Sunday, November 25, 2007

I wish mom's could collect sick days

Seriously, why can't mom's have sick days? I remember when we lived in L.A. that Josh got two weeks off for paternity leave when JA and AL were born. That would be so cool if there were some way that husbands got two weeks of sick days to use when their wives get sick. I sure could use it tomorrow. This head cold is sure a doozy and my whole body aches. Anyone wanna come take care of me? lol!

Monday, November 19, 2007

It's finally off!

JA got his cast off and pins taken out today! Hallelujah! Everything went very smoothly. The nurse taking off his cast was so good with him, distracting him by talking, whilst taking the pins out. The comical moment came when the nurse asked him if he had any pets. Jacob let out a big sigh and said,"No we can't have any pets, mom says she aleady has 4". ROFLMBO!!! He had the nurse and his dr in stitches from laughing. Ah, I love that boy!

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Awesome birth!

Where do I start? I love homebirths! I love Hypnobabies! I love being a doula!

Yesterday I had the honor of attending an awesome homebirth. And awesome is the perfect word because I'm just in awe of this woman. Tisha, who was my doula for AM's birth, had her baby and I had the honor of attending. Wow, what a woman! Tisha is amazing!

I'm doing a little bit of a flashback here. I remember the birth story of Tisha's second baby born at home. I remember her writing about how she felt like she lost control and had a wonderful midwifery assistant(Bridgette) telling her that a laboring mother was a woman in her majesty. (Sorry if I got that wrong Tisha!) What powerful words. Those same words were told back to me during AM's birth and have stuck with me ever since.

Well, baby #3's birth was the most beautiful, calmest thing I've ever seen. I arrived at Tisha's home around 2:30 to find her so very focused doing her hypnosis. Her husband, Sam was so playful with her between birthing waves and we all ended up laughing quite a bit(getting those good endorphins going). We didn't do much moving around, she mostly wanted to lie down, moving a few times for bathroom breaks and ralaxing on the birthing ball. I few times I coached her into hypnosis by reminding her to turn her "lightswitch" off. She was excellent at communicating her needs. Around 5 o'clock we started doing counter-pressure and called her midwife shortly after.

While we were waiting for her midwife, Suzanne, to show up Tisha had us prep her for disappointing news. She was afraid that Suzanne would get there and find her only at 4 cm's. So we made 4 a good number, it was her favorite number, and just reminded her that she had the strength to take as long as was needed because she was conserving her energy so well by relaxing. I thought for sure she was atleast 7 cm's by the sounds she was making, soft, low moaning through each birthing wave. Suzanne showed up a little before 6:30 p.m. and checked her and found her to be completely 10 cms!!! Bag of waters still intact and ready to have her sweet baby girl any minute. I was in total disbelief, because this did not sound or look like a woman at 10 cm's. Tisha was calm, composed, and relaxed. Keep in mind Tisha was in disbelief from the time I showed up to the time her baby was born. lol!

About a half hour later her water finally broke on it own. She moved onto the birthing stool to help move baby down a bit. Sam sat behind her on the bed to support her, it was so sweet watching him caress her face and give her encouragement. I love those little moments during birth when husband and wife are making a connection. I don't know if men know that us women need that during birth, atleast I did and for me it helped knowing that Josh was staying by my side, that was the connection I needed.

Pushing seemed a bit difficult for her because Tisha never gets the urge to bear down. And who wants to willingly push? At one point Suzanne looked at her and said,"Now's the time you need to dig down deep inside you and find that strength". I thought those were neat words. And that she did, she found that strength, she needed to because baby's heart tones were not sounding good and she needed to birth her baby quick. About then Tisha enveloped me in a full-on bear hug/choke hold. lol! Birthing women are sooo strong, don't mess with us! Once baby's head was birthed, Suzanne found a cord wrapped around the neck. Baby was still okay and with the next push baby was out and in mommy's arms. At 7:32 p.m. a beautiful 7 lbs. 5 oz. baby girl made her arrival. Now I've seen a lot of homebirth baby's not cry because they adjust so well, but I've never seen one open her eyes immediately. This little girl was eager to see what was going on. It was absolutely precious.

Tisha had a few firsts with this birth. It was the first time she didn't throw-up, she did get nauseous, but didn't throw-up. This baby girl came 5 days early, when her first two came atleast 7 days late. It was her mother's birthday, what a great present! And it was the first birth she didn't loose control. It truly was an honor to be my doula's doula. Thankyou Tisha!!! And I hope you and that little girl are getting lots of rest, I'll being seeing you soon.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

The little joys

My little joy was yesterday when I was cooking. My friend Sunny submitted a recipe to the MOF Recipe Book for Bulgulgi, which is Korean BBQ. It is seriously so freaking good and EASY! You serve it with rice and soy sauce and wrap it up in a lettuce leaf. Anyway, I overlooked one of the ingredients, which was Sesame oil. I knew that a few months back I had bought some, but in our move a lot of our groceries got moved around and I just forgot where I put things. As I was shutting the pantry door I notice a little white lid, lo and behold there was the Sesame oil I needed. I've never been so happy about making dinner! I think I did a little dance or not. I'm not a good cook because usually I'm missing atleast one or two of the ingredients. Even though I've made a thorough grocery list, I always seem to overlook those one or two ingredients I need. Then I end up improvising and the meal ends up kind of on the yucky side. But yesterday I had ALL ingredients and it was sooo good. Tonight is Veggie Lasagna, I'm crossing my fingers it turns out okay.

Bulgulgi (Korean BBQ meat)
1/2 T. sesame seeds
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/4 t. black pepper
3 T. sugar
2 T. soy sauce
1/4 C. green onions, sliced very thin
1/4 t. salt
2-3 T. water
1 T. sesame oil
1 lb. tender beef, cut in very thin slices (you can usually find this beef already packaged and sliced very thin in the meat dept, if not just ask for it to sliced thin)

1. In a dry skillet, parch sesame seeds until slightly brown. Grind or mash.
2. Combine all ingredients, except beef.
3. Once mixed pour into a Ziploc bag, add beef and let it marinate for atleast 2 hours.
4. Cook in a frying pan with a bit of oil.

For a dipping sauce, mix 3/4 part soy sauce with 2/3 part water. Serve meat with sides of large leaf lettuce, rice, and dipping sauce. To eat authentically, spoon rice, meat, and dipping sauce into your lettuce wrap. Enjoy!

Thursday, November 8, 2007

Yucky kid food

When I was younger my mom would try to make me eat hotdogs and bolognie. These are two kid foods that totally make me want to ralph. What is it with bolognie and hotdogs? Even the thought of them makes me nauseous. My kids love these two foods, and I make sure that they eat it as far away from me as possible. Yeah, my daughter just walked past me with a slice of bolognie, so that's what's on my mind. Yuck!

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Christmas music already?

Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas. I love the story, the symbolism, the family get-togethers, the snow(yes I do!!!), and cozying up with my hubby. But come on! Just let us get through Thanksgiving first! Atleast two of my regular radio stations are already playing Christmas/Holiday tunes. It's just so irritating. So I'm boycotting my radio stations until December 1st. One can only handle so much "Dashing Through The Snow". Snow, what snow?! Freaking A!

Monday, November 5, 2007

Doula Retreat

I'm feeling refreshed, replenished, and renewed!!! I went to the Utah Doulas Association Fall Retreat this past weekend. What an awesome bunch of ladies to be surrounded by.

I went expecting the usual birth conversations, how best to help a client, ect. but what it was, was unexpected. I have rarely encountered a place outside the temple where you could feel the spirit so strong. The women that came to the retreat were from all different walks of life, religion, families, but yet we totally recognized eachother as sisters on both a spiritual and energetic level. It was an emotional retreat, tears were shed, hurt feelings and incorrect beliefs surfaced and were acknowledged. There were no judgements or criticism, but unconditional love which I know is rarely felt.

We celebrated our callings in life as doula's. What an honor it is to assist women in bringing a new spirit to earth! We talked about how faith and prayer are essential to a doula, no matter her religious beliefs or she had none at all. We talked about the need for doulas to take care of themselves so that they could care for their laboring moms. We learned about the Samaritan goddess Inana, her path to self-discovery, fascinating story. We expressed ourselves through art by molding clay into what we thought women serving women would look like to us. Doula is the greek word for "woman's servant". I molded my clay into a husband and wife embracing eachother, with a doula behind them embracing them, supporting them.

Most important to me was that I found the softening of heart that I asked for in helping me forgive another doula(see the previous post below). Forgiving her was very important to me, it was the only way to move past the hurt. And I have. It truly was a life changing weekend.