Happy Birth Day Lily!

It was the most incredible three days of  my life.  Lily Anne was born on October 26, 2012 at 10:43pm at NOVA Natural Birth Center in Chantilly, Virginia. I had been nervous that if Lily's birth didn't go as planned that I would be devastated. And, I didn't have my vision of the perfect birth, but what I did do was make all of the right decisions for me, manage Lily's birth as well as I could, and I owned it.  The danger in not owning your birth story is that it can make connecting with new baby more difficult, as well as lead into postpartum depression.  Most importantly for me, I had a natural birth with a very healthy, happy, beautiful little girl.

I want to give a humungous shout out to my doula, Cortney, as well as our birth team (my mom, David, Kali, and Corbee), my midwife and birth center staff (Mayanne, Becky, and Joanne).  Everyone was incredible.  I cannot thank Cortney enough for being there with us every step of the way.

At 40 weeks, I had made many minor attempts to push my body into labor, including accupressure, walking, talking to Lily, castor oil compress, homeopathics, tinctures, and more.  But, at 41 weeks and 2 days, with all options considered and facing having Lily in a hospital at 42 weeks, I opted to try more vigorous natural labor stimulation techniques.  On Thursday, one of the midwives did a stretch and sweep of the membranes to separate the sac the baby is in from the lower part of the uterus.  I started cramping before I left the birth center.  This was step one in a long natural labor stimulation process recommended by the midwives. 

When I got home, I ate lunch.  Luckily, I ate lunch.  The instructions for castor oil said to take two hours before/after a meal.  I almost took the castor oil before lunch to start early, but time would show that it would make me too sick to eat much else.  Even though we believe the castor oil caused some complications that made Lily's birth a greater journey, it was the right decision for me.  It was either get labor going this way or risk ending up in the hospital with pitocin a couple of days later, which would have opened us up to a wider range of interventions and complications.

At 2:00pm, continuing to cramp from the stretch and sweep, I took 4 oz of castor oil, as indicated by the labor stimulation instructions, and then I started a third four-hour round of homeopathics and tinctures in two weeks. At 3:00pm, light contractions started, but nothing different from the few pockets of deeper contractions that I'd had over the past two weeks. I soon have an onset of the infamous diarrhea facilitated by the castor oil.  By 5:00pm, the contractions became stronger and more frequent.  My mom made a grill cheese sandwich, which I was too nauseous to eat more than half of at that point.  I continued to do the last hour of homeopathics, because I was nervous that the contractions would putter out and it would all be for naught. 

By 6:00pm, I thought this was it, that labor was starting, and I knew that I need to sleep.  When you think you're in labor, you need to sleep, eat, drink, shower, and take a walk.  However, the castor oil had done such a number on me, laying down was extremely nauseating, so I got up.  I tried to use my prerecorded Hypnobabies birth day prompts just for labor (as opposed to getting ready for labor), and I made it through the Easy First Stage Labor program once, and then decided I needed to try something different, because I needed something to coincide with my contractions.

Knowing that I really need to sleep, but unable to lay down, I eventually propped myself up on the bed with pillows.  The contractions during this night were too strong to sleep through, so I dozed off for 5 to 10 minutes in between each contraction.  I drank as much water and OJ as I could, and I took as many bites of fruit and peanut butter sandwiches throughout the night as possible.  It is important to keep up strength during labor by eating and drinking.  This would turn into a very long labor, so it was even more important that I got some food in me. 

When the sun came  up, Cortney and David headed over to my place to help me get down to work.  We took a long walk to help speed labor, and I had to stop to work through the contractions.  I could no longer walk through them as I could the day before.  Rolling on the birth ball in the living room proved to be an effective technique for minimizing pressure.  My back took the brunt of the pressure, because the nausea prevented me from using labor positions that would minimize that back pressure, such as laying over the birth ball and being on hands and knees.  When I tried any position that would minimize back pressure and/or speed labor, I threw up.  We continued to work in the living room, watching Once Upon a Time and other shows to pass the time.

The contractions became so strong that I couldn't move, couldn't speak, and couldn't listen during them.  This was a great sign that things were progressing.  The Hypnobabies techniques were vital during this period. I replayed the prompts in my head.  During contractions, the silent incantation of peace and hypno-anesthesia targeted through my midsection were very effective in minimizing the pressure.  I used the prompts to take myself deeper and deeper into hypnosis.  I also discovered that if I stroked my belly that it diffused the pressure quite a bit.  I eventually tried to sleep upright again during the afternoon.

At 7:00pm on Friday, when the contractions were four minutes apart, one to two minutes long, and so strong that I had to really concentrate through them, we decide to head to the birth center.  After finishing packing the car, we headed out, and made it to the center by 8:00pm.

I still could only sit up, and I had to stop a couple of times between the car and my birth room.  I couldn't even lay down to do an initial vaginal exam, so we did it over the toilet.  I was 5 centimeters dilated after being in labor for 31 hours.  I didn't want to have any vaginal exams, but after being in labor for as long as I was, I just had to know where we were at.  As Cortney kept reminding me during the week and a half prior to labor, the number is not an indicator of how much longer we have.  And, who knows if I'd hit natural alignment plateau before we got to the birth center or while we were there. Mayanne had previously told me that she'd like to do an initial vaginal exam, as well as a vaginal exam prior to pushing to make sure the cervix is dilated.

I rotated around the room in various positions in which I could sit up, from the birth pool, the toilet, the bench, and the recliner.  Around 10pm, I was back on the toilet, with contractions so intense that I stated over and over that I couldn't do this.  I couldn't do it.  And, I stated out loud that I was in transition, meaning that I was moving from active labor to pushing.  Everyone around me repeated to me that I had done it, that I was doing amazing.  I knew that, if I was lucky, it would be less than a half hour before Lily was born.  OMG!

My midwife asked me to get on the bed to do another vaginal exam.  The contractions laying down were so intense that I couldn't stand it, but she asked me to stay there.  It was intense, and I kept trying to wiggle away. She then asked me if I felt like pushing.  Sure, I sort of felt like I could push during my last contraction on the toilet, but we just got to the birth center; I couldn't be ready to push yet, could I?  But, she told me to push if I felt like it.  I wanted to squat to push, because that is the best pushing position, but my back was so shot that I couldn't hold myself up anymore.  So, I ran back to the toilet and pushed there.  Cortney said that it was just 8 contractions worth of pushing.  I wasn't pushing for very long, especially after they asked me to reach down and touch her head as it poked out.  I could touch my baby's head!  You mean that if I push a little harder that she could come out faster?  I began to intone force through deep vibrations in my voice.  I thought that I was screaming, but Cortney and my mom said that it sounded more like I was having an orgasm.  Ha!

So, at 10:43pm on Friday, October 26, 2012, Lily Anne Baldwin was born on the toilet in the Aspen room at NOVA Natural Birth Center.  The midwives immediately put her on my chest, and Cortney told me later that she did look up at me.  I was in shock.  I couldn't believe that I had just given birth.  I couldn't believe that after a day and a half of hard work that this little baby was on my chest.

But, there was something wrong.  There was meconium (a bowl movement) all over the place.  The stress of the castor oil and long and arduous labor weighed on little Lily.  The midwife waited a moment, and then clamped and cut the cord, so that she could begin to work on cleaning Lily's stomach out.  She had ingested quite a bit of meconium.

While that was going on, we were waiting for my placenta to deliver.  Lily's suctioning trauma made her reluctant to start to breastfeed right away, which would have help facilitate placenta delivery.  But my body was done.  It was just done.  The ladies were asking me if I was feeling cramping.  No, I wasn't feeling anything.  No cramping, no after-birth contractions.  They kept asking me to push the placenta out.  My muscles wouldn't work.  I couldn't pretend to pee or poop.  I couldn't move anything down there.  Because of the suctioning, it was almost two hours before we realized that the placenta was not going to deliver.  The time had completely run out, and I had to make the decision to go to the hospital to have the placenta scraped out.  But, I couldn't lift myself off of the floor, so I opted to have an ambulance called.  By the time they arrived, I was barely conscious, and a half of a dozen people had to lift me and the whole bathroom rug onto the gurney.

As soon as the IV was pumping fluid into me, my body started having massive after-birth contractions.  When we got to the maternity ward at the hospital, the doctor on call just had to tug a little and the whole thing fell out.  I opted to toss it out, because of all of the meconium that was probably still in there.  The doctor wanted to put me on pitocin to help the uterus make its next moves in order to prevent hemorrhage.  I didn't want to do that, but after talking with my midwife, decided to do it just in case I did hemorrhage.  Lily was safe out of the hospital, and she was born naturally.  But, as soon as the slow drip started, I began having lots of cramping, so I asked them to turn it off to see if my body would take over, which it did.

I was so exhausted that I slept.  Even after a nap, I couldn't get myself off of the bed without starting to black out.  None of us had realized just how much blood I had lost over the past few days.  Eventually that morning, I would have a blood transfusion.  Sure, I could have rebuilt my blood supply over the next week or two.  But, there was a brand new baby waiting for me to be her mama, and I couldn't do that if I couldn't walk out of the hospital.  I am very happy with my decision to go to the hospital.  I realize now that I wasn't going to be able to get myself off the floor of the birth center.

Lily is the most beautiful person I have ever seen, and I love her so very much.  Despite our slightly difficult beginning together, we are doing amazing. More updates soon, as I am learning to manage this new life with Lily.

Happy birth day, Lily!

Due Date Comes And Goes

40 weeks 1 day

So, babies are born on average at 41 weeks and 1 day.  Though things are definitely moving in the direction of labor, this little Lily pad is happy in her warm bed in my belly.  This picture of me yesterday really shows that she's moved down a lot, and there have been times these past two days where I feel like she could just fall out.  If I was only so lucky.

The contractions are getting more regular, but nothing to really indicate that labor has started.  It could still be another week before she arrives.  In talking on the phone with my midwife, I'll start another round of herbal tinctures, homeopaths, and include the castor oil over this weekend, if she doesn't poke her head out before that.  I made an appointment for a biophysical profile in the case that she runs over 41 weeks.  That on top that, the midwives will do a stress test to see if her heart rate drops during contractions.

Cortney talks more about natural induction on her blog, which prompted Elizabeth Gilhuly to ask " If no problem, why mess with nature?"  That is a great question, and the answer is complicated.

In my opinion, there is a huge problem with our medical system, and it is smeared all over birth, too.  It's obvious to the natural-minded folks that 99% of our medical system doesn't understand birth, babies, or health.  There is a lot in the labor process that it feels like most hospitals choose to ignore in order to make it easier on the hospital.  There is just a lot of concnern in the medical system surrounding babies who aren't born by 42 weeks between the possibility of the placenta failing, loss of amniotic fluid, or the baby having a bowel movement in the womb and breathing in fecal matter.  Sure, they can't tell you for sure when your baby is ready to be born, but they can tell you when she's been in there too long.  Hmmmm...

I am wondering if the midwives are required by Virginia law or by their certifying body to transfer care to a hospital after 42 weeks, or if that's just the birth center's policy.  Apparently, we do have more questions to ask at our next visit. When you have pregnant brain, it's hard to think of some of these questions.  Of course, the hospital can't make you do anything you don't want to do, but I'm highly suggestible, and I don't want to risk conventional medicine touching Lily if she's just a healthy pea fresh from the pod.

Yes, the due date is an estimation.  Healthy babies come naturally before and after the due date all of the time.  They base the due date on your menstrual cycle, which put my original due date as October 2nd.  However, my first ultrasound showed that her size put her at 6 weeks, instead of 8 weeks, so they adjusted my due date to October 16th.  The first ultrasound is supposed to be the most accurate, especially when she's so small.  My second ultrasound two weeks later put her due date on October 12th, but I stuck with the latest due date, because that also gave us the biggest window of time before I could no longer have her at the birth center or with our midwives.

I was not at all on board Monday morning when my midwife started talking about herbal tinctures and homeopathics, but then I realized that I had been resistant to a lot of natural supplemental suggestions they had given me, only to kick myself in the butt later.  I have to do a write up about the group B strep test, which I effectively only started freaking out about two weeks before when my midwife said that a positive outcome on the test put baby at risk to get sick and made it more likely to end up at the hospital.  I realized that if I just brushed off this new suggestion again, I could put myself in a position freaking out a week later when they start talking about the hospital again. 

Babies do know when to be born.  But, there are other reasons why she could not be coming right now that stem from me.  Even though I feel generally relaxed, I could be too stressed out.  I could be working when I should be relaxing.  I could be harboring fear that is creating adrenaline and preventing labor from starting.  She could be ready to come out, but it could be my body that is not ready because of whatever choices I've made.  So, some techniques to help my body release that anxiety could be just what is needed.  

So, for me, there are major risks to waiting longer to start some natural induction techniques.  If she's ready to come out, she'll come out.  If she's not ready to come out, nothing that I can do will make her come out.

Mentally Preparing for Birth

37.5 Weeks

I am down to the last couple of weeks of my pregnancy.  I am so very excited to meet little miss Lily Anne.  I cannot wait to spend the first days of her life cuddled up in bed with her as the breeze washes over us and the sunlight greets us. 

Some of the women from my birth class have been sharing their birth stories, which got me a little anxious.  A couple of them planned to have their babies in the same birth center in which I'm going to birth Lily, but they both ended up transferring to the hospital as the result of exhaustion.  I listened to their birth stories, hoping to glean clues about what they could have done differently to have their babies in the birth center.

To get my brain back on the right wavelength, I spent last week browsing my Bradley student manual and Natural Childbirth the Bradley Way. The hospital was creeping into my visualizations of Lily's birth, so I rewateched Orgasmic Birth to fill my head with images of pleasant, natural births.  I continued listening to my Hypnobabies CD's to bring my awareness back to the fact that what I believe about my birth time is the most likely to manifest.  I had to roll my brain back to visualizing MY birth story as I want it to be, not as I fear it to be.

The Bradley Method says that if you think you're in labor, do five things: eat, drink, nap, shower, and take a walk.  To try to prevent exhaustion in labor, I hope to go to sleep when I think that labor has started.  To try to not pay attention too soon.  It's going to be just another day, but when it's over, there will be a wonderful new Lily in the world.

Unassisted Childbirth

As a way to boost my confidence in my body's ability to give birth, Elizabeth Gilhuly suggested that I check out the Unassisted Childbirth Yahoo group, which is paired with Lana Shanley's work.   At first, I didn't quite understand what they meant by "unassisted" childbirth, but that's exactly what it is: women or parents who labor at home without the presence of any doctors, nurses, or midwives.  That's right!  It's just mom and dad at home ALONE bringing their little bundle of joy into the world.  For me, even though I have a midwife, connecting with the unassisted birth concept is about empowering myself and gaining confidence in my body's ability to give birth through other people's unassisted experiences. Exploring unassisted childbirth also reduces fear in the situation where I just cannot get to the birth center in time and I end up having Lily at home or on the side of the road.

Recommended reading from our Bradley birth class and on the Unassisted Childbirth email list is Emergency Childbirth.

I have two reactions to the concept of planned, unassisted childbirth:

1. WHOA! WHAT IF SOMETHING GOES WRONG?!

Whether alone or with a midwife, if something goes really wrong, the best recourse either way is to call 911.

However, I find extreme comfort in knowing that there is someone checking in with me, someone who has attended many births (in my case, thousands), and can identify problems that we don't see.  My experienced midwife will be there to answer questions we have in the moment, preventing us from getting too excited.  A midwife can reassure us that X, Y, or Z are normal during birth.  She can respond quickly if the baby is not breathing at birth.  And, she can take care of or provide support for cutting the cord, preform an apgar test, and other post-birth routines.

It is my non-expert opinion in this moment that an unassisted childbirth is only an option for women with low-risk pregnancies and invested birth coaches who have done research, taken classes, or otherwise become very familiar with the birth process.  Through discussions with other pregnant moms and women who have given birth, I strongly feel like women who were more prepared have better success with a natural birth.  I've chatted with some pregnant women who have no idea what to expect during labor, but that they just know that the doctor knows best or the drugs will take care of it.  Some of them are scared, because they don't know what to expect.  There are many women who want to have a natural childbirth, but do not understand what is going to happen during birth, so they get caught up in some of the challenges of birth.  A woman's confidence in her body's ability to give birth can make a huge difference in her birth experience.

This isn't always the case, and some very prepared women end up with medication or surgery, and some unprepared women can have a very successful natural birth.  Take my mom for example.  From our conversation yesterday, it sounds like she read some articles about what the medication does to the baby and decided that she wasn't going to have any of that.  She had two natural births with no birth coach in a hospital.  I keep talking about how my mom is an amazing woman, and her snecdotes of why that's true just keep rolling in.

2. OMG, HOW LIBERATING!

What an incredible concept to just give birth at home without assistance.  Though I am not one to opt for an unassisted childbirth, learning more and more about birth, I am pretty confident that I could labor without assistance.  I feel like Cortney and I have got this, and that our midwives are going to be bored just hanging out waiting for the baby to be born.  I can think of many reasons why this would be an option for some folks:

•  Increased control over the birth experience.  Many health care providers have policies and procedures that may not jive with parents' preferences.  For example:
• Most health care practitioners have a date past which they want to induce or transfer to a hospital. 
• If your water breaks, many practitioners view that as the clock has started ticking and they'd like to see the baby born within a certain time frame after that, because they fear the risk of infection.
• In some states, direct entry midwifery is illegal.  Certified-nurse midwives are legal in all 50 states, but most of them work in hospitals.
• Unassisted childbirth is free. Though I don't believe that cost should be the only consideration, it certainly can play a role. 
• Birth happens on it's own time, and no one will be there at all to measure how far along mom is in her progress.  This measuring can actually hinder the birth process.

From to Lana Shanley's website:

Modern physics has proven that the very act of observing something changes it. Birth is essentially an emotional/spiritual/sexual act. And just as most couples would find it hard to relax and have sex with others in the room, many of them feel the same way about birth.

Women’s bodies were designed to give birth. When a woman is physically and psychologically healthy (free from fear, shame, and guilt), babies can often be born easily.

Some women actually prefer to give birth completely alone. Of course, most of them would say they weren’t alone – God, their innerself, or the larger consciousness, was with them, guiding them each step of the way.

Unassisted childbirth is empowering for the woman, her partner, and her baby. Women who have given birth with little or no assistance often describe it as the most fulfilling experience of their lives. With no one around to tell them what to do, when to push, or which position to be in, many women find they know how to give birth.

I have a pretty comfortable amount of control over Lily's birth at the natural birth center where I am giving birth.  However, there are still places where conventional methods can intervene.  If I near 43 weeks, birth center policy won't allow me to deliver at the birth center, and would require a hospital birth.  If my water has broken, and it's close to 24 hours of labor, then according to the birth center policies, we'll have to transfer to the hospital. 

We had two incomes when we started to pay for the birth center, but if I was doing the whole thing alone, I wouldn't have been able to afford it.  My insurance only covered 80% of the birth center fee, but not a certified professional midwife.  For me, it only covers certified-nurse midwives.  But it covers most of in-network prenatal hospital care.

Sure, not everything will go the way I'd like it to go, but knowing that there are more options than just going to the hospital is refreshing.  Would I chose to have Lily at home with no midwife if the birth center's policies prevented me from having her there?  No.  I would certainly go to the hospital.  While I am totally confident in my body's ability to give birth, I do know that I would need help, and everyone will be more comfortable with at least one health care professional checking up on us.

Bradley Class #8 - Planning Your Birth

A few weeks ago, our Bradley birth class started to work on our birth plans.  Whether someone is planning on a natural or medicated birth, at a birth center or hospital, and with a midwife or doctor, a birth plan can communicate to staff what you want out of your birth experience.  Even though I have a lot of free reign at the natural birth center I chose, a birth plan can communicate some of the finer details of birth to our midwives and birth assistants.  Having traveled much of this with me, my birth coach and doula, Cortney, is pretty much on this natural wavelength, but our assistant birth coaches will gain insight into what I hope Lily's birth to look like. 

In class, we viewed a few example birth plans, and some of the gals brought in their own birth plans. Our Bradley teacher recommended that we print our birth plan with some color ink or on color paper, so that it would pop out in the collage of information that our health care provider has about us. She mentioned that keeping the language positive is ideal.  Make sure to have your name and your baby's name (if applicable) on the birth plan.  Also, the attitude with which we approach health care professionals, especially in a hospital, can help us meet our goals.  Even if we know what is best for our own and our baby's health, we go a lot farther with sugar, politeness, and some respect shown towards the people we're working with to bring this baby into the world.     Even though going to the hospital and/or having a c-section are not at all a personal options for me, and I will do everything that I can to prevent these options from becoming a reality, I do want to insure that I communicate my preferences in the event that things change course.  And, if we end up at the hospital, it would be better to have them written down, because there might not be a whole lot of time to communicate them otherwise. This is a draft of what my birth plan is starting to look like:

YES!

• Natural birth with no medication
• Let birth happen on it's own time frame
• Dim lights in birth room
• Eat and drink during labor
• Freedom to move around, change positions, and walk
• Ability to push in different positions, not just on back
• Privacy from staff is appreciated
• Lots of family and friends to be around
• Would like to be able to use birth tub and shower if desired in the moment
• Would like to be able to walk around the birth center, if desired
• Would like to rub in the vernix. Please leave it on the baby.
• Waiting until all the blood has made it to baby before cutting the cord
• My mom would like to cut the cord
• Immediate skin-to-skin contact after birth
• Opportunity to immediately start breastfeeding
• Would like to rest for an hour with skin-to-skin contact with baby before going home
• Prefer plant-based vitamin K drops (or none at all)
• To go home as soon as possible after birth, provided that we are not exhausted

If end up in a c-section, I would like:

• Coach with me in surgery
• Conscious during procedure, so that I am alert when baby is born
• Sutures to close up my wounds
• Immediate skin-to-skin contact after birth
• Wait to cut the cord until all of the blood has flowed into baby
• Breastfeeding as soon as possible after birth
• Time along with the baby after birth
• Rooming in with the baby
• All measures be taken, so that she remains in the room with me and on my bed during any procedures she may need

AVOID!

• Lotions/creams
• Laboring on back
• Vitamin K shot
• More than a couple vaginal exams
• Washing the baby at birth
• Pacifer

At the hospital, please AVOID:

• C-section
• Inducing labor
• Epesiotimy
• IV fluids
• Medications, including epidural, pitocin, etc.
• Electronic fetal monitoring
• Artificial rupturing of the membranes
• Premature rupturing of the membranes
• Vacuum
• Forceps
• Vaccines and shots at birth
• Medical procedures on me or baby without parental consent
• Suctioning the baby's mouth
• Eye drops after birth
• Formula/bottles
• Staples to close up my wounds (prefer sutures)

If end up in a c-section, please AVOID:

• Flouridated anesthesia
• Washing the baby after birth
• Removing baby from me, unless life-saving procedure needed

Making Babies and The Bulk Herb Store

Awhile back, I wrote about some teas for pregnancy and how I ordered the herbs to make those teas online from a website called the Bulk Herb Store.  I chose this company, because they offered many reasonably-priced organic herbs and the company seemed to be family-run.  And then today, I came across a blog that reviewed a DVD and book set called Making Babies, which was put together by Shoshanna from the Bulk Herb Store.  In her description of Making Babies, her approach to birth seem in line with mine. The more steps I take to incorporate natural and holistic principles into my life, the more connected I feel to companies who carry with them some similar beliefs about life and health.  Now that I think about it, a lot of the choices I make to be a loyal or repeat customer, or even to make the choice to buy from a company in the first place, have to do something with how much I perceive the company's ideals to be like my own.  I am sure to be a repeat customer at the Bulk Herb Store.

Shoshanna talks a little about her pregnancies and Making Babies:

I got my inspiration for the Making Babies series from the pregnancy and birth of my first child. I loved every stage of my pregnancy and birth! I enjoyed learning and researching when I had morning sickness and when I got indigestion. Every time I was faced with another bridge, I would research, study, learn, apply, and rise to new heights of excitement. I knew everything I did, and did not do, would make a difference with me and my growing baby. It is not always easy finding good food to eat, knowing what exercises to do, and asking the right questions to the right people, but I researched it step by step and enjoyed a healthy pregnancy and birth.

I grew up in an Amish community. Talk about making babies–whoa, they make a lot! No, I am not Amish, but I am a blood-bought child of God. Twenty-five years ago my parents were artists living in Memphis, Tennessee. They wanted to raise us five children in the country so we could learn the dying art of homemaking and the skills of country living. Hard work, herbal remedies, nutritional health, home births, and common sense were all part of the lifestyle in the Amish community.

In November 2004, my husband James and I found out we were pregnant with our first child. I knew I wanted to have my baby in the soothing warmth of my own home, so I went to talk to a midwife. I had assisted in two births before I got married, and knew I wanted my children’s births to be better. With good food, the right exercises, and relaxation, the birth of Jeremiah James was WONDERFUL! The midwife that attended had been to over 350 births and said it was the best she had ever attended. Since my firstborn, I never stopped researching the wonderful world of making babies.

I have been asked many questions about healthy foods, recipes, exercises, and herbal remedies from family, friends, and customers at Bulk Herb Store. In November 2009, we got pregnant with our second child. I was so excited about my pregnancy journey. I was going to have another baby! I thought about all the horrible births I had heard about, and wanted to show women across the world how beautiful pregnancy and birth can be, so I started the Making Babies series.

WANTED: My Birth Story

One of our assignments from Bradley class last weekend was to write our birth story.  The birth story that is the most ideal for us.  For me...

At 10pm, the contractions start.  The excitement kicks in.  This is it!  I tell my mom, since we're just chilling ta home.  I phone Peggy, Cortney, Kali, Corbee, and David to put them on standby.   Cortney, safely back from her vacation, calls work to tell them that she won't be in the next day.  Cortney comes over to spend the night.  My mom, Cortney, and I go to sleep.

That starts a chain of phone calls and text messages to alert the birth day support party that they will be getting more information in the morning.

We wake up at about 6am.  The contractions have started to get closer together, but I'm rested and still in good spirits.  As each one comes, I completely relax and don't tense up at all.  This makes them just pressure waves instead of painful.  We put our bags in the car and grab the prepped fruit and other food from the fridge. We take a walk around the neighborhood.

At around 8am, Kali picks up David from the metro and swings by to pick up Corbee.  They head to the townhouse. David is taking pictures and video, but he does not faint.  We are all super excited.  We play some dancing music.  If labor hasn't become serious yet, then we continue to go about our day.  We put a load of laundry in.  We make sure that the house is clean and ready for our return.  We make sure that food is ready for this next week.  Maybe Kali and Corbee run to the store.  I am drinking lots of water and eating some energizing food.  I am doing a lot of standing and rocking, squatting, and using the birth ball to roll around.

When I start to get serious about the contractions, when I'm no longer joking, and I have to concentrate on getting through the pressure waves that are now around 3 minutes apart, we head to the birth center.  This is around 12pm.  I relax in the car, and the limited space does not hinder my progress.  Corbee and my mom follow in my car.  Kali drives us.  Cortney sits behind me in order to help support the waves.  We remember that I cannot sit in the backseat, because I am liable to get morning sickness.

The birth day support party is alerted that we're on our way to the birth center.  Some of them are able to meet us there.  Those who cannot break free will connect with us when we return home or later in the week.

At the birth center, we arrive and there's only a few people there.  We have the run of the place and there is lots of privacy.  We are in the Aspen room, and there is plenty of room for everyone to lounge around in the waiting room, too.  The lights are dim.  It's almost dark.  We put on some relaxing music.  I have the freedom to move around the room.  We put up our glitter posters that remind me to RELAX!, RIDE THE WAVES, BIRTH IS WILD, THIS IS NORMAL, YOU ARE ALMOST THERE, SURRENDER / GIVE IN / LET GO, and that TRANSITION = 30 MINUTES (5 to 6 contractions).

The birth pool is full of water and I am free to get in and out as I please.  I can walk around the hallways of the birth center, if I like.  I am continuing to drink lots of water in between EVERY contraction and Cortney makes sure that I eat more energizing food.  When the pressure comes, I am likely to be imitating sleep.  I use the hypnobabies methods to just relax.  I just feel pressure.  Little to no pain.  Some folks are wondering whether or not I'm even really in labor.

The birth progresses on its own time. The midwives are there to make sure everything is okay, but they do give us a lot of privacy.  Both my body and baby know what to do.

I start to get a little shaky and confused.  I can't get comfortable.  There is a lot of pressure down low.  Even if I get a little worked up, everyone stays calm.  I am probably not going to want many people in the birth room after this point, so they can all hang out in the waiting room.  I try not to snap at people, but I can't help it.  I don't want to be pushy, but I have a hard time communicating what I need.  Everyone understands and just tries to stay out of the way.  We recognize that I've hit transition, and we talk through it.  We keep saying that this is normal.  We're almost there.  This will just take 30 minutes. 

We make it through transition and into 2nd stage labor. I have the strong urge to push. I spend a lot of time in a squatting position as I push.  After about 10 minutes of pushing, Lily's head is visible.  I reach down and touch her head with my hand.  I also use a mirror to see what it looks like.  There's my baby girl!

In 10 more minutes of pushing, maybe around 2pm, she is born!  She is confused and purple.  Her skin all wrinkly.  She is immediately placed on my chest.  Her little arms try to move.  She starts to cry a little, but I help her move towards my breast, so that she can breastfeed.  She gazes up at me fuzzily. We get to lay there for at least an hour to rest, connect, and just be happy.  She can breastfeed as much as she wants.

It wasn't painful at all!  Sure, there was pressure and hard work, but all of that meant that we were closer to meeting Lily!

She is not washed when she is born.  Instead, I rub the vernix into her skin.  The umbilical cord is cut only when the last life-giving blood has flowed into her body.  She is not given any shots.  Not even the vitamin K shot.  No lotions or creams are put on the baby.  It's just her and everything Mother Nature gave her.

While she is born, everyone pops some champagne and partakes in Lily's birthday cake.  I have some birthday cake, too!  David is snapping away with the pictures. 

It will be a happy birth day for Lily!

End of the 2nd Trimester

My 2nd trimester is coming to a close this week.  I cannot believe that it's already been 29 weeks.  It was six months ago, at 6 weeks, that I had my first sonogram.  Here is a summary of some of the amazing things I've learned about birth so far:

Getting ready for birth:

• Instinctively eating all of these foods with fat, protein, salt, and other specific nutrients was super awesome for baby!
• A prenatal vitamin and fish oil are two daily must-haves.  I was resistant to supplements at first, but found a good whole food supplement I was okay with taking.
• Water is essential, because our bodies need it to make more blood for the baby.  And, dehydration can cause preterm labor.
• Regular light/moderate exercise, even if just walking, can make for an easier birth.
• Kegels, pelvic tilts, squats, and tailor sitting are all daily exercises that can get your body in shape in the right places for birth.
• There are two teas that are super awesome for pregnancy: nettle and red raspberry leaf.
• Coconut oil and baking soda make an awesome (and messy) natural deodorant.
• Raw honey is a secret acne weapon, and perfect for a natural face treatment.
• Routine sonograms aren't necessary.  I could go for the initial sonogram and then get another one at 20 weeks to see how baby is doing. 
• Chiropractic care during pregnancy will help align the pelvis and make for an easier birth.
• There are many ways to minimize varicose veins during pregnancy.
• It's better to be a single mom than to live with an abusive partner.

During birth:

• Giving birth takes an average of 18 hours for first-time moms, so don't rush to the hospital or birth center when you know it's time.  If you're sleeping, go back to sleep.  If not, keep going on about your day as usual.
• Drugs during labor often only put off pain until later.  Also, mom and baby are often so out of it afterwards that they can have trouble connecting and breastfeeding at first.
• Keep low light in the birth room.
• Hypnosis can be used to have a relaxing and possibly pain-free birth.
• Relaxation is the key to minimizing pain during labor. 
• Laying on your back during birth can create the most work for the body.  Moms should follow their intuition 
• Don't be afraid to touch baby's head as it crowns, and don't be afraid to use a mirror to see the baby's head.
• When the baby is born, immediately place it on the mother's chest.  
• The baby's first glance at the mother will help instinctual bonding.
• Many babies are able to immediately begin to breastfeed.
• Don't wash the baby at birth, and rub the vernix into the skin.

After birth:

• Breastfeeding is awesome!  There are so many disadvantages to formula when compared to breast milk.  Breastfeeding is really magickal.
• Babies can learn a few pieces of sign language to communicate their needs before they can learn to speak.
• We can start potty training newborns using elimination communication.   
• Picking out a cloth diaper is hard work.
• Some people choose to not vaccinate their children.  Others choose to space out vaccines over a graduated schedule.
• Babies depend on us to meet all of their needs.  Since babies' wants and needs are the same at this point, the recommendation is changing from letting a baby cry to teach independence towards keeping baby happy.
• There are many more cosleeping parents that I realized.  Babies and parents find separation hard, and being next to one another at night often feels right. If done properly, this can actually be safer for baby, make feeding easier, and everyone can get more sleep.

It is amazing to enter the third trimester.  I cannot believe how far Lily and I have come.  I love her so much.

Love For This Baby

The more my belly grows, the more I feel her move, and the more I prepare for her arrival, the deeper I feel connected with Lily. I held two babies last week, and I cannot wait to hold my baby.  I see pictures and videos of newborn babies and I cannot wait to feel her skin touch my skin.  To gaze into her eyes with mine.  I watch videos, read books, and browse articles about breastfeeding, and I cannot wait to spend that time connecting with this little baby.  Watching her sleep.  Helping her eat.  Letting her do her thing.  I want to smell her.  I want to cuddle her.  I want to fill my world with her.  I want to love her with everything I have in me.  I cannot wait to spend every day of the rest of my life giving her everything she needs to be the best person possible, whoever she grows up to be.

I have been reading the baby book that my mom kept for me when I was little.  She spent several years pouring details about the first moments of my life onto the pages of those book.  The effort that it took to remember to stop and write down a few things is enormous.  It shows just how much she loved me.  That her love for me could have started like my love for Lily.

At my last Bradley class, we watched a short video of a natural birth.  These folks started shooting video when they saw a positive pregnancy test.  We watched her tummy grow from month to month.  Seeing her naked pregnant body made me break down and cry.  To know that there was a little Lily growing inside of her, too.  And, waiting for the image of when she looked the same amount of preggers that I do.  For when she looked like me! And, the emotions were overflowing by the time she was near term and she showed me what I could look like in a couple of months.  Big, beautiful, with baby bursting out the front.  There's a baby in there!  I'm going to look like that soon.  Wait, there's a baby in here, too!

Then, I realize who was shooting the video of this beautiful pregnant woman.  It was her husband.  A husband we would see with her every step of the way.  A husband who was right there with her when she needed help the most. The way her husband looked at her as he was helping to bring their baby into the world.  I don't think that I can watch all of these natural birth videos without breaking down with these loving husbands when I got conned out of my fairy tale. It was a few days before this when I realized that Baby Daddy could have never wanted to be a father. That his want of a child didn't come from a place of love. If daddies love their babies just as much as mommies, no man who really wanted a family and really loved his child would have ever done what he did to us and put Lily through what he put her through before she was even born.

What will  make it all better is when I feel her skin on my skin.  It vibrates through every part of my spirit that once I feel her skin touch my skin, everything will be okay.  I love her more than anything.  I am so excited for the day that I get to meet her.

Sh*t Chrunchy Mamas Say...

Cortney, my doula and birth coach, shared this video a few weeks ago, and it is hilariously true.

One thing I'm curious about is eating the placenta.  The word on the street is that it's supposed to be packed full of nutrients and very healthy.  The birth center I'm using has brochures about placenta encapsulation.  But, I don't think I'm down for that.  I mean, I don't think I could stomach liver, let alone my own placenta.  A super quick internet search doesn't turn up a lot on the benefits of eating the placenta.  So, what are your thoughts on eating the placenta after birth?  Has anyone who reads this blog done that?  Have you heard of anyone burying the placenta in the yard?

Prenatal Chiropractic Care

For the past few months, I've been seeing a prenatal chiropractor.  It started when I slipped down the stairs in January and landed on my butt pretty hard, which eventually caused pain in my upper left shoulder.  Chiropractic care, like massage and acupuncture, are wonderful natural healing tools that people would benefit from making them a part of their regular routine.  I also discovered that chiropractic care is especially beneficial to pregnant women.

My chiropractor explained the practice as the process of aligning the spine in order to allow the nerves to transmit signals from the brain to various muscles and parts of the body more effectively.  I translated that to basically mean that chiropractic care deals with energy flow.  A misaligned spine does not allow for optimal energy flow from the brain to other parts of the body.  I was surprised that her office also specializes in chiropractic care for babies and children.  She explained that the process of birth and the first few years of life can have a great impact on the spine, and that if not corrected by a certain age, some things are not as adjustable as an adult.  I do remember learning in school about a point in someone's life where their bone structure solidifies or sets in.  I am paraphrasing all of this from our first conversation months ago, but this is the gist of it.

According to AmericanPregnancy.org:

When the pelvis is misaligned it may reduce the amount of room available for the developing baby. This restriction is called intrauterine constraint. A misaligned pelvis may also make it difficult for the baby to get into the best possible position for delivery. This can affect the mother's ability to have a natural, non-invasive birth. Breech and posterior positions can interfere with the natural ease of labor and lead to interventions such as c-sections.

Keeping the spine aligned helps the systems of the body to operate more effectively, and this is especially important during pregnancy.   It can help lessen back pain during pregnancy as the baby grows in size. It can help with nausea.  It can make the birth quicker and easier and help prevent a c-section.   My chiropractor also mentioned that an aligned spine allows the ligaments on both sides of the belly stretch to the same size, so that the belly is not lopsided.  She even mentioned that she has been called to make adjustments during birth times to help a labor that has stopped progress.

I had made an appointment to prevent a fall from turning into chronic pain.  What I didn't know was that I was embarking on a journey that would help my body have a better pregnancy and me have a better birth time. And, knowledge that helps me bring Lily into the chiropractor from birth, so that she has a healthier life, too.

First Bradley Birth Class - Exercise

I attended my first Bradley birth class yesterday with my new birth coach and doula, Cortney!  Read about her experiences on this journey on her birth coach blog.  Cortney's aspiration for the next part of her life is to become a certified nurse midwife.  As she's exploring how nursing school will fit into her life, she will begin midwifery school in September, and she just started training to become a certified doula.  While a midwife monitors and oversees the care of a pregnancy and birth, a doula can be enlisted to support a laboring mother in whatever way she needs.  This can include communicating the needs of the mother to others, getting food, suggesting new birth positions, suggesting ways to manage pain, and being emotional support, etc.

Bradley is a natural birth method delivered in 12 weekly classes.  The first class covered ways of handling pain and some simple exercises to build strength in areas of the body that we'll need to be strong for an easier birth.  Ways of handling pain include sleeping, eating, drinking water, applying pressure and changing position, etc.  Exercises for an easier birth include relaxing, walking daily, kegels, and pelvic rocking, etc.

We were in a class of about seven other pregnant families.  It is a method that encourages coaching and support by husbands or other birth partners.  These women are due within a month of when I am due (middle of October), from the middle of September to the middle of November.  While all of the husbands were super supportive, some of the men were more vocal than others.  Our class instructor mentioned that often fathers don't feel participatory in the pregnancy and the birth class gives them a great way to do become involved.  I am happy that Cortney and I get to attend together, because this will connect us both more with birthing together.

We answered some true/false questions about pregnancy myths.  All of the answers should have been false, but I thought a couple of them could be true. In fact, our instructor said that these could be true, but they aren't ideal.

Since childbirth is a natural function, women don't need classes, but can rely on their instincts to get them through it.  From what I've read to this point, I feel like I could give birth by listening to my body without further instruction.  Our instructor said that while this can be true, our cultural understanding of birth is different from most of the world.  Other cultures grow up seeing their family members give birth, so they intuitively know what works and what to expect.  In our culture, we don't see birth, and when we do, it's the worst case scenario on television.  I do think that for my personal beliefs about the medical industry and the human body, that I am less susceptible to influence by American cultural understandings of birth.  But, it surrounds us all, and she makes a valid point.  The Hynobabies home study course advises women to not allow negative or painful birth images or stories into their lives while preparing or birth.

It is all  right if your nutrition is not as good as it should be when you're pregnant because the baby can take what it needs from the mother. I felt like there is truth to this, because with everything Baby Daddy put me through, I was having trouble getting and keeping food down for several weeks.  I lost so much weight, I barely looked pregnant at five months, and I was so scared that I was going to miscarry or cause major damage to the baby.  I weighed less five months pregnant than I have weighed in the last 6 years.  However, at the 20 week ultrasound, the technician said that the baby was 13 oz.  My weekly Babycenter.com weekly email said that babies are around 10.5 oz at 20 weeks.  I was so happy that she was taking what she needed from me.  Our instructor said that while it is true that the baby will take what it needs from the mother, those nutrients still need to be there in the first place, or else the baby cannot take them.  That makes sense.

We each pulled a question about pregnancy to answer while we made our personal introductions.  My question was "What I expect to enjoy the most about our labor and delivery is..." I expect to enjoy experiencing the natural miracle of the human body as I explore the wonderful gifts that are innate within us.  I believe that we were built to have babies, and baring no major complications, I am so excited to see the natural process unfold.  I have been enamored with the many gifts that Mother Nature has given us, like breast milk, the life-enriching fluids of the umbilical cord, and the vernix, and I am so excited to continue to embrace these gifts of birth and the new gifts I am learning about for more easily laboring my bundle of joy into the world.

Near the end of class, we practiced some of the simple exercises, such as pelvic rocking and side lying.  As I was lying on my side, I looked back and realized that Baby Daddy wasn't there with me.  As I started to get sad, I had to remind myself how mean he was to me, how poorly he treated me, and that he didn't care about us anymore. That the man who was so excited to start a family with me didn't exist.  He wasn't real. I am so lucky that Cortney is so excited to be my birth partner.  I don't know what I would do without her as my friend and cheerleader.

Teas for Pregnancy

Baby daddy would love to open a shop where one of the features were healing teas to improve the quality of people's lives.  I didn't realize until I got pregnant just how healing herbal teas can be.  I'm now beginning to understand that like massage, tea is not a luxury, but a requirement to live our healthiest lives.  Just look at the benefits of a few cups of tea per day for you and baby, and then tell me if you could go through pregnancy without drinking them regularly.  And then, imagine what other herbal teas could do for your life.  Wow!

Red Raspberry leaves contains many vitamins and minerals beneficial for pregnancy, including vitamin C, vitamin E, vitamin A, vitamin B, calcium, iron, phosphorus, and potassium.  In Wise Women's Herbal for the Childbearing Years (pages 18-19), Susun Weed talks about raspberry leaves extensively, and that made as a tea or infusion, it is said to have the following attributes:

• Increased fertility in men and women
• Gives tone to uterine muscles
• Prevents miscarriage and hemorrhage
• Reduces pain during labor and after birth
• Facilitates delivery of the placenta
• Assists in breast milk production
• Contains calcium in it's most absorbable form, especially in conjunction with other vitamins and minerals
• Relieves morning sickness
• Calms emotions
• Can aid in preventing hypertension
• According to What to Expect When You're Expecting, it may encourage labor to begin.
  
  

According to Wise Women's Herbal for the Childbearing Years, nettle leaves include "nearly every vitamin and mineral known to be necessary for human health and growth," which includes "vitamins A, C, D, and K, calcium, potassium, phosphorus, iron, and sulphur" (pages 20-21).  Made as a tea or infusion, the attributes of nettle leaves include:

• Increases fertility in men and women
• Aids the kidneys, even when they are in disrepair or have stones
• And help protects against bladder infections
• Nourishes mother and baby
• Eases leg cramps and spasms
• Lessens pain after birth
• Prevents postpartum hemorrhage
• Reduces hemorrhoids, 
• Improves breast milk quality
• Helps alleviate varicose veins
• Guards against hypertension

Wise Woman's Herbal recommends drinking 2 to 4 cups of these teas per day..  The book mentions that you could drink raspberry tea one week and nettle tea the next week. Or, it suggests to stick with raspberry leaves until the end and then switch to nettle to prepare for labor.  I've found a few different "pregnancy teas" that combine raspberry leaf, nettle leaf, and a few other herbs.  I like these blends for just mixing up my options.  Traditional Medicinals makes a version that's I've been drinking.  My birth center sells an organic brew that is made for them.  And, I just bought a red raspberry brew that is mixed with nettles, peppermint, and alfalfa from the Bulk Herb Store, which is family-run.  I also just purchased red raspberry leaves and nettle leaves from the Bulk Herb Store.

Peppermint tea and ginger tea have booth been recommended to sooth morning sickness.

Washing the Baby at Birth?

One of my friends shared an article on Facebook yesterday about not letting the baby be washed at birth, because that cheese-cloth like covering on the sweet new joy of our lives actually serves an important function after birth.  That is, if it's not washed away in the middle of it's work, which is a common practice in the U.S.  We wouldn't have thought of that, but it makes complete sense after hearing the midwives at our birth center talk about not cutting the umbilical cord until the last bit of life-giving fluid pumped through it, because that last bit has important stuff for a healthy baby, too.

According to the Indian Journal of Dermatology:

Vernix coating on the neonatal skin protects the newborn skin and facilitates extra-uterine adaptation of skin in the first postnatal week if not washed away after birth. It consists of water-containing corneocytes embedded in a lipid matrix. The strategic location of the vernix on the fetal skin surface suggests participation in multiple overlapping functions required at birth, such as barrier to water loss, temperature regulation, and innate immunity. Vernix seems to perform various integral roles during transition of the fetus from intra-uterine to extra-uterine life. It has also found various interesting diagnostic and prognostic implications in this arena.

Conversation on BabyCenter.com expresses other mom's questions and experiences in regards to the vernix:

1. Its a great moisturiser. You cuddle your little one and rub it in like lotion. Makes me so soft and smooth :) It also helps regulate body temperature. When they wash it off usually newborns end up needing to be under the warming lamps to bring it back up after being cold from the bath..
2. Just rub it in, the longer its on the better. We were told to wait a week for the first bath.
   
3. (My son) didn't get a bath for quite awhile after birth.  He was early and it helped him maintain his body temp.  It was kinda yucky looking but it helped him and they wrap them up and put a hat on so it was not super noticeable.

Birth is a miracle, and there is so much magickal power in using the gifts of birth that Mother Nature gives to us.  This includes the vernix as well as breast milk and those last bits of umbilical fluid.  I am also excited to find out what other gifts nature has in store for the baby.  These are once-in-a-lifetime opportunities that will set up our child to be as healthy as possible. 

So many of my friends are new and experienced mothers reading this blog, and I want to stress that we all do what we feel is best for our children.  We mostly grow up as healthy people and our children have grown up healthy, too.  I was born in a hospital and they likely washed me before giving me back to my mom.  And, I grew up to be a healthy woman.  This adventure is about following my spiritual path of exploring the amazing innate and built-in gifts Mother Nature gives us to grow and raise our offspring. 

Finding that Birth Center

I think that the comfort of having a birth at home for me is related to my living situation.  Right now, we have two wonderful roommates, there is not any real space to give birth, and everything is carpeted in the house.  I'm due in October, and we're planning to buy a house in July, so who knows what the situation will be then.  I've talked about why we don't want to use a hospital.  So, we were on a mission to find a nice birth center and a midwife with s similar philosophy to us about health.

When we started searching for birth centers in our area, we only came up with one.  There were certified nurse-midwives that worked there, and we discovered as we went along that we wanted to opt for a certified professional midwife instead to further remove ourselves from a conventional birth.  We didn't make an appointment with any midwife yet, because I was waiting to hear which place Sean recommended, as he's done way more research about childbirth than I have.  There was some spotting, so I started to freak out and just made an appointment with the certifed nurse-midwife that my pregnant coworker recommended just to make sure everything was all right.  After that experience, I was determined to find the right birth center, so I searched again.  Up popped  a new place that looked pretty fancy, so I scheduled us to attend the next open house.

The open house at the birth center went well. We sat in a circle in the cozy waiting room, shared our introductions, and then asked questions about having a baby at the birth center with the midwives. One of the women was having her fourth child, but this was the first child for everyone else.  Two of the men were doing their due diligence to the process by coming with a list of questions.  One of those gentlemen printed a list of questions off of the internet that was touted as good practice to ask prospective midwives. I had seen many of those question lists while researching midwives.  The other questioning gentleman was affixed on numbers and percentages of complications, deaths, and transfers to the hospital.

As long as we were in an environment with knowledgeable and experienced professionals where we had little interference from those who would push conventional medicine practices on us, we knew that we would make a fine choice. So, we were sure that we would have no problem at this birth center. We still had a few questions, but they were answered without us having to ask.  One of the midwives was originally a nurse that helped deliver babies at a hospital.  She said that she didn't want to work as a certified nurse-midwife in Virginia, because they are required to have a doctor back up and do tend to rely on conventional practices more so than certified professional midwives.  CNM's and CPM's do go through the same midwifery training.  That same midwife is also trained as a naturopathic doctor.  Before Sean could ask how they felt about hypnobirthing techniques, since we plan to use Hypnobabies, I pointed out that there were hypnobirthing pamphlets on one of the tables.  Score.  And, to put icing on the cake, the other midwife was drinking out of a glass VOSS water bottle just like we do.  This all said to us that it was very likely we shared many of the same philosophies about health.

The birth rooms there are nicer than any room in our house. Each has an electric fireplace, a birth tub, and their own private bathrooms with showers.  The use of the birth tub can be a last moment decision, as laboring moms are often guided to the right position by their bodies.

The only downside is that neither Sean's nor my insurance covers the birth center.  The total fee will be  $3,400 if we pay by cash or check before my 28th week.  So, we've made an appointment for the first week in April.

The Beginning

I am a 29 year-old broadcast technician that works in live television news by day and organizes Pagan community by night.  Baby Daddy (my husband Sean) and I met when he walked into my apartment in September of 2009 to take a class that I was offering on Wicca.  Eventually, we became best friends and realized we were in love with each other.  We started dating in November of 2011, just a few months before we found out about our little bun in the oven!

On January 31, 2012, my moon time (Pagan for menstrual cycle) was well over a week late, so I took a pregnancy test.  It came out negative.  That Saturday, February 4th, my moon time still hadn't started, so I took another pregnancy test, which came out positive!  That night, I took a 2nd test, which also came out positive.  And, then on the following Tuesday, I took another test, which also came out positive.  I was pregnant! 

What makes my husband and I different from a lot of people is that we believe that the U.S. food system and U.S. medical systems are not set up to naturally provide the proper care and nutrition that humans need for optimum health and livelihood.  We believe that good health starts with the things we put into our bodies and getting enough exercise.  Most of the foods made available are not made with real food, and in fact, they contain chemicals that are harmful to humans, cause cancers, and result in diseases and early death.  They do this because it is cheaper than making real food, and this chemical-laden food contains (poisonous) preservatives that help it last longer on the store shelf. Our water supply is purposefully poisoned with fluoride under the guise that it's good for our teeth, but it's not.  It's a waste product of industry that is cheaply disposed of in our water supply.  The U.S. has an infatuation with plastic, which leeches poisonous chemicals into our water and food.  Hospitals treat symptoms and don't look for the cause of illnesses, so they are typically only good for emergency medicine.  Doctors prescribe an ungodly amount of pharmaceuticals for little good reason, which are just chemicals that scientists say they think will treat a set of symptoms.  Those drugs come with their own list of side effects that are often worse than the symptoms they are trying to treat, and they don't actually fix the cause of those symptoms.  It is up to people to be educated and informed about the world around them.  We have to be constantly aware of what we put into our bodies.

It is every parents' wish that their newborn baby is as healthy as possible.  Sean and I think that our bun in the oven ended up with a super set of parents who are committed to optimum health in our family. Right now, everything that I do or eat affects our little one.  I am trying to give him/her the best nutrition that I can.  I think the body  makes that a little hard, because I can only eat about five foods right now without wanting to throw up.  But, my body is trying to give him/her a lot of good fat so that will grow a big baby brain!  I don't like taking supplements, because they're not real food, but Babby Daddy talked me into finding a whole food, organic prenatal vitamin.  I think that I did all right: