I'm still trying to wrap my arms around the breastfeeding, donor breast milk situation. A wonderful friend Lindsay has volunteered to contact the organizations for me. The Milkin' Mamas group in Huntington Beach will not donate milk to me since they only help preemie babies in the NICU. I understand that. They did refer her to milkshare.com and milkmatch.org.
Contacted Wendy Halderman at the Pump Station. She called me yesterday and agreed with milkshare.com as a good place. She refers her moms with extra milk to donate there. Wish I had known that last year when I realized after pumping a ton of breast milk that Abby wouldn't take from a bottle, oh no, just fresh from Momma. I dumped a ton of frozen breast milk. How rude. Anyway, so I'm signed up for both sites and have already posted on milkshare.com. Not sure how I really feel about it since I won't personally know any of the donors and would therefore have to get it all tested before use. The donor mothers also have to be tested for HIV and it's a bit awkward to ask people that don't you think?
But alas, some great news. I contacted the San Jose Milk Bank (thank you Nina for the referral!) and they are the only LICENSED milk bank in California. They've been in operation for 36 years and are a non-profit. The milk is pasteurized, tested and confirmed healthy and clean. It comes in 4 oz. glass bottles and is $3/oz plus shipping. All I need is a prescription from our pediatrician. I would have to call our insurance company to check on potential coverage (which may be possible). This sounds like the best option of all (except of course for all my mommy friends who have already told me they will try to pump for Peanut as well). After I explained my situation to the lovely woman, Pauline, over the phone she said I definitely qualify and that Peanut would be considered a high priority. Yeah!! Also, she didn't have great things to see about milkshare and milkmatch because in order to pass along breast milk you are supposed to be licensed to do so...
I have also been corresponding more with Dr. Jack Newman, the breastfeeding guru in Canada some more. He assures me that I can breastfeed because estrogen is suppressed while breastfeeding (although he isn't sure that helps fight the cancer but is still an endorsement to feed nonetheless). He also assures me that even during the scans, but NOT once Chemo has resumed, I should be able to feed depending on the type of contrast and dyes that are used.
I am also shopping for a new pediatrician. Dr. Sachs has those weird comments that I can't get over. He's always quick in the exam rooms too (at first I liked this because we could get in and out easily and not stick around) but after reading Dr. Brazelton's book "Touchpoints" I am not convinced that quick visits and vaccine shots given with one foot out the door is the most nurturing method of pediatric medicine...
Also continued with nanny interviews. I met two candidates I really like from one of the agencies. Two more tonight and then I think I will just hire someone. Funny thing is that Abby is starting to like Agnes a bit more. Still wants mommy first but that's understandable!! I'll probably keep her in the mix for weekends or extra hours. Good to have a cadre of help on call... Now I have to expand on my work list of Nanny duties (this is a document with multiple tasks on it that I created for Roxana - now it will have to encompass much more since I won't be doing much). The difficult part is managing a bunch of people. This new nanny will have to have more authority to function similar to how I do making sure that everyone is doing their part. Last think I need is conflicting personalities and having to deal with personnel issues...
Monday was a disaster for me. I started having these hard contractions. But there were also a lot of people in the house. Elizabeth, Agnes, Abby and Grammy Sue. We got a lot of things done but I over did it, hence the contractions. Everyone wants to be helpful but that also means I have to provide direction and that requires energy too. I ended up sorting through piles of Abby's clothes, organizing the closet in the gym that had way too much stuff in it, organized items for Goodwill, had Agnes drop off baby clothes to Jeanne's house and then the stuff at goodwill. Chef Jason was here thankfully to whip up some good food. Then Mr. Babyproofer showed up and had to do his thing. So I was up and down the stairs in the gym, up and down the stairs to the bedrooms, back and forth and everywhere in between. It was a tiring day and I don't think I got a nap in. Plus, David isn't home so I had to get Abby's dinner ready, battle with her a bit to get upstairs, then bathe her (which I normally don't do since it's awkward with the port and the belly leaning into her tub) then get her into bed. I'm pretty sure I went to bed early that night and might have forgot to brush my teeth...ugh.
Yesterday didn't do much. Thankfully. Two more potential nannies were interviewed and Abby had a play date with Francesca. Today, trying not to do much either.
Annoyed!! I just got a call from someone named Stacy at Dr. Daly's office asking for a "substantial payment"....EXCUSE ME?!?!? And with a major attitude about it. Seriously!?!? I told her to talk to Dr. Daly about it since I've already paid $7,500 out of pocket and Dr. Daly told me not to make any more payments. She then says "Well, then I need to get what your insurance company has sent you"...I tell her I've probably received about 30 cents from our insurance company but I'm happy to give it to her. In the meantime I told her to talk to Dr. Daly. So unbelievably rude. Dr. Daly is the one requiring weekly monitoring...not even Dr. Tabsh had me do that with twins. Pfffft.
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