weekending

Posted in advantageous adventures, it's cool to school, kiddie-do by

ahhhh yes. spring! we officially sprung forward around here so even though that equinox hasn’t made it official…it’s spring dangit. we made it outdoors for some activity this weekend. it was glorious.

after all my grumbling about not being able to take darla on a nature hike like a year ago at my parents’, i decided to go for it even though snow was still on the ground. because, why not? and i’m so glad we did. it was the perfect day for it. the skies were clear, sun bright, temps just warming up so we could sit and literally watch the snow melting off the trees into the creek:

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we hiked over and examined rocks and the creek bed. we tossed sticks. rested on fallen logs and listened to the many birds. we guessed at animal tracks and got our boots muddy. we listened to the slow trickle of melting snow and the occasional plop of a big chunk as it fell into the creek. we basked in the greatness of my sycamores.

oh how i long for my indiana home.

i need help

Posted in Momma Needs a minute... by

y’all, i just sent in my payment for my last requisite class for my birth doula certification. the class will be in April, almost 2 years from the day that i supported my first birth. i am beyond excited to be so close to having this life goal completed. beyond excited to be certified and have some credentials to add to my street cred.

i recently watched an interview with Miranda July for the Makers series in which she stated “whatever you put energy into grows. if you want something to grow you must put your energy into it.”  well, that’s a paraphrase.  the past 6 months have been a period of immense growth for me in my birth work path. i’ve put all my energy into it and i’m ready to blow up. i really want to get deep into this world and support as many families as I can. I took a minute to read my astrological profile this morning and it said When Aries sets her sights on a goal, it becomes an all-enveloping quest.

That is how i feel. I feel that i’ve been scratching away, clawing at this goal for two years. i feel i’ve almost exhausted my energy in trying to inch this goal along. In turn, it has been rewarding when movement forward has been accomplished.

but i’ve come to the point where i have to give some of it up. what i mean is i have to relinquish this feeling of doing this on my own. my astrological profile also says this: Aries strives for independence, and success is defined by a series of distinctive or high-reaching personal achievements.

So, I want to make myself vulnerable right now and ask for your help, which isn’t easy for me because the stars even state that i’m an independent lady, but we all know being strong entails knowing when to ask for help.

Please share my info, please consider me for your own labor support team, please keep me in your thoughts and send me your good energy. i will send you mine. i’m trying to focus on finding the path the universe has laid out for me and relinquishing my ideas of what that path should be. but maybe with your help, i’ll meet more families and achieve these high-reaching personal achievements.

thank you.

http://www.ColumbusBirthArts.com

http://www.facebook.com/ColumbusBirthArts

birth links

Posted in birth links, doula work by

some links that my laptop explored lately:

This first link is especially interesting to me because I didn’t even start to like {read: love} the taste of coffee until I became pregnant with Darla. Fortunately, the bakery next to my work had huge self-pour dispensers and I got through with 1/3 caffeinated, 1/3 decaffeinated, 1/3 cream concoctions and kept the caffeine to a minimum. This write-up on a decade long study highlights findings that if you have a more-than-2-cups-a-day habit you’re at risk for low-birth weight babies and prolonged gestation and labor. And check this out: “one daily average cup of coffee lengthened child labor by as much as eight hours.”  Is that reason enough to switch to decaf?

Evidence Based Birth is live-blogging the NIH Consensus Conference on Diagnosing Gestational Diabetes.

I’m considering swinging into the old stomping grounds in September for the Rally to Improve Birth. September will be my month off birthwork due to other commitments so why not just make the most of it. Or maybe Columbus will have their own rally. We’ll see!

and lastly,

Who loves infographics? Lovely graphic on birth settings and research in the US. Let’s just go ahead and include it. pay special attention the average cost of birth in a hospital vs. a birth center. i’ve been in lots of lovely hospitals now that have provided great care to moms but i think we can agree that lowering the average cost of birth is something our healthcare system desperately needs:

Source: iom.edu via Elaine on Pinterest

bizness of being born

Posted in doula work by

well, this week was a fantastic one in my world. i supported two couples in three days and saw two sweet baby boys born into the world. i’m so thoroughly excited to do more of this work.

my lessons this week were about the institution of birth. yes, the business of being born. the care providers, nurses & doctors, i interacted with this week were some of the best i’ve worked with thus far. these births lifted my heart and left me feeling “yes, this is the way it should be. we really are all in this together.” in short, it gave me a little hope for the future of birth. {i’m still fairly new so just let me bask in these hopeful moments. i need them right now.}

these doctors really let these mothers birth their babies. i tell you there is nothing more awe-inspiring than watching a mother tap into her instincts and bring her baby into the world. it feels great to witness nurses, women who see birth many times a day, discussing how inspired they were by a client’s birth. having experienced some callous and controlling doctors with my daughter’s birth, it fills me with hope when i witness doctors go to lengths to honor their patients’ wishes and treat them with respect.

i’m just happy to be part of the equation, making a difference where i can. please keep making babies people. i hope you’ll invite me in to help. it’s a real honor. and yes, birth work truly is my jam.

Source: skreened.com via Elaine on Pinterest

bedtime

Posted in parenting apparently? by

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here’s this girl who made a bed for herself in our laundry basket. she’s trying to got to bed for the night at about 4pm. i have a new skill of getting her to bed, eager to go to bed, ASKING TO GO TO BED.  she has come to the age of being able to listen rationally now when we tell her she doesn’t sleep well and feel good in the morning if she goes to bed too late. she has nightmares sometimes and we’ve figured out if she goes to bed too late she gets them due to lack of sleep. once we explained to her that we should get to bed earlier so the nightmares won’t come, she’s been a more than willing bedtime partner.

a gentle scaring-your-children-to-bed never hurt. it feels so middle ages. so brother’s grimm.

tiny author

Posted in kiddie-do by

darla and mike set to writing darla’s first short story yesterday. here’s what she came up with:

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“let’s make cupcakes & cookies and let’s make everything sweet and do it good. we have to do it because we’re soooo lucky and write a picture of my brother, luke skywalker.”