The Time I Napped in the Lactation Room at Work

To be fair, I had a baby three months before and had every right to be in the lactation room…. I just wasn’t using it for its intended purpose.

The year is 2012 and I just had my 2nd baby three short months before. I had already been back at work full-time for the past three weeks… and I was tired. Tired from sleepless nights feeding the baby. Tired from getting the kids ready for daycare in the morning. Tired from trying to focus at work. Just… tired. I had been using the lactation room every day, three times a day to pump the life-sustaining milk for my baby’s meals. And my milk supply was dwindling each day. I had no idea why. But I felt responsible and guilty.

For my first-born, I had many days where I had to rush home at lunch to nurse my child, because I hadn’t pumped enough milk the day before to get her through the day. But this time, it was happening faster and more often - the constant worrying if there would be enough milk for the day ahead. So, after three months of nursing my baby, I decided to switch her to formula. And guess what? She loved it. She ate it up like an oreo shake at Appleby’s. And the great thing was I no longer had to stress about my milk supply, or leave my desk three times a day to pump. Or did I…. ?

No one at work knew that I had switched to formula. And they were all used to me pumping three times a day, like I did for our first child… for 10 months. So would it be strange for me to leave my desk at 2pm and not come back for 30 minutes? Heck no. Could I use that time to take a nap? Absolutely. Was I grossed out that I was napping on the floor of a room where women pumped milk out of their breasts? Decidedly so. Did I care at that moment? Not at all.

So there I was, taking an afternoon nap and feeling so happy that I was finally getting the undisturbed rest I needed. And you better bet I kept napping for many weeks. I don’t feel guilty about it at all. I was simply taking care of myself. And if there is anything I’ve learned over the years, if I don’t take care of myself, no one else will. It’s up to me (and all of us, really…. are you taking care of yourself??).

So, about a week after I started napping in the lactation room, I learned why my milk supply was dwindling so fast. I was pregnant. Again. Yep, I had two babies in one fiscal year. Take a moment to wrap your head around that one and maybe I’ll tell you some stories about that later. …