St. Louis Vacation, Day 7...

… was long and tiring… and a little bit unbelievable…

We started our day with just getting basically “cleaned up” and another yummy HIE breakfast! Then it was off to Busch Stadium to see the Cardinals take on the Brewers:

Getting ready to walk to the stadium from the parking garage...
Right after Ian lost his lunch... Stupid wheat bread...

Waiting for the game to start:

Miah's 1st Major League Game:

Unfortunately, the Cardinals lost, even after a promising rally in the bottom of the 9th. The good news, though, is that we were able to sit through most of the game with our gang, which has not happened to this point in our lives! Even Ian and Miah only took a short break with me. I think the popcorn helped…

Ian watching the end of the game through his, "Binoculators":

Getting ready to leave the stadium...
A little disappointed...

From there we decided to try “America’s Incredible Pizza Company”… and things kinda took a turn for the worse…

It wasn’t the Pizza Buffet (the cheese bread was awesome)… or the Arcade… or the very cool layout of the restaurant. It certainly wasn’t the pleasant surprise that Thomas the Tank Engine was playing on the big screen or that there was an Ichthus on the door. It’s just that… well… I was sitting there minding my own business… nursing my baby… and waiting for the rest of my family to finish their dinner so that we could hit the games… when the manager of the facility came up to me and said something to the effect of, “Excuse me, but we’ve had several complaints, and could you nurse your baby in the restroom?” I am sure there must have been just a moment of silence at this point while I tried to process if I had heard him right. Then I asked, incredulously, “Are you serious?” To which he just looked kind of sheepish and said, “yes”.

Phil says I got hot then… like microwave hot. I think this perception came from the fact that I stood up, informed the manager that I wanted my money back, and snapped my fingers at Phil and told him to give me the receipt. The manager was rather accommodating and seemed like he might be able to make the refund at this point.

I think I need to back up a little, though…

If you know me at all, you know that I am on the conservative side when it comes to nursing my babies in public places. As a matter of fact, I cover myself in my own house most of the time, for crying out loud. There have certainly been times (and even on this trip) when I have found myself in less than ideal situations for nursing and have simply made the best of it, being as discreet as possible, even if not as discreet as I would usually be. This was NOT one of those times. I was completely covered, and Miah was covered from her head to her knees. In addition, the stroller was pulled up next to the table, so to even realize that I had a baby in my lap, you would have really had to have been looking!

To cover another angle, I had just visited the restroom moments before this fiasco and found it to be filthy, with most of the toilets clogged with poop and toilet paper. Uh… is that the kind of sanitary environment in which I would want to feed my child, and further, do you go to the restroom when you want to eat? I didn’t say all of this to the manager, but as I followed him out to the cash register, holding my rather hungry, now not eating, 4 month old, I certainly told him about the poop…

And I asked whether they were a Christian business, and if he would agree that God had created breastfeeding as the way to nourish babies… And I really try not to use the "Christian" card if I can help it, but I'm sure he must have thought that they were setting a terrible example at this point, because he doesn't have a clue who I am or what I believe...

To be honest, the poor guy was pretty nice. He actually told me in no uncertain terms that he was on my side and that he was uncomfortable coming to me, because he had assumed that when he heard the complaint that he was going to walk into the dining area and find a woman with her breasts hanging out, which was clearly not the case. I reminded him that he was the manager of the establishment, and he told me that he still had to address the concerns of other customers (apparently, three families were outraged that I was nursing in public... I think the complaint was exaggerated, to be honest)! I asked him if they had babies and if they were feeding them bottles, and whether he would ask them to do it somewhere else if it was offensive to me. He never did answer that…

He did, however, refund my portion of the meal and arcade cost, while leaving my arcade card activated so that Phil and the kids could use it while I left to feed Miah. He also offered me his office to feed her, which I declined, and assured me that they would clean the restrooms.
Phil informed me later that the manager came back in to where we had been eating and addressed the woman who had made the complaint, directly, who… get this… was sitting there in a breast cancer awareness T-shirt… Are you kidding me?

When we saw this sign at the entrance to the arcade, we couldn’t help but stop to take a picture:

Actually, I told Phil that it was awfully tempting to just strip down to my bra in front of it, but I only did that in my fantasy world, because I imagined that it would certainly end in a conviction for indecent exposure and a headline that read something like, “Pastor’s wife models nursing bra for unsuspecting pizza patrons”. They never would have printed my side of the story…

We went on to enjoy the arcade and to eat some ice cream and to even take a spin on the Go-Karts:

Seth Having Dessert... Again:

Phil winning over 300 tickets on Cyclone:

Phil & Ian Riding the Go-Karts:

Seth (back) Actually Won the Race:

Me & Caleb...
We "won" our race, too,
but there wasn't any competition:

Talk to the hand, crazy people:

Little Hungry One:

By the way, Grace was absolutely appalled
that someone would contact the manager
"of the entire restaurant"
because I was feeding Miah...
She loves her baby sister...

Once “Ms. Pink shirted, I love my boobies but don’t want you to use yours” left the building, and I saw another Mom nursing her baby on the floor between an air hockey table and a frog ride; I found a nice, dark, secluded place to nurse Miah again, although at this point she was so stinkin’ overly hungry and tired it was just frustrating to her (she is asleep for the night as I type this, having finally calmed down and nursed well at the hotel, poor princess…)

Wow, oh wow… What is the world coming to?

Lisa