My first-born was either not willing to, or not able to, nurse. Since I was intent on feeding her breast milk, I rented a high-grade pump. When she was about 6 months old, we went to Reno, Nevada, for her dad’s conference. I took the pump, but not the car adapter, because we were flying out and not renting a car and also because I had more than enough to pack already – diapers, pump and all related equipment, toys, stroller, etc.
Well, it turned out that we met up with a friend while we were out there. He had a car, and offered to drive us around Lake Tahoe. Then we encountered a bit of a problem. When we got about halfway around, my daughter started to get hungry, and let’s just say I really NEEDED to pump. We tried stopping at a few places, but they all claimed not to have any outlets I could use. I tried looking in restrooms, even, with no luck. What could we possibly do?
Finally, we decided to stop at a bar/restaurant in California. We encountered the same problem as before (“no outlets”), but we stopped anyway for some refreshments. We were seated at a table, and were trying to figure out a solution to our problem. Well, one of the people with us noticed that there were cords hanging down from the light fixtures at each table. She followed the cord at our table down and saw that it went behind a wall panel. We simply pulled out the edge of the panel, and I plugged the pump in to the other part of the outlet. I leaned forward while holding the pump under my shirt. While everyone else at the table enjoyed their sodas, I pumped my child’s next meal. I don’t think anyone could really see anything, but at that point that was not a concern to me! I finished pumping and was able to give my daughter her bottle. We were both (all) much happier after that!
