Sunday, December 20, 2009

Did you bring any food for the baby?

DH, the BP and I went for dim sum a few weeks ago, with a really great coworker, his spouse and a friend of theirs. Much oogling of the cuteness of the BP was done and then the feasting commenced.

After some time and playing with chopsticks, the BP started making her fussy, let's have a snack sounds. I turned her from facing outward to facing inward, dropped the strap on the nursing tank top (which is pretty much all I wear these days) and she latched on.

I guess I said something like "ooh you're hungry!" as she was getting settled, as the coworker asked me if I'd brought any food for her. As his spouse started to giggle, I just looked down at the BP, and grinned and said "yep, two containers!" He didn't quite get it, until looking back as his laughing spouse and back at me... Then I had to start laughing too. We had a nice giggle over that one. He knew I was pumping at work and he said something referencing that he's thought maybe I was pumping all the time.

I guess I'm more discreet than I realized... or even intended! Discretion in nursing isn't really my goal. I try to balance the BP's need for food with the DH's extreme discomfort with me doing any nursing in public (NIP) at all.

What's your funniest NIP story?

7 comments:

Whozat said...

I don't really have a funny story for you, but hopefully this experience will show DH what a non-issue it is for you to NIP! :-)

CaroLyn said...

@Whozat Indeed! One would hope... I think for him, it's an ingrained cultural machismo thing more than logic. We're working on it. He's gotten to the point where he agrees that it's better to NIP than let her scream or truck around bottles.

dcfitnessguru said...

I've been NIP since the beginning and I love to be discreet, actually. The fact that I was able to NIP at the bar during the game yesterday without fanfare makes me hope that those that did take notice might think to themselves that it's normal, not obtrusive, convenient, natural, beautiful, etc. The Packers lost (boo!) but maybe I showed a few people that nursing your baby doesn't have to mean boobies everywhere or sitting in a rank dive bar bathroom!

And FWIW, DH is coming around to all of the NIP that I do. I'm glad to hear Alex is too!

Unknown said...

How nice that your co-workers laughed good-naturedly. Maybe the reactions of others will bring DH around. Mine was uncomfortable around his family, otherwise he was fine (esp. on airplanes he was a big fan).

Melodie said...

Great story. I love the little collections we get of breastfeeding stories in public. I'm glad everyone was so good about it. Probably helpd DH feel better too. :)

Lauren Wayne said...

That's excellent! My favorite was when a good friend said, "Aww, he's so sleepy!" And I started laughing, because he never sleeps when we're out, and she's seen me nurse him a million times. I get that from strangers a lot, too, but this was the first time I had confirmation that even a close friend didn't notice what was really going on!

CaroLyn said...

@dcfitnessguru right, it's good to be discrete when you want to. I guess I don't feel like I should feel like I have to be discrete - I'm just feeding the baby!

@Bettina - nursing on planes is so great! The BP has been on.. six flight legs now and nursed happily on each. On almost every flight, we got comments about what a sweet, quiet baby she is.

@Melodie Ah, I wish. I think it's a Latino machismo thing. I think maybe in his eyes, I'm just loaning *his* breasts to her for a little while...

@Hobo_Mama That's great! Noone mistakes the BP for sleeping while nursing anymore because she flails so much! But when she was little, that happened a lot.