I'm killing a little time before work, and I'm hungry, so I go to Shoney's for their breakfast buffet. You can hardly go wrong with eggs, hash browns, gravy, biscuits, bacon and a bunch of other yummy breakfast goodies. Breakfast happens to be my favorite meal of the day. I'd probably pick a good hearty breakfast over lobster. It would be close but I think breakfast would win. So I walk in, get to my table, order the buffet and coffee and get up to get my breakfast. I go to the stack of plates which I note are much smaller than they used to be and now they are some sort of plastic instead of the fine china they were previously cast from. I start scooping some eggs onto my fine plastic plate when I see a girl I was in high school with. We weren't really close but she was close to a friend that was close to me...so there was some related closeness there. Anyway, she invites me to her table where her husband, her two children and her mother are sitting. I get the rest of my breakfast feast and go to their table and start eating and conversating.
Now the youngest child, 3 months old, is in her dad's arm while he is trying to eat. She gets a little fussy so dad passes her along to mom. This is about 20 minutes into our meal. I figure "she must know how to calm her down" or "I bet he wants to eat the rest of his breakfast so he gives the crying kid over to mom." Well, the next thing I know, my friend lifts up her blouse-shirt thing and discretely places her child's mouth onto her right bosom!! Let me insert a disclaimer here. I FULLY SUPPORT BREAST FEEDING AND DO NOT HAVE A PROBLEM WITH IT WHEN IT IS DONE DISCRETELY IN PUBLIC!!! That being said, I was not prepared for it and for a few moments I was in shock. I found it difficult to maintain eye contact, partly because I was afraid that if my eyes wandered, I'd be perceived as a pervert, but then I started thinking that if I didn't make eye contact while talking, it would be rude and she may take her child away from her little breakfast buffet. I mean we were having ours, she certainly had a right to hers. I've been around breast feeding before, but I usually knew what was going on and would turn my head or leave the room at the start or finish just to make the mother more comfortable and more at ease. Well, baby ate at her buffet for a good while and I eventually became at ease and the subject never came up. We all finished eating, including baby and they were off to doctor's appointments and I had to go to work. It was a great breakfast and I was really glad to be able to spend it with old friends.
When I decided to blog this experience, I googled La Leche League so that I could insert their logo into the blog. Well, while I was there, I discovered that this week is WORLD BREASTFEEDING WEEK!!! How neat is that?? So, the moral of this story is, we all gotta eat, whether its from the Shoney's buffet or the b.o.m.b (buffet of mom's bosom). It's all natural and all good. I'd much rather see a baby at the breast than one with a bottle of formula. Just one suggestion...let folks around you know that you are perfectly comfortable feeding your child in front of them and that you hope they are not uncomfortable and if they'd like to turn their head while you start and stop, that would be just fine!! So here's a shoutout to the league:
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