One time deal...

I really do not want to complain about pumping...because I know the benefits it will have for my sweet baby girl. I have to vent about it once though just to get it all out on the table and then I can move on.

First...cleaning the pump stuff after using it is annoying. I can't find the right place to do it.

Bathroom:
If I try and clean in the bathroom, the sinks are either motion sensored and don't sense that I'm there or you push down on the handle to make the water come out and it only stays on for like 5 seconds and then I have to hit it again...and again...and again...and...well you get the idea. And then the water also gets extremely hot in the bathrooms if you use the sink for any extended amount of time. I'm talking scorch the flesh right off my skin hot!!! And then there's the privacy factor...these bathrooms are like Grand Central terminal at 5:15 p.m. How many people honestly need to know that I'm pumping and see me clean the pump stuff.

Pantry/Kitchen:
If I try and clean in the kitchen then I contend with a whole different audience. Not only the women I would encounter in the bathroom but also the men. The temperature of the kitchen faucet on my floor never ever gets hot at all. It's room temperature at best. The temperature of the faucet on the floor where I pump is perfect...I can control it...it's hot when I need it to be hot...not scolding...and it's cold when I need it to be cold. Then if I clean the stuff on the floor where I pump, no one up there knows me Which if you look at it in a certain perspective could be a good thing but also could be one of those things that's frustrating because you know they look at the back of my head like, "what the hell is that contraption she's cleaning...all I want is a cup of water and she's monopolizing the sink with whatever that is she's cleaning!" Many a times I've been cleaning and someone just wants a simple cup of water so I have to stop...talk to them...lose control of the sink and then find the right temperature again after they've left. And then I have to wonder if people stand there and think..."Iew, that's had her milk in it and she's cleaning it in a common sink." Oh and more than once I've cleaned the stuff in a sink where there's people leftover containers from lunch that they just leave to soak in the kitchen sink basin. Not my problem if something splashes into their stuff...they shouldn't have left it in the sink in the first place. I try not to get into their stuff, but Hmph!

And then there's the actual pumping which isn't so bad at all. It actually is nice to get away from my desk, because I have a habit of sitting here all day, eating my lunch at my desk and not getting away at all. What I wouldn't give for a little table that I could use. Right now...I use a box on wheels to put the pump on and my stuff. It's taller than I am when I'm sitting down so it's hard to turn the pump on and off and adjust the pump settings...grrrr! The most embarrassing part of this whole thing is when the pump loses suction because I'm reaching for the pump settings or whatever the case may be and then the thing makes these losing-suction-type-noises which are loud to me and I have to believe someone outside the door at her desk can hear it. As it is, once I'm all hooked up and the settings are correct, I zipper shut the compartment so that the sound of the pump is muffled so no one can hear it outside the door.

I think that about covers my gripes. I hate complaining about this as it is so important to me to be able to do this I just wish the circumstances to which I do it were a little more accommodating to a woman's needs and comfort.