Friday, February 8, 2008 - Update

Mom and dad finally figured out how I like my baths so now they are a little more enjoyable.

Well, I'm still pumping. . .I know. . .you are probably wondering why since she is on Similac Isomil formula. One reason is because I am somehow maintaining my supply by only pumping 3-4 times per day. Because of the infrequency of pumping, it isn't too inconvenient. I am also hoping that after we get her off of the phenobarb, we'll find that was causing her discomfort and not something in my milk. Maybe I will be able to add some breastmilk bottles back in. Also when we start her on cereal, I will be able to mix it with milk instead of water to add more calories for her. The last reason. . . .many people probably won't understand. You see, my body seems to fail me time and time again. Not only did it not know how to get pregnant, but it couldn't stay pregnant. It does, however, know how to produce milk and that is just astonishing to me. My pregnancy isn't the first time that I've realized if there is some rare disease or condition that afflicts less than 1% of the population. . .it will probably happen to me. For example, when I was 15 years old I was hospitalized for Superior Mesenteric Artery Syndrome. Have you ever heard of that? Yeah, me neither. . .I think they just kind of made it up on my behalf. I had a really rough year that year and within a month's time, I was held at gunpoint and lost a dear friend of mine in a car accident. We later had to testify over the robbery and it was just more stress than my 15 year old self could endure. I started having a lot of stomach problems and started vomiting and literally couldn't stop. Then, as a senior in high school I was diagnosed as having a tumor on my pituitary gland. Sounds threatening, but it really isn't. I remember sitting in the waiting room of the Center for Reproductive Medicine with my mother (which is where you go for endocrine disorders) with an eerie feeling that I would be back someday. Of course, they told me it wouldn't affect my ability to get pregnant and it didn't. . .PCOS did. And, I can't forget my trip to the ER in 2006 with a ruptured ovarian cyst. That was none too pleasant. I am really very healthy in the traditional sense. . .I just have really odd things wrong with me. I guess I should have told my OB to stop checking all of the normal things during my pregnancy and instead look for the abnormal. Then, maybe they could have determined that I would give birth at 23 weeks. Wow. . .I rattled on for way too long. I just remain in awe that my body does something that it's meant to do for once (and it doesn't hurt that it's good for Olivia too.)