Saturday, July 23, 2011

Nursing under the cover of darkness

Not so long ago, I wrote a post about a trip to Babies R Us with my mom in which I scoffed at nursing covers as ridiculous and completely unnecessary. Well, sometimes a dose of humility smacks you right in the face. :)

For whatever reason, Anne completely detests nursing under a blanket. She wriggles and tries to bat it off. Meanwhile, I'm struggling to even bare my breast under the thing, holding on to it with my teeth. Getting her latched is yet another production. When she inevitably delatches and needs to burp immediately lest she explode, I've nearly flashed the whole room at least a dozen times.

So eventually, I just started pumping and bringing bottles with me whenever I was going to be with the baby in public. It's just so much easier, and my pump is awesome. (Medela Pump in Style Original, for the record).

In the mean time, my mom ordered me something called an Udder Cover. I scoffed at first, yes I did. It was backordered for a while, so didn't arrive until this week. I tried it today, and I have to say, I'm now a believer.

It's very simple, and those of you with sewing skills (I'm thinking of a few of you in particular :) ) will be able to make one of these lickety split. It's just a pretty piece of fabric that extends from your neck to about your waist, and is nice and wide. It's a light cotton, so not all hot like most baby blankets. The little piece that goes around your neck has one of those metal clasps that you can adjust, you don't have to tie it. Thus, you can get it in a spot you like and then leave it, slipping it quickly over your head when you need to use it. The collar has some kind of thin rigid thing in it, so that you can peek down and look at the baby whenever you need to. Baby delatches? Mine does, constantly. You can relatch them without having to perform a physical act of acrobatic proportions.

And that's it! But the beauty of it is that you can pop it on, and then discreetly pull down your top and nursing bra, and *then* get the baby underneath to latch; you have both of your hands free to work with and you are covered the whole time. I tried it out today while my dad was in the room and it worked like a dream.

I now sheepishly revoke my scorn of all nursing covers. This one is particularly nice. I can't remember the one I tried in Babies R Us, but I really did hate it. The thing went to, like, my *knees* and you had to tie it in place. *purses lips* It and I did not see eye to eye.

The Udder Cover that I chose is called "Laila," and is pink and ivory. I kind of love it.

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