The last few days have been a whirlwind of activity and excitement. Days that I know I will always want to remember. I cannot get over the exuberant thrill, joy, love, generosity, good wishes that have been poured onto us. I think the word "amazing" is way over used. But I've got to say it today. It's been utterly amazing! It's been astounding. It's been humbling. So much goodness out there.
On Thursday morning, I ordered a hammock. I've read, hammocks are really helpful in soothing a fussy baby. The rocking and swaying mimics life in the womb. Plus, the hammock is portable. It can be moved from room to room. It can even be placed outside. When we travel, we can take it with us.
I have a selection of slings to choose from. Slings will be a necessity around here. Especially once the fall comes and Lissadell and I are spending are mornings at The Natural Child Learning Community. Two infants and ten preschoolers will definitely entail of some serious multi-tasking duties.
My wonderful friend and fellow Montessorian in Maryland is rushing me a whole supply of the highly sought after Bum Genius 3.0 cloth diapers. Her little girl just recently transitioned to underwear, so I'm getting like new cloth diapers at a serious discount. Oh, thank you so much Kim. Kim is a great supporter of breast feeding and has offered so much advice and encouragement on adoptive breast feeding issues. Most people do not realize it, but adoptive mothers can breast feed their babies too. I was thrilled to learn this as this has been a small area of sadness that accompanied our quest for adoption. I didn't want the baby to miss out on the bonding and nutritional benefits of breast feeding. Kristie, who is a pediatric nurse practitioner as well as a lactation consultant has also been very supportive of this quest. Since, she lives nearby, she'll be able to guide me through the process. I know I'll be calling her with questions, complaints, and hopefully good news! Imagine my luck to have so many informed girls at the tip of my fingers. I cannot get over how blessed I feel.
Prior to being matched, a few of my friends, who knew I was interested in providing breast milk for my baby, recommended MilkShare. It's a website dedicated to helping women who have breast feeding issues find donor milk. So I signed up on Wednesday, not expecting much to happen right away. I figured it would take a few weeks or so to find a breast milk donor. Within hours, I received a message from a woman right here in Austin. She provided medical and blood work records to indicate that she was in good health. She's also a registered donor at the local milk bank which have very stringent requirements for its donors. I feel confident that she is an excellent donor candidate. She is a surrogate mother who gave birth to twins in December. She has been pumping since then enough milk for twins. She gave the milk to the twins for the first month. Then the twins and their family returned to Norway. She donated to the milk bank for awhile. Now she's working through Milk Share. She already provides a full supply for a three month old baby in San Antonio and has enough milk to supply for another infant. She'd love to give to us, because she doesn't have the freezer space to hold all of her milk. If we do not use it, she will have to throw it away! As of yesterday, she had 300 ounces waiting to be claimed!
Whether I end up being successful at breast feeding is not a huge issue to me. I know it's a long shot. But providing the best nutrition for this little one who has already had a tumultuous start is an issue to me. I know formula is good. Heck, my siblings and I were all formula fed and we are all really healthy. But you know the saying, "If you know better, you do better." I feel that if I have the means to provide better, shouldn't I? So I am aiming to provide the liquid gold to this little one for as long as we can secure a supply.
I think we are ready. We have all the important stuff in place. We don't have a baby room complete with changing stations and what not, but we have what we need. Babies do not have material wants anyway...
So that's it, now we just wait for the call to depart for Amarillo. Everytime I say "Amarillo" I hear George Strait ~ "Amarillo by morning, up from San Anton...Everything that I've got is just what I've got on." I've always really loved that song.
Congratulations!!!! This is an amazing time for you both.
Posted by: greenemother | March 18, 2009 at 08:06 AM