EP62 | What we're looking forward to

Leah: Well, hey there, Annie.

Annie: Hey there Leah. Happy New Year.

Leah: Thank you, thank you. Happy New Year to you too. Seems so crazy that we're crossing another year with a pandemic going around and 2022, I'm putting my bets on this as the year things are shifting in lots of areas, in lots of ways.

Annie: I really need them too. That's why we came up with the idea for our January deeper dive, which is happening on the 19th, which is called I'm So Over this Pandemic, but this pandemic isn't Over my Private Practice. It's just astonishing that it's still affecting us, it's still something we're having to contend with. I know, back when it started, there were people who were like, you know, this is going to be happening for years, and I just, my brain couldn't handle that at the time.

Leah: No, I was like, it's gonna be a couple of months, and we'll be fine. Everything is gonna be fine. We're gonna move past this and all will be well in the world. But here we are two years later and just trying to figure out how we need to continue to shift and be malleable and figure out how to keep running our private practices to the best of our abilities with the things that the world in general, on so many levels, keeps throwing at us. Even though the world's still throwing at us the pandemic we're going to keep pushing forward. We're going to talk about how we're going to keep pushing forward and how we've kind of found our way through this. I remember feeling so lost and distorted back when the pandemic started, do you remember that? Just feeling so distorted? What are we going to do?

Annie: You and I had just started our Deeper Dives in January of 2020 and we had this whole, remember, we had the whole year mapped out we're gonna start with intake forms, and then we're gonna do charting, and then we're gonna do, and all of a sudden, we're like, oh my gosh. We had to re-record an episode because the episode that was supposed to come out was on policies and procedures, and we had to redo the whole thing. Then we're like we can't possibly do a Deeper Dive until like, whatever it was, like, we were gonna I think it was like intake forms.

Leah: I think it was.

Annie: We can't do this.

Leah: We can't talk about this right now.

Annie: We got Kristin Kabuto to come in and we did two hours just on like, just us sitting there just being like, what is going on?

Leah: Please help us figure this out in our brains, this is so much. How much uncertainty there was on how it was going to impact our practices, and what would we do? Would we survive and would our practice survive. I mean, there was so much uncertainty. I'm thankful that I can say I definitely have more certainty that my private practice can survive a pandemic, but also what's going to be the next thing thrown at us, also feels a little uncertain. Like I said, I'm banking on 2022 going to be the year, this is gonna be the year that we are seeing big shifts, hopefully. I'm really looking forward to possibly having chances to be in person more. That's what I'm really hoping for, like in conference settings. That's what I'm really hoping for. How about you?

Annie: Oh, yeah, I mean, I'm already planning on going to the USLCA conference that's going to be in this fall in Virginia. I am super excited for that, just a chance to be there. I will do whatever I'm required to do to be allowed to be in a room with other people like sign me up. Whatever protocols and things that I need to do because I really have missed that so much. Even thinking back, like, what am I looking forward to in-person stuff and of course, the first thing that comes to my mind is in person with the babies because I was fully virtual for a full year. I still remember the last, one of the last, not the last, but one of the last in-person visits that I did, I came home and I was like, I can't do this. I can't feel this way. I feel a way I've never felt before. I dove headfirst into virtual visits. It was a thing where I was like, I can do this and I'm good at it and I am still doing them. It took till the fall of 2021 to shift the balance to where I was doing more in person than virtual and I'm really hoping I get to keep that up this year because now that I'm back doing them I'm like I can't believe I went so long without doing them.

Leah: I know. I know. It's kind of one of those things for me, like when I was doing them all the time, and so many, you hone your skill for it. Then as I shifted out of not doing as many it was like, I'd have to kind of work myself into it again at a different level than when I was just back-to-back virtuals. It was just like everything flowed so nicely. Now I'm not doing as many virtuals although I'm definitely keeping it in our available types of visits because people do still request them. It also makes it really convenient for things like prenatal visits or return to work where we might not necessarily need to have an in-person component to it. I love it for that, because boy, I can knock out three, four of those easy back to back. It's really nice. I'm noticing once you get back in person, and doing that more consistently than the in-person skills are really coming to the forefront. The swapping back and forth I feel definitely has its challenges. I'm getting more and more used to it as the months and years go by. I definitely feel like, I'm going to keep virtual rounds forever, how about you? Are you gonna keep doing virtual forever? Do you think it'll be something that you shut down at some point?

Annie: No, I'm definitely gonna keep virtuals for prenatals, absolutely. I do get a lot of clients that want to do a hybrid. So we get at least one in-person visit in there and then they want to do the follow-up virtually. I really enjoy that it's a great way to stay in contact with them without having all the logistical concerns that go along with the home visits. One thing that you were saying like the skills and I used to be able to chart and complete my charting and get my recording done during a home visit and I can't do that right now. So I'm looking forward to getting back to my old efficient self or not, or deciding that this is a better way to be. Maybe there is a part of me that is feeling more present with my clients and home visits because I missed it so much and want to really just enjoy being with another person.

Leah: Yeah, just being that fully present. Yeah, I have taken to minimal charting in the visit, just kind of like the highlight numbers and things that I'm like, I'm not gonna remember that. My best friend is my voice memo. I voice memo the second I get in the car, and I'm like, get it all out of my head. I find I'm so much more detailed in voice memos than translating that seems to be super easy, but you're the writer, so you probably are super detailed. I can remember so many things when I say it verbally, and that has saved me, save my life. Like you said, take a little bit more than after visit time but you get that really present feel to the visit and everything. So I'm just so you know, as we look over what's gonna happen as we move forward, I'm so much more open, I feel like now to change. Have you sensed that? Like how you just felt so comfortable with like, I could make this change or not and it would all be fine. I feel like the last two years have just beat into our little brains that you must accept the change. There is no option. We had to breathe and work through it and be like, okay, I can't do anything about this, or I can and I'm choosing to or choosing not to. I think it's really been a bit of an eye-opener for me. I think in so many ways I had some ruts that I was in in my practice, had some ruts with thinking that this could never change. I could only do it this way. Then when you're forced out of that comfort zone, you're like, oh wait, but there's more. There's a whole other side of this. I think the pandemic you know, maybe showed me some of that. I don't know, I was kind of forced to figure things out in different ways and maybe get my eyes open to different things that are possible. I hear that in you, Annie. Is that what I heard?

Annie: Yeah, I mean, I think I've always been drawn to change and drawn to mixing things up. I definitely can look back over my life and I'll see that about every five years I do something different and it's not always different like completely changed my career trajectory, but adding something in and saying okay, I'm ready for a different kind of challenge. I guess I'm wondering and maybe looking forward to more stability in terms of not craving that excitement that maybe it's been a little too exciting.

Leah: Too much excitement. I am ready for like regular old regular.

Annie: I think now that I'm sort of making peace with the way my private practice is going to be this hybrid model. Also thinking more intentionally about how I'm going to be structuring my schedule. I mean, there was a lot of what my schedule was like before the pandemic that isn't applicable anymore. I think all the time that having my kids at home or back at home because I homeschooled and the 2019 to 2020 was their first year in school than it wasn't, I think I had this I had this idea that having them in school was going to mean freedom. In a way that I think I attached too much to that and then when they came back, I was like, now they're here. Now what I'm looking forward to, I think is really embracing that my work life and my family life are going to have these overlaps. Where am I going to set my values and my priorities? How am I going to think about they are going to have sick days, they are going to have days when they're here and that's okay. I don't need to keep everything so compartmentalized the way I think I thought I did.

Leah: Yeah, I like that a lot. That totally resonates with me, as well. It really helps us to keep our eyes open and curious about what those big feelings that you had and all that angst around it, what was it trying to show you or teach you because it really feels like it came out with a great lesson there. I can definitely say that we spent an entire year virtual with my kids' schooling and so this year has been, the school year this year has been such a shift for us that I feel like we're halfway through the school year and we're still figuring it out, maybe a little bit. I'm letting that be okay. My kids went through so much navigating all of the change, and still doing as best they could in school and everything so I can really appreciate that kind of work, life, family merging, somewhat balanced, somewhat, sometimes not balanced version of life that we're all kind of accepting now in 2022. So I'm looking forward to big things for us. I feel like our Deeper Dives have been so much fun, I just cannot get enough of them. I wish time would allow that we could do more of them but it never does. I'm so excited for the lineup that we have and I'm excited for all the big dreams that we've been kind of cultivating and things that we want to do and keep bringing this podcast to everyone. Then sharing time together with everyone, I think that is something that has really kind of come so poignant to me is that time spent together. It's so precious.

Annie: I'm looking forward to more of that too. We just in December did our Deeper Dive with Cathy Watson Genna, which you can buy the recording if you missed it. She was so generous with just being a person with us, but also being wise and experienced and knowledgeable and clinically brilliant, but also a person. I guess like what I'm looking forward to out of any kind of interactions I'm going to have with my colleagues this year is like, I'm looking forward to that. To just say like, you know what, we can all agree that it's been a lot the last two years and I do think that you're seeing more, I feel like people are willing to be more authentic. If you bring that energy into it. I think people want that and that we don't need to just pretend everything's okay because we all know it hasn't been okay. I think along with that is having a shift in thinking to be a good lactation consultant means I've got to do all the trainings and I've got to get to this level where I have all these skills and I can execute all the things and teach the families and then finding myself in this position where everything is a mess. Sometimes there are a lot of things that can't be fixed because we still have all these external stresses from the pandemic affecting these families and saying, well okay, but what can we bring into this that's real? What can we bring into this that's good? How can I tell you the truth about all the good things that are happening here, even though the things that can't be fixed, and that sucks. There's also beauty here and there's also a connection here. I guess I want more of that. I'll say I'm looking forward to more of that as my way of I guess, like manifesting more of that. I want more of that.

Leah: Definitely, I love that you said like this more authentic. I totally feel that. In so many areas, I feel like people are really shedding the layers of kind of thick veil that we were hiding behind and really coming out because we know that we're all have had some kind of struggle in so many ways, far beyond the pandemic. In so many ways we're seeing these veils come down and it's just so great to see this, people being true and authentic and getting to connect with people on different levels because of it because we're really coming to each other.

Annie: Getting to be together is so precious. You realize like, I think it was Cathy that said it in the Deeper Dive, she said, we all have a piece of this story that is lactation. When we come together, we're unlocking something. We can't do that on our own in our little silos, the power does come when we get together. That can be virtually, it could be in person, but really having that mindset of purposefulness in the connections that we're making with other people.

Leah: Yes, that's right, everybody needs to come to all the Deeper Dives so we can make all these connections, right? Because I love it so much. We had such a great discussion there. I've never gonna forget that one. It was so good. I can't wait for every Deeper Dive because I just know we're going to get more and more connections like that, so awesome. Well, it's been fun getting to chat about all the things we're looking forward to in 2022. I almost can't even say that so many twos, 2022. I'm really excited to be here and be with you, Annie. I'm looking forward to all that we have coming up for 2022 and for everybody that's listened and is starting this year with us, we are so happy to have you here and so glad that you guys listened and it's awesome.

Annie: Definitely. Well until next time, it was so fun, Leah. I'll talk to you soon.

Leah: Talk soon. Bye.