Haiti Needs You

She needs all of us.

Haiti has had a soft spot in my heart for a long time. My father was born in Puerto Rico, which is the next island over from Hispaniola. I have always thought of the Haitians are my poor, neglected cousins.

We cannot look away anymore. The amount of suffering since the earthquake, which struck near Port-Au-Prince earlier this week, has caused unimaginable suffering. Of particular concern to me are all the orphans and injured children. No doubt there are many brain injuries and traumatic amputations that need medical attention now.

If you're looking for a place to donate, I'm a fan of Doctors without Borders.

Breast is Still the Best

Don't get me wrong from my previous post.

Breastfeeding is still the best choice for mother and baby. I would not have struggled as I did if that weren't true. Breastmilk gives babies their greatest nutritional support, decreases their chance of infection, while lowering mommy's cancer risk.

My goal was to make it to six months. Whenever I felt like giving up, I thought about the following two examples of perseverance:

• Dr.W: Another resident mommy, pumped for months in between 4+ hour orthopedic surgeries. When she got engorged, Dr.W wasn't allowed to adjust her bra because not only was she 'scrubbed in,' she also had a lead apron on top!
  
• Lanisa Allen: Had to sneak away to use a public bathroom to pump her milk and was fired for it. See her story here.

An Unfair Depiction

But I'm not tied down to my breast pump.

Y'know, when the Mormons were first asked to practice polygamy most of them went kicking and screaming into the practice. Then when they were commanded to stop, they had a hard time letting go. That was my experience with breastfeeding.

The gap in posts had to do with me being on my most demanding rotation while soaking in the reality of my academic situation. . . all the while working to save someone's life (I'll explain later, on 1/20/10). I had always said that I would stop pumping at the 6 month mark, but just before the finish line my supply went down. . . WAY down. It had to do with a ton of stress and my inability to find time during the day. I became all hung up on the idea of stopping on my terms, not because I was 'failing' to produce.

So I got all worked up, pumped more, fell behind in my work, this added stress, which produced less milk and the cycle continued! Until now, that is. Last week I produced 2.5 ounces, gave my boy this meager portion, and put my supplies away. The large box of nursing pads, bras, tubes, valves, shields, etc got sealed up and put into storage. Part of me was elated; the other part felt terrible for withdrawing this part of myself from my baby. The next week as my normal pumping hour approached I had pangs of regret and actually tried to collect whatever I could manually squeeze out. I came home quite upset when my husband finally said, "It's time."

He's right. 6 months of breastfeeding for a resident mommy is a lot. My baby is on solids now and I can help him to progress in other ways. I'm told I can still feed part-time, but the truth is I need every minute of the day (except for necessary sanity breaks such as this) to reclaim my life.

A Good Laugh - The Seal

Been reading this way too much.

And I think I'm a little sleep deprived. This is the true story of what happened during our nighttime routine last month:

Hubby: Will you say the prayer tonight?

Me: Sure. [closes eyes]

Our Father in Heaven, we're thankful we could touch such a BEAUTIFUL animal. . . and that it is a seal. . . [wakes up] Wait what?!

Me & Hubby: [laugh uncontrollably]

Soon to come: What does Nacho Libre have in common with my boob?

Baby B'Air Product Review

Two firsts: Flight and a head cold. Doh!

I was oh-so-fortunate to win this little item from The Marketing Mama. The Baby B'Air is a vest meant to be worn by small children during a plane ride while sitting on their parent's lap, which fastens them to the seat belt. If you go to Baby B'Air's website and watch the video, you'll learn why the inventor was inspired to come up with something more secure than mommy or daddy's interlaced fingers.

I'll start out with things to keep in mind when using the Baby B'Air vest, just to get that over with:

• When sitting upright, the child has to face away from you. My baby loves to make eye contact so this was a little hard on him.


• You can lie your baby down, which is nice. . . but the harness becomes more taught in this position and can cause skin breakdown. I found this out when I went to change Philippe's diaper and discovered an area on the thigh that had been chaffed.
  

On to the good stuff:

• The Baby B'Air makes total sense! If you strap your kid down in a car, why not on a plane?


• It makes you feel prepared. This was our first flight with baby and having the B'Air made us feel like pros.


• Peace of mind. I won't name names, but I know someone who let her newborn roll from her arms to the floor as she dozed off on the sofa. Things happen. And there are worse consequences if all of a sudden turbulence strikes. I have to say our plane got jostled from time to time and I felt better knowing Philippe was secured by the Baby B'Air.


• Finally, it's cute! We got a lot of compliments.

Herbal Help

Hey, this actually works.

Since I'm on my most demanding rotation now, I need all the help I can get to keep up the milk supply. My average output was on the decline and I decided to give this herbal tea stuff a try. The active ingredient is fenugreek, which can also be found in curry. The result? I went from 9oz to 12-15oz at the end of the work day (depending on how much I get to hydrate).

The taste isn't spectacular, but it's fine with a drop of honey. The downside is that I think my sweat now smells like tandoori chicken.

Sidenote: As a follow-up to my neck injury, it still hurts! One of the young male nurses called me Dr. Batman. -Which I thought meant I was heroic in all my doctorly pursuits. Alas this is not the intent. It's in reference to the rigid mask Michael Keaton wore, which didn't allow him to turn his neck during Batman's fight scenes.

A Pain in the Neck

I had hope for the future . . .

But then I destroyed my neck. I hurt it by using a bad side-lying position to breastfeed my sick baby all night on Saturday. The following day I went to pick him up and heard an awful tearing sound coming from my cervical spine.

The irony is, people in the medical field get the least mercy when they are ill or hurt. If you're having fevers, puking, or got the runs you're still expected to come in. A torn muscle? Puh-leez. So I tried to endure the first few days of my new rotation, but here I am typing this post from home. . . unable to look anywhere except straight ahead.

I actually don't have any sick days to use because my maternity leave (a whopping 5 weeks) ate them all up. I'm using the last of my vacation days, which I had reserved for emergencies such as this and/or my brother-in-law's upcoming wedding . . . in Japan. Sadly, this time off might mean I can't go anymore. (If you're reading this Paul and Mayu, I'm soooo sorry!!!)

I couldn't have imagined I'd hurt myself this badly. If you consider that I gave birth to my son who was face-up without an epidural and now I'm tearing up from pain you know that this is bad.

Just trying to rest up and pray that I'm OK by tomorrow. Because this resident mommy must get back to work.