Making It Look So Easy

Last week I spent the afternoon out and about with Thumper, and we wound up being out long enough that I had to actually nurse him in public.  Now, for most people, the story would be, "...so I did.  The end," but despite going out with him pretty much every day, I'd managed to go almost seven months and only nursed in public once.  This time felt even more awkward, probably because I wasn't in a newborn haze.

You know how some people are always aware of the number of exits in a room?  Thanks to a number of family members with stomach troubles, I am the sort of person who always notes the public restrooms.  And, apparently, I've also been filing away potential quiet spots to feed my kid.

We were in Target.  When I was pregnant, I used that pharmacy.  Because my blood pressure meds were constantly changing, I spent a fair amount of time waiting around for scrips to fill.  Thus, I had a spot all filed away: the baby gear aisle.  At one end of the store, up against a large bank of windows with bench-like ledges.  Full of stuff like baby tubs that weren't frequently perused.  And since it was the baby section, it was as appropriate a place as any.

I was dressed about as conveniently as one could hope - Seahawks t-shirt with super-stretchy, low-cut tank underneath.  One end of the aisle faces the elevators, so I turned the stroller to block the view.  Even though I wasn't showing much skin I even hauled out a muslin blanket, just in case.

Now, at home, everything is just whipped out entirely so I had no practice in being discreet.  I'm sitting there fumbling with the clasp on my nursing bra (much higher than expected when I'm not looking) and a hungry Thumper is trying to help by rubbing his face against the outside of my shirt.  Eventually we get situated and he looks at the blanket like, "Are you kidding me?"

Now that Thumper's too old for swaddling, guess when these blankets get used?  In the stroller (not much in August) and... during peek-a-boo. So when you put a blanket near someone's head, well, every baby knows what to do next.

Luckily he was hungry enough that he was willing to forgive some weirdness.  We had just settled down when an employee rounded the corner.

Naturally, it was a teenage boy.  I looked down at Thumper, but I could see him in my peripheral vision.  He figured out what was going on and power-walked out of there.  Not a minute later, a 50-something man came around, looking at carseats.  He took one look and wheeled around.  These were already more males than I had ever seen in that part of the store.

On the whole, not bad.  It certainly could have been worse.  Then I came home and saw an article that had been making the rounds on Facebook that day: a bunch of photographs of women nursing uncovered in public.

I had to laugh.  I was definitely not casually nursing whilst picking out my sour cream.  If someone had taken a picture of me, they would have seen me furtively hunched over, spooked and miserable, while my bewildered baby flipped a blanket around.  I would totally like to be that smooth and non-awkward, but I'm definitely not there yet.

But I suppose I've broken the seal, as it were, of my home-feeding bubble.  I'll be less nervous next time, I know.  And if I ever attempt to do some shopping whilst nursing, I think I'll try Whole Foods.  I'll blend right in with all the other random mammal lactation.

Alas, this is how he thinks he's supposed to eat now