Bane of my existence: Part I

Pumping breast milk for Noah is currently one of the banes of my existence. I fully expect Noah to get me things for Mother's Day simply because I had to pump breast milk for him during the first year of his life.

Reasons pumping is awful:

1) It makes me feel like a cow. I realize that this is what I am for Noah in general, but having a machine hooked up to you really drives the point home. And while I think breast feeding is a beautiful thing, for those of you who haven't heard it before, a breast pump in action sounds exactly as gross as you'd imagine. 

2) I feel tied to it. I try to get a pumping session in at least every 3-4 hours when I'm at work. It's stressful to make sure I am not doing an experiment or in a meeting or having lunch, etc. with this schedule. Additionally, I spend 1-1.5 hours each work day pumping. That's a lot of time, I think. 

3) I put the bottles of milk into a refrigerator. The refrigerator is in front of a lab where a fellow we call 'Roid Rage Pete works. 'Roid Rage feels it necessary to come and talk to me every time I am by the refrigerator. He tells me asinine stories about his lab that I don't care about. He also seems to think that every time I am by the refrigerator (which is 3 times per day) that I am eating something. He told me the other day something to the effect, "Karla, you don't seem to realize you're not eating for two anymore." This didn't come across as mean as it sounds. It did come across as stupid as it sounds. I have taken to hiding from him.

4) Tons of bottle components and pump components to wash. With no dishwasher, this means I wash them all by hand. I've told Grant not to be afraid to help out with the washing, but alas to no avail. Noah's feeding, and everything related to it, falls squarely in my domain and I don't think Grant feels comfortable entering this domain. One of Grant's domains...cleaning the lint out of Noah's toes. Fair trade, right?! (I am being tongue-in-cheek, as I will be the first to admit that Grant does do a lot, and it is not his fault he is currently lacking the equipment to help more with feeding).

Even with all this complaining, I intend to pump for as long as I can. I think it is important and I want to be able to breast feed him exclusively during the weekends (no dishes!). My goal is to make it through 6 months for him. If I can go the full year, I will. The saving grace in this situation is that I have promised myself that I will only pump 3 times a day and that I won't do it on weekends, for my sanity. Eventually Noah will eat more than I can produce (which I think is going to happen in the next couple of weeks), then I will supplement with formula. I've made peace with this decision. 

Done grumbling for now. Wait for Part II....ending with a cliff hanger!