Inspired by Mary Louis's post, I thought I would share a lesson I had to learn the hard way this weekend. My parents invited us to one of our favorite restaurants on Saturday night, Firebirds (In case you haven't noticed, we are creatures of habit. We tend to visit the same places over and over again). The last time we went it was a relative success, so we were feeling pretty good about it. My parents had gone to a movie (a far-reaching fantasy for us, these days), and we were meeting them at the restaurant at 6. Zayd was ready to eat by around 5, and while I was feeding him, I mentioned to Nick that if we wanted to bring a bottle we should probably go ahead and thaw some milk from the freezer. Now, I will admit that I was not sure that we were going to need the bottle or that I wanted to go to the trouble, so I am not putting this on him. Anyway, after some discussion, we decided he wouldn't need to eat until 8, and we'd surely be home by then... Well, we were on our way, and my parents said there was going to be a 30-minute wait. Well, that turned into a 45-minute wait, which did not agree with my child. He was progressively growing fussier and fussier, and it seemed that the only way to calm him down was going to be to feed him.
Great plan, only we had no bottle and our table was in a very central, well-lit portion of the restaurant... So, I had a couple of options: 1. Be THAT mom who nurses anytime anywhere (I did have a nursing cover with me), 2. let the child be hungry, thus fussy and stress us out on our only evening outside the house or 3. Find a place/way to feed him. Well, we opted for option 3, and it led us to the bathroom, which had no seats, except the white porcelain ones... I decided the handicapped stall was probably my best bet, so I started feeding the child, standing, in the handicapped stall, in the bathroom of a crowded restaurant. Of course, he acted like he hadn't eaten in 3 days, but was not able to fully enjoy his meal because every time a toilet flushed (which was about every 3 minutes or so, due to aforementioned busy-ness), it would startle him, and one time a door slammed and he erupted into a full out cry. I won't even mention the "business" that was going on in the next stall over. And, my favorite part of this little adventure was my mom who was frantically lining the toilet with toilet paper, thinking I would want to sit on the seat fully clothed to feed my child. I was not THAT desperate! It is amazing to me that having a baby makes you do things you never thought you would do, and it makes you become resourceful in ways you NEVER thought possible. Conversely, something about them makes you forget the basics that you never would have forgotten in your past life like "be prepared!"
So, needless to say, some lessons are learned the hard way, and for me bringing a bottle to any outing anytime is now among those hard lessons learned.
Wow- I laughed SO SO hard at this post. I can just picture you in there. Just think- in a couple of years, little Zayd will be sitting on the toilet and look at you during the business going on in the next stall and say loudly, "Mommy, that STINKS!" :-)
ReplyDeleteThat is hilarious. And so true that you are going to be prepared 99.9 % of the time and never need everything in that diaper bag!
ReplyDeleteI vividly remember having to breastfeed Katy in a bathroom stall at a restaurant in Gulf Shores. I was sweating bullets but it was the only way to calm her down so I could try to enjoy my dinner.
ReplyDeleteEvie was in the NICU for two weeks so I had to pump milk for her while she was there, since I obviously couldn't be there 24/7. She never learned to properly latch despite my efforts. I pumped every three hours (even waking up in the night to do so) for two months and had to hang it up. While I was devastated that I was able to breastfeed like I did with Katy (whom I breastfed for 14 months) I will say that it is so much easier to just pull out a bottle out of the bag!
Kudos to you for breastfeeding! It is definitely not an easy task sometimes.
OMG that had me laughing out loud! I usually go out to the car in a feeding emergency, but in this weather I guess I would be in the stall, too! Curran also gets so distracted at every little noise, so I can just picture Zayd's little head popping up at every flush! And oh the smells! Too funny!
ReplyDeleteI have never nursed in public, but since we are flying this weekend and I don't want to take my pump/bottles, this weekend will be the first time. I've heard that nursing during the takeoff and landing can help their ears pop so I'm planning to do that. Good thing I am sitting next to Christopher and Katharyn so I don't weird out a stranger! :)
Speaking of bad eating out experiences, we went to dinner after church on Sunday night, which I knew was not a good idea but we went anyway. Curran was so fussy that one of us (John, me or Chris) had to be up walking with her the whole time and we rotated so we all could eat something. It was NOT fun.