Tuesday, September 30, 2008

So I went to the new doctor's office and it wasn't too bad. I mean, it was fine, it didn't take too long to get there, it was nice and clean, and it's across the street from the hospital where I'll be delivering. I was only seeing the NP, and my appointment was for 11:15. At 11:45, sitting in the room, having only accomplished filling out scads of paperwork and giving a clean catch urine sample (which actually was a hell of an accomplishment, since I had Kathleen with me and she is a PAIN), I called Todd and said that I hadn't been seen yet. I guess 30 minutes isn't that long to wait? Or something? The NP came in as soon as I called Todd and she said how are you? I said I'm fine but this is my first visit to this office and I'm trying to tell if it's going to be this long of a wait every time. She looked surprised - and at her watch - and said I thought your appointment was at 11:30? I thought I was doing pretty good!

Sigh. I'm sure she did think it was good that I 'only' waited for 15 minutes. But I was holding Kathleen, trying to feed her Cheerios and keep her busy, she pushes against me the whole time I'm holding her, it's hard and waaaaah! I know I'm whiny. I just wish that we didn't just accept that doctors are going to run late, that we should feel so happy and grateful that they even BOTHER to see us that we should never say anything. Ugh.

It ended up to be fine, she was very nice and I just got over myself. She went through my history, decided I should have an ultrasound the next week because it's hard to believe that I got pregnant after just one period, I guess, also I was charting and know I got pregnant really late in my cycle. Which I clearly know nothing about, yet.

I am always up for an ultrasound, so I went in last week for one. The tech said that I should be 6 weeks 6 days but I was measuring 5 weeks 6 days, which actually makes sense, given the date of conception. I mentioned that I was breastfeeding and the tech said "you have to stop!" kind of alarmed like that. I said, blubbering already, what? What? WHY? I said my daughter doesn't take a bottle. She said, and I am not kidding, that breastfeeding causes the uterus to contract and "you don't want to lose the baby". She also said "she'll eat when she gets hungry".

Now. This is not to offend any ultrasound techs out there but they are not, as far as I know, freaking doctors and should not really be dispensing medical advice like this, especially in this threatening manner. When I was done with the tech (who said I have to come back for another ultrasound in two weeks because of my advanced maternal age), I asked the woman at the desk if I could have my doctor (whom I have not yet met) call me so I could talk about this breastfeeding thing. The woman said I could speak to the nurse, which was fine by me, and I did. The nurse said that sometimes it can be hard to keep up with the nutritional requirements of nursing and tending to a new baby at the same time, but there is a lot of controversy over whether or not it's bad for the new baby to breastfeed the old one.

So I came home and we've tried to give Kathleen a bottle but she is UNinterested and frankly, so am I. I'm having an ultrasound next week and then I'm seeing my doctor two weeks after that and I hope and pray everything's okay but what can I do? I just don't want to starve Kathleen to force her to drink formula. She has her nine month appointment this week and I'll talk to her doctor about it and maybe we can get her on a cup of milk at 11 months? She's not great with a bottle, a sippy cup, or a real cup but she does the best with a real cup at this point.

I can't wait to hear what the doctor says about it. If she says she thinks it's okay with me to keep breastfeeding I'm going to tell her that I think she should tell her fat mouth tech that, too.

1 comment:

Swistle said...

Oh I TOTALLY AGREE! Ultrasound techs shouldn't be giving medical information! I don't even like the nurse to tell me something, because a few times the nurse has said one thing and then the OB has come in and said the opposite and that drives me crazy.

I have one friend who nursed a baby while pregnant, and everything went fine. I THOUGHT (but I don't know, either) that the "nursing causes the uterus to contract" thing was only after childbirth, when that's what it's supposed to do.