Belated breastfeeding week post 1: A little self congratulation and a lot more luck (and gratitude)

Totally unrelated photo

A 7-day trial.  Weekends at work; weekdays away from home.  A 5.5 month old baby. Two boobs.  One pump. A dwindled freezer stash (...thanks to Toby's addition of a 10pm feed at about 4 months).

From the day I returned to work in June, this trial loomed on the horizon as the single biggest threat to my "goal" of keeping Toby fully on the boob to 6 months.  And Toby sat on my mind as the single biggest threat to my ability to do a good job for my boss and, more importantly, for our clients. 

And now it's over, and it worked out better than I expected, and Toby is still fully breastfed, and I'm sort of proud, even though really it was: a) no big deal; and b) all down to other people and dumb luck.

I was amazingly lucky that Phil was still off work and able to travel out of town for the duration of the trial; there's no way we could have done it otherwise, as my stash just wasn't big enough (again, thank you 10pm feed...). 

I'm lucky to have an understanding boss who let me slip back to the hotel room to pump at lunchtime, and who excused me from a few nights of client dinners so I could spend time with my boys (and, well, work...). 

I'm lucky that Court lunchtimes are rather generous, and that our hotel was very conveniently located (I pumped in a room at Court for an earlier case up there, but it was a bit of a pain!)

I'm lucky that Court starts at 10, so even though I usually spent my mornings working, I could pump before heading out the door, and sometimes even sneak in some extra snuggles.

I'm so grateful that all of those stars aligned and made it possible for me to be lawyer-Kate and mum-Kate at the same time.  And I'm incredibly grateful to have a job that, while hard, is flexible and supportive. 




...but in amongst all of that gratitude, I confess to feeling a little bit bad-ass, and a whole lot awesome. And now it's time to take a whole lot of fenugreek, as a week and a half of reduced pumping means I have a lot of catching up to do!