Twin Homebirth Video

Have I posted this before? If I have, watch it anyway! This is a great birth - makes me cry each time I watch this. Hopefully Arizona mamas will someday have the option to have legal midwife-assisted twin homebirths (at present, midwives can't attend homebirths of multiples, VBAC or breech in the state of Arizona). Enjoy!

Babies, Babies Everywhere!

My goodness, the world has been just filled with babies lately!

One of our midwives (Sarah) had her first baby about two weeks after ours was born, and we were able to meet her this past Saturday - adorable!

One of our doulas also discovered that her family has been blessed with baby-on-the-way #7 - how fun! And if you have met this precious family, you will agree with me that they need to have an even dozen or two!

One of my all-time-favorite bloggers, Angie of Bring the Rain has just announced a new baby-on-the-way as well! Dear readers, if you haven't checked out this blog, please do. I have been reading it for the past year and a half, and it has been an amazing blessing in my life. Angie started blogging when she found out that her unborn daughter, Audrey, had severe congenital defects and would not survive birth (this was about two years ago). Her blog has helped me so much through my own spiritual journeys and hardship, and I highly recommend reading through her story. Many, many congratulations to Angie!!

Another birth circle friend has also announced a pregnancy and is dealing with some yucky morning sickness - may you feel better soon!!

Not to mention that the girl who was originally going to be our doula is expecting #4 (congrats, B!), and at least two of my high school friends are both expecting their first babies soon (congrats A & K!)!

AND, some dear friends of ours, J&T, have been able to set their next transfer date for their embryo adoption process for early December. Their last transfer was last fall and ended in the miscarriage of twins at about 5 weeks.... so your prayers for this family would be appreciated. We are so excited for them!

So... babies are in the air! An exciting time.

Speaking of babies... My midwife has told me that, due to my status as a daytime-pumping-only mom, I can expect my fertility to return pronto. As in "any time, starting now." Too bad - I will miss having a year without periods! But we're also going to have to be very careful. I love babies, but.... ten months apart? Yikes!! (A childhood friend of mine actually did have one baby and then twins ten months apart... she had a constantly-tired look on her face. No wonder!)

Love to all! I'll post an update soon.

Childbirth... for Men

Check out this video!




A quick summary: By using electrodes to stimulate abdominal muscle contractions, a man is able to experience a reasonable facsimile of "labor" - and it's fascinating to watch! He calls it quits sometime during active labor (before things get really interesting!), and of course, they didn't have anything that would simulate second-stage (pushing) and birth. But still, a great video and a great idea! Personally, I think all men should do this. :)

A couple of quick notes (and they'll have to be quick, as I'm trying to type with a baby in my arms):

- I found it fascinating to note how he responded to labor in similar ways to laboring women - similar noises, facial expressions, and instinctive body movements. He actually looked... like a woman in labor! Wow!

- I also found it interesting that he called it quits at a similar point to the point where most women get epidurals. This man needed a doula! LOL (Of course, I wouldn't voluntarily endure childbirth either if there was no baby at the end of it.)

Okay! Enough trying to type like a circus contortionist! You'll have to think of your own comments from here. :)

5 weeks, 5 days postpartum: Too Discombobulated to Think of a Title

Hi, everyone!

This is the quickest of notes to let everyone know that yes, again, I'm still alive - just with no time to blog!! Seriously, my computer time has scaled off to almost zero. I'm either doing round-the-clock baby and child care, or they're napping and I can't use the computer because it often wakes up my preschooler. That, and I'm still tied to the breast pump every 2-3 hours during the day - something that I hope to quit soon, but only time will tell. We have an appointment on Tuesday to see about possibly getting baby's tongue-tie corrected, and after that baby may be able to get back on board with breastfeeding. However, if he has (as I suspect) gotten extremely lazy with his bottle-habit, we may have more work to do before we can kick that habit.

But otherwise, he is growing quite plump and is very healthy - hurray!!

My blogs and my correspondence are definitely suffering, though - I haven't been blogging, I haven't had time to read the blogs I subscribe to, and I have gotten months behind in answering email. If you've emailed me and not heard back, rest assured that everyone is getting the same treatment!

I've been really doing serious thinking about family dynamics and how I want to form our family. Having two children is really a cosmic shift for me, being that I was raised as an only child in a family of only-children. What do we want to do with our family? Do we want to have the boys share a room, or have rooms of their own? What philosophical methods do we want to use for training and discipline? Do we want to homeschool, private school, or charter school? What should our routines be? I'm trying to read, think, and research to get some direction. We've ordered "Shepherding a Child's Heart" to read, and I'm thinking about looking into the PEGS system and Doorposts Ministries (thanks, BreAnna!). There's a lot to determine, especially as parenting does not and never has come naturally to me (unlike most of my friends, who seem to take to it like ducks to water... *sigh*).

I've also made a few resolutions to improve my role as a mother. The first, and by FAR the most difficult, is to (aack! hyperventilating!) do my best to avoid stressing about a house that is less than perfect - in order to spend more time with my children (deep breathing....). I can never be comfortable with a messy house - I find it deeply, fundamentally disturbing. But the truth remains that I simply cannot have a house that is clean to my satisfaction while I have two young children. I just can't - it's not possible. So I'm trying to focus on essential routines (dishes, laundry, meals, pick-up) and allow myself no more than 20 minutes of other cleaning per day (and honestly, that only happens 2-3 times a week max).

Secondly, I'm going to do my best this year to create holiday traditions. I'm pretty hopeless with holidays. I never decorate, we rarely attend holiday events, and I generally forget about the holidays themselves until the night before. For our kidlets' sake, I want to do better with that (within the bounds of sanity) - I have very fond memories of the holidays, and I want our kids to have the same. So this year, I'm going to do my best to make sure we have at least some basic activities going for the holidays.

Well, while I've been writing about improving my family, I've been neglecting my family! So back to work. I'll do my best to check in occasionally... but life is quite hectic right now, so it won't be often. Love to all!!

Unassisted VBAC Birth Story

Thanks to Cesarean Epidemic for posting this great Unassisted VBAC Birth Story - it's great! Very detailed, very honest - just a great story.