Our night nurse Cheryl has been a great help, support, and resource to us since day 2 of our baby’s life, when we returned home from the hospital. At 9pm sharp that evening, she showed up with her expertise and wisdom in tow. She has taught us how to properly swaddle (and not using the usual method), how to bathe our baby, how to manually stimulate her when constipated. She has given us tips for burping, for increasing my milk supply, and for ensuring the baby does not get gassy from the foods I eat. She is now helping us stretch her sleep so that hopefully in the near future, our baby can sleep through the night. Given she is with us on average about four nights a week, she has spent more time with the baby than anyone else other than the two of us.
She wasn’t very talkative in the beginning, but as time has gone on, she’s become more conversational and open about everything. She knew that I was struggling with my milk supply and encouraged me to keep going. She also has very strong opinions that “breast is best” and encouraged me to continue nursing despite the baby’s weak suck. She told me the story of one of her previous clients who was adamant about NOT breast feeding in any form, whether that was directly from the breast or pumping. She was dead set on her baby being 100% formula fed even before birth. As soon as she got home from the hospital and her milk came in, she asked her doctor to prescribe her medication to dry her milk supply up. Honestly, I felt pain hearing this; I have tried so hard to increase my milk supply, and then there’s this woman who wanted the total opposite and just didn’t want to give any breast milk to her baby. To each her own, but ouch.
Cheryl made it really clear she hated this approach, but hey, it was her client, so she had to keep her mouth shut and just deal with it. Every mother has their own journey and their own decisions to make, and that includes how to feed one’s child. “I think that’s really selfish, but hey, I don’t judge,” Cheryl said, rolling her eyes. “Everyone has to choose for themselves. I never said anything.”
Well, we are all entitled to our own opinions. I just thought it was funny that she had to try to pretend not to care while working for this client.