always a mom

It is fair to say that once a person becomes a mother, their children are never far from their minds.  We may escape for a few hours for work or a few days for vacation, or even a few months while our children are in college, but our kids are a part of us that never goes away.  As a mom of a breast feeding infant, this goes beyond thoughts to actual physical importance.  I can not be away from K for longer than 4 hours with out pumping.  I lock myself in a room at work with a computer print out that says "busy" for 15 minute increments 2-3 times daily.  It's not uncommon for me to pull up in my parkinglot at home and remove my breast pump before going inside.  Needless to say, I am used to this after kid #2 and I've pretty much lost my modesty.  However, this week B. and I were granted a FABULOUS vacation by John Deere, one of his vendors, so we flew to Arizona for 4 days.  I,of course, had to bring my pump.  I got to the airport and expected there to be somewhere in the vast terminals for me to go to pump.  I was wrong.  The best I found was the corner of the bathroom by the changing area so I could rest my pump and plug it in to the wall.  Besides the germiness of a public bathroom, this didn't bother me.  However, the mother with her 8 year old that asked, "what is that lady doing to her boobs?", may have a different opinion of my options.  4 hours later, we were only half way into our flight.  It was time to pump... I asked the stewardess and she said, "hhhmmm, well we will figure this out."  The bathroom wasn't a very good option since the other 100ish people didn't want to hold their bladders for 20 extra minutes while I tied up the room.  And, we know they would have held their bladders longer since they would not want to be the first to enter the bathroom that was held up for 20 minutes.  So, she and another flight attendant stood with their back to me as I stood in the corner of the back of the plane.  The pump rested on the door handle which I did question a few minutes into the process since I didn't think the pump would make a really good parachute.  She reassured me that I was not falling out of the plane, I was securely stuck in the corner, kind of like time out.  I did learn a few things...
1. flight attendants get to pick their flights and most only fly a few times a week.
2. the pilot of the plane was a father but told the flight attendant that he liked flying better and "wasn't really into the whole parenting thing."  I wanted to cry for his child
3. The 2nd flight attendant blocking me, who happened to be male, had 3 children who were very colicky until they started feeding them goat's milk.  Interesting...
4. my love for my son is great, my love for breast feeding is decreasing