Wednesday is My "Short Day"

I've rearranged my work schedule so that I can leave at 1:00 on Wednesdays, instead of 4:00 (I work later the other 4 days). This allows me to schedule doctor's appointments, get an oil change, get chores done around the house, and maybe even spend a little time on myself (yeah, right...) Here's what I accomplished this afternoon:

1. Pumped for the second time today.
2. Ate lunch.
3. Collected the garbage/recycling and took it out to the breezeway so it's ready for the garbage men tomorrow morning. Went through a lot of junk mail, cleaned litterboxes, cleaned out the refrigerator etc.
4. Cut up and froze the fresh rhubarb in the fridge (we're taking it to a friend's for lunch, in the form of strawberry-rhubarb pie, in a couple of weeks).
5. 2 loads of laundry.
6. Organized and put away the baby food flats that arrived from diapers.com yesterday.
7. Played with the dog.
8. Washed the dishes that were in the sink.
9. Prepared the coffeemaker for tomorrow morning.

Now I'm getting ready to pump for the third, and final, time today. This morning, I had a workshop at a local university, and there was nowhere private to pump. It was the first time I had to pump in a bathroom. Gross. Here's what ended up happening:

1. I had to sit on the floor of the handicap stall. Fortunately, the floor looked relatively clean, and I'd brought lots of clean towels for just this eventuality.
2. I realized too late that I'd brought only 8 AA batteries for the battery pack. The battery pack takes 10 AA batteries. So I had to try the manual attachment for the first time.
3. As soon as I took off my top to pump, milk sprayed everywhere, including on my freshly-washed work pants.
4. Just as I was getting the hang of the manual pump, which doesn't do too shabby a job, actually, the lights went out. Yes, that's right, there's an occupancy sensor in the ladies' room. I tried flailing my arm under the stall door, to no avail. So I had to try and pump by the light of my cell phone. It was pathetic. I was sad. I only got about 2 ounces before giving up, but at least I didn't become engorged.

How silly of me to attempt to attend a real, actual, grownup workshop related to my job! And I'm totally skeeved out about pumping in the bathroom, even though I was careful not to touch ANYTHING. I'm so freaking tired of pumping. I sent Andrew to daycare with 3 bottles PLUS a jar of peas and some cereal today. I'm going to see how he does on 2 meals a day (one at daycare and one at home), instead of just one at home. Given his current pattern, even if he cuts down to two bottles per day at daycare, he'll still be getting breastmilk (from breast or bottle) at least 5 times a day: once or twice before leaving in the morning, twice at daycare, and twice in the evening.

One of these Wednesdays, I'm just going to stop at a nursery, buy some nice flowers, and plant them in the planters in my backyard, dammit. I want to do something fun.

Off to pump again, then pick up Roo...