Fiasco

Yesterday was the longest I'd ever been away from Roy. My team had their big install for our launch yesterday, and the CTO got it into her head that the best way to make sure everyone had their full attention on it was to make all of us sit in one big room for the install. It was like one of those japanese dev sweatshops. Something like 30 people stuffed into a conference room with their laptops out.

The install went without a hitch, actually.... it was trying to get around being a breastfeeding mom while I was at the install that was a disaster.

The company has 'mother's rooms' for those of us who aren't trying to feed our babies with formula, and they're actually pretty nice. Curtained booths with comfy chairs, and they even have hospital grade pumps if you have your own accessories for them. The are not, however, set up for visiting employees, and since I was there for only the day, it was a complete mess.

The first time I tried to use the mother's room in CC3, it was no problem. Swung by the receptionist's desk, made sure there wasn't anyone who currently had the room reserved, went upstairs, slipped in and took care of business without a problem. However, two and a half hours later, I needed to go back, and when I returned, I encountered issues. It turns out the mother's rooms are supposed to be kept locked, and it was a fluke that I got in there without a key. So I had to go back to the receptionist's desk and ask for a key.

Problem one: the keys aren't kept with the receptionist, they're signed out permanently, and you have to go over to the fitness center at CC5 to get one. So I walked over to CC5 to see about getting a key. By this time I'd started to leak.

Problem two: the attendant obviously had never had to deal with breastfeeding before, because her first response was "Why don't you just use the locker room?" Well, that would be because I'm not too keen on hooking myself up to a contraption when anyone walking in can see what I'm doing. Breast-pumps are just kind of embarassing, not to mention that I wasn't looking forward to the idea of sitting on a hard bench for half an hour while I did the deed. So I refused, and she agreed to sign a key out to me.

Problem three: she didn't have any keys for CC3. So I asked for, and received a key for CC5. But when I went upstairs in CC5, the key didn't work. Couldn't get the door open, and by this time I was leaking badly, and pretty frustrated. So I went back downstairs, gave the inoperable key back to the attendant and told her to forget it, I'd just go find a huddle room or something. Trudged on back to CC3, and back to the conference room, and asked one of the other women who was working on the install if she knew of any huddle rooms nearby. Her suggestion was that I just use a bathroom stall - obviously, she'd never had to deal with pumping milk either. Like I was going to sit on a toilet with no seat back for half an hour while any woman walking in would get to hear the pump operating and wonder what the hell I was doing, not to mention that's not the most sanitary idea either. By this time I was pretty upset, and it was obvious, so she pointed me to a video editing room that wasn't in use behind the conference room we were staying in. I was leaking badly, humiliated, and nearly in tears, so I slipped into the editing room and tried to do my job. No real luck - wasn't comfortable, and was just so upset, I couldn't really pump.

So I gave up, went outside for a cigarette to calm down, and then said to hell with it and went back into the conference room, praying that install would finish soon enough that I could just go home and feed the baby properly.

Well my boss noticed I was upset, and he took me outside and found out what the problem was, and he handled it for me. Went to the receptionist, got facilities on the phone, and when that didn't work, got security and told them to get the mother's room unlocked. It took two tries, because the twits in security changed shifts, and didn't bother letting the new person on the shift know that I needed to have the room unlocked, but finally, two hours after I'd started looking for a way to get back into the room, they finally got it unlocked for me, and I was able to go in and relieve some of the pain I was in. Did I ever mention how painful engorgement is?

By the time I was done, the install was just about complete, and 15 minutes later we were released and I was able to get back to the truck and just go home. Exhausted, embarrassed, and missing my baby so bad, I was amazed I didn't just lose it in traffic on the way home.

But at least the install went off perfectly, and I wasn't going to have to repeat the process and go back up to Dulles today. And dad and baby did just fine without me, since I had a good supply stocked up in the freezer. I sure was grateful to get home though. Next time I have to go to Dulles, I'm going to make sure they have a key for the mother's room in the building I'll be in waiting for me at reception, and I'm going to refuse to go until they do.

Oh, and did I mention it had been so long since I had been on campus that my badge had expired, and I couldn't get through the front gate without a call to security? What a day.