Breast Pumps are Suspicious

Well, I made to Austin and back! Sean and Liam survived three days without me and I survived three days without them...Liam has such a wonderful daddy!

While I wasn't at the conference long, it was pretty successful. I made about a dozen contacts during my poster presentation and talked to many more people as well. I got a chance to see a little of Austin. The capitol building is beautiful and the riverwalk was also really nice. The weather was perfect: sunny, warm, cool breeze. I also got to see the famous Austin bats...millions of them come out from under the Congress St. bridge every night. My hotel was located right next to where the bats fly.

The trip home was slightly more "exciting" than I bargained for. First, there was the messed-up reservation for the airport shuttle, which forced me to take a taxi. Then there was the traffic jam and the apathetic taxi driver...he seem to didn't realize that the slower he drove the less his tip would be! (I am too used to aggressive Chicago cabbies.) So I eventually made it to the airport an hour before my flight. Plenty of time, right? Wrong! At the security checkpoint my breast pump made them nervous. They completely tore apart my backpack...even flipping through the pages of the board book I bought for the baby. I explained what the pump was and why I needed it. They tested it and all my other electronics for explosive materials. Now I'm not sure about the safety of using the pump for expressing milk...it certainly isn't sterile anymore. Once I got my bag all packed again, I sprinted to my gate and found a bathroom. This was my last chance to pump for about six hours! After I was done, I had just enough time to buy a sandwich out of a machine and scarf it down before my flight boarded! Whew! Needless to say, I really happy to be home now.

Liam was asleep in the car when Sean picked me up. I didn't wake him. When we got home, I carried him in to the apartment. He was groggy at first, but then couldn't stop smiling when he saw me. Liam slept in bed with us all night.

Yesterday we went to the laundromat to take care of the huge hamper of dirty diapers and other laundry. Liam and I took a nap together when we came home. In the afternoon we played out in the front yard for a little while. Then we had to take care of grocery shopping in the evening. Liam went to bed in his crib until 3am. He didn't go back to sleep for a couple hours. Sean and I both tried sleeping with him in the recliner. Eventually he came to bed with me for the rest of the morning. I can see it will be difficult to re-establish good sleep habits.