A to Z Challenge: V is for Voice.

V is a letter I struggled with as there wasn't a baby product that immediately came to mind to review or discuss. Two words did come to mind and they are vision and voice. I took some time to think about these two words as they relate to motherhood and decided that V is for Voice.

When I say voice, I mean the voice I want to have as a mother. I often think about how I come across as a mother to the people around me. There is one area that comes immediately to my mind when I think about it and it is the way I chose to handle the medical care for my pregnancy and birth.

I know many people in my life perceived me as a little strange based solely on the fact that I chose to use a midwife and have a med-free, water birth. In fact, I didn't talk about my choice with too many people during my pregnancy unless they brought it up. I got tired of feeling like I had to defend my decision. I also got tired of hearing people make comments like, "Good luck with that," and asking questions like, "Well, you can always get an epidural if you need one, right?" The fact was that no, I couldn't have gotten an epidural unless I was transferred to the hospital. Plus, I never even wanted one. Many people also asked me all about the risks and what would happen if W or I needed help. I think they thought I was going to give birth out in the woods or something. Sorry, but I'm not quite that natural.

Now that I had a successful experience, I try and speak to people about it as much as possible. One thing I never understood about being pregnant was why so many women seemed to want to tell me their horror stories. To combat this I am determined to share my positive birth experience with any woman who will listen. That is the voice I want to be.

A to Z Challenge: B is for Baby

Today is the second day of the A to Z challenge and for the letter B I had to go with the obvious in my life right now. B is for Baby.

17 weeks ago, my life changed forever. Although pregnancy was a change, the birth of my son made everything different. I don't know how I ever lived life without him and sometimes I wonder how we are living with him! Almost everyday brings a new challenge and yet we manage to get through it. I don't think I ever realized how how amazing people are when they parent. There is definitely no handbook! Thank goodness for the internet!

17 weeks old!

Besides sharing another cute picture of my little man, I was also trying to think of all of the baby items we have that begin with a B to go with this post. I won a baby shower game a few weeks ago that involved listing as many baby items as you could in a certain amount of time. I was the only one with a newborn so no one was surprised when I won that game. Here's what I have come up with so far:

Baby!
Birth (my med-free waterbirth story is here
Blessing (W is truly a blessing in our lives!)
Bottles
Bottle brush
Bottle warmer (we don't have one of these)
Baby wipes
Beco
Bumbo/Bebe Pod (we have the Prince Lionheart)
Bibs (we go through tons of these each day)
Bubbles (W loves to blow little spit bubbles)
Blogging! (I do it and love it!)
Blankets (we have a ton of blankets but I find that we use the same ones again and again)
Burp Cloths (we also use a ton of these a day)
Burps (and we have a lot of these each day!)
bumGenius (one of our favorite diaper brands!)
Babies 'R Us
Bears (thanks Sara!)
Binkies (thanks Sara!)
Boogers (thanks Sara!)
Breastfeeding
Breastmilk
Baby formula/food
Baby Led Weaning (I'm hoping to do this with W although we may have to try some cereal soon since he is interested)
Bassinet
Baths

That is what I have so far but I will add more if I think of them today! If you have something, let me know and I'll add it!

My Birth Story: natural, med-free labor and waterbirth!

Although not everything about motherhood and life with W has gone exactly as I planned. I feel blessed to have been able to have the natural, med-free, complication-free birth that I planned on having. It is one of the greatest blessings of my pregnancy/parenthood to date.

I always knew that a hospital birth probably wasn't the way for me. It's great for some people but I knew that I wasn't one of those people. First, I have a complete fear of needles and the thought of having an IV without necessarily having a medical need terrified me. The thought of an epidural was something I just tried not to think about, to be honest. Horrifying to me.

When I first started teaching, another teacher on my team spoke highly of her natural birth experience. Although I knew about going med-free from my mother who just waited so long with my sister that when she got to the hospital there was no time for any meds, it was the first time I had heard about waterbirth from someone I knew. I never forgot that. When so many people are chomping at the bit to tell you their labor and delivery horror stories, her positive story and the fact that she shared it stuck with me for the next few years.

Fast forward to about a year ago when we found out we were pregnant and I went on a hunt for a midwife and a birthing center. I didn't want a homebirth so I went in search of a birthing center. Luckily there was on not too far from where I live and even luckier... it is the one midwife/birthing center that was covered by my insurance! After touring the center, I knew it was the place for me. I just felt at home. When I found out that my insurance would cover it just as if I had a hospital birth, I knew it was meant to be.

My prenatal care was amazing and every visit felt like I was going to see friends. We also attended a birthing class (based mostly on Birthing from Within) at the center. It was taught by an amazing doula that many families at the center use. The class was one of the most beneficial things I've ever done. It really helped me finish the mental preparation I needed to do to be completely prepared for my labor and delivery.

My due date with W was 12/11/10 (fun!) but all along I had told him I wanted to work through Friday of the week before so that my leave wouldn't start until Monday at the earliest. Yes, it was my wishful thinking that he might arrive a bit early. I woke up Friday feeling "funny" and the nurse at my school told me that it was a good sign! Two people that day also told me that the shape of my bump had changed. After work I went to the gym and walked on the treadmill for half an hour before heading home to enjoy Friday evening. I was hoping it would help get things going!

Sleeping that night wasn't great. I was uncomfortable and ended up getting up to take a shower and then spending some time leaning on the bed. I believe this was definitely the beginning of my labor. Saturday morning I woke up around 6am with contractions that started about 10 minutes apart. Around 8am, they started coming fairly consistently every 5 minutes and after a few hours, I called my midwife to let her know. She said everything sounded like it was progressing smoothly and to call her again when they were 2 - 4 minutes apart. Around 4pm, they were coming every 1 - 3 minutes and getting more intense. My midwife said we were getting close to heading to the birth center and that she would call me back unless there was an emergency and then I should call her. She called around 5:20ish and was ready to head to the birthing center to meet us. We arrived at the birthing center around 6:00 and my midwife checked me. I hadn't had an internal since 36 weeks when I was 1cm dilated but when she checked me I was 5cm and 90% effaced so we were headed in the right direction.

I labored with my midwife, a student midwife, my mom, J, and my in-laws around for the next few hours and was 8cm after about 3 hours. A little while after that, I decided I was ready to get in the tub so everyone but my mom, J, and the midwives left the birthing room while the midwives filled up the tub. I labored in the tub with J for about a little over an hour then my water broke. My midwife checked me and I was 9.5cm. That was when j got out of the tub and after 20 minutes of pushing on my hands and knees, W made his debut! J got to cut the cord though I don't know how he was able to see through the tears of joy! He couldn't stop crying! W was born in the water at 10:52pm on Saturday, 12/4 and he weighed in at 7lbs, 13oz and was 19.5 inches long!

I feel blessed to have been able to have the natural, med-free, complication-free birth that I planned on having. 17 hours of labor sounds like a lot and yet the only extremely challenging time was the pushing part and being in the tub was amazing. We left the birth center about 3 hours after W was born and got home around 3am on Sunday morning, less than 24 hours after everything began!