We took a little mini vacay from Los Angeles to San Diego. So we weren't on the road for very long. Just about 2 hours or so. Typically, I like to pump every 3 hours and I had just pumped before we left. So I didn't have to pump again until after we checked in and got comfortable in our room. Our room was equipped with a small fridge. So that was perfect for keeping the milk I pumped cool. I had brought icepacks with me to take with me the next day. We planned to visit the San Diego Safari Park. I had called the hotel ahead of time to see what arrangements we could make to keep my icepacks frozen. They told me that they had a walk in freezer and that all I would have to do was put all my ice packs in a bag and label it with my room number and they would freeze it for me. When I checked in, I again asked about the freezer and they confirmed the same information with me. They took my icepacks and placed them overnight in the freezer for me. I let them know I would be back in the morning to pick them up.Not gonna lie, I was concerned that somehow someone was going to drop the ball and I was looking for a back up plan for just in case. Luckily I saw an ice machine just down the hall from our room and I was already of thinking of ways I would store ice in my little cooler.
The next morning I go to the lobby to pick up my icepacks. It was a new person from the night before in the lobby. He looked up the notes in the computer system and confirmed what the previous person told me. That my icepacks were in a walk in freezer. He paged for someone in housekeeping to go get them and bring them to the lobby. 10 minutes passed. He got a call back saying they didn't have any icepacks in the freezer. He insisted they look again. Another 10 min pass and once again they told him there was nothing. This is where panic started to hit me. I kept thinking "How am I going to keep this milk cold?! It's like 90 degrees out and this milk will spoil asap. What am I going to do? I an NOT dumping this milk!" The man at the front desk told me that some employees didn't know where the walk in freezer was but that he knew and that he would personally go look but that he couldn't go because he could not leave the lobby unattended and everyone else was in a meeting. He called up housekeeping again and spoke to another lady who said they found some packs and would bring them to the front. 5 minutes passed and she came into the lobby with a box of who knows what. I don't even know what they were but they didn't look like icepacks. I had to tell them that was not my bag of icepacks. Another maybe 10 minutes passed and he found another employee who knew where the walk in freezer was and he went in the back and emerged 10 min later with my bag of icepacks. THANK GOD. All in all, I waited about 40 min in the lobby for my icepacks. It was a huge inconvenience because my whole group was waiting outside for me as we were leaving to go to the Safari Park. And of course our car and my sisters car was packed with impatient crying kids.
This whole finding the icepacks thing took so long that it was time for me to pump by the time I got in the car to head to the Safari Park. I didn't want my group to wait for me in a hot parking lot while I pumped, nor did I want the first thing for them to do once we entered the park was to wait for me to pump before they could see any of the attractions. So I decided to pump in the car on the way over there.(I was NOT driving) I realize it probably wasn't the safest thing to do. In the event we were in an accident I probably could have gotten seriously injured. However lucky for us, the hotel wasn't that far from the Safari Park and we weren't even driving for that long. I was able to pump discreetly while not making anyone wait for me. I finished pumping just as we pulled in, so it all worked out. (This was a first for me and probably a last too)
I had looked at the Safari Park's website ahead of time to see what kind of accommodations they had for nursing mothers. I read that they had a couple of first aid stations that had private rooms that some mothers use for pumping and nursing. In theory that sounded great. However once you get there you will know that this park is HUGE. And only having two locations dedicated to pumping/ nursing mothers isn't really convenient. (This is my second visit so I already knew before going that these rooms weren't going to work) But if you recall what I did in my travels last month, I used handicapped bathroom stalls to pump. This was going to be no different. Only it would be at a zoo. With no air conditioning. And it was about 90 degrees out. Plus Id be doing it with children some of the time.
PUMP BREAK #1
PUMP BREAK #2
Another 4 hours later was my second pump session. This time I was in a totally different area of the Safari Park. And this time I also had my two daughters with me, ages 7 and 18 months. I already knew this session was going to be more challenging because I had some of my children with me. This bathroom did have a handicapped stall but it did not have a changing table. The stall was also MUCH smaller. I had to get creative. Luckily it had a little windowsill where I placed the pump. It was at the perfect level too so that I could stand to pump. Otherwise I would have been forced to put it on the floor and had to hunch over while pumping. Not fun. By this time it was around 4:00 in the afternoon and it was HOT. As I was standing there pumping, beads of sweat were dripping down my face and well, pretty much everything else too. My 18 month old was getting very impatient in the stroller. I had to try desperately to entertain her long enough for me to be able to get a decent pump session in. I gave her everything from my phone to toilet paper to play with. (She liked the toilet paper better lol) My other daughter was just bored and complained the whole time. Yippee. Thankfully no one else needed to use the handicapped stall. I was able to get a 20 min session in. By the time we left it was time for another pump session. We had already checked out of the hotel as we were only staying for a night, but someone else in our group was staying an extra day. So I used their room bathroom and had one last session before heading home on another 2 hour car ride back to Los Angeles. My icepacks were still cold. The milk was still good. And by the time we got back home and unloaded the car, it was time for another session. Everything worked out perfectly and I never missed a pumping session. Im so proud about that.
