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Heather Ryan
“We live in Massachusetts at the time thats where we were stationed there was no family any where around. We didn’t know anybody around who lived near us. It was very isolating just my husband and I and my husband was back at work so I was really by myself during this time”
Episode 32 Heather Ryan grew up in Northern Indiana in the Southbend area. She lived with her parents and younger sister. Heather describes herself as a child of the 70s and her parents were hippies from the 60’s. With her hippie parents she ate organic food from their garden and only had processed foods when she went to her aunts house, which she loved doing. There she could get white bread and potato chips! Her parents were into recycling and organic gardening and loved nature. She planned on becoming a teacher and never would have guessed that she would become a Special Agent and work undercover narcotics.
Heather Ryan’s Story.
Heather Ryan went into premature labor with her first baby and at 27 weeks was put on bedrest and kept her baby “cookin” until 31 1/2 weeks. She was prepared for having a small baby, who would probably need special care in the nursery, however, he was whisked away to the nursery but they quickly realized he was a healthy almost 5 pound baby who did not need any help breathing. So he was brought back to her room. She did have great difficulty breastfeeding and the Lactation Consultants at the hospital explained to her the specific issues premature babies had with breastfeeding. Heather feels she had lots of great support from her family, from the hospital Lactation Consultant that she saw numerous times, to the regular Breastfeeding support groups she attended, as well as her pediatrician.
Heather Ryan shares with us her struggles and how she tried real hard for 3 months to make breastfeeding work. She had a baby that cried frequently and ultimately found out that he had some health issues with his intestines which was probably at least one of the reasons for the frequent crying. It was felt that perhaps there was something in her breastmilk that was bothering her baby, so she was put on an elimination diet, however, this did not help. She tried different formulas and ultimately wound up using a very expensive hypo allergenic formula that he seemed to do well with. She combined pumping and offering her baby her milk and formula when she returned to work, however, finding the time to pump during her working hours, did not work out at all and she soon discontinued pumping. She recognizes that some workplaces are better now about giving their employees time and place to pump,however, this was not available to her at the time.
Heather Ryan talks about what it was like returning to work with a new baby and why she decided to leave her position with NCIS and founded her own business so she could be home with her kids. She does say that most people in her life thought she was pretty insane to leave a great job with good benefits. However, she felt that it was the right thing to do for herself and her family. She spent time trying to figure out exactly what she could do and like most entrepreneurs, she took what she has learned and turned that into a business model and is very happy with what she has accomplished so far.
Quote: “We live in Massachusetts at the time thats where we were stationed there was no family any where around. We didn’t know anybody around whp lived near us. It was very isolating just my husband and I and my husband was back at work so I was really by myself during this time”
Confessions of the breastfeeding mother: I think that just giving yourself permission to listen to your body. is something that would have been so helpful. Heather does say that her body was telling her, but she refused to listen. She says that we all have these grand ideas that start with your birth plan. You just don’t know how things are going to turn out and you have to adjust and that continues through parenthood. It’s okay if things don’t happen exactly as you have them planned out to be. Accept it and to relax.
Pearls of Wisdom – He will be okay. As a new mother, she just had so many fears about what she was doing and could what she was doing cause harm to her baby – Could she be damaging her child? Heather now knows that she put so much pressure on herself. If she could go back in time, she would now tell herself that her son will be fine. He will be okay. He is going to thrive and be an amazing little boy.
Lessons learned – Heather said: “I was putting all this guilt on myself. ” No one else was doing this to me. I did it to myself. Which meant that no one else can change this but her. Once she realized this, it was like a lightbulb went off and she realized that she could be the one to change this.
Projects excited about: Heather is very excited about her online course Getsafeacademy.com course that will focus on physical safety. All really simple self defense that is good to know. The other one is safety alternatives, social media and the lst one is a really cool things for college kids.
Links: FREE info which focuses on safety for parents. Just text: 44222 Write: aablori getsafeacademy.com
Heather Ryan’s social media info..
Twitter: @SpclAgntHeather
Facebook Page: SpecialAgentHeather
LinkedIn: SpecialAgentHeather
Pinterest: SpecialAgentHeather
Get Safe Academy for your listeners…
Safe in the City…. www.SafeInTheCity.co
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