Though I work in a very large facility, it can still be rather difficult to find a good spot during then day when I need to, um, "make baby food."
For a while I was using the nursery. It makes sense, that's where I feed her on the weekends anyway. However, the chairs in the nursing room are designed for nursing. Or so I surmise. The top of the chair is angled so that you MUST be looking down at your child at all times. Personally, I find this quite uncomfortable. Even more so when I am not actually holding a baby. So I went looking for a new place to sit.
Most of our classrooms have only kid-sized chairs. Many of the doors are only half-doors and therefore offer limited privacy.
The church has wifi and I tote my laptop with me to answer emails or work on my scheduling, planning or music stuff. After a bit of trial and error, I finally found a good room that is rarely used, has a full door, grown-up chairs to sit in and a table to set my laptop up.
All was going well until one fateful Tuesday.
There I am, minding my own business, typing and pumping away when the door opens. I keep my back to the door and all is safely covered, but nonetheless I was rather startled and hurriedly asked the older gentleman standing in the doorway,
"Can I help you?"
"We have a meeting in here at noon."
I look at my watch. It is 11:45.
"Ok," I say. "I'll be out in just a minute."
He leaves and I turn to quickly finish and start putting all of my equipment away. The door opens again. Ahhh!
"Can you please wait until I come out?" I ask as patiently as possible while being rather frustrated and quite discombobulated.
The door closes again.
As I leave, there are at least three older gentlemen now milling about in the hallway. I hear a rather huffy, "thanks," as I tucked my head down and hurried back to my office.
Honestly, I don't think any of them knew what I was doing in there. Most likely, they just thought I was on my computer taking up their meeting room.
Shortly thereafter, I approached our HR director and asked for a bit of advice. Firstly, there should be a posted sign outside the door for when the room is scheduled to be in use. If I had known of the meeting, I would have chosen another location to lactate.
Secondly, she recommended my making a little sign of my own to post on the door.
If you work with me, you already are aware that I have need of a bit of privacy a couple times a day. Hopefully, if my little sign is displayed it will detract anyone else from just popping in. Hopefully.
9 comments:
Wow! I think it is SOOO cool that you are still pumping milk for your sweet one. Quite a dedicated mother...you rock!
And hopefully, that will never happen again...good thinking to have your back to the door...smarty! I think the sign is a good idea...there's always your car...it is a big parking lot to go "hide" in...hehe...although no where near comfy, or conducive to working on your laptop...unless you were in the backseat...but then there's the car seat...ok, I'm done :)
I don't think there is ANYWHERE that is comfortable for that task.
I'm so glad that those old men didn't know what you were doing. My brother-in-law walked in on me once when I was pumping and we were both so embarrassed! I hope your sign works and that people pay attention to it before walking in! Good luck!
Great idea about the sign. You're right though...those nursery chairs aren't the most comfortable. :)
Eek! If it were me my sign would say, "Please do not disturb, lactation in progress!"
Also, I'm so totally not modest about things. I just think, "this is natural and if they can't handle it it's their own problem". But I still try to be respectful. Anyway, good luck finding a better place!
Yeah--I have these awful flashbacks about the freezing cold storage room I would shiver in trying to eek out a few drops of milk...and getting walked in on and people having conversations with my while my electric pump went ka-su-UCK, ka-su-UCK, ka-su-UCK. I ended up making a sign as well, which helped but I'd still get a walk in every now and then. So sorry, but I champion you for pumping. It is not easy at all to do at work.
Oh, the things we put up with for our children.
Handled like a pro, sweety! :-)
Hey Anne! I love hearing your life's stories because I am about to be going through motherhood and you are an inspiration! I want to breastfeed for as long as possible, but it seems like we won't be making enough money for me to be at home the whole time. So it looks like I may be in need of a sign myself!
ack. That is no good. I can't think of a single place in that whole building that would be good. You gotta get a sign.
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