New Business cards and stuff March 8, 2008

My wonderful husband made me some great new business cards, that are actually grammatically correct.

My last set of cards were pretty on the eyes, but said “labor assitant”.

Obviously this is not a good thing for many reasons.

1. I only have two jobs listed on the card which makes it all the more noticeable.

2. I don’t want people to think they are hiring a teacher who is illiterate.

3. I just want my card to look good.

I also ordered some great new stuff for my childbirth class.

One of which was a beautiful and VERY detailed chart of everything from human anatomy, conception to birth.

Let me just say here that I have a good bit of advice to all other childbirth educators, if you decide to purchase this particular chart from Childbirth Graphics, you should not view it with your children or husband present.

First of all it will immediately and I do mean immediately bring about LOTS of questions from your children and then quickly following that will come lots of muffled laughing and “wait, what on earth was that” and “is that really necessary?” from your husband.

I mean really, this is a great chart but……(on the off chance that you are a man reading my birth blog, stop reading this now, before you are totally grossed out)

do we really need to show the penis in the vaginal canal????? Don’t we all know (adults anyway) that this is where it would naturally belong.

The point of the whole page was to show you the female reproductive system, ovaries, uterus and egg.

Unfortunately at the bottom of the page, you are casually looking at the picture and then…out of no where…

A penis in the birth canal! Come on. They already described the male reproductive system on another page, couldn’t they have just given the woman her time alone!

By the way…this was all illustrated by a woman.

So, now I have a very wonderfully graphic chart that I will have to put a post-it note over when showing the female reproductive organs.

I got some great handouts and such that I will be using in class, I also got a new breastfeeding video that should be here shortly.

So exciting!

I love birth.

“O’s and milk please” February 26, 2008

 

Every morning when Jude wakes up I ask him what he would like for breakfast.

The options are usually, O’s and milk and honey, waffles or oatmeal.

The O’s in our house are basically Cheerios except the organic healthier version that is wheat free from Central Market.

Every morning I get a good dose of happiness.

Jude usually requests “O’s and milk and honey with a bowl and a spoon”.

Is this not hilarious.    As if I would forget to give him the bowl and spoon and just pour it all into his hands.

I can’t get over it.  Every day when he asks me for his list of things for breakfast I laugh.

Then I go and tell Robin how funny it is.

This morning was a little different tho. 

I started reciting it to Robin and he looked at me and said “you tell me this every morning and you know what, I think it is funny that you tell me that every morning.”

I just enjoy so much that my child is so sweet and innocent that he thinks he needs to ask me for a bowl and a spoon.

God is that way with us so much of the time.

We think we have to ask for everything that goes along with our desires, when he already has it prepared for us.  

He is probably laughing to himself.

His word tells us that..

Matthew 7: 9 -10

9Or which one of you, if his son asks him for^(L) bread, will give him a stone? 10Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? 11If you then,^(M) who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will^(N) your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

Family, Friends, Vegetables February 25, 2008

And most importantly…..COMMUNITY!! 

 

A community garden that is.

I have really felt a need for our church to grow in the community, after all our mission statement is to   

“Spread the Gospel to people
in the San Marcos area, and bring each of them into
an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ.”

And what better way to start building friendships and relationships that will bring them into that relationship with Christ than when we work together to build something that sustains everyone.

If you haven’t noticed yet, I am really an aspiring green freak and naturalist.

It takes a while after being raised on the golden arches and such, but I am definitely on my way.

I am soooo excited about this.

It is still in the brainstorming process of how it will all function, but on March 1st we are having a church wide work day and we will be clearing land for a new playground for the kids, parking and a garden area.

I am hoping to recycle some of the cedar posts used from the land clearing to build a fence around the garden and then go from there.

I have had lots of thoughts and I would love to hear yours.

Here are some of them, not in any particular order.

• Organic with no pesticides or toxic treatments 
• Individual plots for people to individually plant, work and harvest from
• Community garden that we all share the work in for all that is done
• A small monthly or yearly fee for using the garden
• Monthly community farmers market (possibly joining the one in town already)
• Giving a portion of the harvest to the community food bank

These are just ideas that have been rumbling around in my head.

I would love some feedback so start typing!

If you haven’t been to our church site yet…here it is.

PromiseLand San Marcos
 

The Great Debate February 25, 2008

I have finally come full circle to pursuing my education for midwifery.

Trying to decide where to get my education is the hardest part.

I really want thorough and good quality.

There are lots of programs that offer the short and quick route to get your certification.

As much as I want to become a midwife as quickly as possible, I feel like the quality of my education is of utmost importance.

I want a program that gives me in depth knowledge so that I can care for women without having to thumb through a book at every turn.

I have had experiences where I felt like people were just making up answers so that they could save their pride (which I am guilty of as well).  I don’t want to have to be in that position. 

I certainly don’t have a problem with saying I don’t know, but you don’t want to be saying that all the time; even if it is just being transparent.   

I really want to be able to know what I am talking about and provide good care.

So, I have been looking into different academic programs.

They all have to be coupled with an apprenticeship.   I am in search of the right midwife to apprentice with, but it takes time.

Here are the the two that I am looking into:

Ancient Art Midwifery Institute

Association of Texas Midwives

 They both take about 3 years to complete the program.

How to get fat without really trying February 21, 2008

I watched this video today. It is really thought provoking.

We eat so much junk unknowingly. I hope it inspire you like it did me to eat better and READ THE INGREDIENTS.

This is something we do already since our boys have food allergies, but now much more so just for the health concerns.

It’s a boy – Part 2 February 20, 2008

 

 

Well, since I am on a roll these days, I thought I would go ahead and post the story of our third child.

We really wanted to have another child so that Jude would have a little brother or sister to play with.

Afterall, as wonderful and sweet and happy as Kennady is, she isn’t much of a playmate.

We wanted Jude to have a friend to run around with and grow up with.

We took a pregnancy test and found out we were pregnant with baby #3.

First came the shock that we were actually going to have three kids and then joy settled in very shortly afterward.

Shortly after that, the morning sickness hit; actually the appropriate term would be all day sickness.

Fortunately for me it was not severe and I never lost my food.  The only time I threw up was when I had taken my lovely prenatal vitamins, which I learned to take after a big meal and chase it with my last bite to eat to prevent those kind of problems.

My wonderful husband decided that, as with our last pregnancy, we should not tell anyone until I was farther along.

Well, much to my dismay we did that.  It was horrible.  I suffered in silence while waiting to tell people about our wonderful news.

I didn’t get any sympathy during a time when I needed it most.  OOOHHHH the pain OOOOHHHH the agony!

Now, on to the rest of the story and leaving my pity party.

This time around we considered looking to use a different midwife because of the distance to see my midwife, but we went back to June in the end.  We loved June so much and had such a wonderful relationship with her that we just couldn’t see using someone else. 

We had our first and only ultrasound when I was about 21 weeks along and decided not to find out what sex it was. 

It was really hard not to find out, but I kind of think it was harder on everyone else who thought they “just had to know”.

I had a gut feeling it was a boy, but we would just have to wait and see.

The ultrasound showed a healthy baby with no complications.

We were very happy and ready to see this new little one.

I was very and I mean very emotional with this pregnancy.  I am not quite sure how Robin survived it.

I would be fine one minute and a complete mess the next.  I could be happy one minute and sad the next.

My other pregnancies were nothing like this.

I was happy and floating on cloud nine with Kennady and with Jude I was a little more emotional, but this one tipped the emotional bucket.

My pregnancy sailed by and I felt like I hardly had time to realize I was pregnant.  It was such a different world taking care of two other children and trying to think about the one in your belly.

I had a couple of pre-labor contractions and called my midwife once, but it turned out to be a week or so early of when our baby was going to arrive.

The morning of June 2nd I woke up about 6.

I definitely felt like this was it and was very early in labor.

The contractions had changed and became more patterned.

We had plans that day to go to a bug show at the library in San Marcos.

I got Kennady and Jude up and ready and we headed out.

Robin left for work and I told him I would call him when things picked up.

We also called June and our birth team to let them know the status of things.

We had a great time at the bug show and the contractions kept getting closer together.

As soon as it was over we left and picked up a couple of black bean tacos at Taco Cabana.

I knew that this was the real thing and that I needed a good high protein low fat meal to give me strength for the birth.

It was so yummy and fast.

I called Robin and told him to come on home and I would meet him there.

We took the kids to my in-laws house right up the hill from us.

My mom got there right away and the midwives followed.

Within an hour of being home things progressed pretty quickly.

By 2:30 I was in very active labor.

After about an hour and a half I felt like I needed to go to the bathroom.

I had to really insist that I go to the bathroom because they were trying to keep me in the pool.

I think June was afraid that I was going to push the baby out while I was on the toilet.

She checked me soon after getting into the bathroom and told me that I was dilated to a 9.

YYYYAAAYYY.

I could hardly believe it.

They say that all your births after your 1st vaginal birth go faster most of the time, so here it was.

I finally agreed to get back into the pool.

I got in the pool and about 45 minutes later was pushing.

I pushed for about 15 – 20 minutes this time which was a far cry from the 2 hours I pushed last time.

Robin was in the pool with me when Avery was born.

He caught him and helped the midwife place him on my chest.

Avery came out with the amniotic sac still intact.

The midwife had to pull the amniotic sac off of his head when he came up out of the water.

It was amazing.

IT WAS A BOY!

I was right.

I just knew it all along.

Avery Harrison was born!  8 pounds 5 ounces, 21.5 inches long @ 4:35 p.m.

I had a wonderful support team. My husband, my midwives, my mother, my sister in law, Tabith Krauss and Janice Eppler.

I had some complications from tearing after the birth and had to make a trip to the hospital.

My midwife was concerned I may have had a hematoma in my birth canal so we went to have it checked out.

A few stiches later and a good report from the doctor no hematoma was spotted.

We went home and got a good nights rest with our new baby.

It was a beautiful birth and I couldn’t have been happier.

And…true to my wonderful husbands nature….he served me breakfast with a smile.

It’s a boy!! Part 1 February 18, 2008

 

When our daughter was just over two years old, we were really feeling the need to have another child added to our family.

After Kennady was diagnosed with HPE we had lots of questions as to whether her condition was genetic or not.

We had genetic testing done and they assured us that it was not something that was in our genes.

When we found out we were pregnant with baby #2 we were very excited and praying for a miracle with this baby.

Our first ultrasound early on told us that we had a very healthy baby from all they could see. The relief was overwhelming and left me crying yet again. Except this time it was out of joy and not heartache.

We had a couple of other ultrasounds as the pregnancy progressed.

We were seeing our midwife, June Lamphier, that was with us during our pregnancy with Kennady.

We were also seeing our obstetrician just to make sure that we knew the baby was completely healthy.

We decided when I was about 20 weeks along to let the Dr. know that we were thinking of using a midwife and having a homebirth.

{Note to others and self: Do not think that because you have researched everything and educated yourself and are confident in your decisions that your Dr. will not think you are crazy}

When I told our soft spoken sweet Dr. our plans for a “possible” homebirth, she came unglued.

She could not believe that I would even consider it.

She could not believe that any “responsible” midwife would do a birth at home after a previous cesarean (Vaginal Birth After Cesarean – VBAC).

She was mortified and went on and on about the possibility of uterine rupture and the possible dangers.

I was really shocked.

I don’t know why I was so naive.

That was our last appointment with our obstetrician.

We had prayed about it and felt that we were making the right decision using our midwife and having the baby at home.

It is an incredible thing to have the peace of God in your life and being led by the spirit.

You just know that God has a divine plan for all things and that he will give you wisdom to make the right and best decisions if you just listen.

As our due date got closer we got more excited to see our new baby boy.

I woke up at 5 a.m., March 6th, 2004 to some very early contractions.

I was having contractions every 10 minutes or so until about 8:30 when my water broke.

It was like a rubber band snapping and soooo unexpected.

I jumped up from lying down on the couch and had Robin call June (our midwife) while I went and changed.

Before long the contractions started picking up.

My husband was wonderful.

He tried his best to help me in every way he could.

He brushed my hair and rubbed my back.

Little did he know I was still very early on.

When June got there, I think she realized that I was still very early in labor.

So…off to walking we went.

That didn’t last very long, I think I made it half way down our dirt road before coming back.

Then I hopped into the inflatable pool in our bathroom.

I spent the next 3 or so ours in the pool.

It just felt so good to be floating in the pool.

Meanwhile everyone else was milling about the house cooking meals and talking.

About 3:30 p.m they got me out of the pool and into the bed.

I labored there for a very short time before they realized I was completely dilated.

I got down on the floor onto a birthing stool for the pushing stage.

Everyone was so wonderful.

I felt so loved and supported.

I pushed for about two hours.

Jude was born healthy and happy at 5:30 that evening.

It was so wonderful.

Everything went perfectly.

I remember sitting there just in disbelief at the perfectness of our little boy.

That I had given birth to our baby in our own home!

I was elated.

Jude was 8lb. 4 oz. and 21.5 inches long.

My husband was the best and took better care of us after Jude was born than anyone else could have.

He brought me breakfast in bed the next morning.

He waited on us hand and foot for the next two weeks before going back to work.

I was so grateful for such a wonderful support system at that birth.

My mother was there and she was invaluable; also Laurie Fremgen the back up midwife; Laura Taylor – my aunt who is a second mother to me, and my mother in law and sister in law.

It was such a great experience.

Kennady was happy to see her new baby brother.

The relationship I had with my midwife was one of the most wonderful parts of the care during the pregnancy.

There is no comparison between a Dr.s care and a midwife.

This doesn’t take away from the fact that I am extremely grateful for my Dr., if I had not had that resource when I needed it neither Kennady or I would be here now.

________________

God is faithful to give us the desires of our hearts.

Our Baby Girl January 27, 2008

My husband and I had been married just over two years and were thrilled to be expecting our first child (or at least I was until his shock wore off).

 We knew right away that we wanted to use a midwife. 

We did our research and interviews and settled on June Lamphier, CPM. 

We got our regular prenatal care and heard the heartbeat at 10 weeks. 

Everything was progressing beautifully.

I had the perfect pregnancy, I never had any nausea or complications.

I sailed through the first trimester.

When I was around 21 weeks we had scheduled an ultrasound at Austin Community College since they had a free ultrasound program that you could sign up for.

Well, the day of our appointment for the ultrasound ACC called us and said that their pipes had burst and flooded the basement where the ultrasounds were done.

They asked if we could reschedule and that they were doing late term ultrasounds around 30 weeks.

I really didn’t feel the need to have an ultrasound since everything had gone so well up until this point and we didn’t intend on finding out the sex of the baby.

My husband however really felt like we should at least have one ultrasound to check out the baby and make sure all the “fingers and toes” were there.

 So I scheduled the appointment for thirty weeks (the average pregnancy is 41 weeks).

We went in and they began the ultrasound.

I laid there for about 45 minutes with no one talking to me or saying very much.

I got more angry with every minute.  I kept thinking, “don’t you know it isn’t good for me to be laying on my back for this long”. 

I could not believe the poor bedside manner that they had. (now hindsight is 20/20 and I realize that they were probably in shock; however I still think they could have done better)

After 45 minutes, they let us know that they were not seeing something that they thought they should and that they would like us to go see our doctor.

We told them that we had a midwife and that they would need to contact her.

June called us right away and said that she would meet us at Dr. David Berry’s (perinatologist).

We had to wait for a few hours for our appointment, but I didn’t feel any urgency. 

In my mind I really thought that the people at ACC just didn’t know what they were doing and that when we went to see the perinatologist that he would send us on our way.

I could not have imagined how wrong I was.

We went in and signed in.

While we were waiting June arrived and waited with us.

We all went in to the room to have the ultrasound done.

 Within 30 seconds the technician told us that yes the clinic at ACC was correct and that our baby did have a problem.

I just began sobbing.

I could not believe that our perfect little baby had a problem.

We then wanted to know what sex the baby was.  When they told us she was a girl I was so happy.

After the ultrasound, they escorted us to the doctors office to discuss the situation.

He informed us that she had a very severe form of Hydrocephalus.

He told us that she would very likely not live at all and that if she did she would most likely not be able to see, hear, talk or walk.

He listed all of our options; Out of State Abortion, since they don’t do abortions that late in pregnancy in Texas; Cephalocentesis: Using a hollow needle to puncture the skull to allow drainage during delivery (this would be because her head was so large that a vaginal delivery would not have been possible otherwise); scheduled cesarean. 

We were devastated and felt like we were in some kind of dream.

Over the next 7 weeks we had an ultrasound and sometimes more every week.

During those weeks they were measuring her head growth and the amount of fluid in her head.

When we would have the ultrasounds, all you could see was a giant black hole where her brain should have been and a very small paper thin line of brain tissue around the front of her head.

When we reached 37 weeks, they decided that it was time to schedule a ceserean because of her head size.

We went in the weekend after Thanksgiving on November 24, 2001.

Everything went just as planned.  We were referred to another obstetrician, Dr. Diane Brinkman, because Dr. Berry was not going to be able to do the cesarean. 

Dr. Brinkman was wonderful and treated us as if she had known us forever.

She took into consideration that I would like to try for a vaginal birth if we decided to have other children later in life and did the c-section the best way she could to make that possible. (she did an abdominal incision vertically and a uterine incision horizontally, which gave her the most room to delivery our little girl).

Kennady was born and gave a big yell as soon as she came out.

I was overwhelmed just to hear her cry.  It was more than music to my ears, it was a sign of HoPE.

We didn’t know if she would be able to do anything.

Robin went with her to the NICU and met a flock of family peering in the window.

We spent the next 48 hours recovering and scheduling Kennady’s surgery for her V.P. Shunt.

After her surgery the Neurosurgeon, Dr. Ron Wilson, came to discuss the MRI with us.

The prognosis was worse than we had thought.

The hydrocephalus that they thought she had was only a symptom of what was going on .

Kennady had Alobar Holoprosencephaly and the hydrocephalus was a symptom of her brain being severely malformed.

Most children with this condition live around 6 months.

The primary cause of death for these children are pneumonia and seizures.

We spent the next six weeks in the NICU before going home with our beautiful little girl.

Kennady has lots of special needs, but she is the sweetest most innocent little angel you will ever meet.

Kennady has Diabetes Insipdus, V.P. Shunt, G-Button and is in a wheelchair.  She will never (barring a miracle from God, which we are totally open to) be able to walk. 

She is beginning to communicate with a communication switch in school.

She is now, as of November 24, 2007, 6 years old and doing wonderfully.

Artwork by me January 13, 2008

My mom found this the other day while going through some of her old things. 

She called me and told me about it and I couldn’t believe it.

She thinks that I made this when I was in Kindergarten or First Grade.

It just amazes me.  I really thought the first time I thought about being in the birth world was when I was in high school.

I guess God really does have a plan for us from the time we are born.  And to top that, He lets little kids in on His plans.

I could be way more spiritual on this, but I think the joy it brings just seeing this picture, for me, is enough for now.

Birth #23 January 8, 2008

Well…the day started perfectly. I got up and got Kennady off to school and got the boys fed. That right there is an accomplishment in itself.

About 8 a.m. I got a call from my client.

She felt confident that this was labor, but the contractions were about 7 minutes apart and she was handling things well.

Fortunately for me the birth fell on a day that I already had childcare arranged.

So. I packed my bags and headed in to town to run some errands. I really was anticipating the birth not happening until 5 – 8 p.m. that night.

I got another call about 11 a.m. and she said that they were getting closer together, but that she had a few errands to run before they went to the hospital.

I decided at that point to go meet my husband for lunch and then run errands after that.

We ate a great lunch at Chipotle and had some good conversation.

As soon as I got on the highway, I got a call from her and she was concerned.

She seemed to be in active labor and wanted me to stop by and take a look at her to see what I thought. She seemed very serious and concerned and really seemed to be going a lot faster than any of us anticipated.

I told her that I was already on the highway heading toward her house and that I would run the one errand I had and be right over. Well, before we got off the phone she had an intense contraction and that told me all I needed to know.

I pulled over and changed clothes and went straight to her house.

When I walked in the door her husband said “you have perfect timing”.

I walked in and she was throwing up in her kitchen sink.

I went over and helped clean her up and then went to her husband and let him know it was time to go.

I think he was pretty shocked. He said “oh, o.k., so just like that it is time to go. Great.”

They got everything together and we headed out to the car.

Dad was a nervous wreck. He really wanted me to drive her, but I encouraged him and assured him that he could do it and that he needed to be with her.

We made the 20 minute drive to the hospital.

We checked in and the admission process at this particular hospital is for the birds in my humble opinion.

Anyway, she did such a great job walking and breathing through each contraction.

She refused a wheelchair on multiple occasions because she just couldn’t bear the thought of sitting through the contractions.

Which of course was all beneficial.

We got to the room and she got changed at which point we had to make another pit stop to the potty for throwing up.

When the nurse came in and checked her, she was already 9 centimeters! YYYAAAAAAYYYYY.

I can’t tell you how proud I was of her. She had handled everything like a champ so far and was almost there to see her new beautiful baby girl.

She labored for another 30 minutes. She had had some previous therapy using Hypnosis and we used it during the time we were at the hospital. It really proved to be very effective for her. I learned a lot about Hypnosis through this birth.

After about 30 minutes of intense labor, she was ready to push.

She pushed for about 25 minutes.

The doctor arrived and observed her for about 2 – 3 contractions.

After the observation he recommended a local anesthetic for pain and then after about one more contraction offered an episiotomy for delivery. He felt that the baby was only being held back by the perineum and that if he gave her the episiotomy the baby would be born right away.

It was 3 contractions later that the beautiful little girl was born.

Dad did a great job supporting his wife and mom did and exceptional job laboring and birthing her little girl.

It was a beautiful birth.

_____My Personal Thoughts_______

I was sad to hear the doctor recommend the episiotomy. It was supposed to speed the delivery of the baby, but in reality she still had to push through 3 more contractions before the baby was born. There was also no risk to the baby at that time and no medical reason to do the procedure.

There was another patient of the doctors in the other labor room that was nearing completion. I really hope that this did not influence the decision for offering the episiotomy, but I feel like it did.

It has been proven statistically that episiotomies only speed up the delivery of the baby by 10 – 15 minutes. So, why not push the extra 10 – 15 minutes and come out with an intact perineum.

Of course there is a legitimate use of episiotomies in emergencies. However in this particular situation there was not a medical emergency.