On Nursing: Part 2

Oh, sorry.  That picture was supposed to be posted with my blog about the Pork Festival.

As many of you know, I struggled in the beginning to nurse Colleen.  You can read all about it here.  After several months of reading tons of information online and practicing, Colleen and I finally got into a routine.  The nursing finally seemed to be getting easier.  I got pretty good with nursing in the car on our travels to and from Ohio.  I still depend on my Boppy pillow to help and I'm not real good at nursing in public, but it was better.

And then school started and I had to go to work.  And I ran into a whole new obstacle: pumping.  All summer I thought about how I was going to pump at school.  With Tom's help, we set up a little cozy corner in my classroom with a rug and pictures of Colleen.  I cleaned and organized a closet where I keep all my supplies.  It looks something like this on most days:

In the morning, around meetings, tutoring, and preparing for the day, I pump.  Then again, I pump during my planning and a third time after school.  After each pumping session, I clean my pump parts and let them air dry  on my "grass" drying rack.  Occasionally I take the pump home to pump in the evening.  And every Friday I take everything home to sanitize the parts in my steam bag that I pop in the microwave.

Some days, I don't mind locking myself in my room to have some quiet to pump.  But honestly, some days, there is so much to do at school, pumping is just another thing on my list of things to do.  

Overall, I'm happy to do it.  I think it's working out for Colleen and it does save us money on formula.  And at this point, I'm glad I stuck with it.  I'm glad that this is something I'm able to do for Colleen.  My goal is to provide her with breastmilk for a year.  

But be on the lookout for the blog titled "On Nursing: Part 3" as Colleen is teething.  Yeah.  Ouch.