Final Homestudy Approved!

We received an e-mail today telling us that the homestudy was approved by our agency.  Our social worker's estimate of a month for approval was right on target.  We should get the final copy in the mail in the next couple days.

We also had an e-mail yesterday saying that all of our profile information was approved.  It could take up to 14 business days for our profile to be completed.   We have been really at peace with the timing of the process thus far, and we still feel pretty good about it.  Ideally, in those two weeks, we will have our tax return in our bank account.  That will help the adoption budget.

Inducing Lactation

I understand that breastfeeding adopted babies is somewhat controversial.  I breastfed Lexi until she self-weaned.  I am a big believer in the importance of breastmilk.  So, when we thought about adopting, I couldn't imagine NOT trying to induce lactation.  I've read things all over the web and in books about inducing lactation and I've come up with a plan.

This is the protocol I am going to use to induce lactation. 

Weeks 1-2
-30mg of Domperidone 3x a day
-I work full time right now, but I have a long lunch break.
-My plan is to pump about 6-7 times a day.

Week 3:
-Continue domperidone & pumping.
-3 Blessed Thistle (390 mg per capsule) 3x a day
-3 Fenugreek seed (610 mg per capsule) 3x a day with meals.
-Eat lots of oatmeal

I'm hoping for the best because when I breastfed Lexi we never had any problems. I know every child is different, but I pumped for her and I always responded well to the pump. I would get 8-10 ounces in about 10 minutes. I realize my supply may not be that great right off the bat, but I have every reason to believe I can do this. I'm not going to do birth control (which is a suggested method of relactation) because I don't think I really have the time for that protocol, and (tmi) birth control made me cuh-razy when I was on it in the past.  I also don't believe that the hormones are safe in general.

I have a Medela Pump in Style that I used when Lexi was little.   I estimate that I have about 60 hours of pumping time on that pump.  I'm hoping that my pump still has enough life in it so that I don't have to rent a hospital grade pump.

I figured I'm sharing everything else that I'm doing to get ready for the baby, so I might as well share this too.

Profile Revisions

We got an e-mail back from the agency about our profile submissions.  Apparently they want even more photos of just Matt and me alone.  Any parent knows that the focus of pictures quickly becomes your child, so we already had to make a concerted effort to take some of just the two of us.  Apparently we need more.

We were also told that our wording was too strong in one section.  I guess it may feel overwhelming to some expectant mothers for adoptive parents to want a fully open relationship?  They suggested that we change the wording to basically say that we are open to whatever type of relationship they want. 

Honestly, that makes me a little sad.  I really do hope to have an open relationship with the birthfamily, but I guess it is best that I come to the realization now that this may not be was a birthfamily wants.

In the Mean Time

While we wait for the agency approval of the homestudy and the completion of our profile, I've been trying to prepare for a little one in the house.

So, I put the gender-neutral cover on the boppy.

 I've never quite figured out why green is gender-neutral, but I go with the flow.

I also stripped all of the cloth diapers and got them ready.  These are the smalls that I bought from a friend.

 These are the Bumgenius one-size that we used with Lexi.  They look so tiny sized down for new baby.

 I have the clothes sorted by girly, gender-neutral, and boy-ish.

 I used the same sorting method for the sleepers.

 We also planted our garden and a new hybrid apple tree today.  We're checking things off the to-do list.

Submitted the Profile

I had it all typed out on the website for over a week now, but I kept going back and second-guessing my writing skills.  I used to be a great writer in college.  I could whip up a paper in a couple hours, while my classmates would spend days pining over every little word.  I tutored grammar for a few years even though I was a biology major.  My professor told me that I was a natural writer and I should pursue it.  Obviously that didn't happen.  Instead I buried my nose in biology and chemistry, then eventually more anatomy and physiology, radiology, diagnostics, etc. etc.

So, now my writing is shared in little tidbits on a blog and I'm fairly certain I've lost my talent for writing.  As I wrote little articles about ourselves, I found that writing things "from us" was rather difficult.   So, I pined over my words for a week (or two) and I finally just said, "FORGET IT!"  I clicked the submit button. 

I sent our CD of pictures on Monday and received an e-mail telling me they were only waiting on our profile to be submitted.  So, it's done.  Now they can put it all together for us and I'll put a link here when we are active so you can all see my attempt at writing. 

A little more waiting before activation. . .

We exchanged e-mails with our social worker yesterday so that we could get all of the corrections made to the homestudy write-up.  She sent it off to the agency.  So, now we are waiting for the agency to approve the homestudy.  Then, we can go active.  I have to send all of our pictures to the agency as well.  I have them all picked out.  I just need to burn them to a disc and get them to the agency.  So, that is our current status.

Homestudy Write-Up

We received the write-up from the social worker last night.  We have to review it and send it back to her.  Then she will send it to the agency.  Matt read it last night, but I'll read through it today and e-mail the revisions back to the social worker.  Things are moving along!