Date Published: November 6, 2008, 8:53pm
Written By: BabyButt
Hi All,
This is probably one of the longest chapters I have put out yet.
Hope you like it,
Enjoy!!!
BabyButt
Chapter 56
“OK, where to first” Rachael asked.
“Toddler clothing I guess.” Sharon answered.
As she moved the basket along, Rachael asked “What size does he wear?”. She had always been curious, but with Sharon being sensitive to questions about his size, she had never asked.
“Believe it or not, the best size for him is a 5T. Not a lot of manufacturers make clothes in that size. Not only that, it was always impossible to find clothes in that size that he would wear, because they looked like they belonged on a three or four year old. I usually can get away with a size four, but that is a bit long on him.” Sharon answered.
“Wow, I didn’t realize that. Bobby wears a size 2T now.” Rachael exclaimed.
“For the last two years, up until now, this has always been a huge issue. He always hated to go shopping. Look at him now, he’s enjoying himself.” Sharon responded with a smile.
Billy had ridden for a little bit just looking around. Without even realizing it, he had put his keys in his mouth. The stimulation to his mouth caused difficulty holding his concentration and he just gave in to the feelings. He smiled around the keys as Mommy smiled at him.
Sharon had been walking beside the basket as Rachael pushed it. She said “Let’s look down here a sec.” as she came to the end of one of the baby isles. Looking for a moment, she stopped about halfway down the isle. Searching labels, “Perfect!” she exclaimed as she picked up a package and held them so Rachael could see them.
“Oh my God, I didn’t know they made them that big.” Rachael said with a smile as she took the package of white onesies from her sister, seeing ‘5T’ showing on the size tag.
“I had seen them in 4T before, but never in 5T. I was willing to buy a package of the 4T’s to see if he could fit them. 4T is usually tall enough for him, but is a bit snug around the waist and chest. I figured the onesies would work though because they stretch like a t-shirt. I know these will fit him.” Sharon explained with a big smile.
Sharon looked to see how many three-packs were there. Only four were on the hook. She immediately pulled all of them off the hook and put them in the basket. Looking through several other sets hanging, she saw two more 5T’s in the wrong spot and grabbed them as well.
Rachael looked at her and chuckled. “You’re husband was right. You’re like a kid in a candy store.”.
Sharon stuck her tongue out at her and immediately started laughing. “OK, fine. So I love to shop for baby clothes. Actually, you have no idea how wonderful it is to go shopping for Billy without having to fight with him every step of the way. Do you know how hard it was a year ago to find underpants in 3T that didn’t have Sponge Bob or something like that on them, or weren’t training pants?”.
Rachael smiled and told her “I don’t think you’re going to have to worry about underpants for some time, and I’m starting to understand now what you said back in the van.”.
“What do you mean?”.
“If you could, you wouldn’t change a thing about Billy. I understood why he would love hearing you tell him that, but I wondered about why you felt that way, but now I’m starting to understand. It’s better for both of you in so many ways.” Rachael answered.
Sharon thought back to the fights she’d had with Billy, the arguments over his clothes, his bed, when he wanted a regular bed instead of a toddler bed so kids didn’t make fun of him, but still fell out at night regularly when they removed the rails. So many things that just made life difficult. Not to mention the distance between them. Tears stung her eyes as these memories came to her. Looking down on him as she put the onesies in the basket, the sting of tears disappeared and she smiled. “Yes, I agree, it’s better for both of us.” she responded.
“Everything happens for a reason Shar, remember that.” Rachael said as she hugged her sister.
“If I didn’t believe it before, I do now.” Sharon replied.
“OK, what next?” Rachael asked as she returned to the front of the basket.
“Bibs. He’s pretty much soaked that one.” Sharon answered as she looked at the wet area that covered about two thirds of the bib Billy had on.
Rachael reached down to Bobby’s diaper bag and pulled a fresh bib out. Reaching down, she removed Billy’s bib and replaced it with the dry one.
Billy giggled as his Aunt changed his bib. It tickled his neck.
Sharon laughed when she saw the bib. It read ‘Spit happens’. “I wonder why he’s drooling so much now?” she asked as they moved out of the isle.
“I would guess the nerves that control salivation are coming back to life. Just like an infant, when he has something in his mouth, he’ll drool. That includes his pacifier, by the way.” Rachael explained.
“With his improvement in speech, that makes sense.” Sharon replied.
Though Sharon had quickly picked up several sets of bibs, they spent some time looking through the ones that had sayings on them. Before she knew it, there were six in the basket. Her favorite was one that read ‘Mom’s Laptop’.
Sharon heard Billy start to fuss and say “Numma Mommy.”.
She leaned down, gave him the binky he dropped and told him “OK Baby, you need to wait a sec, OK?”. When she didn’t get any response at all, she knew this would be interesting. “Lets go to McDonald’s and sit for a while, that way they can eat while we do.” She told Rachael.
With a little trepidation, Rachael said “Alright.” and they headed toward the restaurant in the front of the store.
They didn’t get halfway there before Billy started to cry in earnest. Rachael stopped the basket as Sharon picked Billy up. Laying a didee on her shoulder, she cuddled him close, patting his bottom. He settled down to fussing and repeated his request for her breast. “I’ll feed you in just a sec Baby, I promise.” she told him.
They got to McDonald’s and fortunately there were seats open. When Sharon looked at what was available, she chose a seat that faced away from the store. That would make it easier to nurse him without questioning or dirty looks.
“Can you get the food?” Sharona asked Rachael as she pulled tubing and a bag of formula out of Billy’s diaper bag.
“Sure, what would you like?”.
“A number two meal, thanks.” Sharon responded. She laid Billy down on his side, covered his head and her breast with his blankie, and offered him her nipple. He was nursing contentedly when Rachael came back with two meals and a French fry for Bobby.
Bobby quickly ate his fries and asked for a ba-ba. Rachael looked at him and said “Baby, would you like to have Nummies instead? You don’t have to go to sleep if you want Nummies now.”.
Bobby asked “No nap?” with a smile.
“No nap Baby, I promise.” Rachael answered.
“Nummies!” Bobby said loudly.
Rachael appeared to wince slightly as Bobby announced to the whole store that he was going to nurse at her breast. Getting his blankie out of his diaper bag, she soon had him covered and nursing away contentedly.
“I guess you got your answer, huh?” Sharon asked with a mischievous gleam in her eye.
“Yes, smarty pants. I’m actually glad he chose to nurse though. That tells me that he really wants this.” Rachael responded. “I bet he’ll still want his bottle though, I’m not producing enough yet.”.
“That’s probably better though, isn’t it? That way you’re not locked in one way or the other and he stays used to both.” Sharon offered.
“You know, you’re right. I’ll offer him the opportunity to nurse, and if he doesn’t take it, or I can’t offer it at the time, I’ll give him his bottle.” Rachael decided.
Billy had been nursing for seven or eight minutes as the sisters were chatting when Sharon heard “Sharon?”. Turning her head around, she saw Nancy, one of the mom’s from the neighborhood that hadn’t been with the group that came over to the house yesterday. Her heart beat faster with fear as she noticed Nancy had her two sons, Ricky who was ten, and Joey who was eight, standing beside her.
“Hi, how are you?” Sharon asked with a nervous smile.
“Oh, we’re doing fine.” Nancy said as she walked around so she could see Sharon without her having to break her neck. When she saw Sharon had a child under a blanket, wearing a sleeper, she knew she was nursing a toddler. This didn’t make any sense. The confusion was clear on her face as she asked “Did you have a child I don’t know about? Yours passed the toddler stage a long time ago.”.
Here it was, the moment Sharon was dreading. What made it worse, she was going to have to burp Billy any minute or he would start fussing. Sliding further into the bench seat, Sharon said “Sit down for a minute Nancy, I need to tell you something.” keeping her voice down.
Nancy looked over and said “Hi Rachael, can they sit with you? I don’t want them running off, God knows I spend enough time trying to find them as it is.” waving toward her boys.
Rachael slid over and let the boys sit down.
“Wouldn’t you know it.” Sharon thought as Billy spit her nipple out and whimpered “Mommy.”, the sound muffled under the blanket. She bit the bullet, reached under the blanket to reattach the bra, let her shirt drop, put a cloth diaper on her shoulder and moved Billy so his face laid on his didee, facing Nancy. Before Nancy could say anything, Billy burped loudly, and a small amount of milk dribbled from his mouth onto the cloth diaper.
Nancy just barely got out “Oh my God, what happened?”, before both her boys who had known Billy for all his life started laughing hysterically.
“He’s wearing a diaper!” Ricky exclaimed loudly and doubled over laughing, Joey doing the same.
Billy heard Ricky and turned his head. When he saw his classmate, he started to cry. He wanted to shrivel up and die right at that moment.
Ricky, seeing this, made things much worse by saying “Awww…is the baby upset? Do you need your dipey changed?” and laughed even harder than before.
Nancy, seeing Billy’s reaction to this, turned to her sons and said “Knock it off right now! I’m ashamed to be seen with you two.” with an angry expression. Thinking quickly, she told them “If you don’t get control of yourself right now boys, Billy isn’t the only one that’ll be wearing a diaper.”.
Sharon gave Nancy an appreciative look as she reached over and took two Huggies from Billy’s diaper bag and laid them on the table.
That got both boy’s attention and they quickly stopped laughing.
Cuddling Billy close, Sharon rocked him gently saying “It’s OK Baby, it’s OK.” over and over, until he settled down, his hand in his mouth. “Give me a second.” she said as she patted his back until he’d burped twice more, and then laid him down under his blanket, nursing her breast with his feeding tube attached.
Nancy’s boys sat quietly, occasionally glancing at the diapers on the table.
Figuring a little justice was in order, Nancy said “Yes Ricky, those would fit you, it wasn’t a year ago you wore them to bed now was it?” Interrupting his complaint of “Mom!”, she added “And you still do don’t you Joey.”.
Both boys turned beat red, squirming in their seats.
“You laughed and made fun of him, not even knowing why he’s behaving like he is. How does that make sense?” she admonished her children angrily.
Looking at the boys, Sharon said softly “Look at me boys.”. When both boys raised their red faces, she told them “Billy had a pocket of fluid in his brain and they had to do surgery to remove it. It left him an infant. He’s getting better, but it will take a long time before he gets back to where he was. Are you proud of yourselves? You had a great time making him feel terrible that he’s a baby now.” with a thick voice and tears in her eyes as she looked right at Ricky.
Both boys started to get upset. “I’m sorry Mrs. Avery, I didn’t know.” Joey said as tears spilled onto his cheeks.
“You don’t need to apologize to me, I’m not the one you laughed at Honey.” Sharon told Joey. “And you’ll have to wait until he’s done to tell him you’re sorry.”.
Nancy, looking right at Ricky said “I’ll take these if you don’t mind, I’m going to need them later.” with a determined look on her face, as she took the diapers off the table and put them in her purse.
“Mom no!” Ricky said quickly, and then turned to Sharon and told her “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make him cry.” as he began to cry.
Nancy told him “You should have thought about that,little boy, before you made fun of him.” before Sharon could respond. “Now sit and be quiet while we talk.” she added. “I have to ask you why your nursing him?” she asked Sharon.
Sharon turned to Nancy, took a breath and replied “He’s on medicine that impairs his immune system. His doctors and nurses thought this was the best way to help him fight infections. No medicine available can come close to what breast milk can do for him. Also, with him looking at the world as an infant, it’s calming for him.”.
“Wow, I’m really sorry to hear all of this. I had no idea. And I’m sorry my boys aren’t mature enough to understand you don’t laugh and make fun of something you don’t understand. I feel terrible. How much of what they said did he understand?” Nancy asked.
“Probably all of it. There are times he’s aware of what’s going on around him, but most of the time, he’s a little baby. Unfortunately, I think he was aware of what they were saying, or he wouldn’t have started crying. I’ve only heard him say a few words, ‘Mommy’, ‘Daddy’, ‘Becky’ and that wasn’t clear, ‘Pooh’ talking about his bear, and ‘Bink’ referring to his pacifier, since the surgery. He spoke for the first time today.” Sharon explained.
“I’m so sorry. I don’t know what to say.” Nancy said with glassy eyes.
“I think I have an idea how they can make it better.” Rachael said.
“How?” Nancy asked.
“By spending a little time with him, entertaining him. Then they might understand what he’s going through.” Rachael answered.
Both boys looked to their mom with hopeful expressions, for very different reasons.
Joey just wanted to make it better. He felt terrible that he laughed at Billy. He couldn’t imagine how awful it was to have to be a baby.
Ricky hoped that if he was nice enough to Billy, his mom wouldn’t use the diapers she had taken off the table. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew better. “Why did I have to tease him?” he thought to himself.
“That’s a good idea. When?” Nancy asked.
“How about now? In the store. We’re not finished here, and we could all stick together at least until he goes to sleep.” Sharon answered.
“How long does he normally nap for?”.
“About two hours.” Sharon answered.
“How about instead, I bring the boys over in the morning? If things aren’t too hectic for you right now.” Nancy inquired.
“That would probably be better, then they could really spend some time seeing what he’s going through.” Sharon answered.
“Yes, they could get an ideaexactlywhat he’s going through.” Nancy told Sharon emphasizing the word exactly.
Billy released Sharon’s nipple then. She put him back on her shoulder again and burped him. This time, there was no teasing by the two boys. Once he burped, she asked Nancy “Do you want to hold him?” with a smile.
“Sure.” Nancy said and cradled Billy in her lap when Sharon handed him to her.
Billy looked up at Nancy’s smiling face and said “Bink.” with a smile.
Nancy gave him his pacifier and said “Here Baby. There you go.” as he took the binky and nursed. “He’s such a cute little boy.” she said.
“I know. Being that cute, it’s going to be hard to say no.” Sharon said with a smile.
Joey got up and stood next to his mom, looking down on Billy. “Hi Billy. I’m sorry I was mean, I didn’t know.” as fresh tears hit his cheeks.
Billy chose that moment to make a mess in his diaper that all of them heard. With an infantile look of surprise, he giggled.
All of them had a chuckle at that.
“I don’t think he understands right now Sweetheart.” Sharon told Joey as she wiped his tears from his left cheek. “You can tell him tomorrow when you see him and he can understand, OK?”.
Joey gave Sharon a hug and said “I really am sorry.” with a sniffle.
“I know Sweety, I think he’ll be alright now.” as she hugged him close.
Bobby was done then with the second breast, and Rachael said “If we’re going to get finished here and to Babies R Us, we need to get going.”.
Sharon took Billy from Nancy and said “You’re right, I need to change him and then we can go.”.
“We’ll see you in the morning.” Nancy said with a smile as she got up.
“OK, have a good night.” Sharon said.
“Nice seeing you again Nancy.” Rachael offered.
“Good to see you too.” Nancy said as she ushered her two boys away.
Sharon could hear Ricky say “Mom, I’m sorry.” and then his mother tell him “Not as sorry as your going to be little boy.” as they moved down the isle.
“I don’t think he’s going to enjoy tonight.” Rachael said with a chuckle.
“If I know Nancy, it’s not tonight he won’t enjoy.” Sharon told her.
“What do you mean?”.
“Unless I miss my guess, there are going to be three diapered butts at the house in the morning.” Sharon said with a chuckle.
“Oh!” Rachael said and then laughed.
“Let’s go get them changed.” Sharon said as she headed to the back of the store where the family bathroom was located.
Snuggles and Tears Chapter 56
Thanks for the feedback Tommy,
While this appears to be a bit of a cliche’, I haven’t gotten to the next morning yet, and I ask you to reserve judgement before you read that part.
The last chapter and this one are where I am able to remember what took place for parts of it.
Memories are tied to emotions and this event and the two that follow, are still with me today.
The diapers were old style flat pampers and I am still friends with the older child today.
Please, bear with me and you may just change your mind.
Thanks,
BabyButt
Snuggles and Tears Chapter 56
Thanks all for posting.
wimsett you’re right, I forgot about those two.
I’m usually pretty good about remembering details like that, but this one got away.
Sorry Folks,
I will change that tomorrow as it’s late now.
Thanks,
BabyButt
Snuggles and Tears Chapter 56
Just FYI,
I did fix the error that was pointed out.
Thanks for making me aware of it wimsett.
BabyButt