Ah...

Mission Hair cut?



Accomplished.



Yes, there was MUCH screaming involved,but this was resolved quickly with a nice big bubble bath and a little bit of ice cream. Works every time.

Random Victor Post

He needs a hair cut. That is all.


I love this pic, he looks like my little angel...



Yep! That is a picture of pee pee in a potty. I'm so proud I had to post it.

Saturday night and Sunday night he peed in the big potty. *yay!* and then Monday he was diaperless all day and peed in his little potty 3 times. Tuesday evening he even came to me, fully dressed and handed me his potty seat so I undressed him and put him on the big potty and he went! He's been wearing a diaper too, I was so proud I could burst <3 I don't know if he'll be fully potty trained by the time Cadie gets here, but he's off to a good start! I will also welcome any tips about ways to encourage him!







I love my bubba.

ER visit

Last night I was trying to put Victor to sleep and he was trying to get me to take him downstairs to watch cartoons. Did I mention it was 1am? yeah. I kept saying "no no baby, it's nighttime, everyone is sleeping, we need to sleep too." So he starts tugging on my right hand trying to pull me off the bed. He does this all the time so I really didn't think much of it... until it popped. Instantly I pulled his fingers off me and started yelling "no no dont touch me!" I thought he'd dislocated it with the way he was yanking on it and because I couldn't move my fingers.... I went digging for my wrist brace and woke Matt up because I knew I was going to have to go to the ER. We waited for a bit to see if the pain would fade, but after 30 minutes when I still couldn't even uncurl my fingers I decided to go.

Matt had to stay with Victor so I drove myself. Luckily our car is an automatic so it was not too difficult. They got me back pretty quick and right back to Xray which I was kind of freaking about, being pregnant and all. They shielded me and it was just my wrist. My midwife confirmed that Xrays are well moderated now and even if it had been a direct XRay of my abdomen it would have been minimal especially since I'm so far along and Cadie's pretty fully formed at this point. Then I sat and waited for 45 minutes. Until the doctor literally shuffled over, didn't even bother to actually look at my wrist, told me it wasn't fractured (duh) just a sprain and they'd give me a splint. Seriously he talked to me for like, 30 seconds. I freaking hate doctors. I'm sure we'll get a nice hefty bill for that 30 second conversation too.

I've sprained both my wrists before. I have braces for both wrists on standby at all times, but I've NEVER had a sprain hurt this bad. Usually if I hurt one I put the brace on and deal with it for a day or so and then we're all good. For me to say " I need to go to the ER, NOW." You know it had to be pretty bad. Talking to my midwife reminded me too that with my body getting ready to give birth I have all these great hormones running around my body, like Relaxin. All getting my joints and ligaments and stuff nice and loose for the birth process. So THAT's why Victor was so easily able to sprain my wrist so bad. So to all the pregnant mamas, Be Careful!!

I can barely even use my fingers, which is better than earlier today when I couldn't use them at all. And yes, it is my right hand and I am right handed. Even just using them a bit still hurts like hell and Tylenol isn't doing a darn thing. I'm really hoping the worst of this is over in a day or 2 like everyone says it will be. Have you ever tried changing the diaper of a wiggly 2 year old with only 1 hand? It's fun, you should try it.

Happy 32 Weeks!

Had another lovely visit from my midwives today and I got to see all 3! Usually Dorothy and Pia are stopping by in the morning on their way to Angy's office, so this time they all 3 came over in the afternoon. Victor had a great time showing off for them too! He did great while they did my BP (great) and checked out Cadie. She is actually head down and in a great position for delivery so my job is to make sure she stays there. HA! right.

I've officially gained 20 lbs :( not thrilled about that but it's WELL within normal weight gain and still WAY less than what I gained with Victor. So hopefully my gain over the next 8 weeks will stay normal and I'll weigh less after the birth than I did to start with (it's ok, you can laugh).

Can I just say for a minute here that I LOVE Old Navy yoga pants? They are seriously the most comfortable pants ever. I bought a pair while pregnant with Victor and have worn them faithfully for the past 2.5 years. Sadly, they were ready to be retired. I got my new ones today and when I slipped them on "Ahhhhhh!" instant comfort. I think I'll be living in them for the next several months.

I'm still feeling pretty good. Some pelvic/hip/sciatic pain mostly in the evenings or if I've been out walking a lot. An occasional bout of heartburn and some difficulty getting comfortable at night. You know, typical late pregnancy stuff. Mostly I feel good, still running around after Victor and getting out of the house when I can. Loving feeling my baby girl rolling around in my belly! She's still super active and while she's no longer throwing those sharp kicks and punches, there's a lot of rolling and stretching and it's soooo fun :-) I'm totally ready for another 8-10 weeks!!

Sticker Time

He got a new Cars coloring book and it had over 100 stickers. I think we played with all of them!Playing with his sister for the first time :-)
"hmmm... where should this one go?"
"Which one next?"
"Got to find an empty spot!"
Finished product
Victor getting in on the fun.
Oh yea! Covered in car stickers; Life. Is. Good.

Oh what a day!

Today (Monday) was my birthday. I've come to realize that as you get older, birthday are just not as big a deal as they are when you are younger. Now, I'm only 26 today, woo hoo! But, it's just not the same when you are 30 weeks pregnant, have a toddler to take care of, Hubby has to work all day and you are sick with a cold. And since becoming a mother myself I actually find myself enjoying more calling my mom to thank her for carrying me for 37 weeks and giving birth to me. Every one tells me Happy Birthday all day long, but hey, SHE did all the work!! So anyway, Thanks Mom!!! Love you!

So yes, back to my day. As I said, sick with a cold, strange cold though, no sinus congestion at all, just sore throat and cough. So my day began at 5:30am when I woke coughing hysterically and couldn't stop. Rather than stay upstairs and wake someone up I decided to go lay on the couch and watch a movie. Then Victor woke around 8? 8:30? I went to get him and we actually fell back to sleep for awhile. Then we came down and watched cartoons (remember, I'm sick and TV is a great way to get to lay on the couch and do nothing) and I desperately tried to avoid having to do dishes.

Eventually at some point I took a shower and Victor actually got in with me. He's never done that before, he's always been scared of the shower. It was much better than having him stand outside yelling at me though, ha! Then I finally ended up doing the dishes. I knew if I didn't I wouldn't have anything to cook dinner with. Yep, Matt had to work all day and I was making my own birthday dinner. Let me say here that I had made my funfetti cupcakes yesterday, that way I could enjoy them all day today :-)

Around 3:30 I felt a couple of braxton hicks contractions right in a row. Then felt very tight/stretching sensation in my belly. It was strong enough that I was rubbing my belly trying to get it to loosen up, it was fairly uncomfortable. I was cooking dinner at this point (enchiladas, yum!) and feeling intermittent twinges in my belly too. At one point I picked Victor up for a second and had to put him immediately down on his chair ( I keep a chair in the kitchen so he can watch what I'm doing) because I felt pain spread over my whole belly as soon as I picked him up. At this point I realize I'm still having BHCs and each time my belly gets tight I feel pain on the sides of my belly. Not like contraction type pain, sharp stabbing pain.

Side note here: the cupcakes I had left from yesterday had been in the oven to keep them from Victor's quick little fingers. A fact that I forgot until I went to put in my enchiladas and saw my sad little cupcakes burnt to hard little brown rocks. *tear* Sooo sad....

Then the enchiladas are done, I lean over to move Victor's chair from in front of the oven (nothing he could touch was hot, no worries) and the instant I just picked up the chair I had pain, like serious pain all over both sides of my belly. I got the enchiladas out and had to sit down at the table. The pain was coming intermittently about every 3-5 minutes or so. Luckily Matt at this point was just minutes from arriving home. I called my midwife because by this time the pain had been coming and going for about 3 hours and I was currently immobile. She was actually out of town and I got her voicemail. Matt got home, I explained what was going on, I managed to stand up and get myself a plate and then Matt had to help me walk to the couch where I promptly collapsed and texted the other midwife.

She was already in her car from seeing other patients with the midwife-in-training (mit) and they decided to come on over so they could check me out. In the meantime I was instructed to drink something like gatorade and to get in the bathtub to try to relax. Of course as soon as I got in the bathtub all the pain went away and I felt fine. Ridiculous. I texted her to let her know and she said she was almost there and they'd check me out anyway and make sure we were doing ok.

We were supposed to be having a prenatal appt on Wednesday morning anyway so we went ahead and made it my appt. Cadie's heartbeat is great, in the 150s like always, she is a mover, which we also knew and likely won't settle into a head down position until I go into labor (that's my prediction anyway). I'm still measuring 2 weeks ahead, have been for over 6 weeks now so as long as the trend continues we're good. My urine was nice and boring (gross, sorry, lol). and BP still nice and low. However, the pain started to come back while I was there with them.

As she was palpating my belly and we were figuring where exactly the pain was coming from and all that, I was telling them about my cold and that I'd been coughing a lot more today. Our current theory is this: coughing (great abdominal exercise) had aggravated the round ligaments on the sides of my uterus and every time I was having a contraction it was pulling on them, pulling them further out of whack. So not fun, but not serious. She went ahead and checked me, said my cervix is cone shaped at the moment, semi-soft and about 1.5cms at the front but still closed in back so at least now if the contractions keep going and they need to check me again they can tell if my cervix is changing with them or not.

Then after they left the pain came back full force while I was trying to get Victor something to eat. After laying on the couch for awhile I was feeling better. It's kind of coming and going at this point, but since we think I pulled my ligaments out of whack it's probably going to be doing that for awhile till they settle back down. I'm thinking about getting a belly support thingy to help.

I'm definitely starting to feel large (since I'm measuring at 32 weeks, probably not surprising) and Victor wanting to sit on me all the time is starting to drive me nuts. But I'm feeling Cadie move all the time still, she's had hiccups 3 times now, twice just today! I love playing Guess That Body Part! Super fun :-) I'll post a belly picture tomorrow, I know you're all dying for one *wink*

So to sum it up: sick, pregnant, cooked, destroyed cupcakes, pain, midwife visit.... great birthday!

Why, yes! We are planning a home water birth.

I've had a few people ask about it and I thought I would go ahead and put it out there.

Part of me really hates to write this. I mean, people don't go around saying "Hey guess what? I'm giving birth in a hospital!" It's normal. I think home birth should be too and I really don't want it to be a big deal. Because it isn't. It's normal.

This is not a decision that I came to superficially or over night. For 2 YEARS now I have been doing research and reading birth stories and without a shadow of a doubt I know this is the best thing for my baby and myself.

Right after Victor's birth I began reading and doing more research on birth. Honestly, it was within just a couple of months that I knew I wanted a home birth next time. The induction that shouldn't have happened in the first place, being told I was NOT allowed to get up and walk around, mandatory external and internal fetal monitors, the doc who broke my water without telling me and then proceeded to tell me I'd never be able to do it and he'd be doing a c-section, then the epidural I went ahead and got because he said I'd need it one way or the other (and totally pissed me off) THEN that epidural didn't even work during most of my labor anyway, the episiotomy that he gave me on BOTH sides because supposedly I was starting to tear (so what?) and afterwards when he admitted to me that had he known I was going to have a basically 9lb baby he never would have let me labor so long cause he would have recommended a c-section. Then afterwards when I was so swollen and engorged from all the fluid they pumped through my IV and my back hurt soooo bad from the epidural I couldn't even get off the bed by myself ( thank GOD Matt was able to stay with me, I have NO idea how I would have taken care of Victor that night without him) and could barely walk for the next several days.

I know most of you are thinking, "well, that sounds like a typical birth to me.." you know IV, in bed, monitors, pitocin..... But isn't that sad? Shouldn't we expect better than that? Shouldn't we want to be able to walk and change positions? eat and drink as we need to? His birth wasn't terrible, it was a fairly typical hospital birth and Victor was perfectly healthy. I just want something better this time. I don't want typical, I want normal, ecstatic, extraordinary...

Roughly 93-95% of women are considered low-risk in pregnancy and if left ALONE to gestate and labor normally can do so perfectly fine WITHOUT medical intervention. For 7-5% of women medical intervention is absolutely necessary and saves lives, mommas and babies. The problem is, our c-section rate in this country hovers around 30%.... WHY?

I'm gonna go ahead and throw in here: I am NOT trying to convince anybody that this way is better. I truly don't believe it is better for everybody. I simply believe this way is better for US and want to explain the information I have and how I came to this place. I think that everyone makes the best decision for their own situation and as long as you are happy with your particular situation, then I am SOOO thrilled and happy for you.

A little timeline for you. In the 1800s women were giving birth in the street rather than go to a hospital because of the fear of childbed fever. Early 1900s they finally started to recognize bacteriology and applied measures to stop spreading germs (you know, like washing your hands?). In 1914 "twilight" sleep was introduced in America. This is where they would sedate you will your cervix dilated, then give you more ether while "pushing", cut a huge episiotomy and use forceps to extract baby. Sounds nice, huh?

In 1920 Dr. Joseph DeLee became the proponent of this movement in maternity care and made it his mission to save women from the "evils" of childbirth. In 1935 a mere 37% of all births occurred in hospitals. By 1940, only about 50% of women were birthing in hospitals. It wasn't until 1950 that the majority of births (about 88%) were occurring in hospitals.

It's only been the past 60 or so years that most births even took place in hospitals!! And did you know that the CDC says that the maternal death rate is the highest now that it's been in decades? Wow. Connection? Maybe, more research is really needed to find out why. They speculate that the rising number of c-sections may have something to do with it, plus poor nutrition, the high rate of obesity as well. I personally believe that there is TOO MUCH medical intervention and not enough believing in our own ability to birth babies the way God or nature (however you believe) intended.

Oh boy this is getting waaay longer than I thought.....Kudos if you're still with me!

Anyway, I have the most amazing team of midwives. From the very first time I met with them I felt like I'd known them for years. They hugged me and we talked and they shared my outrage at the things the other doc had said to me at Victor's birth about not being able to do it. The lead midwife has a Master's degree in nursing and worked in a hospital based practice for years before deciding she couldn't take it anymore and switched to her private home based care practice. Since then she has attended more than 200 births. The second midwife is a certified professional midwife and there is also a midwife-in-training working with them. All are certified in neonatal resuscitation and CPR. I feel incredibly safe with these women and I KNOW without a shadow of a doubt that this is the BEST decision for us. And yes, for those that worry, she maintains a collaborative agreement with a local OB/GYN in case the need for medical care arises. The hospital is only 7 minutes away and their "decision to incision" time (should the need truly arise) is less than or the same as if I were actually in a hospital already.

I remember with my OB I'd see the nurse for a few minutes and then wait for the doc who I'd see for, like, 5-10 minutes, and then leave. My appts with my midwives usually last about an hour or more. And they've come to my home several times already. We talk and laugh and tell stories and they really spend time with me and know me and I know them. I could NOT ask for better care from anyone. Any time I've had a question or concern I call and talk directly to one of the midwives, no nurse or any go-between. It's lovely. It also helps that I'm super healthy. Better even than with Victor. I've only gained about 14lbs, my blood sugar is great, my blood pressure is nice and low. We walk every day. I attribute a lot of this to being in such great hands with my care givers.

Some serious Pros to home birth:

1. I'm in my own home. Total comfort. I dont' have to go anywhere, or worry about when to leave. The midwife comes to me.

2. I can eat or drink as I need to

3. No IV, No stuck in bed, no monitors

4. I can move around, walk, change positions however my body tells me I need to.

5. I'm gonna have a big birthing pool set up in the dining room and I can get in the nice hot water when I want and even give birth in there (which i intend to do).

6. Victor doesn't have to leave me. My mom will be here the week or so before my due date and will be able to take care of him while I'm in labor. My next door neighbor (who is an angel) will be able to take them in her home if Victor needs to be somewhere else. I figure the most he'll be away from us is a couple of hours. He and my mom can meet little Cadie within minutes of her being born.

6. The midwives handle all the newborn care, just as if we were in a hospital. They handle APGAR scores, any tests, bathing etc. Granted there are several procedures we will be declining but still, anything a hospital can do for a newborn (besides actual NICU) they can provide in my home.

7. The midwives carry oxygen, pitocin, IVs, saline all kinds of medical supplies. Basically they carry a portable birth center with them so they can manage anything that may arise.

One thing I noticed people say about natural childbirth "just get the epidural, it's not like you're gonna get a medal afterwards..." It's not about that. Or anywhere close. I believe in the power of my body to do this. I want to fully experience the birth of my baby as it was intended, as women have been doing for thousands of years. I want the joy of feeling my baby moving through my body and being an active participant, not just a passive observer while someone else takes charge. No. I will be in charge. My baby and my body, we will do this together.

Someone out there is still thinking "holy crap, she's crazy." That's ok. You don't have to agree with me. You do what's best for you and I'll do what's best for me, that's all we can do.