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Shannon Payette Seip might be most recognizable for her former career as a Madison TV news reporter. But those deadline-driven days pale compared to a behind-the-scenes challenge: trying to feed a wailing baby in the wee, dark hours of the night, when nothing seemed to go just right.

If only she could've had a good laugh.

Which is why Seip, 35, co-authored the new book "If These Boobs Could Talk: A Little Humor to Pump Up the Breastfeeding Mom," overflowing with what its national publisher calls "boobalicious humor that will uplift even the most deflated moms."

"If These Boobs Could Talk" includes insider jokes, advice on "how to find your inner hottie," and pages of trivia that include the "Top Ten Breast-Friendly Cities in The United States" (Sucker Flat, Calif., and Feeding Hills, Mass., to name a pair).

Seip, whose other job titles today include "mom" and co-owner of Bean Sprouts cafe in Middleton, has celebrated the lighter side of maternity from the beginning. When she first moved up a cup size while pregnant more than five years ago, "I had a cup party," she says. Little did she know the party would keep coming; when her son was born, she went up two more sizes — a "shocking" development, she says, and future fodder for her book.

In fact, most of the book's 90 pages were inspired by personal experience, says Seip, who today co-authors the syndicated kid-friendly recipe column "Bean Appetit" with Bean Sprouts partner Kelly Parthen.

"My oldest son was born three weeks early, and he was having trouble latching on," she says. "Trying to breastfeed was very difficult and a very frustrating experience for me. The first two weeks I was in the hospital with a lactation consultant almost every day.

"You take the classes, and it's easy to understand the concept, but when you put it into practice it's a little tough," she says. "I think new moms could use a little humor from people who understand what they're going through."

So Seip teamed up with co-writer Adrienne Hedger, a college roommate from her undergraduate days at UCLA. When Seip pitched the book to an agent at a writer's conference two years ago, "it got sold pretty much right away to Andrews McMeel," she says. "They do a lot of humor books, but apparently we're their first with 'boobs' in the title."

Hedger, who lives in California and has two young daughters, also penned the book's lighthearted illustrations.

California-born Seip moved to Madison to attend the journalism graduate program at UW-Madison and formerly worked as a producer, reporter and news anchor for WKOW-TV (Ch. 27).

The authors' second humor book, "Momnesia," comes out in April and is about "'mommy brain,' basically the forgetfulness and fuzziness in those first months having a baby," Seip says.

Family and friends gave "If These Boobs" full support, says Seip — particularly her husband, Roger, a motivational speaker who's been there and done that.

"He was very — I don't want to say 'hands-on' in this situation — involved," she says. Roger even contributed some one-liners to "If These Boobs," and Seip recommends the book as "a fun thing for men to read to their wives in the middle of the night when they're struggling."

Now 4½, Isaac began nursing well as soon as he reached the age of a full-term baby, his mother says. His adopted brother, Asher, is 2.

"In those first few weeks when Isaac wasn't nursing well, we had to feed him with a syringe," says Seip. "You had to pump, use a syringe, and it's 2 o'clock in the morning. I felt like I was in a crack house.

"We finally got it figured out — little Isaac figured it out, I figured it out," she says. "(But) with all the late-night feedings and a kid spitting up down your bra, you could use a good laugh."