in my rental car (parked somewhere that I hope no one is looking in and noticing what I'm doing), in bathrooms (yuck…more on that in a bit), and in secluded hallways of airports.  I've learned to use my nursing cover when I'm pumping in a semi-public place too so I don't feel like I'm showing everything off.  Of course, I love it when my work meetings take place in the hotel I'm staying at, because it makes it much easier just to run back to my room for pumping breaks (the case for one of my four recent trips).  On two of my recent trips, I've gotten lucky that the location of my meetings had nursing mother rooms (what a luxury!).  And on the remaining of these trips, I had to just use the bathroom (luckily it was a pretty clean one and luckily that was a short meeting so I only had to do that once).

However, speaking about pumping in bathrooms, this is my least favorite solution on where to pump.  The obvious reason is for sanitary concerns, but moving beyond that for a moment, consider that a pumping session can take about 15-20 minutes and unless you're very lucky to be the only person in there that entire time you're bound to have to "enjoy" some of the sounds and smells that others bring in.  And sadly I can say that I've been in a bathroom pumping on one of these trips only to have someone come in talking on their phone, then proceed to use the toilet for a lengthy, smelly #2, and amazingly she continued her conversation the entire time!  She was speaking another language so I can only imagine what she was talking about.  Either way, I felt captive as I was hooked up to my pump and yet wanted to escape so badly.

So, beyond the place to pump while I'm on travel there is also an issue with getting the time to pump.  Most of my work meetings provide a few breaks during the long days, but they are usually just 10-15 minutes long.  That is just not long enough for me to go to wherever I'll pump, set things up, pump for 15-20 minutes on its own, and then pack and clean up.   For conferences, I can slip out and back in without much notice, but in smaller work meetings it has felt a bit awkward having to explain to coworkers (often primarily men) why I need a longer break, or why I need a break when there isn't one scheduled.  And in the case of my most recent trip, I had to ask my male coworker who was helping organize the meeting for the nursing mothers room, which he found out they had one "to his surprise" (words out of his mouth).

When I'm not traveling, I still have to remember to pack clean storage bottles and ice packs to work.  After Evan I also had to remember my pump and all of its parts, but this time my pump stays in my office because I got a new one (so my old one is at home for trips and if I were to need to pump there).  I still have to take 2-3 breaks per day then at work, which can get hard scheduling them in between meetings and so forth, but I make it work. Especially because I pump in my office and thanks to a hands free pumping bra I can keep working at the same time (in fact I can sometimes pump way longer than planned if I get wrapped up in something I'm doing on my computer).  I close and lock my office door and put up a little yellow sticky note on it that says "please do not disturb, but you can call or email me."  I also keep my blinds closed all the time and have my pump plugged in and ready to go to save time on prep for the next pumping session.  When I'm done nursing this time I'll maybe see more sunlight during my days at work! :)

Regardless of all the hassles that I've mentioned above, I wouldn't trade nursing my children for anything.  With both kids I set a goal to nurse them exclusively their whole first year of life.  With Evan I went a few months beyond that, but just at night and morning (you betcha I stopped pumping right around his first birthday).  I'm almost to my goal with Emma now too, and while I've had to take more trips away from her than I would have liked (and than I did with Evan), all the planning, packing, and pumping is still worth it for me.  Don't get me wrong, I'll be just as happy to have those awkward, challenging, and occasionally downright disgusting aspects of being a working, traveling, and nursing mommy behind me too.