Pumping in airports

And the two things that helped me survive it

Before we get started with this post I need your help. I’m wondering if these family travel posts fit with this newsletter. Maybe they would be better as a completely separate travel with kids newsletter? What do you think? Please fill out the poll below and please be honest! I can’t see who chooses what.

I’m writing this from the Brussels airport on the way home from my first night away from Stella since she was born. I was away for one night only, and Stella is home with her very capable father, so it’s not that big of a deal, but it felt weird to leave her for a night! I woke up a bunch of times, probably out of habit, but I do feel much more rested than I’ve felt in 11 months.

Weirder than being alone for the night was traveling alone. Breezing through security without juggling a stroller and baby. Reading a magazine on the flight instead of trying to contain an extremely wiggly 15 pounds. Traveling with one tiny bag! A dream.

Only a few months ago, pump supplies took up an entire bag of their own. Stella was born a month early at 3.8 pounds. She was in the NICU for about a week, where they wouldn’t let me breastfeed or give her pumped breast milk because it wasn’t sterilized…. (this was a saga and one that I will write about eventually. Giving birth in Italy was in some ways better than I think it would be in the U.S., and in other ways worse). When she was released into my room, there was no lactation support and I was really struggling to pump.