Official Announcement!

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!

Unassisted Birth

Thanks to Annalise- pullingdaisies.blogspot.com- for posting this on her blog where I found it:
www.pamamidwife.com/2009/02/20/unattended-birth-resources/

Pamamidwife is Pamela Hines-Powell. Pamela and her apprentice who is now a midwife, Lennon Clark, attended the birth of L.

I love Pamela's view of Unassisted Births! It was her faith in UC and in the female body that was the reason that I trusted her to attend L's birth. I knew that anything that she did would be because I asked her to or it really was a necessary emergency procedure. Nothing was "routine."

I wanted to have a UC with L and I told Pamela that we'd call her if we needed her. She was ok with that. We called her quite a few times during the day and a half of labor before we finally asked her and Lennon to come over. By that time I did need them. It was reassuring to have them there, not so much because of their medical training, but because of the peace and faith in the birth process that they brought with them.

It's rare to find people who have enough confidence in their skills and training, that they don't have to use them just to prove they know how.