Breastfeeding Resources

Now that I'm a semi-seasoned breastfeeding and working mom of a 7 1/2-month old, I thought it would be interesting to review some of my old posts and think back to what I thought, hoped, and feared in those early months.

Integrating the Pumping Me with the Working Me: My anxiety about pumping at work did ease over time. It's gotten very routine. Even though in the early days I felt like I had to stop working and relax while pumping, I now work straight through.

I still pump three times a day, and one thing that surprises me is how few people have asked what I'm doing--why my door is closed all the time. I don't know if everyone knows and people don't talk to me about it, or nobody knows and nobody wonders. Three female colleagues, one male colleague with a breastfeeding wife, and my boss know.

It was even a really long time before I told my boss I was pumping. He works on another floor, never visits my office, and is not the kind of guy who wonder what I'm doing every day. I let HR know up front (when I asked to get a lock on my door). But with my boss, I put it off til he scheduled a day-long meeting. I figured our morning and afternoon breaks would be a little to short for my pumping session, so I had to tell him I'd be coming back late. I did this with some anxiety. I even tried to figure out a way NOT to tell him--skip a session that day? But my husband was the one who said, just tell him. And of course, it went fine.

So, like all things with parenthood, you adjust and what was new and confusing and worrisome becomes routine and bearable. Hopefully even pleasurable, some day. Maybe some day I'll look back on my pumping time with nostalgia!