Hunny we left the kids!

After starting a new business, two weeks into it, I needed a vacation! So my husband and I took a well deserved, once in a lifetime, all-expense paid trip to Puerto Rico. While my two weeks of beginning a new company weren't exactly demanding a vacation, the year it took to get my family where we are today was stressful enough to push most marriages over the edge! Here is a quick glimpse of our year in 2011.

January, we found out we were expecting our second child. February, my car was stolen from our driveway. March, my three year old had outpatient surgery. May, we were told Lee's company was closing his location in Melbourne, Fl and they didn't know what was going to happen to his job. June we spent in a dark fog unsure of what our future held. July, the company I worked for announced a major merger with another company, luckily Lee's employer found him temporary work BUT all the way in West Palm Beach, Fl. He began traveling immediately Monday - Friday. August, they officially offered him a permanent position in West Palm. September, we welcomed the newest addition to our family (while I was living in Melbourne and he was working in West Palm). October, the house hunt began in West Palm, and in December we moved and rented out our home in Melbourne.

With a year like that when the company Lee works for offered us an all expense paid trip to Puerto Rico for a week I had to look at what my marriage needed and make a very difficult decision. Should I stay or should I go? I had a 6 month old baby I'd never been away from for more than a couple hours, and a now 4 year old that I hadn't been away from in quite a long time. I will not lie to you, there were a couple nights I stayed up crying at the thought of leaving my kids to go away for a week. I knew Brice would be fine, because my parents were coming to stay with them and he LOVES his Grand mommy and Poppa. But Parker is so young, he doesn't know my parents like Brice does. I'm his mommy, all he really knows, and he looks to me for stability, comfort, and FOOD! That's right, I left town for a week while breastfeeding. The thought of not being there when he needed me broke my heart, but I also knew my husband needed me. We'd spent most the year apart and under extreme stress, so we needed this time together.

Now I needed to figure out how to make this week the least stressful for Parker that I could, obviously keeping him on breast milk was a huge part of that! I pumped for 3 months, ultimately storing over 250 oz of breast milk in my freezer. It was not easy but I was able to estimate how much he was consuming per day and multiply that by 6. I needed roughly 240 oz. Again I was only estimating because its hard to know how much your baby really is consuming. Fortunately I was fairly accurate as I returned with one whole day of milk still in the freezer! For any nursing moms looking to travel I have a few words of advice. Don't burry your head in the sand, it takes a lot of work to pump that much milk. The sooner you start to build your supply the better. If you can pump enough for what you think your baby will need to survive one day, find a supportive friend who's willing to test the waters with you, and have them spend the day with your little one feeding them the pumped milk while you pump every feeding. This will end up giving you the best idea of how much they are consuming and your friend can let you know how they respond to being bottle fed.

Now that I had Parker taken care of, the question became how do I survive and continue my milk supply? "Pump, Pump, Pump, get it, get it..." I needed a schedule so I didn't lose track of time in the sun and end up going too long between pump sessions. A schedule, along with a supportive husband who knew what "I've gotta go" meant really got me through that week. The first day of flying was tough. Another note for future travels is to pack batteries for a battery operated pump! Because I didn't have batteries for a pump, I could not express my milk for the plane ride. Little did I know the journey had just begun. After we landed we had to take a 1 hour bus ride to the resort, and may I add the bus we had was in dire need of repair! It sounded like we lost the transmission somewhere along the way. When we got to the resort I thought, "finally we are here, I'll be in my room in no time!" I was in so much pain that it hurt to breathe! I kept telling my husband: "You better get me to the room NOW!" I could just see us running into one of his co-workers or worse his boss and having them trying to hug me! The very thought made me want to cry in pain! Again, 'silly me', we still had to check in with the resort and then with his company's hospitality desk before getting our room. Finally the lady says, "Ok your room number is 1324. Oh you'll love your room, you're staying at the Marina, it's beautiful!" (I'm thinking shut up and tell me where to go) "All you have to do is walk down this hall, past the Casino, take the elevator to the last floor, take the walk way down to the funicular (what the HELL is a funicular, but I dont ask as I don't have time for a response), get off the funicular go to the next elevator, go up 3 floors and look for room number 1324!" Really, really it was the furthest possible room away, and all I wanted was a hot shower and to pump!!!!! By the way, our room was beautiful (see the photo of our view below). And a funicular is basically a tram like buggy that takes you down the side of a very steep cliff. But once we arrived I set times each day that I'd go down to the room and pump for 20 minutes or so. Traveling was tricky with the milk, and I'd advise always contacting your airline directly on how to travel with frozen breast milk. For my flight, I was able to check a cooler that I boxed up in order to get the milk home safely. The milk began to thaw so I had to use it within the first few days home, but I could always pump more for future storage.

I'm happy to report we had an amazing vacation and both boys did great with my parents! Parker required a little more attention during the night than I think my parents anticipated, but they were amazing. They walked & cuddled the little guy as much as he needed to soothe him off to sleep. When I got home he came right to me, looking to eat as though I'd never been away; that made me cry tears of joy. There is nothing as sweet as your baby wanting to be in your arms after a long time away!!

Here are a couple photos from Puerto Rico!

Lee & me in Puerto Rico

El Conquistador, the resort we visited

The View from our Room!