Aftermath of the nursing cover-ups

When The Man's parents called a few days ago, they asked eagerly what was in the package from their church. I had told them it had arrived, but hadn't opened it at the time; I figured that that gift might be nice to open when The Man was home. His mother was pleased with the gift, and rather mystified to learn that I wouldn't be using them.

"What does she do outside the home?" she asked.

The Man replied that I just nurse the baby, that I wasn't uncomfortable with it, because I was discreet.

"What about other people being uncomfortable?" she asked.

It's hard to tell one's mother in law that you don't give a rat's ass what other people think; I mean, if it makes someone else uncomfortable, they don't have to look. It's not rocket science, people.

Plus there's the fact that I'm not exactly voluptuous in the boob department, even when in the first few weeks of nursing; I think that a C cup would just barely fit right now, and I'll be back to a B in mere weeks once supply and demand levels are established. Between my clothes and the baby, there's astonishingly little to see. You'd really have to get close and personal to see anything other than my chest, and let's face it: to do that, you'll have to know me really well or risk getting whacked upside the head.

I really don't get the whole breastfeeding-is-scary-and-gross thing. I mean, as The Man said this morning ... this is what we are supposed to do. Not just the breastfeeding. The whole reproduction thing. This is what we, as a species, are supposed to do, from an evolutionary point of view. Our whole purpose on earth is to grow up, reproduce, and then die. And yet we spend SO MUCH of our lives not doing this, that when you do it, it suddenly seems weird. And breastfeeding is just part and parcel of that whole evolutionary thing.

Anyway. I shall keep the cover-ups for now. You never know when you might suddenly be transported to an Amish church with your hungry baby and need them. And I know a couple people who are expecting in the next while, and maybe they will want them ... as I said, they are beautifully made, it would be a shame to just get rid of them.

Until then I'll be the one with my kid hanging off my boob down at the local coffee shop, making people uncomfortable.