An amazing team of people blessed me with an entire Key Lime Pie today. This means that these people know me and love me, because to love me is to feed me pie. Yesterday, I was distraught from learning that Emporium Pies no longer sells their Limelight pies, and the tragedy of the matter is that it’s not coming back until next year! I was beside myself, and a wonderful woman named Suzanne made it her business to bring joy back into my life through the medium of pie.

For starters, the pie looks heavenly. Look at the whipped cream job and the nice sized lime fruit in the middle. From the bottom up, the crust was a very traditional graham cracker crust. It was extremely crumbly and had a true cracker taste. The filling was so light and airy, it was almost like a custard. The chef that whipped up this pie was skillfully adept and created a masterpiece. It was not the sweetest nor the tartest (qualities I absolute love) pie, and the texture was almost too fluffy for me, but it satisfied my craving for the KLP (key lime pie. Yes, I’m abbreviating my favorite food). The cream was textbook perfect. Basically, the entire pie was perfect. Almost too perfect, so I’m giving this pie three out of five stars, but I give the folks that bought it for me an entire galaxy!

I cleaned out the “baby” cabinet a few weeks ago, filled with mismatched bottle lids and sippy cups, and threw away some old pump parts which reminded me of the time I pumped in the Admiral’s Club. Soon after I returned to work from maternity leave last year, I had five or six business trips lined up in a row. I was on trip number three, which made it very challenging to maintain my desire to feed Miss C an exclusively breastmilk diet, especially since my original stash spoiled on New Year’s Eve.

On this particular trip, my flight left a 6:30am, and I woke up way too late to do everything I needed, including pumping. When I arrived at the airport for my four hour flight, I knew I needed to pump before we were wheels up. I asked the gate attendant for a suggested location, and she pointed me towards the family bathroom. I headed there, glad I was going to pump and dump, because I was yet to pump in a bathroom after baby #3. After my experiences with the boys, I now have a different approach and perspective. When I’m out of the home and need to pump, I ask business owners, “where is your mother’s room,” with confidence and an unapologetic attitude, and space is made for me. Six years ago, with Gadget, I barely left the house with him, afraid to have to nurse in public.

Disgusted by the germs in the bathroom, I decided when I landed I would pump in a cleaner, nicer environment. As I deplaned, I saw signs for the Admirals Club, which I vaguely remembered having access to via my corporate Airpass membership. I marched up the club’s lobby desk and asked for their mother’s room, and was shown to a stone lined private locker room, which was heavenly compared to the previous facility. Even though I had to pump standing up, it was an upgrade I appreciated.

Throughout my years as a mother, I have found the best places to breastfeed are: fitting rooms, the mother’s room at Babies R Us, the mother’s room in nice department store like Bloomies, private lockerooms, and drumroll please, the Admirals Club. I love the privacy they offer, but I am not ashamed to whip out my nursing cover and feed baby anywhere. It took several years to muster this strength. I never breastfed Gadget in public. Ever. But after living in Manhattan with two young boys, I decided it was better that strangers were uncomfortable instead of me, and I used my stylish cover to nurse the Lion on the go. With baby number three, I realize that finding a clean, safe place to pump is not at all unreasonable, and I expect to find one when outside of house. I assume I will be accommodated in some form, and this sense of expectation has worked well. I used to sheepishly, almost embarrassingly assume I should pump in the bathroom. But not anymore! I breastfeed Miss C until she was ten months old, and proudly look back at the experience and appreciate the confidence I gained by giving myself permission to feel comfortable pumping outside of the home without limitation.