I'm a big kid now!

Me, that is, not Bubba Joe.

So my wonderfully sweet endearing husband has been my crutch for well, just over 2 years now. After 6 weeks of bedrest, recovery from a long labor and subsequent c-section, recovery from the bedrest, recovery from preeclampsia, and dealing with a preemie, on top of everything else life threw in there (just to spice it up a bit!), he's been there for my 110% every day.

And since moving to a country where I'm just not confident in the language, in spite of my natural abilities to pick it up quickly (and quite grammatically wrong, but able to be understood and understand others), I've shied away from anything involving talking to anyone other than family.

Which has made me lean on "the man" that much more.

But no more, I say!

With a good ole pep talk from Kerstin (and BJD saying I could do it all along) I called my high-risk OB on Friday to ask her about taking LDA and breastfeeding. I left a message with the nurse that answered the phone and when the doc called me back, instead of handing the phone off to BJD (which is what I'd normally do), I answered AND talked. Coherently. And with proper grammar! And I said "Sie" and not "du" (formal versus informal - very big deal!)

Feeling confident, I contacted a doula and set up an appointment with her for Wednesday this week to meet her. (Hey - insurance covers it. Way cool, eh?) And just like the awesome doula who helped me back in Ohio, her name is also Karen, though spelled with an "i" - Karin.

And then, feeling empowered, I called the local LLL leader to talk to her about taking LDA and BFing (which she confirmed what the high-risk OB said - it is okay), and also took down directions to their next meeting in October.

And did I say - I DID THIS ALL IN GERMAN! NOT ONE ENGLISH WORD WAS SPOKEN.

All I can say is ... go me!