Thursday, December 27, 2012

Pumping and Driving

Yesterday was a LONG car ride. We got stuck in bad snowy/icy weather in states that do not know how to handle it: Pennsylvania, Maryland (all ten miles), and West Virginia.

It turned a 4.5 hour car ride to an 8 hour one. When we got home, my family from OH (who'd made the trip the day before in the same amount of time, which is good time for the trip) was here in Virginia with us. My mom asked me how we did on the car ride, "Did you have to go the whole time without pumping?!?"

I said no, and realized that we could have been in a very challenging situation, had I not started using the battery pack with my PISA (Medela Pump in Style Advanced). There had been a couple trips to my husband's home that I did not pump the entire way (and instead, hand expressed), and was pretty full when we got there.

Because I decided to start using the battery pack (and the PISA, while I normally use my symphony when stationed in one place) I survived the trip without much stress in the pumping area. But stress in other areas--baby pooping and puking at the same time, changing baby in the car, dealing with fussy baby, being thirsty and hungry.

Do you worry about the people passing you seeing you  pumping? I just have a loose shirt on with a hands free bustier and don't worry about it. The only bad thing is the seats tilt your pelvis back, so I have to intentionally lean forward so I don't get milk. It's also difficult to hand express in the car because of that angle. I drip milk down my belly.

I decided to purchase an outlet adapter for our car so that I can use the Symphony pump in the car, because the suction is different-- less powerful.

I'll have it for the next trip--it arrived after we left.

Got a crying baby to attend to.

Pump on!

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