After all the troubles I had with getting Sun to nurse, we finally got it down last week such that Sun is nursing first thing in the morning, last thing at night, and at the 2am feeding. The other three feedings are bottles (one breast milk, two formula). So I am now pumping at most only twice a day. I opted for this schedule so that whether I was at work or not, things would be the same.

When I am at work, I am pumping with a Medela Pump-In-Style pump given to me by a dear friend. She GAVE me her pump, a pump she used four years ago while she worked as a new mom.

And that’s the funny thing. This pump already knows my office. You see, the friend who gave it to me once worked in my office. Technically, we met through work and became friends. But we became friends five seconds after meeting and both knew we had found something special in each other. Then she had the nerve to up an move far, far away and we don’t see each other or talk as much as we would like. But when we do talk, all time slips away and it’s like we talk every day.

Every time I grab the pump backpack or plug in the pump, I think of my friend and her journey with being a working mother and striking that balance that makes it successful. I draw strength from her — she who works harder than most people I know but could get away with working half so hard to keep up with the rest of us; she who wants the best for her son and her parents and struggles to want the best for herself; she who has been down this breastfeeding/pumping road I am about to walk down and knows it can be done.

And so I didn’t just inherit a breastpump, but I am also benefiting from the journey this pump has already been through with its previous owner. I’d like to think there is another mom-to-be out there to whom this pump will pass in another couple of years.