[breast pump pumping]
They're like on the floor, always cleaning and stuff. So
I'm like sympathetic to that. But on the other hand, like I'm
tired of being walked in on, you know.
Any of your co workers or just yeah. Oh yeah, mostly
men.
Hey, I have a question if the little connect—the little round
part that connects to the pump if that seems dirty, that's
okay, right?
I think it's fine if it's sort of dusty or something.
Yeah, it looks like it got lint on it. I'm not sure what—
Do you have one or two?
This was my first and he's just over three months old now.
Congratulations.
Thank you.
Welcome to motherhood.
Yeah.
You found a way and...you made it. Yeah.
I was doing some math because her dad is trying to figure out
how many days of my life I'm gonna spend hooked up to this
machine. And it's a lot. It's a lot once you start really
thinking about it even twice a day. Work for like 20 minutes a
piece. I think it ends up being something like four full work
weeks out of the year.
Just don't tell my boss.
Did I just see Margaret come through?
Hi, Rachel.
Hi. How are you?
I'm, good. How are you?
Good.
Does anyone else have one boob that's like significantly larger than the other one now?
No, but one always gets more milk.
Yeah, and it didn't used to. It's just started.
For me always.
They turn into pancakes.
Yeah. Mine were never that big. Anyway, so...
Me neither.
...executive chief of staff. So I do mostly policy work.
Yeah.
What about you?
I'm the council.
So I do a lot of the crime legislation.
Did you get into the house daycare?
No, out in Alexandria.
Me too.
This was your first week.
Yeah, it was hard for me because I was like crying bad.
Oh my gosh. It's incredibly hard. I was shocked by the whole
daycare rigmarole.
I heard of people who pay even, you know to like get on waitlist prior to
pregnancies. Someone told me when I first moved to DC that
they wait three years
to have babies because of the pre-k three. And I think
goodness, pre-K. Oh my god. She's so happy. That was a
happy moment. Oh, the babies have met.
I'm gonna puke—can you show me the picture?
We'd love to—
I love it.
...that her hands on that double decker bus.
We stopped putting her in socks. Because they're too comfortable.
That's amazing and terrifying.
Yeah, no, I know. We haven't baby proofed enough.
We captured I think his first laugh.
Isn't it an amazing feeling of elation.
I just remember that when I had my baby, my mom was like, don't
breastfeed more than three months, because it's really
hard. And I just think, I don't know, there's, there's like so
much information out there that's very helpful, but then
there's also sort of this expectation that you kind of
have to or and then if you're not like, you're coming up short
for your baby. And I feel like that's pretty unfair. Yeah,
yeah. Because, you know, your, your health and your like
happiness is really important during that early time period too.
Yeah, it is extremely, it's hard. It's time consuming. It's,
you know, an invisible leash. You can ever get away from the
baby for more than like two or three hours.
Oh, totally.
I didn't realize like how much of a commitment that would Be
that, you know, I just couldn't I couldn't have like half the
day to myself.
Did you guys get maternity leave at where you work?
I got FMLA when I worked for the Hill, which was great. But my
second job after I left, they didn't have a policy
because we didn't meet the threshold. So I had to use up
all my sick. And then I ended up having to take out a personal
loan to be able to pay pay bills and stuff. So...
It's heartbreaking.
But FMLA also doesn't pay, right? So it's still leave without pay...
Right. So I just saved up all my second vacation, and I had
partial pay for my maternity leave. But then I ended up I had
health complications. So I ended up having—Margaret knows.
...extending my maternity leave a bit, and then that was totally
unpaid.
And that's terrible. Yeah, because how many people can
afford not working? right? Exactly. If I could afford not work? I
just wouldn't work. Great.
Right? Exactly. You don't want to sit in a pumping room three
times a day. I actually, kind of like the break...
House will come to order.
Like, on days when I'm not too busy, it's kind of nice to have
a little reset.
[breast pump machine pumping]
I had a friend who pumped in a closet, you know, off site meeting.
I had to go to a day long meeting at this one organization
and they didn't have an extra room. Or at least they said they
didn't. So they said I've had to go to the bathroom to do it. So
I just like laid out paper towel everywhere, I used
all their paper towels.
I mean, that's like the worst nightmare. Like,
if you're stuck somewhere without a pump and without a baby.
Right, and so like it's so nice that in our workplace that they have these
pumps and that a room is set aside.
Actually, most of my friends who went back to work stopped pumping. As soon as they
went back to work because they just didn't have time.
...that has resurfaced at State. So actually, like a bunch of
moms got together and like we have a nursing moms listserv.
And we're like everyone submit that we need them to pay to ship
milk home. Like, we've all like flooded their inbox with it.
Wow. And and they started working on it and then
separately, like I had my own like one woman campaign to have
them approve it before the regulations were like officially
done for the whole department. And it took three months and
they finally said yes.
Hey, way to go.
Yeah, that's great. Thank you.
Well done.
and the aftercare, you just do the pickups...
...provide 12 weeks paid leave for all federal employees for the birth of a
child or adoption of a child. By providing this
leave, studies indicate it can prevent the departure of over
2,600 female employees per year. Madame speaker, I'm pleased to yield two minutes...
....every drop, that's the goal.
She's drinking so much milk like, I can't keep up with her.
I eat so much when I'm...
Oh yeah, same.
Because you know you need more extra calories than when you're pregnant, when you're nursing than when you're pregnant.
And you need to like, the energy because I feel drained if I don't.
Yeah, so draining.
Although I hate washing pump parts.
I know.
Okie dokie, talk to you guys later.
After we finally got pregnant and had a kid they're finally going
to pass some sort of family leave.
Actually how is it being funded? Do we know?
I don't.
Big, but who cares? I mean, honestly, I feel like there's plenty of money to
be had for this, I really do.
There's enough money for spaceforce right?
That's right.
See you guys.
Bye.