I guess the only purpose this post will serve is to get my frustrations out about a situation, but I'm glad for the opportunity to do that here!
I feel like there is no place for a newborn and a nursing mother at our place of worship. The pastor wants all children in the children's area to lessen distractions, to keep them safe, to engage them in age appropriate material... agree and understand. The problem comes with the nursery. It is a mix of about 12 kids and half are walkers and half are what our pastor calls "bed babies" or those who have not started walking yet. I can't help it that our LO pees/poops at 11:30 and eats at 11:45... smack in the middle of worship... but I am on his schedule right now. So, I go to the nursery and ask if I can use their changing table and nurse. After that, I walk around in the hallway with our little guy.
The people in the nursery are very loving and kind. I know several of them and they have a heart for children. However, when you are just in there nursing (in the floor because you don't want to take over the two rockers, with a walker baby lifting up the "hooter hider" to see what you are doing) you can't help but notice the walker babies taking a bottle from a "bed baby", sharing a paci, pulling off a baby's headband, or throwing a toy that whacks another one on the head. And I don't want my baby in the floor to get whacked or to get his bottle pulled away or to get a cheerio or something else put in his mouth. It sounds like there's a lack of supervision, but that's really not the case. Those ladies are working hard, especially to make sure the bed babies have been fed and changed, but all of these things happen in an instant... they can catch them, but often it has already happened. So, I made the suggestion to the appropriate people that I would be glad to teach the 5-6 walker babies if that was a possibility. But there's no space anywhere else. They asked if it would help to put a rocker in the big bathroom in the worship area, but the way that our church is arranged, that would not work. I suggested a changing table in the kids bathroom area, but they don't want any strangers in the kids area. At least if that was there I could start to make bottles and just change him without using the nursery. Anyway, that's the dilemma, pastor wants them in the children's area and the nursery is not the place for a newborn. Tired of hanging out in the hallway and the only other place would be our car. Not sure what we will do.
P.S. This is a new one for me... blogging from the bathroom because our little guy went to sleep in his rock & play sleeper while I was drying my hair and he looks so peaceful that I don't want to move him. I also ate a granola bar and drank some apple juice at my makeup table. What else can I accomplish in here? OH, I need to pump! Maybe I should save these comments for TVT, lol.