Elisabeth Hasselbeck's failed mall mission

View co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck, 30, and her husband, Arizona Cardinals player Tim, welcomed son Taylor Thomas on November 9th, joining big sister Grace Elisabeth, 2 ½. In her blog for Dreft,she shares about a trip to the mall that she attempted to take with her 5-week-old son — one which failed miserably!

Taylor went to the doctor for a weigh-in. He is almost 10.5 pounds…so I guess my milk is sticking to his ribs. He is so much more physical than Grace was at this age…and much more loud! I decided to take him to the mall the other day, thinking I had myself together enough to do so…WRONG!

I had the map of the mall from a previous trip (before he was born) and highlighted the stores I wanted to go to, had all of my supplies, made the drive with only a few short cries on the way there, and we were off. I found a great parking spot, loaded the little fellow into my baby carrier, grabbed my wallet, and hit the ground running.

It was more like a scavenger hunt than a leisurely shop, and I was on a mission. With hands filled with items that I desperately needed to buy — Taylor begins to WAIL. I am not sure that there is a good place to ever hear your baby cry…but the Men’s Department is DEFINITELY not the best. So I began speed walking to the car…map out in front of me like a tourist, sweating like crazy, Taylor alarming everyone we passed.

We made it to the car, and I sat in the backseat nursing him for a bit, followed by a HUGE diaper. No problem: or so I thought. I am scrunched between 2 carseats, with Taylor on my lap…undo his explosive "present" only to reach for the wipes — and realize that I forgot them. Nice work mommy.

In a total MacGyver move, I whisked out a bottle of water, and pour it over an extra diaper. Well, I MISS the diaper, in a moment of haste, and spilled it all over Taylor’s belly. SUPERMOM! AHHHH. He was screaming, I was hating myself. And most moms know how much babies loooove to get a onesie pulled over their head…I thought it could not get worse.

Five minutes later, he was happy as a clam, chugging away, and I was ready to call it a day!

Click here to read the full blog entry at Dreft.

Thanks to CBB reader Bella.

What’s been your worst post-baby outing?

Comments

We went to get our first official family portraits taken when my son was almost 4 weeks. We both took a long time getting ready and were really excited to actually have something to do.

As we started the session, the photographer had my husband hold our son over his head. My breastmilk made a re-appearance in my husband’s hair, down his neck and shirt collar, and on my son’s outfit…needless to say, we re-scheduled.

- Pam on December 18th, 2007

Every blog I read her write, she is always complaining about something. She did the same thing on her talk show when grace was born.

- gianna on December 18th, 2007

I really love the fact that she does NOT have a nanny, at least not on this trip!

In the celeb world that is a very rare find! Even if she had a bad day she did it herself and lived to tell the tale!

- Tracy on December 18th, 2007

I’m surprised she didn’t just nurse him in the ladies’ dressing room. Nicer department stores have a little sitting area where she could nurse the baby in relative seclusion (or even a dressing stall with a little bench) – and still get her shopping done. Maybe one of the other ladies there would have had a spare baby wipe too!

- Sheri on December 18th, 2007

Baby’s Grandparents live close to LA and we were taking her to the Hollywood sign for the first time at 5 weeks old, for a picture. We live in RI so it is actually exciting to us! I had her in a cute little outfit for the photo op but she had other plans. On the drive down she left me a abnormally large and wet “present” that basically destroyed all hope of that outfit being part of the picture!! We pulled over in a Taco Bell parking lot of all places and discarded the onesie and bagged the outfit she had on..and gave her a mini bath with practically a whole box of wipes as I had only had 5 weeks of practice on using one wipe to do the work of ten.
So her first trip to Hollywood was memorable for us at least. YUCK!

- candace on December 18th, 2007

If I was a celebrity, I would not be nursing in public. That just opens the door for a pap or an over zealous fan to snap a pic that’s all boobie shot!

- Michelle on December 18th, 2007

Tracy elisabeth does have a nanny, she had one since grace was born, and even called her a savior. And last year when I went to see the view, she said her nanny is like family and she can’t imagine not having her. Right now for the first month elisabeth might not have needed her though, cause elisabeth’s mom and tim’s mom have been staying with her, so she gets plenty of help. But she definitely has a nanny in general for the past 2 1/2, and either grace and taylor will share this nanny, or maybe she will get anther one for taylor

- gianna on December 18th, 2007

My first post baby outing I took her for a walk up to the shopping center. I was in a beauty supply store and was maneuvering her stroller around the store. I had paid for my items and started to back up and turn the stroller around and Wham! I knocked right into a display of small tubes of lip gloss! They went flying all over the store and my daughter started crying from the noise. I tried to help pick them up but the girls working there hinted that they would rather do it themselves than listen to the baby cry!

- kim on December 18th, 2007

It sounds like Taylor likes his mommy about as much as I do

- linpin on December 18th, 2007

All I can say is how silly to high tail it all the way back to the car to nurse. Sure as a celebrity you may not want to nurse in the food court-or maybe you could care less like Maggie Gylanhall with Ramona. But I’m SURE any department store would be more than happy to offer her a dressing room with a chair. She put a whole lot more stress on her self the she needed to.

- andi in ks on December 18th, 2007

Haha… my son Ezra traveled from Milwaukee where we live to Cedar County, Nebraska at 5 weeks old. He was great until in Iowa he starts BELLOWING!!!!!! We knew that there was a really cute playground coming up so we could stop, my sisters could play, I could nurse, etc. I go to pull him out of his carseat and I am greeted with SEEDY YELLOW BABY POOP from his toes to his little blonde fuzz in the back of his HEAD!!!! I had no clue what to do, so as my mom and grandma are rolling in the grass laughing at me, I took bottles of water and gave him a bath in the grass!!! Now everytime any child, inluding my other baby has an explosive incident, we call it a “Rockwell City”, because thats the name of the town we stopped in… lol.. LIZA YOUR BABY JUST ROCKWELL CITIED!!! sorry probably TMI put it was just sooooo funny.

- Liza on December 18th, 2007

It is true that most department stores have areas for a mother to nurse in private, but all things considered, I don’t see how anyone could say Elisabeth didn’t do the right thing by heading to her car. I know that if I had to be in a changing room with a screaming baby making a massive diaper for myself and everyone else to smell, I would not be happy. Obviously things like that are sometimes inevitable, but it sounds like that’s why Elisabeth went to the car; she knew he was crying for a reason and she didn’t want to further disturb the people around her. Besides, it sounds like the situation was so stressful for her that’s better she was in private anyway. I say bravo to her for being so considerate.

- Lauren on December 18th, 2007

When my first was 6-weeks old we went to the aquarium–myself, my husband, our daughter, and my parents. I had dressed her in a cute little Ralph Lauren outfit my mom had bought (something I would never splurge on). When we went to get out of the car, I realized I had a nice present. It was several blocks to the aquarium, so we had to change her in the car. It was a 5-seater, and my dad would not let us use the seat (which is how I have always before and always since changed an emergency diaper), so we had to change her in the trunk. The trunk kept shutting on me the whole time I was trying to change her, and my family kept laughing at me, instead of helping. My dad then freaked out that I wanted to leave the outfit in the trunk (I since learned to carry Ziploc bags for such instances), and my mom said we couldn’t throw it out (obviously), and it wasn’t going in the diaper bag, so we “stored” it under the car and brought back a bag from the gift shop to put it in.

That was the only “problem” outing I ever had with either of my children.

- Dana on December 19th, 2007

I think it’s just one of those moments where you have to make a split decision and sometimes you get it right, sometimes you don’t…. it happens to all of us in one way or another at some point if you have children.{no matter what their age, or what’s going on w/ the child} Everyone recovered nicely, so I say “Well done!” Elisabeth.

- Campbell on December 19th, 2007

If only she felt comfortable nursing in public, she could have used wet paper towels in the public bathrooms to change his diaper.

- Rebecca on December 19th, 2007

I agree Rebecca. A public restroom with wet paper towels would have been perfect. Or if she had been in a fitting room, she could have snagged some clothing from the store and paid for it later. Haha!

- magnolia711 on December 19th, 2007

Elisabeth strikes me as someone who is very modest and likely wouldn’t want the public or the paps getting a shot of her boobs and I can’t say I blame her. Because she is a celebrity, people would be staring at her. You can’t deny that. It’s awkward enough to try and BFIP, but when you’re famous, you get that much more attention. And if she had a baby with a loaded diaper, maybe she didn’t want to sit and nurse him in a change room where everyone else would be subjected to the smell. And maybe she didn’t want her hungry baby to scream the place down while she changed his diaper. She did what she had to do and a lot of people would do the same thing. I’ll never understand why people get so bent out of shape when a woman doesn’t choose to flaunt the fact that she is breastfeeding. If you want to see it that badly, look at pictures of in on the internet.

- KellyAnn on December 19th, 2007

I don’t understand why she had to go to her car to nurse the baby. It sounds as if she only had one child with her to handle. I have had two small children with me at the mall and am able to nurse the baby on a bench. Who cares if someone sees her boobs or takes a picture of them – that is what breasts were created for. Breastfeeding is nothing to be ashamed of, it is the best thing for babies. I wish Elisabeth wouldn’t portray breastfeeding as something you need to run to the car to do, especially on the Dreft site. That makes expectant moms think that BF is something you can’t do inside the mall. Please Elisabeth be more like Maggie Gyllenhaal and nurse in public like everyone else. It is OK!

- Daisy on December 20th, 2007

Gee, Daisy it sounds to me like you’re just really into seeing women breastfeeding. Why do you care where she decides to breastfeed??? Is it affecting you personally? It’s none of your business. There are more important issues in the world than where women feed their babies…

- Elissa on December 30th, 2007