First Day!

I woke up at 4:45 am. Everything went great. I ate breakfast, showered, did my makeup and hair and made myself iced mocha coffee. I fed Cole one last time and I left at 6:15 on the dot and it took me 45 minutes to get to work. I even hit 5 minutes of traffic. When I pulled into the parking lot, I was an hour early. I didn't have to even be there until 8 am. I know, though, if there is an accident or you get stuck in a traffic jam, that you have a chance of it taking double the time to get to work. Since I am traveling 40 miles and on such a long stretch of the busiest highway in Denver, I have 40 miles of chances to run into a jam. I'm thinking about leaving at 6:30 tomorrow and seeing what that does to my arrival time. I don't know if I will try leaving any later yet. I will see how much more traffic I run into leaving 15 minutes later. (For those of you that don't live in Denver, 15 minutes can mean a huge difference.)

I decide to go in at 7:45 am. I get in there and I'm the only one with a gigantic bag. The other ladies all have small purses and the guys aren't carrying anything. I know they were all thinking, "What does she need that huge bag for on the first day?" The morning went by fast and we went on a tour of the facility. One of the trainers points out that inside the restroom is another room called the "Mother's Room". I make a mental note and on break (15 minutes) I go there and try to open the door to that room. It is locked so I figure someone must be in there. I hear no noise whatsoever so I go ask my trainer about it and she said she will look into it. One of the other trainers tells me if need be I can take another quick pumping break once they figure it out. Lunch rolls around and nobody has gotten back to me yet. If you are a breastfeeding mother you know what is happening by now. My son eats within 1 1/2 hours to 3 hours every day. It has been 6 hours now. Pain is starting in and I need to pump. I go back to the room. Still locked. I ask a trainer what is happening with that room? She goes off to look into it. The trainer that told me she would look into it this morning, finally comes to me and tells me, "Come with me there is a key we have to get you." I get the key and go in the room. It's ok. It has a sink and a fridge/freezer in there. It also has some chairs and reading materials. I open my bag and I pull out the pump and what do you think happened next?? Yes, I forgot something at home. It was the plug for the pump motor. At this point I'm panicking and thinking, "OMG! This hurts so bad and what if I don't pump for the full 10 hours I am away from my son?? Is it going to reduce my supply??" I think I just need to get my let down working and get a little milk out to tell my body to keep making it. I grab the bottle from my bag and start hand expressing. Boy, is that fun... NOT! I got an ounce total from both. I am not going to win the hand expressing Olympics any time soon. >.< I put the cap on the bottle and stuck it in the fridge. On my second 15 minute break I didn't even worry about it. Yes, I was in some pain, but 15 minutes is not enough to hand express. (for me anyway)

Fast forward to the end of the day. I went to get my milk out of the fridge and it was frozen. I put it in my bag and proceeded to sit through an hour and 15 minutes of traffic. When I got home Cole was peacefully napping on my bed. They say never wake a sleeping baby but I did. He woke up when I said his name. I fed him immediately. Much better. Anthony said he fed him rice cereal today and 3 oz 3 times. Hopefully, pumping tomorrow will go a lot better. I missed my boys. All three of them and I know they missed me even though Anthony says today went pretty well. (except for not having me around to sooth Cole and before he woke up, Xyler put every single clean cloth diaper that I washed and folded yesterday into the dirty diaper pail. Now they all smell. Looks like AJ is going to do some more laundry.) Sounds like we will all crash early. :)