So I’m going to a wedding in March, my sister in law’s. Genna will be flower girl, Wally will be ring bearer. There’s a strong chance that I’ll need to help Genna down the asile. And of course I’ll still be nursing.

Here’s my question.

Should I find a nice nursing dress to wear, or should I wear one of my vintage suits?

- Nursing dress: might be dressier, but I’d wear it only once and it would probably cost quite a bit. Traveling to the wedding is already costing us a LOT of money, so I’m not eager to add to the expenses.

- Vintage suit: more my style, and they are OK to nurse in, but it does involve unbuttoning the jacket and then also unbuttoning my shirt. This is a lot of buttoning and unbuttoning.

I don’t plan to go into another room to nurse, but can if I need to. I guess I’m assuming I can. If there’s another room other than the bathroom, I can.

So… thoughts? I’ve never had to attend a dress-up event with a nursing baby.

I read a blog post about extended warranties today, and apparently the general advice is to never buy them.

Are these warranty contracts ever a good deal? They shouldn’t be. To make a profit, the private companies that offer these things need to take in more money than they pay out in warranty claims. And they do make money. The profit margin on extended warranties is reputed to be between 40 percent and 80 percent. Anyone buying an extended warranty is betting against the house.

While I know that’s true, and while I used to NEVER buy an extended warranty, now we’ll buy the extended warranty for nearly every electronics device we purchase. Much like the author of the blog piece, I have my reasons. Their names are Wally and Genna. (And, frankly, Randy and Sarah.)

My DS stopped working last month. Nintendo repaired it for me for free, and returned it with a note about “foreign matter” in the housing. Right. That would probably be baby drool, from when I found Genna teething on it.

Our Ipod has quit working I don’t know how many times, usually directly related to suffering some sort of traumatic drop or fall.

My laptops get some pretty harsh treatment, just from ME! Though my current unit has been working problem free since July, my two models before that, I definitely got my money’s worth out of the warranties. (Actually, the extended warranties – both times – ended up getting me my money back, meaning that I’ve bought three laptops in the last 5 years, but only paid for the first one.)

Yes, we’ve had our share of extended warranties that didn’t get used… but I think, since having kids, the extended warranties have been a pretty good deal around our house.

We went bowling with some friends on Sunday. I hit my only strike of the night (and my second spare) while nursing Genna. I’m sure the other patrons were impressed at my mad skills.

Yes. This is how it is used most often. In fact, this is the first time it’s been out in years. Genna needed a place to sit while we constructed our chicken coop. Voila. The tray makes it nicer than just about any other place we could put her, because we can put an assortment of toys on it for her.

Yes, it was that cold last weekend.

This is why I don’t like nursing covers. I think it draws attention.

Birth-day

3 days, first trip to Menards

5 days

1 week, at Jive Junction

2 weeks

1st Birthday

And today he is Five. I can hardly believe it.

OK, this is my first honest-to-goodness breastfeeding confrontation.

We were at Brookview Elementary all day today, teaching 4th and 5th graders the Shim Sham. (tiring!!) The several times that G wanted to nurse, I just excused myself from the room and went in the hallway. I didn’t think it would be appropriate to nurse her in the classroom, and I certainly wasn’t going into the bathroom, and the hallways were largely deserted. Twice, teachers walked by and commented “oh, sleeping baby.” I just looked at them and smiled both times – no need to point it out, right? One of those teachers came in for a closer look and saw that she wasn’t sleeping – her eyes were open – and figured it out and said something like “oh, not sleeping!” and walked away, and that was that.

So. In the afternoon, G was sleepy and hungry, and I was out in the hallway, but I’d already read everything hanging in our hallway, and I was bored. Shirts firmly covering everything up, I peeked around the corners of the intersecting hallway to make sure it was deserted. It was. So I headed over and read some Revisionist History displays. (And can anyone explain why all of the children put a number after their names? Jenna 34. Rachel 2. Destiny 85. Hm?)

As I’m reading, a woman, about my age, walks up and asks “oh, did she fall asleep?” And she’s totally coming in super close and I was starting to get afraid that G was going to unlatch to smile at our visitor, so I sidestepped a bit. Note, before I stepped back, she was so close that her shirt brushed my arm. She stepped around my back to peer over Genna’s head from my other shoulder, at which point I said, “she’s having her lunch.”

“OH.”

I smiled, went back to reading Revisionist History.

“You need to come with me to the lounge.” It was not an offer, it was the same tone of voice I use with Wally when he’s doing something he shouldn’t and he needs to obey immediately without questioning. I half turned and picked up one foot, ready to follow her. Then I remembered that I wasn’t doing anything wrong.

I said, “you know, I think I’ll just go back and hang out near the door to our classroom.” “No. You need to come with me.”

“No, I don’t.”

“This is a school.”

“I know that, but I absolutely have a right to feed my baby here. I’m not going with you.” (yay me!)

She started to talk more, but I just turned and walked back to my classroom and waited for the school cop to come get me. (He never came, lol, but I was seriously afraid he would.) A minute or two later, I heard the same woman walk by, talking to someone else in that loud voice that you use when you want to be sure someone else will overhear you, saying “I mean, I nursed my babies, too, but I would have never done it in a SCHOOL. I just don’t think it’s appropriate with children around.”

Which made me chuckle because, first, why not. And second, what children? In the hallway, it was me and her. The entire hall, just the two of us.

Now, a few thoughts on this.

I was nursing in the most discrete place I had access to – a deserted hallway. I hadn’t seen a child in the hallway any of the times I was out there. I am sort of chuckling that the woman wanted to parade me around two additional hallways en route to the lounge (which I guess I’m assuming is near the office), past one of the most congested areas of the school, and where we were MORE likely to see students.

Second, the woman was so close that her shirt (a tshirt) rubbed on my arm. She was THAT close to me, and she’s my height. She could NOT TELL what I was doing, that close. There’s no way a child, shorter than I and so not able to look DOWN at my chest, could have had any idea what was going on. Not to mention, I was facing a wall and would have absolutely turned however I needed to, or retreated into the other hall if needed.

Third, dang, I was proud of myself. I could have been nicer, considering that we want to come back next year, but then again, I’m not sure how I could have been nicer. I was very polite, but firm. My only other option was to go with her, which I guess I could and perhaps should have done, but the lactivist in me will not allow someone to dictate to me where I can nurse my baby discreetly.

Fourth, why did I immediately feel like a small child when she started trying to boss me? When DH asked me later what the woman looked like, I could barely remember, but was surprised to recall that she was my age. She seemed much older when she was speaking sternly to me.

Hey, I wanted to take a minute to let you all know about my new project, to be documented at anepicjourney.wordpress.com It’s called the Day Zero Project. Essentially, you list 101 things to be done in 1001 days. I just started on April 1. You can see my list at over there, and I’ll update there as progress is made. Should be interesting.

Thursday and Friday last week were really nice weather here. 74 on Thursday, not quite that on Friday. Friday, we took a walk as a family after daddy got home from work. Genna fell asleep on my back in the wrap.

And Wally played with his shadow.

For the record, by the time we got home, we were all freezing. It really doesn’t stay warm once the sun gets low this time of year. And, also for the record, today’s high was something like 23. Oh, Iowa, you completley frustrate me in the spring.

A few weeks ago, a local customer stopped by to order some diapers. She came straight from work, and met her dad at my house with her son. She ended up being delayed somewhat at work, leaving me some time to chat with her father – and Genna and my customer’s son a chance to flirt with each other.

As it turns out, my customer had been having some difficulty finding daycare she liked, and her dad had recently retired, so he volunteered to watch his grandson during the days. He absolutely beamed as he told me all of this, just delighted at the opportunity to spend the days with his grandson. He went on and on about the things the baby (5 months old) was up to, how it was a lot of work, but very rewarding, etc.

It was such a joy to see.

At the same time, the evening left me a bit saddened. My dad would have loved grandchildren – he loved children in general. I can just see him doing all sorts of crazy things with my kids – singing made-up songs with them, running around the yard, playing football, playing silly made-up games. I miss my dad regularly, moreso on days when I think about how much fun he and my kids would have had together. But even moreso seeing other grandfathers who so obviously enjoy their grandkids.