Oct 02 2006
EBM from Chicago and New York
My boss said, Isabel should be thankful to me for the effort of bringing back those ebm. Yes, it was really a hard work doing so.
First, the pumping is so troublesome. I had to wake myself up every 3 hourly during the flights to pump in the toilet. Luckily I travelled in business class, and it was the refurbished aircrafts with 1st class’s toilet (they removed 1st class seats).
On the ground, I also woke up 3 hourly (set alarm) at night to pump. During the day, I had to stretch a little due to meeting schedules.
I have to always plan ahead, when is the next best time for me to express. And that mental calculation and planning of my pumping schedule occupied my mind so much that I found it hard to concentrate on my meetings. Gosh! I dunno how my boss will react if she finds out that my mind wasn’t there most of the time. 
I missed one pumping session on the last day and resulted leakage that wet my shirt during lunch. I had to quickly go up to express, and got myself so stressed that I cried in the toilet sambil expressing my bm. Why so stressed? Coz my prez session was coming up next and I couldn’t get everyone waiting for me to finish pumping! Glad it is over now.
Next, it is the challenge of bringing ebm on flights. The new air travel policy of no liquid onboard really stressed me out.
My travel itinerary was:
- KLIA - Stockholm - New York (stopped over at Stockholm for 1.5 hr)
- Stayed in NYC for 1D2N
- New York - Chicago
- Chicago for 4D3N
- Chicago - New York
- New York - Stockholm - KLIA
I planned to transport chilled ebm from the flights and NYC to Chicago, freeze them and checked them in to KL when I return. Originally I planned to bring onboard the chilled ebm extracted from the last day, coz I knew from previous experience they will be frozen on time, but when I tried from NY to Chicago they didn’t allow. I had to check in, which I was okay coz the flight was pretty short.
But on the way back, I couldn’t just check in the small cooler box of chilled milk, it won’t last the whole journey. I then tried my luck by putting the small cooler box inside the big one filled with frozen ebm and covered with dry ice.
On the day of departure, my colleague ordered 2 bricks of dry ice for me. They are so huge that almost failed screening at the airport, coz Continental Airline has the restriction of maximum 4 pounds dry ice only. Whew!
I’m glad I tried this option. It worked! When I reached home, there is still one small piece (around 3 oz) of dry ice left. And the dry ice was so powerful that it actually froze the ebm inside the smaller cooler box! All my ebm are still hard as stone! I am so so so happy about it! 
Isabel, you owe me this, and you also owe the uncles and aunties for the favour they rendered us.
Ian, in fact, I did the same for you when I had to travel to Chiangmai and Bangkok for 1 week focus groups 2 years ago. I didn’t know dry ice works, so I hand carried the frozen ebm onboard - 40+ kilo, you imagine. Mama loves you equally. Don’t get jealous, okay? 
Oh, me and my ebm… guess I am getting too obsessed by it already. Probably I’m seen as a freak!
Related Posts
The greatest love of a mom..! Yer a supermom..i doubt i would be able to do that.. travelling and expressing milk at the same time. Well done..!
whoa…that’s quite a feat!
you are so keng chau
whoa…salute u lehh…if I’m travelling, I doubt I’ll be able to do so…dried ice, hmm good idea…my next trip I’ll try that out
I salute you! I don’t think i will continue breastfeeding Anne if i work like you!!!
You have done a great joB!! Your kids are lucky one!
Salute salute… you are really one great mum…
Oooo…dry ice. Where can we get this?
Anyway, congrats on your success
* oops *
Really ‘paiseh’. I’m just doing what I should for my kids, nothing to shout about.
shooi, I think dry ice is not available easily. My colleague and the hotel duty manager has to order from a specific supplier to deliver it just before my departure. I think it is only worth the hassle if you are flying for such a long time - in my case, from packing of ice box till re-opening it –> c. 33 hours.
Well, then you are a wonderful “freak”. Lol! Your kids are very fortunate indeed.
MG, I hope they appreciate it.
[...] 2 years ago when I traveled to US when Isabel was still a baby, I had to bring back frozen EBM in more than 30 hours journey. I did it twice. Once very successful, once nearly failed (due to not enough frozen milk to fill the space) as some milk already thawed. The tips in the above article won’t help. It was a total new experience for me. If you want to know how I did it, read EBM from Chicago and New York. [...]