Keeping Up With The Bandermann's: Brynn's milestones, New York iPhone pics, and Transporting the MILK (aka super long story)

A couple of milestones I want to write down and remember...

Today Brynn started CLAPPING! She has been bringing her hands together more, but this morning when we got her up she was in the best little mood. She was laying there on her changing table and all of a sudden she just started CLAPPING! I couldn't believe it! I started yelling for Ryan to come see her. Then when she was sitting on our bed she started doing it again...like clapping so hard it was making the clapping noises! Tonight we went to a wedding and I think she spent half the wedding clapping. HAHA! It's funny how such a little gesture can get us so excited. =)

Since Halloween Brynn has been down to just 2 naps a day...her morning nap (usually from about 9 to 10:30) and her afternoon nap (1-3:15ish). We noticed for about a week or two before that when we put Brynn down for a catnap around 5:30 she just didn't want to go to sleep. Sometimes she would fuss and sometimes she would just lay in there and play and make noise. I was a little worried about how she would do to stay awake from 3:30 to 7:30 or 8, but she has done really well!

Here are a few pictures from the trip that I had on my phone...get excited because the bottom one is the best!

Me, Kyle, and Sarah outside MACY's!

Kyle and I on the top of the stairs in Times Square...what a good view from up there!

The boys after the race.

And...get excited...I know you all have been DYING to know how I did "pumping" while I was away. I'm going to stop right here and warn you that this is the LONGEST I've ever written about anything and if you don't want to hear about me breast-pumping then stop now. HA! Seriously though, Uncle Bruce, I would stop now and skip to the bottom. =)

I pumped four times a day...the morning and before bed pumping sessions weren't too bad because I was able to pump in my hotel room (my poor brother and sister-in-law...I know they are sick of hearing my pump and also sick of having to "avert their eyes" because I was doing my business on the hotel bed. If you know me, you know I'm not very modest...so you could frequently hear me saying "uhhh guys...don't look over here...I'm whipping them out." HA!) I also had to pump around lunchtime and again around 5:00. We would always be in the city at those times, so I would just have to carry my pump with me (the kind I have is awesome...it all fits in this black bag that almost looks like a big purse) and find a bathroom to pump in. That part was not very fun. My pump has a battery pack so I was able to hide out in a stall, but trying to get all the parts hooked up, get my jacket and shirt off, keep things off the disgusting bathroom floors, and position my book (yes, I had to do SOMETHING while I'm sitting there) was a little tricky. Just picture all that, will you? And in case you are wondering, my pump also has a convenient ice pack so the milk would stay cold until we got back into the hotel room. So...since my milk can stay refrigerated for up to 7 days I just kept a collection in some plastic containers we brought for the trip. By the end of the trip I had about 120 oz. ready to take home. (Let me also explain why I wanted to bring the milk home. First, the main reason I pumped on the trip was so my milk suppy would stay up so that I could continue to nurse when I got back from the trip. Several people I know suggested I just pump and dump (aka do all the work to pump, and then just throw the milk away because it would be too hard to keep up with it and take it on the airplane, etc.) Well...that milk to me is liquid gold...not only do I not have to buy formula, but if you pictured me in those nasty bathrooms pumping away, then surely you understand WHY I did not want to throw all that hard work away! HA! Fast forward to the last day when we were ready to head home. HOW do you get 120 oz. of breast milk on an airplane? Well, the TSA has special guidelines for breast milk and you are ALLOWED to take more than 3 oz. (remember how you can't have more than 3 liquid oz. unless you check it?) of breastmilk on the plane. So...we packed the cooler with ice and put all the milk in the cooler and headed to the airport. When we went through the security line I told them about the cooler with the milk and they were like "okay, come over here and let us check it." The guy opens the cooler and does this whistling sound. Then he yells to his fellow worker "uhhh George, we have a LOT of MILK over here!" HAHA! So George comes over and they got out testing strips and that was that...or so I thought. Then because I had all this liquid they said they had to check me. I got the FULL security pat down. It seriously took the lady 5 minutes to explain all the directions including "maam when I get to your sensitive areas I'll use the back of my hand instead of the front. Would you rather do this in a private security room?" Uhhh...NO...just get it over with. So after all of this mess we became quite good friends with our security people and they even gave us special TSA tape to tape up the cooler!