From the draft box- I wrote this post just days before we learned of baby girl. I never had a chance to post it. I never did have that follow up MD appt to check my blood pressure (though the stress of PA I probably could have used it). Its interesting to read this post now that I've completed the process. I have been planning on but have not yet had time to write a post to reflect on my lactation experience. To sum it all up in two sentences- I'm glad I induced lactation the best I could given the circumstances. Had I chosen not to try I think I would have forever wondered what it would have been like if I had. Oh and now I think I could write a post with the same title about parenting :) So here is the post in unedited form:
Fake it Until You Make it- January 27, 2012
One of my Occupational Therapy professors told us before we went out on our field work placements (aka clinicals) to "fake it until you make it." When we were about to graduate and were terrified that someone would pay us to work in the "real world" he again reminded us to "fake it until we make it." In hind sight I think he was telling us to fake our confidence and that we knew a great deal more then we gave ourselves credit for. Until you have practice with your expertise its hard to have that confidence.
I recently started getting hits from Adoptive Families website. I thought it was weird at first and then it kept happening. I finally went to the website and searched TTA to see what came up. On the Adoptive Families Communities website someone asked about Establishing Milk Supply. Someone commented that I was a waiting mother and I was working on establishing a milk supply. I felt like the post upped the expectation. I panicked! I'm not an expert! I am just some mom to be that wants to breastfeed their baby. Will it work I dont know but the tenderness of my breast are any indication I'm expecting some sort of results. I can only follow the protocol and hope for the best. At worst I'll know I tried and well... thats all we can do as parents- right?
One insight I think I can give is that remembering to take meds 4x's daily is hard. So here are the strategies I've come up with. My pill box sits on the sink between the edge of the sink and the basin I can't do anything at the sink without reaching over them so that takes care of my AM med. When I get to work I write on the top of my coffee cup meds so when I finish my coffee at lunch time I dont forget (yes- I drink the cold coffee I can't finish in the morning w my lunch). My 4PM one is at the sink again when I get home and change out of my uniform. I also have added a reminder on my phone for this one since I dont always go straight home. 8PM I have a reminder that goes off on my phone.
So here I am faking it until I make it. I have expertise in my experience of going to the doctor and getting the prescription, and I have expertise in remembering to take the meds in 6 weeks i've missed two pills. In two weeks I go back to the doctor to check my blood pressure (which I've been doing at work as well w no problems so far). I do hope that once the protocol is complete and baby is in hands I'll be able to shed real light on the process. Until then I'll keep taking my 4x daily snack.
So I learned that the person that linked my blog was Robyn from http://chittisterchildren.wordpress.com I accidentally deleted her comment this morning when I used my phone to check the blog. Knowing it was Robyn is so nice because it means a great deal that she thought enough of my blog to send someone my way for information.
ReplyDeleteUntil those hits as far as I was aware no one was reading my blog because I was trying to lactate. I was worried and still am worried that my experience will deter someone from trying to induce lactation. So... count on a reflection sometime in the next couple of months since the plan is to stop blogging once finalization occurs.