To get a pump and nursing bra, I went to the hospital nursing store. It has a beautiful quiet room for nursing your infant. With around 4-5 other infants in the room, Stanley nursed for 30 minutes when we arrived and then I did my shopping. As I put Stanley in his seat to leave, he threw a fit. As I tried to pay, he was screaming at the top of his lungs. I just continued to pay, but the lady at the counter was worried. I'm not sure if she was more worried for Stanley or concerned that I was in a panic. Anyways, she suggested that he must be hungry or need a diaper change (both of which I had just done). She wanted him out of his seat to stop him screaming.
We venture back into the wonderful beautiful nursing room where the other 4 babies were quietly cooing and nursing. And...then there was Stanley. I sat for a second with a screaming kid thinking....'Hmm, how do I either have him stop crying or sneak us both out of here with all of my stuff without having the counter lady know that my baby is still screaming at the top of his lungs.' The second option seemed a bit harder, so I opted to try to stop him crying. As he screamed away, I kept shoving the nipple down him until he finally quieted down, nursed a bit, and then we could leave on our second try. The other newborn parents in the room kept looking at me like I was crazy--I'm sure they have or will be in that situation soon enough. One of the mothers whispered to me (she had previous kids) "We have all been there". At least I knew someone was on my side.
We have all been there and know we'll be there soon enough again. One time I was out for a run with Brian. We were 2 miles from home when he decided that he was really pissed off. No idea why. I tried nursing him. I changed his diaper. I tried nursing him again. I offered him the pacifier. I pushed his knees to his chest to get rid of gas. I tried carrying him (which was interesting since he was about 15 lbs and I had to also push the giant jogging stroller with one hand). And then I gave up and decided I could run 2 miles in 20 minutes if I just put the screaming kid back in the stroller. So I did. And since I didn't feel like running AND listening to him scream, I put my headphones back in my ears and ran home. You should have seen the looks of horror I got from all the other people on the steven's creek trail. I'm surprised the police didn't show up to check on child abuse. But, yeah, we've all been there.
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