My Obsession
For a long time I have been a wee bit involved with reading infertility (IF) blogs. My dear husband doesn't understand or approve, but I have my reasons. I think that he viewed it as a way to worry about what could happen when we started trying, but that wasn't it at all. I have lusted for another baby since before Chicken was out of diapers. My baby lust has resulted in a few random things, one of which is the Dude. Chicken was 6 years old and OMFG I wanted a baby and it just wasn't in the cards. So I adopted a cat. Luckily, Dude has allowed me to treat him like my baby, up to and including dressing him up on occasion. Dude is very patient and spends much of him time sleeping on me, sometimes on my head. I love it and it helps take the baby crazies away a little.
Back to IF blogs-reading about women trying to have babies soothed me, because at least they were TRYING. When they succeeded I could silently applaud and when they failed I cried with them. I was vicariously trying to conceive (TTC) through these blogs, and a small bit of me could understand the pain.
My latest obsession has been reading about the adoption triad. For those of you not up on the latest lingo, the triad includes the Adoptive parents, the Birth (or First) parents and the child. I have only posted about my adoption story once, but I am mentally working on the issue. My feelings have changed greatly in the last few years as I have gotten to a place in my life where I can open up the past and poke at it a bit. It is painful, gut-wrenching, and devastating but I am trying to get to the point where I can blog about it.
This is all a long-winded way to explain what has been going on in my head lately, as well as the changes to my sidebar. I've added and moved and deleted links, plus introduced new categories. I am going to continue to fiddle around with my template, and I have a new request from My Brand of Crazy for a purdy blog so my creative juices are a flowing. If I have fucked up your blog link/deleted you/did something else stupid like forgotten you entirely leave me a comment or something.
Annnnnnd... I am thinking about going to the dark(er) side and signing up with Twitter-but for a good cause. You know how I fuss occasionally about replying to comments and such? What if I use Twitter exclusively as a means to reply to you and your comments?
Back to IF blogs-reading about women trying to have babies soothed me, because at least they were TRYING. When they succeeded I could silently applaud and when they failed I cried with them. I was vicariously trying to conceive (TTC) through these blogs, and a small bit of me could understand the pain.
My latest obsession has been reading about the adoption triad. For those of you not up on the latest lingo, the triad includes the Adoptive parents, the Birth (or First) parents and the child. I have only posted about my adoption story once, but I am mentally working on the issue. My feelings have changed greatly in the last few years as I have gotten to a place in my life where I can open up the past and poke at it a bit. It is painful, gut-wrenching, and devastating but I am trying to get to the point where I can blog about it.
This is all a long-winded way to explain what has been going on in my head lately, as well as the changes to my sidebar. I've added and moved and deleted links, plus introduced new categories. I am going to continue to fiddle around with my template, and I have a new request from My Brand of Crazy for a purdy blog so my creative juices are a flowing. If I have fucked up your blog link/deleted you/did something else stupid like forgotten you entirely leave me a comment or something.
Annnnnnd... I am thinking about going to the dark(er) side and signing up with Twitter-but for a good cause. You know how I fuss occasionally about replying to comments and such? What if I use Twitter exclusively as a means to reply to you and your comments?
posted by Sam at
7:22 PM
6 Comments:
Yes, you must sign up for Twitter!! ;P
Please let me know, so I can follow you!! Join the geekry!
Also, I should email you about the latest incident...that completely freaks me out about blacking out.
hey Sam, I came across an article on slate.com, medical news, about a research done on the pros and cons of taking AD meds. I don't have the link handy but it should be easy to find on their site. It was posted this weekend.
anyway it basically said don't mix any meds, use only 1 and possibly in a higher dose to make up for ditching others.
Oh... and the first trimester it was the most important time to lower the meds (as with alcohol etc).
Hope you're well
hey I'm gonna just copy and paste it into here...
Taking psych meds while pregnant
Question: In the United States every year, at least 500,000 women with a psychiatric illness become pregnant. A substantial fraction of them, perhaps one-third, continue taking medication directed at their condition. Some of these medicines are known, or suspected, to cause harm in pregnancy. How should doctors decide whether to treat a mother with drugs that are potentially harmful to the fetus she is carrying? Which of the psychiatric drugs are safe? And when in pregnancy is it OK to take them? Which can be used by women who are breast-feeding?
Weighing risks: A recent publication (subscription required) of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists weighs the risks of the drugs with the risks of forgoing them. Mothers who go off their meds may not comply as well with prenatal care or may become more likely to drink, smoke, or use other drugs. Once the child is born, a mother with an untreated emotional illness (or whose illness has worsened if not treated during pregnancy) might have trouble sustaining a deep attachment to her child or might give inattentive and unfocused care.
Advice: The paper offers some excellent guidance, for example in charting the increased risk of fetal anomalies from mood-stabilizing medications like Depakote and Tegretol, even though the American Academy of Pediatrics lists the use of these drugs as compatible with pregnancy. Similarly, lithium (used to treat bipolar illness) is associated with a slightly increased risk of congenital heart malformations, as is the antidepressant Paxil. As the paper points out, if the mother's illness is severe enough and other drugs don't work, these somewhat risky medicines may still be the best choice. We don't know the answer to other questions. For instance, might exposure in utero to these medicines cause subtle neurological or behavioral consequences later in life?
Recommendations: The authors find that it's better to use a single medication, even in a slightly higher dose, than a combination. And they note that as a general rule, the most risky time during pregnancy for drug exposure is the third through eighth weeks of gestation. Most valuable, perhaps, is the authors' point that adequate care for the mother often best serves the needs of the fetus.
http://www.slate.com/id/2189978/
here is your freaking comment! GAH! you're such a whiner.
i'm sorry i have a LIFE!
i'm sorry i read your blog as my friday-afternoon,
thank-fucking-god-it's-almost-the-weekend
special treat.
happy now??
i am 100% pro-adoption, in every sense of the word, for every person involved, btw.
and remember. my mom had a baby at 46.
it was a deformed baby, but still....
kidding. dude, it's still in the cards for you. chill.
I'm looking forward to hearing more about the adoption story. I love you.
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