Hello Dear Readers!
Today was my 20 year high school reunion (yep. 37. Lots of grey. Still not sure what it means to feel like a "grown up.") What a handsome and interesting group of folks I went to school with! Seriously I think a couple of them will look that smooth and curvy when we are 70. So the funny part is, I walk up to the group at the family picnic this afternoon, and am greeted with, "Ms. Boobjuice Herself!" Tee hee! It's true, I can't deny it. Motherhood changes people (I'm sure fatherhood does too but I can't speak from personal experience there) and the Big Loud Lactivist stick whalloped me upside the head the minute that little dude came out. As did the You Will Now Cry at Every Damn Thing that Ever Happens Ever stick. Everyone was very congratulatory about my big ol' baby belly (aw, thanks guys!) and not a one of them said "Wow you have a lot of grey for 37." Not that I thought they would really, but that's what I felt most insecure about the week leading up to the reunion. Ah well, my stylist says she'll come to the birth center... I'm kidding, I'll give the kid a few weeks to get used to how I smell before I put weird stuff on my head.
So another mama on my online mamas group is having a rough start - she has too much post-partum bleeding and was given a drug in the ER (yikes!) that is a question mark for nursing and can reduce prolactin (the "make milk now" hormone) and such. Sounds like she got a lot of the standard knee-jerk, "my insurance wants me to tell you not to breastfeed on this drug and despite being a doctor I am skeeved out by your boobs" sort of advice. (Okay not fair they are of course just trying to keep her from bleeding to death but seriously, AMA, tell your med schools to teach doctors about breastfeeding in a useful way, please.) So I thinks she's getting the help she needs to work through this in the way that is best for her and her little one. But this is so common and so frustrating! Right at the start, when poor mama is exhausted and probably freaked out and trying to learn how to nurse, and kiddo is, hello, brand new to everything, and it's so hard to get the support we need to take care of ourselves and our babies the way we want to. It's hard to research breastfeeding online when you are sleep deprived and learning how to be a mama (Ack! This creature is so tiny and delicate and they sent us home ALONE!? With no supervision???) I want our country to be a place where mama and baby get breastfeeding friendly help and support from the start without having to hunt it down in a panic in the middle of the night. Notice this would be very different from a guilt trip in a breastfeeding class before giving birth. This is like doctors who are trained well to understand breastfeeding (seriously anyone who might be treating a woman age 15-55 should know this stuff) and post-partum in-house visits from lactation consultants and whatever mama needs to sort this out. That first month is so critical and so freaking hard! How can we make this happen?
Great, now I'm all fired up and it's almost midnight. I want to bring this mama a casserole. But I don't actually know her, or what state she lives in, or whether she likes casserole.
Those so inclined please pray for our new mama and her little one to find some ease and rest soon!
Much love,
Suzi
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Things I Love About Being Pregnant
Hello Dear Readers!
There are a lot of hilarious blogs, books, movies, etc. out there about what a pain in the butt (literally - hemorrhoids, anyone?) it can be to be pregnant. Fair 'nuff. But I'm kind of sad that this is probably my last ride on this merry-go-round, and I want to enjoy it as much as I can. So here, in no particular order, is a list of things I love about being pregnant.
1. Happy attention. Yes, I seem to like attention. Are we surprised? But this is not just attention - attention can be bad. (Stop staring, I know my kid is screaming on your airplane and I'm doing the best I can. Go away.) This is happy attention. Pregnant bellies make people smile, ask how you are feeling, when is the baby due. Pregnant bellies inspire hope and optimism, and perhaps a bit of wonder about how that fairly small woman is carrying around all that baby belly and that bag of groceries and that toddler...
2. BOOBS! Yes I admit it. I like the bigger boobs. I have never been busty, even at the times in my life when I needed to take off a few pounds, it goes pear shaped (and then when I do take off those few pounds it seems to all come out of my chest - not fair!!!) So the busty look of being pregnant and the early months of nursing are a lot of fun for me. And maybe for someone else too but we'll leave him out of it for now.
3. Food. I like to eat. It's fun to eat more. This is great about nursing, too, of course, but I find it very freeing to be in this time where I *should* eat more and put on weight. All in moderation of course, and I don't get to just chow down on cookies (mmm, cookies...). But I had a steak sandwich and fries for lunch yesterday, and it was DELICIOUS. And I'm not even a little sorry - I need the iron and protein, and Protoperson seems to love potatoes. Even the resultant food coma was kind of fun.
4. Spoiling. Of course having folks carry things for me and let me off the hook for stuff would be more fun if I wasn't so freaking tired. (Read: if it wasn't necessary.) But if I get to be Princess for a Trimester, that's just fine.
5. There's a person growing in my tummy. Dude have you checked this out? It's incredible! There is a whole, if tiny and not yet independently viable, human being, in my BELLY! She moves and kicks and I'm so curious who she is going to turn out to be! It's so amazing. And she's so small! Okay she does not FEEL small when I'm trying to carry Robert and the groceries. But think about it - if you set out to, say, carve out of driftwood a creature with fingernails that small, I reckon you would have a hard time doing so. DNA is wild stuff.
6. Improved body image. Okay this one is a bit of a dome scratcher for a lot of folks, and on the first try it didn't kick in during pregnancy. In fact, I felt like I was wearing a clown suit. But sometime after Robert was born, I went from a sort of typical American female level of poor body image to "holy crap! I made that person in my belly! and I fed him with my breasts! How the heck did I do that? That's amazing!!!" and all those pesky details about cellulite and breast size just sort of faded into the background. It probably didn't hurt that I lost more weight after the pregnancy than I gained during it. Although I will fess up that I was pretty disappointed when my chest deflated after Robert's solid food intake ramped up. So this time around I'm enjoying my nice round belly, and the fact that certain other areas are getting bigger too are honestly not bothering me as much.
7. Robert. It is so cute to watch him look at the ultrasounds of Proto and say "That's a head. That's a belly." He kisses my belly too, and says, "Robert kiss the baby." And lately when he asks me to pick him up he reaches up with both hands on my belly and says his usual "Want upamomma." So from my point of view I see belly, cute little hands, cute little upturned face. Yay.
8. Looking forward to nursing again. Maybe this time I'll get lucky and won't get some nasty yeast infection to spoil the fun. And I feel like all I learned on the last go-round has to make it easier this time. But I've lined up a great lactation consultant service (Yay Zenana Spa!) just in case and some $$$ in the "Baby Wish List" budget to spend on it.
9. Contraception. What contraception? Exactly! Although to be fair this doesn't necessarily totally make up for the complicated mechanics of the big round tummy.
10. Matt. I have the sweetest husband. He takes such nice care of me while I am preggers, and it's fun. He doesn't complain when I am behind on my share of housework or when I want to go to bed at 8 pm on weeknights (not that I do a very good job at actually going to bed at 8...) And he's always telling me how cute he thinks I look pregnant, and never once has he rolled his eyes (where I could see him anyway) about the flatulence or how much unsolicited information he's getting about various bodily functions that are getting confused by all the hormones coursing through my veins.
11. My midwives. That's right, plural. These women are taking such wonderful care of me, and they are so kind and gentle and reassuring and patient. I'm sure I'm not the most high-maintenance patient they've ever had, but I bet I'm more than one standard deviation above the mean (So that's more high-maintenance than 67% of the population, or so, assuming a normally distributed population, which is an heroic assumption, and way more math than anyone probably wanted to see on this blog.) And they just sit patiently answering my questions and asking if I had anything else I wanted to talk about. Yay.
Feel free to waive these at me in a few months when I have to mosey from place to place and can't take a deep breath.
Much love,
Suzi
There are a lot of hilarious blogs, books, movies, etc. out there about what a pain in the butt (literally - hemorrhoids, anyone?) it can be to be pregnant. Fair 'nuff. But I'm kind of sad that this is probably my last ride on this merry-go-round, and I want to enjoy it as much as I can. So here, in no particular order, is a list of things I love about being pregnant.
1. Happy attention. Yes, I seem to like attention. Are we surprised? But this is not just attention - attention can be bad. (Stop staring, I know my kid is screaming on your airplane and I'm doing the best I can. Go away.) This is happy attention. Pregnant bellies make people smile, ask how you are feeling, when is the baby due. Pregnant bellies inspire hope and optimism, and perhaps a bit of wonder about how that fairly small woman is carrying around all that baby belly and that bag of groceries and that toddler...
2. BOOBS! Yes I admit it. I like the bigger boobs. I have never been busty, even at the times in my life when I needed to take off a few pounds, it goes pear shaped (and then when I do take off those few pounds it seems to all come out of my chest - not fair!!!) So the busty look of being pregnant and the early months of nursing are a lot of fun for me. And maybe for someone else too but we'll leave him out of it for now.
3. Food. I like to eat. It's fun to eat more. This is great about nursing, too, of course, but I find it very freeing to be in this time where I *should* eat more and put on weight. All in moderation of course, and I don't get to just chow down on cookies (mmm, cookies...). But I had a steak sandwich and fries for lunch yesterday, and it was DELICIOUS. And I'm not even a little sorry - I need the iron and protein, and Protoperson seems to love potatoes. Even the resultant food coma was kind of fun.
4. Spoiling. Of course having folks carry things for me and let me off the hook for stuff would be more fun if I wasn't so freaking tired. (Read: if it wasn't necessary.) But if I get to be Princess for a Trimester, that's just fine.
5. There's a person growing in my tummy. Dude have you checked this out? It's incredible! There is a whole, if tiny and not yet independently viable, human being, in my BELLY! She moves and kicks and I'm so curious who she is going to turn out to be! It's so amazing. And she's so small! Okay she does not FEEL small when I'm trying to carry Robert and the groceries. But think about it - if you set out to, say, carve out of driftwood a creature with fingernails that small, I reckon you would have a hard time doing so. DNA is wild stuff.
6. Improved body image. Okay this one is a bit of a dome scratcher for a lot of folks, and on the first try it didn't kick in during pregnancy. In fact, I felt like I was wearing a clown suit. But sometime after Robert was born, I went from a sort of typical American female level of poor body image to "holy crap! I made that person in my belly! and I fed him with my breasts! How the heck did I do that? That's amazing!!!" and all those pesky details about cellulite and breast size just sort of faded into the background. It probably didn't hurt that I lost more weight after the pregnancy than I gained during it. Although I will fess up that I was pretty disappointed when my chest deflated after Robert's solid food intake ramped up. So this time around I'm enjoying my nice round belly, and the fact that certain other areas are getting bigger too are honestly not bothering me as much.
7. Robert. It is so cute to watch him look at the ultrasounds of Proto and say "That's a head. That's a belly." He kisses my belly too, and says, "Robert kiss the baby." And lately when he asks me to pick him up he reaches up with both hands on my belly and says his usual "Want upamomma." So from my point of view I see belly, cute little hands, cute little upturned face. Yay.
8. Looking forward to nursing again. Maybe this time I'll get lucky and won't get some nasty yeast infection to spoil the fun. And I feel like all I learned on the last go-round has to make it easier this time. But I've lined up a great lactation consultant service (Yay Zenana Spa!) just in case and some $$$ in the "Baby Wish List" budget to spend on it.
9. Contraception. What contraception? Exactly! Although to be fair this doesn't necessarily totally make up for the complicated mechanics of the big round tummy.
10. Matt. I have the sweetest husband. He takes such nice care of me while I am preggers, and it's fun. He doesn't complain when I am behind on my share of housework or when I want to go to bed at 8 pm on weeknights (not that I do a very good job at actually going to bed at 8...) And he's always telling me how cute he thinks I look pregnant, and never once has he rolled his eyes (where I could see him anyway) about the flatulence or how much unsolicited information he's getting about various bodily functions that are getting confused by all the hormones coursing through my veins.
11. My midwives. That's right, plural. These women are taking such wonderful care of me, and they are so kind and gentle and reassuring and patient. I'm sure I'm not the most high-maintenance patient they've ever had, but I bet I'm more than one standard deviation above the mean (So that's more high-maintenance than 67% of the population, or so, assuming a normally distributed population, which is an heroic assumption, and way more math than anyone probably wanted to see on this blog.) And they just sit patiently answering my questions and asking if I had anything else I wanted to talk about. Yay.
Feel free to waive these at me in a few months when I have to mosey from place to place and can't take a deep breath.
Much love,
Suzi
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