A day out

Can I just say, as a new mom, how appreciative I am of the establishments that have baby- friendly tools for parents to utilize. Until becoming a parent, I didn't realize how inconvenient a lot of things were. I'm sure as Ava gets older the list will get longer... or hopefully more establishments will become accommodating.  In my last post I mentioned some of the challenges I had with exclusively breastfeeding. Today I went completely out of my comfort zone with my three week old. I was shopping with my husband, Ava started getting fussy, and I knew she needed to be nursed. I asked Justin to pass me my cover, and sure enough I just grabbed Ava, stuck her under my cover, and allowed her to go to town!

The first few seconds I was nervous. People were looking, Justin was red in the face, but I just kept reminding myself, I am not violating anyone or anything. There is nothing vulgar about feeding my baby. The nerves pretty much went away for both Justin and I. Allowing myself to be that "opened" in a public setting was not something I was comfortable with. I'm glad I am on my way to overcoming that feeling entirely. A couple things I appreciated on our day out (aside from being able to openly nurse) were:

A nursing room is located in the mall that we shop at frequently. It was such a spacious room. Justin was able to sit in the rocking chair with Ava (once I was finished nursing her) while I packed up her dirty cloth diapers. Usually our mall trips last a few hours, so I came back to this room every hour and a half to nurse our daughter.

These secure baby seats! We topped off our night with dinner at The Olive Garden  and immediately after seeing that we had an infant, the hostess asked us if we'd like a baby seat. I'm sure a lot of restaurants have them, but I've only gone to two restaurants that have actually offered them. I was able to keep my sprout close to me while I ate, I could have nursed her if need be, and she didn't have to sit on the table. The baby seat came with straps on each side to secure your infant in. 

I know I'm brand new to the parenting world, but I'm quickly noticing how much easier things are when there are child friendly tools around to help out.