Funny title tonight, bet you're wondering where I have been this past month. I have been struggling to balance children, housework, and my wonderful job as a waitress. On top of my usual chaos, illnesses galore have been running rampant through my home. The Princess has had a sinus infection, a cold, strep throat, and the stomach bug. Milk Monster had RSV plus a double ear infection, and today was diagnosed with thrush. Not too shabby compare to how it has been for other families I know, but still it wears you out. I myself have had the colds and stomach bugs along with them, so I know why they are so clingy to mommy. With my son having thrush, I have the joy of cracked nipples. Thrush has attacked them and man do they hurt! I mean, my nipples have not been this sore since Milk Monster was born and we were learning how to get the hang of breastfeeding. I wish I could say my partner had been spared the illnesses we have had lately, but sadly he has had worse than any of us.
Which brings me to the second part of the title of tonight's blog. The other night we attempted a date night, only to have it end in disaster. The stomach attacked him with such fierceness, he ended up ripping a membrane in his esophagus. Milk Monster and I took him to the hospital nearby to make sure that was what had happened instead of something worse. So, Milk Monster was rolling through the emergency room in style in his comfy stroller complete with a stash of toys to entertain him. We followed nurses back to a room where my partner got to lay down on one of those comfy beds hospitals are just so famous for. After a short waiting period (I am being serious it wasn't very long which is surprising), the doctor, a female nurse who was about my age, and an older male nurse came into the room. At this point I was nursing Milk Monster who had become rather impatient. Upon seeing me nursing, uncovered, the female nurse rolled her eyes and scoffed at me. I ignored this and focused on what mattered, my partner. Then the doctor opened a cabinet door and tossed a towel at me and told me to use it to cover up. I cocked a smile and obliged, knowing exactly what would happen. Milk Monster grabbed the towel and flung it off of me without even breaking from the nipple for a moment. The female nurse looked over at me, and at the towel as if she were waiting for me to cover up. I ignored the towel and asked the doctor about my partner's symptoms in order to focus her attention on him. After a short conversation with the doctor, and a prescription later, the female nurse left with the doctor. The male nurse was sitting with the mobile computer wrapping things up, when he started to laugh. He started telling me how his wife breastfed their kids and that he couldn't understand why people were so against doing it in public. He told us how his son is over six feet tall and healthy as an ox, all of which he believes is due to his wife breastfeeding him for two years. He then told us how she is an activist for breastfeeding rights. My partner laughed, then pointed at me saying that I was too. Before he left the room, the male nurse picked up the towel and put it in the dirty linens bag. He laughed as he did so. I find it hysterical that in a hospital, nurses and doctors try to make a woman cover up something that honestly is the best medicine in the world. Best part? As I write this the Luvs commercial that shows a mom nursing in a restaraunt uncovered is playing.
