An update!

Hello!  About time I give an update, huh?!

So, it's been almost 7 weeks now since I delivered.  I'm thrilled to report that I made it through without any hormonal issues/baby-blues/depression, etc.  I felt completely normal.  Oh, and I've dropped 27 of the 30 pounds I gained! Woohoo!  I still have a bit of a muffin top that needs to disappear but I'll get rid of it soon.

I've e-mailed with my FIM (former Intended Mother) a couple times but mostly I text with the nanny when needed.  She's told me that everyone is doing great and Joseph is growing really well.  He was up to 10lbs at his 1 month checkup!

That's largely thanks to my super hero talent.... being a dairy cow!  I'm still pumping for him and I get over 100oz a day.  That's over 3/4 of a gallon!  He doesn't drink nearly that much every day so they're accumulating quite the freezer stash.  The first week to two of pumping was HARD!  I was pumping every 2 hours around the clock.  Man was I exhausted!  But now I've stretched it out to about every 3 hours during the day and I only get up once at night.  Sounds bad, but I watch Downton Abbey on my computer so the 20 minutes go really fast. 

So last Wednesday I had my 6 week postpartum checkup with my midwife at UCSF.  It was SO good to see her again.  She really is an amazing person and it was good to catch up with her again.   I had a bit of a scare though.  I had a lump appear on my left breast about 3 weeks before I delivered.  I totally forgot to ask my midwife about it when I was in San Francisco.  So I asked about it at this checkup.  She wanted me to go to the UCSF Breast Care clinic.  She said it was the best one around and she'd much rather me be seen there than go anywhere else.  I got an appointment for last Friday.  They sent me this huge medical history questionnaire that asked all about family history of cancer and other stuff.  When I went in the Nurse Practitioner did an exam and said that it could be a milk cyst but that it's location was unusual for that.  So she wanted me to have it biopsied to be sure.  She said the results would take a week.  So over to the Fine Needle Aspiration clinic I go.  The guy poked me with a needle (it really wasn't too bad... just a prolonged pinch) and then immediately put the cells on a slide and took a look in the microscope.  He said it appeared to be a milk cyst and he saw no malignant cells.  Whew!  So apparently it should fade away eventually, after I stop pumping.  So glad I got an answer.  I also gotta say I was very impressed with UCSF.  They made it easy and I got answers so fast!

Before I sign off, for who knows how long... I've had a lot of people ask me if I'll do this again.  I might have mentioned this before, but I'm giving myself at least 6 months to think about it before I make any decisions.  I'm leaning towards "yes", but we'll see!