The one with the breast pump and the rock concert…

By Preschool Mom

Motherhood routinely surprises me. You would think after four years and two kids I would be prepared for the unexpected, but nope, still taken off guard on a regular basis. Sometimes it is simply a result of sleep deprivation. I have a three month old, and not one of those strange alien creatures who sleeps eight to ten hours a night. Needless to say I’m not always on my “A” game, so it makes sense that I will walk into a room and be surprised to find my sleeping baby there. No, no, I didn’t forget that I put him there; I forgot that I had him! Yikes!

Thankfully forgetting I have two children doesn’t happen often, but each day  is filled with a variety of surprising things that come out of my mouth that I just have to shake my head at. The most recent of these was said to my husband: “Thank you for holding the baby for me; going to the bathroom alone was such a pleasant experience.” You know you’ve reached full on mom-dom when you describe a solo trip to the loo as a pleasant experience.  Between my own two boys and my part-time job as a preschool teacher I pretty much live in kidville 24/7, so I was really not prepared for re-entry into adult life. When my husband got tickets to the Eric Clapton concert we thought, woohoo, a totally kid-free zone! Yeah, not so much…

As all moms know, coordinating a night out can require the planning of a military invasion. After shipping the four-year-old off to grandma and grandpa for the night, I got the younger one ready to spend some quality time with a sitter. Since I’m nursing, this required pumping, packing alternative bottles and praying that he would actually eat after all that work.  I was exhausted by the time we got in the car and headed for the concert!

Of course when you are nursing you can’t just say to the girls, “okay, the kid is not around so I don’t need you to work for the next four hours or so.” Nope, the boobs are on 24/7 production mode with no off switch. I had thrown the breast pump in a ziplock bag because I figured I’d need to pump, but I wasn’t thinking about the fact that we had to park a mile away and I wouldn’t be able to nip out to the car and take care of business. I’d been so excited to carry my cute little bag instead of the ever present diaper backpack, that I didn’t even consider the need to stash the hand-pump somewhere. When we got to the concert I realized I had NOT planned accordingly. My husband is a pretty understanding guy, but no way was he walking in with me and a gallon sized CLEAR ziplock bag with a breast pump and milk storage bags.

I couldn’t help it, I actually giggled at the absurdity of the situation. Never in a million years did I expect to be sitting in my car deciding what was more important to take into a rock concert, my wallet or my breast pump.  Ultimately, I was shocked at how much my little Kate Spade bag could hold, and even more shocked was the 70-year-old man who checked my bag at the door. He looked inside the bag, and then he looked up at me with raised eyebrows.  I just shook my head and thought, “That’s right mister, it’s a breast pump!”

The concert was great (except for the 6’10” guy sitting in front of 5’2” me) and it was a lot of fun to be out with my husband. I got lucky and didn’t have to pump which was a good thing because a) pumping in a public restroom at a concert = gross and b) the baby refused the bottle so he was thrilled to see me and his food supply when we picked him up. At the end of the night I couldn’t help thinking that only a mother would find herself in such a situation, and only a mother would do the same thing again!