I see the end...

Of the first trimester!!! I always love thinking about all that is happening in the first trimester. It is truly the time of setting up the foundation for this little baby. But...I am also very anxious to get into the second trimester! Feel the sweet movements, not have nausea anymore, regain some energy. I must admit this pregnancy has been so different than my pregnancy with Ayda was. I have not been nearly as sick!!! I have nausea if I don't eat every 1-2 hours which is interesting, but it is manageable. I am so thankful. Poor Ayda was very disturbed the one time (so far) she saw me throwing up so perhaps it is for her sake that I have felt good!

I met our midwife last week for my first appointment. I was super nervous about having a different midwife for this baby but I really liked her. Debbie took such good care of us in ATL but I have full confidence that Robyn will take good care of us here in Florida! And of course, we are planning for another home birth. After our experience with Ayda I could not even consider anything else. We have the birth center option here in Florida but that would be a step backwards for us.

We have not, and don't plan to have an ultrasound again. I will admit it is tough seeing friend's show off their pics of their growing babies but we just feel it is best to not do them. I remember when I finally saw Ayda and held her in my arms it was amazing because I had NO clue what she looked like. Not even something as simple as does she have an over bite...which she does! It was a neat feeling to know I only imagined what she would look like and had no sneak peaks. So the same will be with this little one as long as there is no true medical reason to do one.

I started another Bradley series which will be so neat to teach knowing I have to do everything with the couples as well. I told them to hold me accountable as well. I have practiced my relaxation a lot already simply because I know it helps me to unwind. It has helped ease a bad case of nausea, headaches, and even some of the fatigue. I love it! I hope to get one more series in before the baby is born and then I'll take a little break to enjoy the newest addition to our family! I just can't wait for March to come!!!

More in a few weeks!

The Joy of Life!

Kevin and I are very excited that we are pregnant again. I am planning to journal my walk through this pregnancy and I am so excited. By the time these first several posts are actually published I will be into my second trimester because we plan to keep things quiet till then. So...

Kevin and I decided to start trying for another baby about 4 or 5 months ago. I thought for sure we would get pregnant on the first month of trying but that was not the case. I then began a journey of letting go and letting God. Each month it got easier to learn we were not pregnant. Not because I wanted it any less but because I was finding contentment in the life God was blessing me with. Kevin and I have had time together, we have a beautiful daughter that I can spend so much time with and we are busy with Kevin's business.

So this past week when I knew my period was due to start I thought nothing of the possibility of being pregnant. Until I had some spotting a few days before I was due to start it had not really crossed my mind. I was actually annoyed that I had that because I was ready for another cycle to start and us to keep moving forward and pregnancy was on my mind again. Once I was a couple days late I decided to get the test. I dread taking those things. I feel like a negative result is such a slap in the face. I was SO excited and shocked when I took it and the two lines popped up right away! I immediately said a prayer for the little life inside me. I can't wait to start this journey again!!

Kevin and I plan to have another home birth. He will keep a very close eye on me to be sure I don't need an adjustments so that my body is working at it's best for the baby. No drugs. No unnecessary interventions. Just us having a baby. If you would like to follow along with us we would love it. There may be times there is too much detail so beware! I am excited to journal this time in our lives. I am even excited for the first trimester blues because I know right after that I will feel my sweet baby moving around inside me and that is totally worth it. And in March of next year we will hold our little miracle in our arms and become a family of FOUR!

Bradley Classes

I am starting a new series for Bradley classes!!! They will begin mid August either Thursday or Friday evenings from 7-9pm! Still working on nailing down which day! If you are interested email me at rlnaturalbirth1@gmail.com! Classes are taught in Clermont FL!

The classes are great and the time will fly!!!

Spanking: Good or Bad?

Before I start I would love feedback on your views regarding the subject!

One thing I love about Kevin and I's relationship is that we are so often on the same page before we even discuss the topic. Soon after Ayda was born I mentioned discipline. I was curious how he thought he would discipline our children. We immediately realized we were thinking the same thing...we would not spank our children. The only thing with that was, how would we discipline? I was spanked, he was spanked, pretty much everyone we know spank their kids. So what would we do in order to not have a disrespectful, disobeying child? Our convictions, though, were that we felt spanking typically happens while the parent is angry with the child. I did not want to react that way in anger. Also I struggled with spanking my child for hitting, kicking, biting, etc. I felt I was disciplining a wrong with a wrong.

Now jump forward 18 months. We still stand strong on our way of disciplining. We have not had to spank Ayda once. Don't get me wrong, she has certainly made me mad plenty of times. But because I am not going to spank her I have to take a second, cool down, and talk to her. She does go into time out as well. I feel like that also gives me the chance to take a deep breath and decide what my next action should be. She sits in time out, sometimes cries, and looks at me. I then have the chance to talk to her and teach about apologies/forgiveness or figure out what is wrong and where we need to go from there. Kevin has taught me SO much about patience. He feels like we need to see the whole picture when it comes to her side of things. She cannot vocalize to me or him what she is truly feeling. If she is pitching a fit because I took something away from her (perhaps because it was dangerous), I need to see past the temper tantrum and see that she is mad something was taken away. She does not know it is dangerous. I need to teach that. I would be mad if someone grabbed something from me without explanation. So Kevin brings that type of thing to my attention so often. I also accept the fact that she is going to get mad, she will likely try to hit me, or scream. If I react in anger and raise my voice back I am teaching nothing. Instead I have found that if I lower my voice, come down to her level, acknowledge her feelings, and explain my reasons she actually calms right down and is ok. We then find something she can play with and have fun again.

Anyway, I am pleased to know that spanking is not the only way to discipline. Ayda is very well behaved, listens very well, and it is very rare that we have melt downs throughout our day. I also have figured out she is very likely to get more upset if she is tired or hungry, just like pretty much anyone! So you will always find Whole Wheat Ritz Crackers or some sort of easy snack in my car/diaper bag and I make sure she has plenty of time to get her sleep!

Again, I would love to know your thoughts on this!

Feeling Empowered

I have natural childbirth on my brain today. Just reflecting on ours and the stories of others. I want every baby to be born this way. Of course I know there are reasons for needing medical intervention. But if at all possible I wish this was the norm. I am loving teaching my Bradley classes. The group this series is so much fun! I will be attending one of the couple's births and can't wait.
I see how healthy Ayda is and contribute it to her drug free life and her Upper Cervical care. I can't stand when she is sick and I am thankful she has only been sick 3 times.
Back to Natural childbirth...women can do it. Yes there is pain and it is a lot of work. But you can do it! It's a shame society, or should I say drug companies, have convinced women that childbirth is unbarable. Our bodies know better than drug companies how to have babies. I cannot fully explain the joy I have knowing each sensation and piece of my labor. Feeling Ayda have the hiccups one more time before being born, her kicks as she made her way through the birth canal. Feeling in tune with her just minutes before we met her. I had tears in my eyes throughout my labor but not because of the pain. It was because I knew these were the last few times I would feel her inside me. Labor was a joy! And it can be for you too!

The Fight

Before even starting this post let me begin by saying I know there are times that some intervention is needed and medical professionals are needed. I worked with some of the best Doctors and Nurses in the NICU. And this is in no way medical advice, it is simply my opinion.

Kevin does not like for me to say I am sick or Ayda is sick. He says we are fighting illness or disease and it is a good thing. It helps build our immune system. It makes us stronger in the end. So when Ayda started her fight against what I thought was just a minor cold two weeks ago I was confident she would beat it. However, I started to wonder when after a whole week she was not getting better, in fact, she was showing signs of getting worse. Her cough was deeper, her nose more stuffed up, her energy zapped. I even prayed Monday night that she would just get enough of a fever that it would kill whatever she had. I found myself wondering what mother prays for their child to have a fever? Well the mother that knows medicine will not be given and she wants her baby to feel better sooner. And sure enough, at ten that night, Ayda woke with a 101F fever. She wouldn't go back to bed so I just went with it. She came out in the living room and started watching the Olympics with us. Before long she was turning in circles copying the figure skaters. I could tell the fever didn't have her completely down yet. After about an hour she went back to bed and slept fine till morning. The fever was 100.6 in the morning. We took it easy. Then the fever popped up to 102.5, her heart rate had increase and she was breathing faster than I liked. As a nurse I did a quick assessment on her. She just laid in my lap and watched tv for awhile. Kevin reminded me that her fever was fine and she was fighting the virus/bacteria. We remained confident that her body knew what it was doing. Before long she got up and played some. Then took another nap and woke up feeling better and had a temp of 100.5 again. Long story short, her fever broke through the night (only lasted about 24 hours) and each day since she has been even better. Today she was 100% Ayda again...loads of personality, energy, spunk.

So why do so many people fear a fever? Illness? I know the doctors put so much fear in parent's minds. They say there will be brain damage if the fever is untreated or gets too high. Yes, that is true, if the fever reaches 107 or higher. So why do we start pushing the Tylenol at 100.4 or higher? I had Mastitis when Ayda was 3 weeks old and my temp reached 104.5 at one point. I was miserable, but fully coherent. I was told that if I didn't take antibiotics I could get an absess. I was also told that it could get so bad that my nipple would have to be removed. So much fear. My midwife and Chiropractor stood by me though and I didn't take antibiotics for the Mastitis and within 48 hours of spiking the fever, it broke and about 3 days after that we were smooth sailing with breastfeeding again. Why do we put so much trust in Medicine and not in our bodies? Ayda has been sick three times now, twice with a fever. None of those times did we even take her to see the doctor. I'm a nurse, I know what he would say. I assess her myself to make sure she is not in danger and that she stays hydrated and then we ride out whatever it is. I'm thankful she has only been sick three times and I feel that with each new fight she is stronger to fight the next thing that comes her way. God created us to be good. Trust your body.

Some natural things we did:

Let her fever run, but she got LOTS of extra love and attention since she felt yucky.

Pushed lots of water. She drinks water pretty good on a normal day but we kept sippy cups all over the house so she could just grab it no matter where she was.

Rest. If she was even slightly tired I put her to bed. We definitely threw out any routine we once had.

I am still breastfeeding her twice a day so I loaded myself up on Vit C so she would get some through the breastmilk.

Completely eliminated Dairy (cow's milk) products from her diet. No cheese, yogurt, cottage cheese (her favorite). Eating these products can increase mucous production which we did not need more of.

Ayda does not eat many things with sugar but I significantly decreased her sugar (even natural sugars) from her diet as well. She was on a very bland diet to say the least. Sugar can feed bacteria.

Baby Food Making

I will admit I was a little intimidated when I decided to make Ayda's baby food. I bought a couple books and started trying to figure out where to start and what to do. I am completely lost in the kitchen on a good day. How was I going to make baby food? Well lucky for me it turned out to be SUPER easy! And lucky for me, my best friend was making her son's baby food too. He is exactly 2 months older than Ayda so she had a good head start on me and could lend me some much needed pointers.

Kevin bought me a Beaba babycooker. It is WONDERFUL...and pricey. It steams the food and then you take it out of the steam container and put it in the main compartment to be pureed. It was all in one which made clean up insanely easy. You can also just use a regular steamer and food processor and it does the same thing. Having the Beaba was a luxury, not a necessity. I will say I still use it everyday even though Ayda does not need baby food anymore. I use it to steam just the right amount of veggies at dinner and clean up is easier than using the big steamer.

To get the food to the right consistency for her age I used water that had run off the fruits and veggies or breastmilk. Either worked great to thin out the food a little. Also whenever I was making apples, I bought organic apples and then would let Ayda drink the water from the steam. It had a hint of apple flavor and she absolutely loved it since I didn't let her have juices. It was a special treat!!

Once the food was steamed and pureed it was time to put it all in ice cube trays to be frozen. Easy as that! I froze the food overnight and then transferred it into ziploc bags or ziploc travel containers. Then when it was time to eat, all I had to do was grab a cube or two of the veggie or fruit that was on the menu and thaw them out. We put the food in little containers and put that into the warm water to thaw them out. It didn't take long, but it takes a little more planning than grabbing a jar of ready made food. I had to remember to thaw the food before she was even hungry.

Overall it is super easy and cheaper. I also liked knowing exactly what she was eating. Even the organic jarred baby food made Kevin and I wonder what was in it since it could sit on a shelf for several months at room temperature. I am glad that I dove into the task and I actually had fun when it was baby food making day!