Friday, July 29, 2011

Friday, July 29 . . . the pumping adventures continue

For the past two weeks, pumping my milk at work has been CRAZY!

This past Monday we had a big premiere on our channel, TeenNick. Our '90s block of programming was amazing, it got great ratings, and was all the buzz on the internets. Getting on the air, however, was quite an ordeal and lead to a crazy week at work. There were a lot of emergency meetings and phone calls, and lots of running from one place to the other. There were a few times when, due to a meeting or some bit of urgent information that needed to be relayed to me, I missed my pumping time in our Mother's Room at work. I ended up locking the door to a conference room and doing it there, and while the people that know about it are fine with it, I'm always afraid I'm inconveniencing someone. I feel like I can't excuse myself from a non-essential meeting, or tell my boss that we need to take a break (cause she'll just keep talking). Plus, with all the stress of making the premiere look good and . . . you know . . . happen at all, I had a hard time relaxing and my supply was lower than usual.

I figured this week would be better -- the event was successful and people aren't as panicked. However the universe had other plans. Wednesday I had scheduled my makeup session for Sexual Harassment training (uhg), and had to make it during one of my pumping sessions (apparently "lactation" is not a good enough excuse to get out of it -- believe me, I tried). I rearrange my whole day, pump in my conference room, and what-do-you-know, they cancel the training at the last minute.
That same day the VP schedules a meeting during my morning pumping time, and again, pumping is not a good enough excuse to reschedule. So, again, I set myself up in the conference room. La-di-da, I'm pumping pumping, and typing typing, and who shows up? . . . the window washer guy. On the outside of the building, 40 stories up, I've got someone looking in the window at me. (in his defense, he probably didn't see anything, or is probably so used to seeing bizarre things through the window, nothing phases him anymore). It was so hilariously awkward.
Then the next day -- yeah, I'm not done yet -- I get a call from my mother, who is watching the baby this week while daycare is on vacation. Turns out she was taking the baby and dog for a walk and dropped her keys done the elevator shaft and was locked out of the apartment. Not as much of an emergency as it could have been, I still had a to rush home to let her back in the building. It was about 1:30, and I had left my pump in the Mother's Room after my 11:00 pumping. So I had to decide: do I go up and potentially interrupt the woman with the 1:30 slot just to get my pump and milk that's in the fridge, or do I just run home. I decided to leave it there and run home, since we now wouldn't need most of today's milk supply I'd left them, since I'd now be home. I spent the rest of the day working from home and feeding on demand, and it was great.
Cut to today. My pump is still up in the Mother's Room, ready to go for my 11:00am slot. I have a meeting with my boss first thing . . . and she talks until 11:45. Normally on a Friday in the summer it wouldnt' be a big deal; there are so few people around, I would just set up in the conference room again. Except my pump is upstairs. I now have to book it upstairs, hope no one is booked for 11:30, and try to get in and out before the person I KNOW is booked at 12:00. Sigh. I was smart though, and did NOT leave my pump in the room for my 2:00 session. Sure enough, my 12:30 got pushed to 1:30, ran until 2:30, and then the boss talked my ear off until 3.

Next week will be better, right?

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