Weekend Recaptured.

I hope that all you mommy's out there felt appreciated by your Baby Daddy's and little people.

I certainly did. My Mother's Day was full of cute rompers, jumpers, jewelry, sweet, sweet, sweet cards and my new sewing machine!!!

I am over the moon excited about this fun new toy but I'm sure it will sit in the box until I get some courage to use it.


Are any of you out there sewers (or is it seamstress)? Do you have helpful beginner tips? Websites with video tutorials? And most importantly what other tools do I need to get started?


Shawn hopped on a plane again this morning at 6 AM (which required me to wake up at 4:00 AM! Next time. He's taking a cab) to go to LA for 10 days so Saturday we took Phoenix to see Ocean, because of his love of all things fish & Nemo related. And he loved it. And so did I! Such a great, great movie, and incredible reminder of how AMAZING God is.  

But what I really wanted to tell you was that I spent 6 hours in the ER on Friday.


Starting a few days after Shawn got back from LA last month I started having really intense cramps. I wrote them off thinking that it was just normal reactions to the Mirena. Two weeks ago I started throwing up, which unless I'm knocked up, I never do. For the past two weeks I was just really sick to my stomach and had incredibly intense headaches.


For the past two weeks the symptoms came and went so I tried not to think much of it. Last Sunday after throwing up all weekend and having bad cramps I took a pregnancy test that of coursed popped up negative. 


But this past Friday the headache was so intense that I told my sister Savannah that if I passed out to call 911 and then Shawn. That's how bad I felt.


By 9 that evening after self diagnosing myself via WebMD and Grey's Anatomy episodes I determined that I must have either a brain aneurysm or an ectopic pregnancy. I woke Shawn up and we drove to the ER.


After being pumped with pain medicine and Zofran. A CAT scan and blood work it was determined that I only had acute sinusitis! How's that for a waste of time?


But after talking to the nurse practitioner we kind of determined that the Mirena has been making me feel bad the last several months and that my body has not had time to get back to normal hormonally. 


We had talked about taking the IUD out in September anyway, but recently after stumbling upon a lot of negative Mirena stories and my recent issues I thought about removing it early and getting on BC. But thank goodness I talked to the nurse because she said I definitely should not remove the IUD and then get on BC because that  would just further put my body in shock.


I think based on what I have learned Shawn and I are going to be having some heavy conversations in reference to timing. My mom and both the nurse think I should wait 6-9 months before I try and get pregnant again, which means I might need to put in a phone call to my moms midwife to ask about natural BC remedies. Because with my luck I'll have the IUD removed on a Tuesday morning and get knocked up in the evening.


Not that it would be a terribly bad thing, but the timing and pressure on my body, might not be so good.


Do I have any readers who have had bad Mirena experiences? Anyone who is on a natural birth control? The rhythm method doesn't seems to me to be as effective as "pull & pray" so I'd rather not try that. 


Please, please go and enter into the giveaway! It closes tomorrow!!!!!

Becoming Mommy

Do you remember when you first meet your husband/significant other and how it felt when he called you by a pet name? I used to get butterflies (and still do) whenever Shawn would call me by some lovey name, even as simple as "Baby" would make me swoon. It wasn't until someone started calling me Ma and then Mama, and now Mommy that I feel positively tickled all the way to the bottom of my toes. Phoenix started off calling me "Ma!" (always with an exclamation point at the end I'm sure) and then that quickly turned into "Mama". For awhile that's what I was to him (and every once in awhile I would be "Alex").....I never thought it would get sweeter than "Mama" but out of the blue last week he started calling me "Mommy" and when I heard it I started crying. Who knew that that one word would make me feel so good? Of course its not so cute when he's calling me and I'm not answering and so its a long string of whiny "Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!" until I jump up and down and say "Phoenix! Phoenix! Phoenix! What do you want now!?" 


No wonder my mom changed her name that one time and wouldn't tell us what it was.....

French - Mere  * German - Mutter * Hindi - Maji * Urdu - Ammee * 

English - Mom, Mummy, Mother Italian - Madre * Portuguese - Mãe * Albanian - Mëmë; Nënë; Burim; Kryemurgeshë Belarusan - Matka * Cebuano - Inahan; Nanay * Serbian - Majka * Czech - Abatyse Dutch - Moeder; Moer * Estonian - Ema * Frisian - Emo, Emä, Kantaäiti, Äiti * Greek - Màna Hawaiian - Makuahine * Hungarian - Anya, Fu * Ilongo - Iloy; Nanay; Nay * Indonesian - Induk, Ibu, Biang, Nyokap

No matter how you choose to say it, being called Mommy, Mom, or Mama is truly one of the sweetest sounds ever. Last week during bath I was able to grab him on video saying Mommy. You'll also get about a minute worth of conversation with his Yaya (Greek for Grandmother) and me in 2nd video whispering "Mommy" to him and him whispering back to me. Oh yeah, that's a new trick of his. Telling you secrets in your ear. 

Learn the business of birth

Two months ago I was able to watch Ricki Lake's documentary "The Business of Being Born" and was riveted by everything that I learned.

I actually took notes while watching it so I could share everything with you all, but I packed the notebook up in the move. So not as many facts as I want to give you...guess that means you'll have to rent the movie.

When I  got pregnant with Phoenix I knew right away that I wanted a natural childbirth. I read a book on the Bradley Method and anything else I could get my hands on. I purchased a big exercise ball, the last few weeks leading up to D-day I practiced all my squats. I printed out my birth plan from The Bump passed it to my doctor and slipped a copy in the hospital bag and one in my husbands wallet just in case.

I had all these visions in my head of a peaceful and serene birth for Phoenix. But I didn't quite get it.

I guess if I put my story up against others it wouldn't have been so bad. But for me, it wasn't what I wanted. The only thing that went according to my plan was not having any drugs.

I didn't want to be strapped to the bed monitored the whole time, but I was. I didn't want to be induced, but I was. I didn't want an episiotomy (Fact: over 1 million unnecessary are performed in the US each year) , but I got one PLUS 100 plus stitches. I had a pretty routine delivery, by hospital standards.

I know I left the hospital with a beautiful blonde baby boy, but I still was slightly disappointed in my birthing experience.

And after watching the TBOBB I really realized how much hospitals and doctors intervene and even cause problems in the delivery room.

The pitocin they give you to speed up your labor, that does nothing but make contractions stronger, which makes you beg and plead for some drugs (or a gun, in my case), that then slow your labor down, that makes the doctors want to speed things up with pitocon, which makes you beg for more drugs, and then they get the brilliant idea to give you a C-section to save your baby. But had they not done all of the interventions your baby wouldn't need saving.

-The US has the second worst newborn death rate among developed countries

-In Europe 70-80% of births are attended by midwives.

-Over the last 10 years the C-section rate has risen by 50%? 

Hospitals are in the business of making money. Open beds = more money. Natural vaginal delivers mean full beds for hours and even days. C-sections/inductions, = money. Period.

In the documentary some studies found that the amount of c-sections performed between the hours of 3 and 5 PM is staggering....and what they found was that doctors didn't like waiting around for a women to go into labor. Start the section then and you can beat traffic and get home to have dinner with your family.  

As women we have been told for so long all the horror stories of birthing and what we can't do it, that we are unable to trust our own bodies. I'm what you would call a creationist. I believe in God and that He alone created us all and everything that surrounds. And so I believe that as women He designed us for a very specific task....to bring forth life and everything that we need to do that is within ourselves. If we allowed our natural instincts to take over I think we'd be surprised at what we would be able to do.

I'm not saying that doctors and hospitals are wrong. I also wouldn't consider myself a "hippie" by any means advocating giving birth outside by a tree or anything. But we spend so much time when we're pregnant worrying about not drinking coffee or eating fish, that we don't spend enough time thinking about our delivery and the things we shouldn't be putting in our bodies at that time. 


And if you must have a c-section for medical reasons...by all means do so! Do whatever is safest for you and your baby. But always know that a c-section should not be your first thought and that being induced isn't always best either.


I've already made the decision that whenever I do decide to have another baby that I will be doing it with a midwife and either in a birthing center or at home. And if you are pregnant or thinking of becoming pregnant do your research. Even if you choose to go with a doctor make sure its a doctor that's goal and objective is to give you, your best birth.

And check out the movie if you haven't seen it.


Good places for information and facts:


http://www.givingbirthnaturally.com/


http://thebirthsurvey.com/


http://www.motherfriendly.org/index.php

Oh she must be...

Ever since I met my husband he has always told me that he can just look at a person and tell they're in the music business. I don't quite believe him because of course we never follow up and ask if they are in fact in the "business"

But I bet that if other moms looked at me they would be able to tell right away that I'm a mom. How would they be able to tell? Well of course by these tell-tale signs

• A rogue lemon in my purse from a toddler who dropped it in for fun, along with the sweet and low packages we gave him at dinner to keep him "calm & serene"
• The paci stuck in the strap of bra, because I don't like things in my pocket, and it will get lost in my purse so I stick it in the top part of my bra for "easy access"...boy that phrase takes on a new meaning now huh?
• The broken cell phone I was still using. Luckily my husband upgraded me to Blackberry for Valentine Day, but before that I had been carrying the same cracked Instinct for 5 mths. Phoenix dropped it in the Post Office and I'm to lazy (and cheap) to replace it.
• The messy hair. Most days its easier to tie it all up in a messy knot. 
• The lack of earrings. I've given up wearing long dangle earrings because every time I do Phoenix rips at my ears and causes excruciating pain. 
• The tummy flattening tank top I wear underneath everything
• The play-doh stuck on the bottom of my shoe
• The over-whelming amount of bags that accompany me. Purse, Diaper bag, lunch box, emergency diaper bag.
• When I'm invited to a party instead of asking what I can bring I ask "Should I do a nap before or after the party?"
• The stacks of books on my night-stand I can't seem to finish
• The 15 minutes or more that I need to decide on the perfect low sugar, organic, juice boxes
• The errands that turn into stolen "me time"