I want to write this all down before I forget. Wednesday was the first travel for work since I got back from maternity leave. I feel I've done a good job putting it off until the Munchkin was a little older. Not that she is sleeping any more during the night because of it, but more that I'd be able to be separated for any period of time. This was a day long training in London. Normally in the past I would have flown in the night before. It's only a 4 minute flight from Amsterdam but there is always the chance that you will have a delay and end up missing half the training anyways.
One nice thing about not getting any sleep - you really don't notice much of a difference getting up at 5am to catch a flight than 5 am to feed a baby. The major challenge was mainly to do with the fact that we are still breastfeeding. For those who are unfamiliar, you can't just "stop for a bit" - your breasts will explode*. So for an 8 hour journey I had to check a bag. Not for the pump itself but for the milk afterwards. Evidently here you can only bring expressed breast milk if you have the child with you. Which seems a bit strange since why would you have it expressed if you're with the kid but fine, no problems.
I'd written ahead to confirm with the London office that they had a room where I could nip off (hah! pun totally intended) to pump. In fact it was much nicer than the room I usually have at my disposal in Amsterdam and I no trouble vanishing at the breaks to do the deed. One issue came up: fridge but no freezer. Lemme explain: the milk gets transported in a cooler bag, and in there goes a fancy shaped freezer pack that keeps all the milk cold. So of course it is not going to be frozen if it is sitting in a fridge all day. I figured keeping it in the fridge in the bag would keep it cool enough - plus I had no choice.
Nearly missed the flight home after taking ill-advised taxi to the airport at rush hour. When I got home I found the milk still cold but the pressure had caused the now melted cold liquid-gel stuff that keeps the freezer pack cool had exploded. It was the only casualty at least. Now I can look forward to doing this all next month again.
*okay not literally but it will feel that way**
** surely this idea has made it into at least one B movie.
One nice thing about not getting any sleep - you really don't notice much of a difference getting up at 5am to catch a flight than 5 am to feed a baby. The major challenge was mainly to do with the fact that we are still breastfeeding. For those who are unfamiliar, you can't just "stop for a bit" - your breasts will explode*. So for an 8 hour journey I had to check a bag. Not for the pump itself but for the milk afterwards. Evidently here you can only bring expressed breast milk if you have the child with you. Which seems a bit strange since why would you have it expressed if you're with the kid but fine, no problems.
I'd written ahead to confirm with the London office that they had a room where I could nip off (hah! pun totally intended) to pump. In fact it was much nicer than the room I usually have at my disposal in Amsterdam and I no trouble vanishing at the breaks to do the deed. One issue came up: fridge but no freezer. Lemme explain: the milk gets transported in a cooler bag, and in there goes a fancy shaped freezer pack that keeps all the milk cold. So of course it is not going to be frozen if it is sitting in a fridge all day. I figured keeping it in the fridge in the bag would keep it cool enough - plus I had no choice.
Nearly missed the flight home after taking ill-advised taxi to the airport at rush hour. When I got home I found the milk still cold but the pressure had caused the now melted cold liquid-gel stuff that keeps the freezer pack cool had exploded. It was the only casualty at least. Now I can look forward to doing this all next month again.
*okay not literally but it will feel that way**
** surely this idea has made it into at least one B movie.
2 comments:
Maybe even a B+ movie
Interesting. Thought they'd let you bring it on board, but I guess it makes sense. That's a shame about the cooler exploding! Not sure what the answer is to that problem. Someone has to have solved it already though.
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