Eating Sand

When my youngest was eight months old, we went to the beach one weekend to enjoy the end of Summer weather. The boys had a blast, Hollis got dunked by some waves, and Holden ate about a pound of sand. Unfortunately, we didn't find any diamonds in the diaper.

I thought I'd write about our trip, but not just because of the excuse it gives me to post super cute pictures of my kids. Something notable actually happened while we were there. About 30 minutes into our outing Holden stopped eating sand and insisted that I nurse him. Little H was quite the stubborn little guy at 8 months olds (still is) so everyone hears that he is hungry and only Mommy milk will do RIGHT NOW! So, with everyone near us on the beach staring at my shrieking child, I retreated into our beach tent & nursed the baby.

Side note here - Nursing Holden was like nursing an octopus - the hands and feet were everywhere - and we always engaged in a tug of war over the blanket covering my breast. Holden thought that Mommy should flash the entire world so that he could look around and occasionally stop to chat with and smile at passers-by. I preferred to have the world think that there was actually a sleeping baby under the blanket and not gape at my ta-tas in amazement and horror. Holden always seemed to win.

This time I actually succeeded in keeping myself covered and was congratulating myself on my victory over the shrieking octopus when the male half of a couple near us came trotting over to see why the screaming had stopped. (Maybe he thought I smothered the poor kid.)  Then he trotted back to his wife. I braced myself for the nasty comments I've heard oh so often.

But then I had a lovely surprise - he told his wife that I was nursing and his wife said "Oh, that's so sweet!" Then they smiled at each other & smiled at me. I'm sure they didn't realize it, but they made my day. In my years of breastfeeding experience with Big H and Little H I had never once heard a nice comment from a stranger. I've had plenty of nasty comments, and even more disapproving stares, but this was the first time I felt supported in breastfeeding.

Breastfeeding is pretty common these days so I'd like to think that people have become more accepting of public breastfeeding. Well if they have, I hadn't seen it before that day. The comments and smiles from the beach couple took so little effort but they made me feel great about my decision to breastfeed.

So the next time you see an exhausted looking woman out in public nursing, give her a thumbs up or a smile or a "way to go!" I'm sure she'll appreciate it. Now I've got to go get Holden. Even though he's almost 2, he's in the sandbox and appears to be eating sand. Again.

Stephanie can also be found ranting about breastfeeding, politics, and her kids at Lawyer Mama and MOMocrats.