Whoever said that was NOT a mother who pumps. Up until now I have had none of those "oops" moments when pumping... almost 3 sucessful months of remembering everything in the morning and getting it all home safely at night. In true fashion of everything happening in 3's... this week has been my "Everything going wrong" week when it comes to pumping.
It started Monday when I got to work and realized I had left all the connecting pieces for my pump at home. I had the pump, the bottles, the lids, the cooler... but not the breast shields or the connectors. At this point it was either drive all the way home to pick up the parts, which would mean 30 minutes home plus 30 minutes back to work, or run in to Target and hope they have the parts. Thankfully Target saved the day. Now I have an extra set of parts to keep at work... so, a win situation in a way. At least I know I'll never have that happen again!
Today however was the day I sat and wanted to cry. Today I managed to spill an ENTIRE bottle of milk down myself. Yes, that's right, not only did I loose about 4oz of my precious milk it went ALL over my pants... at work... at 9:20 in the morning. Apparently the bottle wasn't screwed in all the way and after pumping I moved everything and the bottle just dropped off of the connectors. I sat stunned staring at the bottle on the floor not knowing what to do... do I cry? Do I scream? Do I start laughing because honestly what else can you do at that point? Now the worst part of this situation was that it was so early in the day I had to walk around with pants that smelled like breastmilk. Now at first this wasn't a huge deal but by about lunchtime it smelled horrible. I tried to keep my distance from people and hoped no one wondered what that interesting smell was. The only lifesaver was my pants were black so thankfully no one could tell but me.
But as I said, these things happen in 3s! Yesterday when I arrived home I noticed a 4oz storage bottle of milk was missing from the fridge. I assumed that my husband had given Eirik extra yesterday for some reason and moved on. Eirik goes to my friend's house on Wednesday and she hadn't fed him a bottle so I took that bottle out of the diaper bag and put it back in my fridge. This evening I was looking for Eirik's teething tablets and what do you think I discovered in another pocket of the diaper bag? Yes... the other 4oz bottle of milk that was missing.
Yes folks, my heart broke as I dumped that 4oz bottle down the drain. Today a grand total of 8oz of my milk was lost... due to my own carelessness. On a good day I pump a total of about 20oz so you can see why the 8oz loss hurts so much.
Instead of crying over my spilled milk however I have been indulging in ice cream... a much tastier option!
Awww, I've been there! On Finn's 5th or so day of life, when I was in the throes of baby blues and a disaster at breast feeding, I was just learning how to pump. I would get measly 10ml per boob each time and at one 3am pumping, I spilled one of the bottles. As soon as it happened, I looked at the floor in despair and started crying and DH knew it would send me over the edge so started hugging me. So, I HAVE cried over spilled milk.
ReplyDeleteHonestly? With all of those interchangeable parts, it's a miracle something doesn't go wrong more often!
I am sorry to hear about your week. I am glad indulging in a little ice cream has helped and I hope that tomorrow is better. It is almost the weekend too = )
ReplyDeleteAww *HUG* Pizza and beer next week will help too!! ^_^
ReplyDeleteugh, I can only imagine how devastating that would be. I cry when I spill forumla because it's so damn expensive ... I could only imagine if I was painstakingly pumping milk and using my very valuable time to do so and then I lost it.
ReplyDelete((hugs))
I can totally feel your pain. I haven't lost any yet but I know the time will come. Hopefully I have your strength and can laugh it off! I bet the ice cream took care of everything though =)
ReplyDeleteLara- How old is your Finn? My little Finnley (will also be Finn) is coming in October! :-) You're the first person I've "met" with a baby Finn. For us, we liked the name but found out it is also the name of my hubby's great grandfather. Coolness! :-)
ReplyDeleteAs for Emma- Hugs! You're still a milk factory though! :-)