Hello from Montreal

A quick hello from Hilton Montreal Bonaventure. I'm in Montreal to attend a conference, with several guests whom my company is hosting. We arrived on Sunday evening local time (that's Monday morning Malaysian time – Montreal is exactly 12 hours behind Malaysia) after travelling for 30 hours, inclusive of a 9-hour transit in Amsterdam. And I survived the first day of the conference without major jetlag :-)

I surprised myself by not crying buckets when I left. I had to send Yan Yan to the babysitter on the night I was scheduled to depart as hubby is worried that he couldn't handle both girls alone. Our babysitter was kind enough to agree to help out so Yan Yan will be spending her days and nights at babysitter's house till I return. I thought I would cry on the drive home but surprisingly, I didn't. As for Yiu Yiu, I had been preparing her for several days before I left – telling her that I'd need to away from home for a couple of days, that she'll stay home with papa while mei-mei stays with Aunty YL. She was fine with it, and even went around telling the babysitter's sister that I'd be "going to Canada to work." When we returned home after dropping Yan Yan off and I carried my luggage to the front door while waiting for the taxi, she asked me to carry her, saying, "Mummy, carry me for a while, because you will not be at home for so long." I cradled her in my arms and that's when she started sobbing. She was crying all the way until the taxi arrived when I passed her to my sister. When I was about to get into the taxi, she cried out louder and wanted a hug. And again, I was surprised that I didn't shed any tears, unlike the emotional parting during my trip to Hong Kong earlier this year. I don't know, maybe it's because my mind is too preoccupied with so many things, in particular planning and preparing everything that I need to bring home expressed breastmilk for Yan Yan.

Before I left, I added another 83oz to the stash of 260oz of frozen breastmilk, and about 45oz of chilled breastmilk for Yan Yan. At the rate she's consuming the milk, there should be more than enough to last her for the entire duration of my trip. I continued expressing while flying and due to the restrictions on liquid onboard aircrafts, I discarded 43oz of milk on the way to Montreal. I am planning to freeze all those expressed while in Montreal, and cart them home in frozen form. I've got my dry ice supply sorted out, and I'm really hoping that everything will fall into place and I'll succeed in carting them home. When I was breastfeeding Yiu Yiu, I've only carted home breastmilk from within Asia, so this will be my first time trying to bring home breastmilk from half-way round the world. I really hope everything will go smoothly, as I've spent countless hours thinking, calculating, strategizing, and communicating with hotels, airlines and airport authorities.

In the meantime, I'll have some scheduled posts coming up – on pregnancy and birth :-)