Baby Story

I committed the unpardonable sin...I watched "A BABY STORY" on Discovery. WHY?!?!?! Why would I vex my spirit with the sensationalized reality show drama of a sad excuse for the truth of birth? ( No, Persis. Tell us how you REALLY feel) The first story was about a couple coming home with their new baby. The mother obviously had a cesarean birth, but they only said it was a "complicated birth".  The story was focused on getting used to the baby, routine, and acceptance. Not too bad. But that was the TRICK, the lure, the hook. Then the evil appeared in the next story. Middle aged mother on the third pregnancy at a prenatal appointment. Seems harmless, right? Wrong. In the next segment she is flat on her back in a hospital bed, hooked up to the electronic fetal monitor and speaking with the anesthesiologist. She tells him she had an epidural and a spinal with babies 1 and 2 and felt it failed because she could still "feel" (notice she did not say she was in pain). She tells him she wants general anesthesia. The anesthesiologist, shocked, explains to her it is better for her and the baby to be awake and that she will want to be able to meet her baby at birth. She then responds, "I'll have 18 years to look at this baby, I don't need to see it at birth!"  WHHHHAAATTTTT!?!?!?!?!?!?
Are you kidding me?????
Why do I vex myself?
*CLICK*

So in my Baby Story I hope to be informative and encouraging. I'll tell you my story and I hope you stay tuned for the triumphs. I think that is what is so wrong with these BABY DRAMAS. It highlights the problems, but not the solutions. There is no follow through. At most you get a one liner stating "it was hard, but we worked it out". Yeah, but HOW? And as for Labor and Delivery... please stop dramatizing how the baby was saved by the doctor because it probably could have been avoided.
Okay, I'm done now. *stepping off the box*

I am decided on the name for the baby - Peyton Taja.
I have always loved the name Peyton. My church St. Paul's Episcopal is on Peyton Road. We sponsor a school called Peyton Forest. The name Peyton reminds me of  family and children, support and service, love and acceptance. The name Taja is the feminine of Taj. If the baby was a boy, that would have been the first name. Taja means crown or exalted. So Peyton Taja is already my little princess.

As I mentioned in the last post I am inducing lactation. I could not imagine NOT breast feeding. I am on a maximum dosage of Domperidone and pumping 8-10 times a day. That equals every two hours during the day and about twice during the sleeping hours. After one week I am already getting drops of milk from both breasts and I am VERY encouraged. My Lactation advisors are all telling me to not get my hopes up in terms of thinking I will be able to provide enough milk to be her sole source of nutrition. Smile. Okay. *wink*

My beautiful 6 year old daughter's name will be altered to read Danice. Her birth name is Dennices Ann.
I am changing it to be spelled Danice from a form of Daniel who Jehovah God saved from destruction.
Ann will be kept as it means "God has favored me". Danice has already had a difficult life in her 6 years. She have been moved to a different home 4 times. She has suffered a severe case of malnutrition including parasites. And although she is currently in a caring orphanage and well fed, she has suffered loss and separation. Her transition to a new family, a new mother, a new environment and a new country is predicted to be a challenge. But as many of you know about me, "challenge" is my other middle name because my name is VICTORY.

Last week I spoke with the director of The Giving Tree who did my Home Study for the domestic adoption. It was comforting to know she is familiar with the requirements of international adoptions and will be able to adjust the study to address the targeted questions. However, because I am no longer using the Study for a GA adoption, I will need to purchase the release for 1,500.00 As soon as I get the Home Study, I will send in the I-600A (Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition). With the I-600A filed before I leave, the US immigration process for the girls should go faster when I file the I-600 (Petition to Classify Orphan as an Immediate Relative) in Guyana.

Of course none of these filing mean anything until the adoption process is started and finalized in Guyana. This week I bought the tickets for my mother and I to travel to Guyana on November 15th. It is an open ticket because we do not know how long it will take to complete the adoption. I got an email from the lawyer in Guyana, but I think he is holding off on doing much until the baby is born. Later this month I will start shutting down my non-essential accounts. I won't be able to take much with me to Guyana, but I will have what is most important... my heart. So many of you are excited with me and want to host a baby shower for me. I am very grateful for your outpouring of love, however due to the length of time I will be gone a baby shower is not very practical. But when I return... CELEBRATION TIME!

What is needed now is monetary gifts to offset the costs of the adoption, the loss of income while I am away,
and the time it takes to transition back to life at home. If you are so moved there is a donation button to the right where your love can be expressed along with your prayers.

In His Service,
Persis 

He will supply all your needs

I have experienced such love and support that I can't help but to know this is my absolute destiny. In the past two weeks I have shared the news with family, friends, and total strangers. The response is always the same.
But what touches me the most are the acts of kindness.

This past Saturday I went to the La Leche League of Georgia conference. Naturally I got a few curious looks when I declared I was 8 months pregnant! <wink>. Still the acceptance was genuine. I am no stranger to mothers and pregnancy as a doula, yet I felt so "new" as I sat in the workshop and meandered through the exhibit hall. I had to resist the urge to want to buy everything for my girls. But there was one AOK (act of kindness) that really took the cake that day.

The background is I am inducing lactation. As a doula and lactation educator, I am fully aware of the benefits of breastfeeding for baby and mother. http://www.promom.org/101/  I am blessed to have the necessary resources and access to a knowledge base to make a real go for it. I can not imagine NOT doing everything I can to give my baby what I know to be best for her. However, I do have to mentally prepare for the real chance that I will not be able to produce enough milk. So that I can keep the baby at the breast which increases bonding and hosts of other social benefits, I will use a Nursing Supplementer. http://breast-feeding.adoption.com/nursing/nursing-supplementers.html
I struck up a conversation with a breast pump sales manager at the conference. She had a demo for a finger feeder/supplementer. She gave me info on where to find a distributor and asked me why I was interested (assuming I was a Lactation Consultant). I told her my plans and she handed me an unopened supplementer from her inventory and instructed me to pay her with an email on my progress. It took me 10 minutes to stop crying.  Thank you Kathleen.

In His Service,
Persis

Breastfeeding studies:
http://consumer.healthday.com/Article.asp?AID=643576
http://www.womenshealth.gov/breastfeeding/
http://www.nichd.nih.gov/health/topics/Breastfeeding.cfm