News from the field

or, my first stint as an anthro-mama

Mérida, Yucatan, México

Yesterday Baby Fausto and I flew to Houston to regroup with my mom before the flight to our final destination, Mérida, where I’d take three breakneck days representing the Discovery Channel for a project on Mayan ruins. I spent the days before leaving agonizing over the prospect of A) flying solo with baby (what, a trip without daddy?!), B) traveling internationally with baby, and C) attempting to work effectively and seem professional while taking breaks to nurse baby.

It’s now 24 hours since our plane touched down, and, I have to say, we’re rocking it! Fausto had a few meltdowns on the plane, but my important lesson was that babies have meltdowns and people just have to understand that. But today he and his Abuelita were amazing! I spent the day interviewing Mexico’s premier archaeologists specializing in the ancient Mayan sites of Yucatán while Abuelita and Baby strolled nearby. I took breaks every couple of hours to feed Fausto and it worked out perfectly! It helped tremendously that nobody thinks a thing about nursing a baby in public, so even dressed professionally and surrounded by colleagues, I could whip out a boob and feed the baby wherever we happened to be sitting. My (male) colleagues even came over to check in with me about work stuff while I nursed – all without blushing, averting eyes, or gawking. Imagine that in the U.S.!

Tomorrow we set off on another adventure – this time a road trip into the jungle to Chichén Itzá. More on that soon, and a photographic update later on.