What Happens When You Listen To Your Newborn
The baby and I'd had a rough day. I mean a long one.
We drove into Manhattan to first visit another baby friend in Harlem, then go to my last midwife appointment downtown. My plan to just scoot down Fifth Avenue was foiled by an NFL kickoff party on 59th street that turned the usual "just scooting" into very slow traffic. Trucker slept for most of the ride downtown, waking a mere ten blocks from the midwives' office. But then I couldn't park. So I drove around and around in circles looking for a spot with a screaming baby in the back seat. Then I found a street spot after resigning to pay for a lot. Then the parking munimeter machine thingee was broken. I needed to walk a block and pay for my parking there. But in these meters you must pay an entire $2.00 in quarters. I had $1.75. So then I begged a street vendor to give me an extra quarter in exchange for fifteen cents and an entire dollar after my midwife's appointment. By the time I got into her office a half an hour late I was a wreck.
We went shopping afterward. Later, I ate my first meal of the day at 4:30, half a falafel sandwich. I only ate half because the baby woke up. And I thought I ought to get going before he got too upset. Of course, he got too upset anyway. That's because, I didn't realize until I was half-way over the Brooklyn Bridge, he was hungry. He hadn't eaten since the midwives' office. I had a choice. I could continue to drive with the screaming baby in the back seat and get home faster, though I could see the traffic on the BQE from the bridge and it was not pretty, or I could pull over and nurse.
I decided to listen to my newborn.
I pulled over after getting off the bridge, before getting on the BQE. I realized I was very close to the river. So I put money in the meter (in Brooklyn, you can still get away with two quarters.) And took the baby down to the water, right near the bottom of the Brooklyn Bridge, about two hundred feet from the waterfall. We nursed there with the water lapping on the shore and my favorite bridge right in front of me and the sun heating our skin. We were happy.
When I got back to the car, I was trying to figure out how to get back to the highway, when I noticed a lot of cars making a particular left turn. I decided to follow them. It was a street under the highway with only one traffic light. We were getting home much faster than the schmoes up above us on the highway. I took back roads all the way home and I swear I had almost all green lights.
Now I'm not going to say that my baby has magical powers, though the thought did cross my mind. He did have a good idea. I'm going to listen to him more often.
Thanks, my baby.









