Chapter 358 Breastfeeding
The next day, after Xuanyuan Ling finished the morning court, he looked at Concubine Ji and said that Concubine Ji had started giving birth.
When he arrived, the Queen and Concubine De were already there. The Queen told him about Concubine Ji's current situation. In short, the birth went quite smoothly.
At this moment, Lady Ji was in great pain, but when she heard the servant say that the emperor had arrived, she felt relieved at last.
Others saw that although the virtuous concubine was favored, the emperor still treated all children equally.
Lady Ji was also in great pain. Giving birth is always painful, but she was the opposite of Shen Qing. Shen Qing was safe and sound when she was pregnant, but something went wrong when she was giving birth. She was vomiting all the time when she was pregnant, but was fine when she was giving birth. She exhaled when the midwife asked her to, and pushed when the midwife asked her to.
Finally, not long after, she gave birth to a child.
The midwife cleaned the baby, cut the umbilical cord, and wrapped the baby in swaddling clothes. She happily came to Xuanyuan Ling and announced the good news: "Congratulations, Your Majesty. Ji Meiren gave birth to a prince. Both mother and child are safe."
Xuanyuan Ling took a look at the child and felt happy, but was also surprised that the child in front of him did not look like Xuanyuan Ling at all like the Sixth Prince.
In fact, he is still young and can't see what is normal. Xuanyuan Ling didn't think that his other children looked so much like him when they were born. But when Shen Qing gave birth to the Sixth Prince, he looked like him at first glance. Thinking of this, he smiled and said, "Reward it."
Xuanyuan Ling looked at the child, asked the imperial physician if Concubine Ji was fine, and gave a few instructions before leaving. He had just finished the morning court and still had things to deal with. Before he left, he told the queen, "Concubine Ji has contributed to giving birth, so she will be promoted to a noble lady. The queen will decide on a title for her."
The queen naturally agreed.
Xuanyuan Ling left after giving the order. The Queen and Concubine De also came to congratulate them. Now that the rewards had been arranged, they naturally had to leave as well.
At this moment, the birth of the seventh prince was finally completed, and everyone was truly delighted to congratulate Concubine Ji. Naturally, the servants would take care of everything afterwards, and everything would be safe.
Everyone here was in high spirits, and Shen Qing also got the news.
Well, the seventh prince was supposed to be born by Chu Linglong, but now it was Ji Meiren who gave birth to him.
Shen Qing didn't think much of it at this moment. It was just a ranking. She understood it after hearing it. As for rewards, the subordinates would naturally do it, and she didn't need to worry about it before.
Now all Chen Qing needs to worry about is her own health and the newly born Sixth Prince.
The children of the royal family are taken care of by wet nurses and servants after they are born. They are never raised by concubines themselves. Of course, this only refers to daily care, which is not done by the concubines themselves, but it does not mean that they do not care at all.
In fact, if the royal method of raising a child is really followed, Shen Qing doesn't need to hold the child or feed him milk. No woman in the palace feeds her own milk. Now it's even more amazing. Following Xuanyuan Ling's imperial decree, the prince must be raised by Xuanyuan Ling when he is five years old, and the concubines don't have to worry about it, because that is the business of the servants.
The day after Shen Qing gave birth, the imperial physician prescribed a weaning decoction to prevent milk engorgement. Shen Qing originally did not intend to breastfeed, but she felt a little resistant to taking the decoction to forcibly stop her from breastfeeding.
She also thought of her mother, who was the one who breastfed her. Her maternal instinct suddenly overwhelmed her, so she thought about breastfeeding herself. However, she had no experience, so she finally asked the imperial physician for advice.
The imperial physician was a little surprised when he heard this. In the palace, not to mention the concubines, even the nobles did not breastfeed themselves, otherwise why would they keep a wet nurse? Wouldn't that be too much work?
But since Shen Qing asked, the imperial physician answered: "If the queen wants to breastfeed herself, it will naturally be good for the prince, and it is not without benefits to the queen. Personal breastfeeding will be conducive to the queen's postpartum recovery."
After hearing this, Shen Qing was still more concerned about her figure: “Will it make me ugly?”
The doctor said: "Long-term breastfeeding will have some impact on your body shape, but within three months, there will be no impact and you will be able to recover."
"Then feed it for three months." There is no shortage of milk for children in the palace. Shen Qing looked at the little carrot head and thought to himself, I love beauty, but I have done my best for you.
Doctor Li thought that this virtuous concubine was very devoted to the Sixth Prince.
So Shen Qing stopped drinking the weaning medicine.
Seeing that Chen Qing had made up her mind, Chunhua and Fangyun stopped trying to persuade her. Chen Qing didn't feel anything in the first two days, but on the third day, her breasts began to swell. When the child was brought to her, the wet nurse taught her how to feed him.
In fact, when Shen Qing started breastfeeding, she didn't think there was anything wrong. After all, she had a wet nurse. Her milk was not much at the beginning, and the milk didn't increase quickly. It didn't increase at night. Today, the sixth day, there was still nothing wrong.
When Xuanyuan Ling came over, she was breastfeeding. He knew that Shen Qing planned to breastfeed herself. When he heard her decision, he did not refuse. In fact, the women in the palace did not breastfeed themselves, and another reason was naturally to serve the emperor faster.
After giving birth and recuperating from the confinement period, when they have recovered, they can serve the emperor. Serving the emperor is the main task of the concubines in the palace besides having many children.
But Shen Qing planned to breastfeed herself. Xuanyuan Ling had also seen her breastfeeding. When Shen Qing looked at the child's smiling face while breastfeeding, he felt sad the first time he saw it. Didn't other concubines love children? They loved them too, right? But Shen Qing offered to breastfeed the child herself, which moved him even more.
Rules are rules, but they are not without humanity. Shen Qing broke this habit, and broke it with motherly love. How could Xuanyuan Ling not be moved?
She really loves children, and she is different from other concubines. Shen Qing was different to begin with, and now that she is taking care of a child, she seems different, even more different.
The subordinates were used to not informing Xuanyuan Ling when he came.
When the nurses saw Xuanyuan Ling coming over, they also knelt down to pay their respects. They were actually quite terrified. How could the empress feed herself? What were the nurses for? They were just afraid that the emperor would dislike them for not serving him well enough.
However, Xuanyuan Ling did not say anything. He looked at him and Shen Qing's Sixth Prince eating happily, his cheeks puffed up and his brows softened.
When Shen Qing had almost finished feeding, she handed the child over to the wet nurse, who had to burp the child for fear that the child would spit up milk.
She put on her clothes in front of Xuanyuan Ling without any shyness. What was there to be shy about? What had Xuanyuan Ling not seen?
Xuanyuan Ling looked at her: "Don't tire yourself out."
"Not tired." This was the truth. She was tired before, but she had been eating and sleeping for the past few days, and couldn't get out of bed. Why was she tired? The child also ate and slept, and the nurse took care of him. She didn't have to hold him except when feeding.
She really wasn’t tired, but said, “I want to go downstairs and take a walk.”
"No." Xuanyuan Ling couldn't listen to her.
Shen Qing rolled her eyes: "I've been lying down for several days."
Xuanyuan Ling saw that she was not presentable and thought that she was really bored: "If you don't take good care of yourself during the confinement period, you will suffer from illness in the future, be good."
Anyway, they just won't allow it. In fact, Chen Qing had said before that Chunhua and Fangyun were as scared as if they had seen a ghost. In short, they wouldn't allow it. Xuanyuan Ling didn't see it, but the two of them were afraid that Chen Qing would sneak out of bed, so they stared at her as if she was doing something. Chen Qing was speechless. She had been lying in bed for the sixth day. It was okay that she was indeed uncomfortable before, but now she felt that she could walk a little, and she was not paralyzed.
Now she even has a time limit for reading storybooks. Chunhua will take the book away after she has read for a while. This time is less than a quarter of an hour. Really, Chunhua is so nagging now. One moment she says she can't use her eyes, the next she says she can't get out of bed. In the end, it's best for her to lie in bed and not move, otherwise it would be wrong.
However, although Shen Qing was bored, she knew in her heart that it was for her health, which made her feel unbalanced.
This is just like how she felt before that giving birth would be painful, but Xuanyuan Ling didn't have to. She had to observe the confinement period, which was extremely boring, but Xuanyuan Ling didn't have to observe the confinement period.
She couldn't help but say unhappily: "Then the emperor will accompany me." Anyway, she couldn't be bored alone.
Xuanyuan Ling smiled: "I will accompany you wherever you are."
Shen Qing snorted twice.
So delicate.
Xuanyuan Ling shook his head, turned around and saw that the child was yawning and about to fall asleep, so he couldn't help but said, "Go down and serve the Sixth Prince well."
The wet nurse hastened to agree. She had wanted to leave a long time ago. As she listened to the conversation between the Emperor and the Concubine Xian, she felt that she should not listen too much.
Xuanyuan Ling saw Shen Qing still pouting, which was really cute, so he hugged her. He hadn't hugged her for several days, and he was afraid that she was still in pain. Now she sat on his lap like a child: "Do you want to see your mother? The Shen family has already entered the capital."
Shen Qing thought about it and decided to forget it for now, so she shook her head and said, "Wait until I'm out of confinement."
Xuanyuan Ling followed her and they talked for a while, chatting about why this child didn't look like herself at all. Chen Qing still felt resentful and couldn't stand Xuanyuan Ling's smug look.
But they didn't talk for long. It is said that talking for too long during confinement will hurt the throat, and things that require brainpower are even more forbidden. Therefore, painting, chess, and mahjong are all out of the question. Xuanyuan Ling was forced to become a storyteller and had to read a storybook to Shen Qing for a while.
In this way, the two of them actually got used to getting along with each other. After all, if one makes a fuss, the other will be happy to coax him, right?
The days just passed by slowly.
Shen Qing didn’t think much about it when she started breastfeeding, but she didn’t expect that as the baby ate more and more, her milk supply increased, and later she couldn’t sleep at night and her milk started to swell.
So she had to get up late at night and ask someone to bring the child to her to feed her.
In fact, Xuanyuan Ling didn't sleep with Shen Qing at the beginning, mainly because it was inconvenient. Shen Qing couldn't move at that time, and Xuanyuan Ling had to attend the morning court, and he was afraid of disturbing her rest, after all, she was in confinement.
But after about twenty days, they started sleeping together. Who would have thought that Shen Qing's milk supply would increase in the evening. No matter how small the noise was, it was still there. He was woken up and saw Shen Qing holding the baby and feeding her in the candlelight.
The wet nurse didn't mind carrying the child over late at night, but when she saw that the emperor was also woken up by the disturbance, she felt a little panicked and knelt down immediately, and the other servants also knelt down.
It is already against the rules that I cannot sleep with the emperor during the confinement period, but the emperor himself is willing, so others can't say anything. But I am afraid that the emperor will blame me if I wake him up by feeding him in the middle of the night.
When Shen Qing saw the nurse kneeling down, he realized that Xuanyuan Ling had woken up: "I'm sorry to disturb the emperor."
Xuanyuan Ling was not angry about being disturbed, but she didn't know about it before, and only realized it now: "Why do I have to feed the baby at night?"
Then he frowned and scolded the nurse: "Xianfei loves the child, but you don't know the rules? You let Xianfei feed the child in person in the middle of the night?"
The nurse was afraid of this and was about to apologize. Then she heard Shen Qing say, "I wanted to feed him myself. My milk was rising at night and I couldn't sleep. He could only sleep well after eating. Besides, he sleeps a lot during the day and has a light sleep at night. I didn't expect to disturb the emperor."
"Are we going to feed him like this in the future?" Xuanyuan Ling frowned: "It's better to stop breastfeeding. This is too tiring."
Shen Qing shook her head: "It's okay, just feed it for a few months. I'm also afraid that it won't look good if I feed it for too long."
Xuanyuan Ling knew she had thought it through when he heard this. How could he say that she was such a person? She didn't want to make a fuss while lying in bed during the confinement period, but she was willing to insist on getting up to breastfeed in the middle of the night. Should he say she was squeamish or strong? It was all for the child. Although he felt distressed, Shen Qing had made the decision, so he didn't say anything. He only said, "If you can't bear it, don't force yourself to hold on."
Shen Qing nodded.
Since Xuanyuan Ling woke up, he waited for a while. The other servants were waiting nearby. They were still nervous. They couldn't start the day at this moment. Why didn't the virtuous concubine start the day and persuade the emperor to rest? After all, the emperor had to attend the court early in the morning. Disturbing the emperor's rest would be enough to damage his body.
Of course, Shen Qing didn't really not know the rules. If we really had to talk about the rules, it would not be against the rules for him to sleep with her during her confinement.
But if Xuanyuan Ling wanted to sleep, then there was no need to persuade him. But he was willing to wait, so why should she start a day? It didn't take long to feed a child, so there was no good or bad, only willingness or unwillingness. He was willing to wait, which was a good thing.
If a man is willing to do something, you can't discourage him. If you persuade him once today, you don't need to persuade him next time. He thinks he is precious, right? Although Xuanyuan Ling is indeed precious, Shen Qing is not willing to persuade him. What is there to persuade? She herself is still precious.
After Chen Qing finished feeding, the wet nurse carried the child out. Chen Qing yawned and went into Xuanyuan Ling's arms. Xuanyuan Ling hugged her, and the two of them slept together, very naturally.
Chunhua was on guard today, and she was a little nervous just now, after all, she was woken up and was always in a bad mood, and she was also afraid that the emperor would get angry. Now she has calmed down and is looking at the full moon outside. Well, tomorrow will be a good day.
Time passed like this, Chen Qing finished her confinement, and the Sixth Prince was also one month old. Chen Qing was promoted to Consort Xian, but she could not be canonized during the confinement period, so after the confinement period, she had to arrange a date.
However, before that was the Sixth Prince’s full moon banquet. According to the rules, the hundredth day and first birthday banquets were held grandly, but the full moon banquet was held by Zhaohua Palace alone.
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