Research Pays Off

This past week marked my daughter Victoria's 18 month mark and therefore her 18 month check-up. Choosing a pediatrician for the first time can be a daunting task. I consider myself an expert researcher. I can get to the bottom of anything in minutes, sometimes seconds. Most people do not realize just how much information is available online and sometimes by simply making a good old fashioned phone call. (Which leads me to another thought about the AT&T sales guy who told me that people do not talk anymore and that the future business plan of AT&T is modeled around texting. Well they better invent voice activation text otherwise the roads are going to see more pileups then they can handle.)

My research in my 9th month of pregnancy led us to Dr. Brooks of Holyoke Pediatrics. The first time we visited with Dr. Brooks was at the 1 week mark. I was seriously committed to breastfeeding and seriously had no idea how much work it was going to be upfront. Now remember, I research everything, so I had heard that it takes work and that although it seems natural there is a learning curve involved. As we waited in the tiny little room, I was interested to see how my selection via internet research was going to pan out.

From the moment she walked through the door I knew I had done well. She was just so gentle. Not a meek, decile gentle. More of a peaceful, mellow gentle. She said very little, but said so much. (Keep in mind, my mom was injected by needle to dry up her milk with baby #1 and tied up with me. So she could not really help in the way of nursing.) Dr. Brooks told me that the next couple of weeks Victoria was going to suck the life out of me, literally, but that from there it only goes up. She empathized by telling me her experience of feeling so needed with her first. And how feeling so needed was so scary. Now it seems so basic and obvious, what she told me. But what I realize is that she didn't have to tell me. And who knows what that may have meant. When I left that room I had a new outlook. I felt empowered and OK.

This past visit left me again patting myself on the back for my master research skills. As Victoria and I waited she sat on my lap in diaper straddled facing me, (a recent favorite position to hold my baby and perfect for toddler nursing) as we read a book. Dr. Brooks walked in with her usual temperate demeanor, Victoria now resting her head on my chest. She looked over and said "Amazing, she still looks like she is part of you." We chatted about a couple of things and then in an air of easy unconcern she said, "she is average in height and she is slim." She immediately proceeded that with, "We don't worry about slim, we worry about not slim." I expressed my concern for a stubborn runny nose and she said, "We don't really worry about it unless it gets worse. Lingering is fine. Let me say this with more assertion, we don't worry about lingering at all."

After coming over and checking my ears to show Victoria just how easy and painless it was, she checked Victoria. Victoria was wailing in protest. She told me, "it was a sign of intelligence when a baby understood that she was the only one naked in a room of people." Exam over, baby nurses, room is calm. "Still enjoying nursing," says Dr. Brooks. Before she finished her very short sentence, I began to say, "I know I have to start" and before I finished she said, "no you don't, if it works for both of you, enjoy."

I went on to tell her it was amazing how full circle things have been. First visit, I didn't know how I could get through another day nursing and now 18 short months later I was trying to figure out how I could buy more days to nurse my sweet angel. "It is amazing to see a mother who truly enjoys her baby. It is the greatest gift you can give her, your love." A bit more conversation and as she began to leave she said, "keep doing what your doing, Victoria is perfect."

So it is here I want to say to Dr. Brooks, keep doing what your doing, you are perfect.