Nursing in Public
When I was nursing K, those words were sometimes enough to make me stay home. I used a nipple shield with him for the first 3 months. He also took forever to finish a feeding. Maybe it wasn’t really forever, but 45 minutes is a long time when you are sitting at the DMV or in Burger King. As I’ve said before, A is a different nurser completely. He eats a lot more often, but he is much faster. Compared to K’s 45 minute nursing sessions, A is an olympic sprinter!
With K, I was usually able to plan my outings and errands around his rather predictable 3–4 hour eating schedule. A has been completely different. Until he was 8 months old, he was still eating at least every 1–1.5 hours. Since then, he’s spread his daytime feedings out to about every 2 or 2.5 hours. Because of that, I’ve had to nurse in public far more often than I did with K. In fact, just this past Tuesday, I had the opportunity to nurse in our local Applebee’s. Many of you who follow breastfeeding news know that Applebee’s hasn’t had the best publicity in regards to nursing moms. I am pleased to say that no one batted an eye. A was nursing when the waitress brought our food. Then, when she came back to check on us, he was still nursing. So, while others have had other experiences, I have to say that Applebee’s is one place that is on my list of “thumbs up to nursing” places in our area.