Boobs

Do I have your attention?

The first thing I look at when we arrive at the NICU is the white board that lists all the patients' names, locations, doctors, and weights. Finn was 845 grams just a few days ago, and today he's 970. He's above his birth weight, which was 930, and his feedings are still being upped every hour. They moved his feeding tube from his left nostril to his right, and he has new tape for his hi-flo. He was pretty relaxed, which helped me to relax. We just stopped in for a moment to say "good morning."

I went in to work with my rollie bag that Pete made me buy for our trip to New York City. In it I had stashed my breast pump and paraphernalia, ready to find a place at the office to pump at least twice. Yesterday, what with running around, going to work, oh, and having to come back to the house in the morning so I would not be a weepy mess at my desk, I only pumped six times. I am supposed to be doing 8-10 reps, but I have not hit that mark yet. Granted, I am also supposed to be producing 24-30 ounces by the end of two weeks, and I got 27 ounces yesterday, and it will be two weeks on Thursday.

I now have "yield," like on a farm.

Moo.

There are places to pump on campus, but the Lactation Lady did not thoroughly read my email when I told her that I was already back at work, my baby was born prematurely, and I needed to get set up with a place to pump now. She responded with "we'll set up an orientation for 2-3 weeks before you come back to work. A Friday would be good."

That's impossible, unless she's more talented than Einstein, which I don't think she is. How about a Tuesday, like, say TODAY?

When I started to feel ready to relieve my chestal area, I went to check out the bathrooms in the building, and none of them have outlets that are near the stalls. I have read stories of some women pumping standing up in the bathroom at work and having lovely conversations with other visitors, but I have only been at this job for four months. They don't need to see my boobs.

But you do, just to get some perspective:

I know. It's like they're comin' right atcha.

That was first thing in the morning, but still. It's astounding to me. Luckily, I am over the phase where they are huge and hard; they have softened up with usage, and I can sleep on my stomach again.

For today, I bundled up my budget files and came home. There is plenty I can do from the house right now, and I figured this was the best thing, at leas for today. I am not sure what I am going to do on Thursday when I have all-day training on our new financial system... It would probably not be appreciated were I to plug into a wall socket and whip out the machinery during travel training.

Funny, but not appreciated.