R.I.P. B.C.

I am small chested. There, I've said it. I would be embarrassed for anyone to read this if it were not glaringly obvious the minute you met me. However, for almost a year, I had a chest. I finally filled a B-cup...hooray!! I was beginning to like my new shape and was amazed how much easier it was to find clothes that fit right. I was loving the benefits of breastfeeding.

Around a month ago, I stopped pumping and feeding altogether. For a while, I still had a chest. And then it happened. One morning last week, I woke up and they were gone. Not just gone, but smaller than they were before. Is that possible?!?! And so, I bid farewell to my chest.

Rest In Peace Big Chest, Rest In Peace.

Have Pump Will Travel

For the last year, I have spent 36 to72 hours a month travelling back and forth to DC to the Charles G Koch Foundation Headquarters. I love to travel, but I picked the worst time to spend so much time on a plane. From June to October, I was huge. Trying to fit my over sized belly into the tiny little seats-not to mention being asked by every flight attendant not to go into labor-was hilarious.





Once I got rid of the belly, I gained a pump. Awww, the pump--my new best friend. I have become an extremely efficient packer--you have to be when the pump takes up half of your carry on. I have also become very resourceful when it comes to pumping in the airport. Here are a few tips I have learned...



1. Take your pump and milk out before you send your bag through security; it will save you time and headaches.

2. Store your milk in bottles; they will make you open all of your milk containers for tests and the bags sometimes make a mess.

3. Your best option when pumping in an airport is a family bathroom, but don't be surprised if you get dirty looks when you come out of the family bathroom alone. Seriously, I wanted to walk out holding my milk in the air a few times.

4. Your second best option is a bathroom with an outlet in a secluded area--hard to find, but worth it to look.

5. The worst option, but usually the only one available is to pump at the sink. Bring a cardigan; you can put it on backwards to cover the pumps, but everyone will still know what you are doing. Also, surprisingly enough, people will talk to you more while you are half naked, producing food than if you were to run straight into them.

Probably too much information...

A couple of weeks ago, I was talking to my friend Kelly and she told me that her aunt not only pumped in the car as a passenger, she pumped while driving! I couldn't help but think how that would save so much time and prevent me from missing a pump if I have a meeting outside the office. Today was the day to try it out. I usually pump at around 10:00, but I had a three-hour meeting at 9:00 so I decided to pump on the way to the meeting. I just want to give you a mental image...shirt pulled up to my chin, and 80's Madonna-like attachments on my chest. Not to mention the fact that the radio is turned up especially loud so that I can hear it over the sucking. I'm not going to lie, there were a few moments when I hit stop lights that I was very nervous of being seen. I guess next time I'll plan ahead and bring a blanket!

I guess the moral of the story is to always look straight ahead when driving; you never know when you will get more of a show than you bargained for!

My how life changes!

A year ago, I would still be working out at this time in the morning. In fact, if i missed a workout, I would worry about it all day long. I know this sounds crazy, but I was slightly obsessive-compulsive. Running was my outlet, my way of just completely getting away from my thoughts and world.
Sidebar...In fact, a year ago, Jamie and I were running 13 miles in the snow--uphills both ways, ha! Ok, so I'm kidding about the uphills part, but not about the 13 miles in the snow, we thought we would never warm up!...
Now, I have to plan my morning just right to make it to the gym. If Parker eats for an extra 10 or 15 minutes or if he won't go back to sleep right away, I don't get to go. I even switched gyms and joined one that is only 2 minutes away as opposed to 8 because those 6 minutes make that much of a difference. This morning was one of those mornings. The combination of me hitting snooze for 10 minutes (4:55 opposed to 4:45) and Parker eating for a little longer now has me writing a blog instead of working out. The craziest part of it all is that I don't really care. Now, I take what I can get, but if I don't get to go because I have to spend an extra 15 minutes with my son--wahoo! I can't get enough of him and he changes everyday! I would rather wish I had a flatter stomach when he is five than wish that I would have spent more time with him.

Is that a tissue coming out of your bra...?

Haha, I am laughing at myself right now because you just never know when you are going to become that mom. You know, the one who has baby spit up on her clothes, leaky breasts and wait for it...breast pads coming out of her sports bra--not kidding!
Running again has been a challenge. Not necessarily because I am out of shape, but because it is hard to find time when Parker is even half an hour off schedule. I did have him on the best schedule...go to sleep at 11, wake him up at 5 to eat, at the gym by 6. Then this week hit and we have been totally off. So on Monday, I was so proud of myself because I had been up since 3:30 and had gotten so much accomplished. Parker was fed, bathroom clean, laundry done. So when I went to the gym at 5:30, I was having pretty much the best "mom" day ever. That was until around mile 2 when I looked down and my breast pad was coming out the top of my v-neck shirt. It wasn't just sticking out a little, it was all the way out with just a corner still inside my shirt. Worse than that, I had run out of actual breast pads so had been cutting maxi-pads into thirds. The paper on the back of the pad was unmistakable. So, I did what any woman would do...I grabbed my maxi-pad, made room in my shirt and then pretty much grabbed my boob in front of all my early morning work out buddies!