What am I, a cow?

No, I'm bad ass. And yes, you'll probably see me making a lot of references to cows. I've always loved cows, (which is why I don't eat them) and now, I have so much more respect for them and their chichis. And this past Saturday night, I totally felt like a cow! Because...drum roll please...I expressed milk from my breasts with my hands! Yup. Sans-pump. I didn't think I would be able to do that. I've heard some women who are all crazy natural and shit, talkin' 'bout how easy it is to just express with your hands and not use a pump. I'm not really into it, to be honest, but my husband and I were at church, and had an impromptu invitation to dinner so we decided to go. See, it's just not the same anymore to get up and go on last-minute outings, because we either need to find a babysitter, bring the baby with us, and/or I also have to be mindful of how long I'll be staying out, because I need to pump every 2 to 3 hours. Otherwise my chichis will start to hurt. And that's exactly what happened on Saturday. When I got in the car on our way to the restaurant, I realized that I should carry my small, travel size pump with me in our diaper bag, just in case there are days when we need to stay out longer than I anticipate. I really needed to get some milk out because it was getting painfully uncomfortable. And Zoë had already eaten and was asleep, so I couldn't really breastfeed her right then. So I decided, while my husband was driving and I was in the back seat with baby--oh yeah, we also had to take her to the restaurant with us ha ha! We've become "those people", and this was her first restaurant outing. She did pretty good until the end but it was time to go anyway because it was her bed time. I'm sure some of the patrons were side-eyeing us. Where was I?

Oh yeah, so I decided to try this whole expressing with your hand business, and it worked! I was able to pump some milk out myself into a bottle from both breasts. I thought it was gonna be all lame trickles but no, it actually dripped out fast the way it does with the pump. I only got about 1 1/2 to 2 ounces, but hey, I did it! I was proud of myself. Although I probably won't be doing that much unless I reeeeeally need to. I didn't enjoy it (although I don't particularly enjoy pumping either, but, you get it), it was harder to do that than with the pump. And it seemed to take longer. And it started to hurt after a while. I'll stick to my handy (and quick) double-breast pump thank you :-)