I announced it on facebook a few weeks ago, but here is the official blog announcement. I'm pregnant! 15 weeks along with my fourth pregnancy.
We are planning another homebirth. Before I got pregnant, I thought if I ever had another one I'd do a UC. But I'm just not feeling it.... I definitely like to be alone most of the time during labor and I don't like a lot of interventions or checks and I feel confident with the birth process and trust my body. My last labor was so long, 42 hours, and my midwives were there for the last 12. They spend most of the time in the other room, but I liked being able to have them there for moral support when things got tough. My midwife is very hands off and even amazingly supportive of UC, which is the reason I chose her in the first place. I hope this labor is shorter, though really I could do that again. Less back labor would be nice. But ultimately, after having a c-section the first time, I will take any natural labor I can get, no matter how long or grueling, over another c-section. As long as I'm not getting sliced open and I am in control of what happens to me (well, ya know, as much as you can be in control in labor, really it's more about surrender to your own body's process) I'm not complaining!
Of course, I am still nursing L and was a bit concerned that I would be driven to the brink of insanity with being touched out like I did when I was pregnant with her and E was nursing. But the first trimester was amazingly easy! I hardly got touched out at all. She doesn't try to grab me with her other hand like E always did, so that helps! And she doesn't nurse 24/7 But now that I'm in the second trimester, I'm feeling less comfortable with her nursing. We're going to keep going, but I'm glad that now I have more coping skills to be able to handle nursing her even when I feel touched out, and the boundaries to know when to say "nursies are tired" and have her stop.
I had some morning sickness for a few weeks, but that is mostly over. The worst thing is that I haven't really wanted fruit since I got pregnant. I was feeling so good when I did a month of very high raw, mostly fruit, but now anything that is the slightest bit over ripe, turns my stomach. I was also drinking lots of smoothies during that month and now just the thought of a smoothie.... all the stuff mixed and blended together...... *shudder* Yuck! I'm still eating fruit, but I just can't stomach it in those quantities right now. It's too bad because I have been suffering the side effects of eating more cooked foods (tiredness, crankiness, foggy brain etc.) I don't know what to eat!
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Friday, August 20, 2010
Ok, I quit!
No, I'm not quitting saying yes! I'm just quitting blogging about it. Well, not permanently, I'm quite sure it will come up often. But I am not going to continue to try to blog about it every day for this 30 day challenge. I have too many other things to do..... like spend time with my kids. lol
I will just jot down a few things that have happened the last few days, not necessarily yes related, though kind of.
E got stung 8 times by wasps, L got stung once and I got stung 3 times. The ironic thing is that we had just watched A Bee Movie the night before and talked all about honey bees and them protecting their hives. So, then E wanted to know what the difference is between honey bees and wasps. The best we could come up with is that honey bees are useful and we like honey and we understand why they sometimes sting to protect their hives. Wasps on the other hand are useless and evil and attack unprovoked. Ok, I know that's not entirely true (except it really was unprovoked, but I'm sure not from their perspective), but that's the best I could come up with in my post-sting, still itchy state.
We were watching Sponge Bob last night and I just love how such a silly, sometimes outright ridiculous show can spark neat conversations. Sponge Bob and Patrick were protesting the building of a highway that was going to destroy Jellyfish Fields. That led to conversations about the environment and how decisions are made to do necessary things like build highways, but that there is a cost to nature in the trees that are destroyed, the landscape and sometimes the homes of wildlife. She was really sad that all the grass was killed by the highway, but then at the end they tore the highway out and the grass came back and the jellyfish got their home back. During one part, they were dressed up like hippies and she asked why they were dressed like that. I told her about the war protests during that era and the ones that still go on today. Yep, conversations about environmentalism, ethics, construction, history, war and civics, with a 4 year old, sparked by Sponge Bob. So cool!
I will just jot down a few things that have happened the last few days, not necessarily yes related, though kind of.
E got stung 8 times by wasps, L got stung once and I got stung 3 times. The ironic thing is that we had just watched A Bee Movie the night before and talked all about honey bees and them protecting their hives. So, then E wanted to know what the difference is between honey bees and wasps. The best we could come up with is that honey bees are useful and we like honey and we understand why they sometimes sting to protect their hives. Wasps on the other hand are useless and evil and attack unprovoked. Ok, I know that's not entirely true (except it really was unprovoked, but I'm sure not from their perspective), but that's the best I could come up with in my post-sting, still itchy state.
We were watching Sponge Bob last night and I just love how such a silly, sometimes outright ridiculous show can spark neat conversations. Sponge Bob and Patrick were protesting the building of a highway that was going to destroy Jellyfish Fields. That led to conversations about the environment and how decisions are made to do necessary things like build highways, but that there is a cost to nature in the trees that are destroyed, the landscape and sometimes the homes of wildlife. She was really sad that all the grass was killed by the highway, but then at the end they tore the highway out and the grass came back and the jellyfish got their home back. During one part, they were dressed up like hippies and she asked why they were dressed like that. I told her about the war protests during that era and the ones that still go on today. Yep, conversations about environmentalism, ethics, construction, history, war and civics, with a 4 year old, sparked by Sponge Bob. So cool!
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Day 7-9
Good thing daily blogging isn't my job- I'd so be fired!
Day 7-9
I've been surprised to find by doing this challenge how much I actually do say Yes to. So much of it is just default now! Where I still struggle is when my kids want me to do something *with* them, to connect with them, play with them etc. DOING things is easy for me. Saying yes to a mess and then cleaning it up isn't such a big deal. Arbitrary restrictions are pretty much gone and yes is the default answer.
Taking a bath for the 3rd time today which means water all over the floor I will need to clean up and an extra load of laundry? Sure!
"Mom come watch me in the bath." Not so easy.
Connecting is always the struggle.
A few things we have been doing the last few days....
I bought the girls binoculars and magnifying glasses at the dollar store. Of course one of the binoculars broke 2 minutes after we walked out the door! The magnifying glasses have been fun though. They have been looking for little bugs and solving mysteries.
We saw a craft on Sprout where they painted rocks like ladybugs, so we did that. Then the girls wanted to paint crab apples. I tried to get them to stick with the rocks since they will last and the apples are going to go bad, but the apples are so much fun for them to gather that they didn't think much of my suggestion. Oh well! They are having blast painting something almost every day.
I picked up a couple of books at the library that have stories, but all the pictures are made out of photographs of fruits and vegetables. One of them is a story about a seahorse. The seahorse is made from chioggia beets, the ocean plant life is different kinds of kale, lettuce and mushrooms, the crab is a shitake mushroom and tamarinds. This got us talking about all these different kinds of foods, most of which we have never tried. So next time I am at the store I'm going to try to find a few of these things. E said she wanted asian eggplant, celery root and horned melon.
A few weeks ago E got a book at the library about cobras. She looked at it a few times and then it has just been sitting around since then. She watched an episode of the Aladin tv show and Jasmine turns into a snake. I brought her the book, thinking that Jasmine was a cobra. She pointed out the differences and that Jasmine was not in fact a cobra, but some other snake that we are pretty sure is not a real one just something they invented for the cartoon.
Day 7-9
I've been surprised to find by doing this challenge how much I actually do say Yes to. So much of it is just default now! Where I still struggle is when my kids want me to do something *with* them, to connect with them, play with them etc. DOING things is easy for me. Saying yes to a mess and then cleaning it up isn't such a big deal. Arbitrary restrictions are pretty much gone and yes is the default answer.
Taking a bath for the 3rd time today which means water all over the floor I will need to clean up and an extra load of laundry? Sure!
"Mom come watch me in the bath." Not so easy.
Connecting is always the struggle.
A few things we have been doing the last few days....
I bought the girls binoculars and magnifying glasses at the dollar store. Of course one of the binoculars broke 2 minutes after we walked out the door! The magnifying glasses have been fun though. They have been looking for little bugs and solving mysteries.
We saw a craft on Sprout where they painted rocks like ladybugs, so we did that. Then the girls wanted to paint crab apples. I tried to get them to stick with the rocks since they will last and the apples are going to go bad, but the apples are so much fun for them to gather that they didn't think much of my suggestion. Oh well! They are having blast painting something almost every day.
I picked up a couple of books at the library that have stories, but all the pictures are made out of photographs of fruits and vegetables. One of them is a story about a seahorse. The seahorse is made from chioggia beets, the ocean plant life is different kinds of kale, lettuce and mushrooms, the crab is a shitake mushroom and tamarinds. This got us talking about all these different kinds of foods, most of which we have never tried. So next time I am at the store I'm going to try to find a few of these things. E said she wanted asian eggplant, celery root and horned melon.
A few weeks ago E got a book at the library about cobras. She looked at it a few times and then it has just been sitting around since then. She watched an episode of the Aladin tv show and Jasmine turns into a snake. I brought her the book, thinking that Jasmine was a cobra. She pointed out the differences and that Jasmine was not in fact a cobra, but some other snake that we are pretty sure is not a real one just something they invented for the cartoon.
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Playing Catch Up: Day 3-6
Yes, I love to write. No, that doesn't always mean I feel like blogging. Yep, it's only Day 6 (well 7 now, it's past midnight) and I am way behind on blogging every day. I won't do a recap of everything in the last few days, but I'll highlight some Yeses!
Yes at the grocery store....
We have been in the habit of saying yes at the grocery store for a pretty long time now. That doesn't mean that any of us always get everything we want, but that everyone's desires are taken into consideration along with the practicalities of the budget. Usually E gets one type of candy or other sweet thing for the week. This isn't a rule "one thing per shopping trip." It depends on the week's budget and how much what she wants costs. It depends what we already have at home. We try to go shopping once a week, but sometimes it's more or less. Usually if she asks for something I can make cheaper at home it will end up being something like "we can buy X and I can make Y at home or we can just buy Y because it's more expensive." It depends.
I can't even remember the last time she got upset about this arrangement. People hear "no restrictions on food" and imagine her running through the store grabbing up every bit of candy she can get her hands on. Nope, not at all. This week's shopping trip was more confirmation that when you live by principles of abundance rather than rules, the drive to Get, Get, Get just falls away. Abundance is about so much more than physical means.
Of all the things in the grocery store here's what E picked out for herself and her requests for the family. Organic, low sugar, no additives cereal. Organic yogurt. Organic cheese. Cantaloupe. Grapes.
Yes at 4 in the morning....
L woke up at 4 yesterday morning. She didn't know that I was lying there already awake and she sat up, announced "I'm hungry," got out of bed, went to the fridge and got herself an orange. She brought it back to bed and then asked me to peel it for her, but quickly changed her mind and decided she'd "do it the self!"
4 in the morning is not my prime time of day. Especially after getting to bed at midnight. But she was just too cute to resist. We sat up together for a while and I got her a few more oranges and some cucumber. She chatted away about all the things on a 2 year old's mind before dawn and I listened and laughed and tried to keep her from climbing on her sleeping sister and daddy.
She laid back down after about half an hour and finally fell back asleep about half an hour after that. I don't have the foggiest idea why her body needed that much food at 4 in the morning. But I trust that she needed it and I am glad that I was the one who got to spend those special moments with her.
Yes at the grocery store....
We have been in the habit of saying yes at the grocery store for a pretty long time now. That doesn't mean that any of us always get everything we want, but that everyone's desires are taken into consideration along with the practicalities of the budget. Usually E gets one type of candy or other sweet thing for the week. This isn't a rule "one thing per shopping trip." It depends on the week's budget and how much what she wants costs. It depends what we already have at home. We try to go shopping once a week, but sometimes it's more or less. Usually if she asks for something I can make cheaper at home it will end up being something like "we can buy X and I can make Y at home or we can just buy Y because it's more expensive." It depends.
I can't even remember the last time she got upset about this arrangement. People hear "no restrictions on food" and imagine her running through the store grabbing up every bit of candy she can get her hands on. Nope, not at all. This week's shopping trip was more confirmation that when you live by principles of abundance rather than rules, the drive to Get, Get, Get just falls away. Abundance is about so much more than physical means.
Of all the things in the grocery store here's what E picked out for herself and her requests for the family. Organic, low sugar, no additives cereal. Organic yogurt. Organic cheese. Cantaloupe. Grapes.
Yes at 4 in the morning....
L woke up at 4 yesterday morning. She didn't know that I was lying there already awake and she sat up, announced "I'm hungry," got out of bed, went to the fridge and got herself an orange. She brought it back to bed and then asked me to peel it for her, but quickly changed her mind and decided she'd "do it the self!"
4 in the morning is not my prime time of day. Especially after getting to bed at midnight. But she was just too cute to resist. We sat up together for a while and I got her a few more oranges and some cucumber. She chatted away about all the things on a 2 year old's mind before dawn and I listened and laughed and tried to keep her from climbing on her sleeping sister and daddy.
She laid back down after about half an hour and finally fell back asleep about half an hour after that. I don't have the foggiest idea why her body needed that much food at 4 in the morning. But I trust that she needed it and I am glad that I was the one who got to spend those special moments with her.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Say Yes More- Day 2
Yesterday was Day 2 of the challenge. Saying yes lead to something pretty fun for the girls! First we made rain sticks with paper towel tubes and rice and aluminum foil on the inside. Then they wanted to play with just the rice.... YES! So, I let them do it in the kitchen where it was easy to sweep up. I gave them both a bowl full of rice and they had a blast. It ended up all over the kitchen floor, but they had at least a half an hour of fun together playing all kinds of pretend play like saying the rice was food for their chickens and dogs and chasing their animals back in the pen. And I got to do the dishes while they played! Well worth a few minutes of sweeping that needed to be done anyway.
We also read some books. E is really into princesses lately, so she enjoyed a fairy tale book we have with stories like Beauty and the Beast and Aladin. I don't think this version is the original stories, but they aren't the same as the Disney versions either.
An hour long appointment took a 4 hour trip, as our car is broken down so we had to ride the bus. The girls think the bus is a pretty fun novelty though and we had lots of good conversations. At the appointment, they got finger pricks to check their iron levels, so E and I talked about iron and blood. Because her blood was a bit thick, we talked about drinking enough water in this heat. She also was pretending to breath a flower all the way up her nose and into her body, and that led to a conversation about oxygen going into our lungs and then into our blood stream. So many things came up yesterday I can't even remember them all! Bus etiquette, lots of pretend play, and all kinds of questions and answers about where we were going and what we were doing.
I showed E how to play Solitaire yesterday and we also played Go Fish. Then D showed her how to play Poker.
Looking forward to seeing what today brings!
We also read some books. E is really into princesses lately, so she enjoyed a fairy tale book we have with stories like Beauty and the Beast and Aladin. I don't think this version is the original stories, but they aren't the same as the Disney versions either.
An hour long appointment took a 4 hour trip, as our car is broken down so we had to ride the bus. The girls think the bus is a pretty fun novelty though and we had lots of good conversations. At the appointment, they got finger pricks to check their iron levels, so E and I talked about iron and blood. Because her blood was a bit thick, we talked about drinking enough water in this heat. She also was pretending to breath a flower all the way up her nose and into her body, and that led to a conversation about oxygen going into our lungs and then into our blood stream. So many things came up yesterday I can't even remember them all! Bus etiquette, lots of pretend play, and all kinds of questions and answers about where we were going and what we were doing.
I showed E how to play Solitaire yesterday and we also played Go Fish. Then D showed her how to play Poker.
Looking forward to seeing what today brings!
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Say Yes More
I am doing a 30 day Say Yes More Challenge. Read here and here if you're wondering what I'm talking about.
I notice that when I say yes more to the kids it means we connect more. If I say yes, then I have to get up off my butt and go help them do whatever I just said yes to. While I'm helping them, we get all those wonderful moments of exploration and questions and discussions that always lead to them and often to me, learning something new. It also helps our days go smoother. When they are feeling more connected to me there is less fighting, less whining, less issues in general.
I haven't been blogging much lately, so during this challenge I'm going to try to blog every day about our days.
Today is Day 1:
Saying yes more didn't lead to any really amazing moments today, but it was a good day nonetheless. We spent about 2 hours outside and the girls played soccer and tag and drew with chalk and picked blackberries. They also dug in the dirt for a long time making "crystals to wish on to make our dreams come true" out of mud balls.
I cleaned up their play room and got all the game organized. I also rearranged, because they got a new craft table a few days ago. I didn't like the way their tv was set up before. It was in a corner and required the chair to be sitting in a way that their backs were to the door and all the other toys. It felt closed off to me. So I arranged it so that now they have a cozy little nook with their tv and books and the chair facing so they can see all their toys, see out the window and see the door.
E and D watched a show about sharks on Discovery for a long time, and then I watched it with her while we played tic-tac-toe. I also showed her how to play hangman and did real short words like Cat and Dog.
On thing I noticed today is how many things I say yes to by default that I used to really struggle with. Food and tv used to be things that I really had to make a conscious effort to say yes to and remind myself why I was doing so. Now saying yes is automatic and I can focus my energy on being aware of what they are watching and eating and offering lots of options, fixing yummy food or connecting with them over a tv show. They energy is so much more positive than it used to be, and there is so much more joy and peace in these areas that used to be full of strife.
Now the kids are ready to snuggle up with a movie and go to bed. I need to say yes to watching it with them!
I notice that when I say yes more to the kids it means we connect more. If I say yes, then I have to get up off my butt and go help them do whatever I just said yes to. While I'm helping them, we get all those wonderful moments of exploration and questions and discussions that always lead to them and often to me, learning something new. It also helps our days go smoother. When they are feeling more connected to me there is less fighting, less whining, less issues in general.
I haven't been blogging much lately, so during this challenge I'm going to try to blog every day about our days.
Today is Day 1:
Saying yes more didn't lead to any really amazing moments today, but it was a good day nonetheless. We spent about 2 hours outside and the girls played soccer and tag and drew with chalk and picked blackberries. They also dug in the dirt for a long time making "crystals to wish on to make our dreams come true" out of mud balls.
I cleaned up their play room and got all the game organized. I also rearranged, because they got a new craft table a few days ago. I didn't like the way their tv was set up before. It was in a corner and required the chair to be sitting in a way that their backs were to the door and all the other toys. It felt closed off to me. So I arranged it so that now they have a cozy little nook with their tv and books and the chair facing so they can see all their toys, see out the window and see the door.
E and D watched a show about sharks on Discovery for a long time, and then I watched it with her while we played tic-tac-toe. I also showed her how to play hangman and did real short words like Cat and Dog.
On thing I noticed today is how many things I say yes to by default that I used to really struggle with. Food and tv used to be things that I really had to make a conscious effort to say yes to and remind myself why I was doing so. Now saying yes is automatic and I can focus my energy on being aware of what they are watching and eating and offering lots of options, fixing yummy food or connecting with them over a tv show. They energy is so much more positive than it used to be, and there is so much more joy and peace in these areas that used to be full of strife.
Now the kids are ready to snuggle up with a movie and go to bed. I need to say yes to watching it with them!
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