August 2, 2007

Childcare woes over/nursing woes (the other nursing) beginning

21 days until school starts.  Almost everything's done except for getting nursing shoes, but I have some time on that one.   Now it's just killing time by reading my textbooks and seeing what's up at AllNurses.com.

I'm reminded of another old saying:  "Everytime God closes a door, He opens a window."   That very same day, I found the perfect place for my son to go to childcare.  This is the most professional home care provider I ever met, plus Carpetshark loved being there (he accompanies me on all these interviews).  Big added plus:  she's located on the way to work, so I now have only 10 extra minutes of driving time instead of that damned hour.  So today we go and sign the contract.

Now we move into weaning.  I should tell you that my son's 2 1/2, so it's not as though the poor Baby's got to go on the Enfamil just to see tomorrow.  The "poor Baby" knows where the num-nums are and how to help himself to them.  In fact, he's trying to help himself as I type.  If it wasn't for Shaun the Sheep playing on the other side of the monitor screen, he'd be under the shirt.

But yeah, weaning. 

I'm not sure if I mentioned this here before, but I've never had a Hepatitis B vaccine.  I was born before they were mandatory.  It's a series of three shots.  For me to be OK for clinicals when they start, I'll have to start the shots no later than mid-September.  That will put me at having two of the three before clinicals start, and I'll just have to be careful as hell to avoid needlesticks and other exposures until the last one in January.

My doctors and my son's doctors can't give me a definite answer as to whether it would be safe for me to continue nursing while getting the vaccines.  Everything they find is "safe in pregnancy, affect on breastmilk unknown."  So of course, they will err on the side of caution and not give it unless the need outweighs the risks...which, as I'm not in clinicals yet, doesn't.   So I wrotre La Leche League for their opinion, since they are the ones that specialize in all things lactation. 

In the meantime, I've got to get him weaned off.  Cold Turkey quitting is out except as a very last resort--I've suffered through several bouts of mastitis and it is NOT fun.  The husband is home for two weeks starting next week, so I think that's when I'll make the big push:  he and I will try to keep Carpetshark so distracted that he hardly thinks of nursing.   I did finally teach him how to go to bed on his own without it, so that's a big hurdle cleared--it used to be that he'd only fall asleep at night if he was attached.

Until then, I'm putting off any requests for num-num for as long as I can.