Keeping busy, finding happiness

Real fast update on us all.

We are doing very well, adjusting finally to living in this new state.

Ive made a wonderful group of hippy/crunchy friends. We all get along so nicely and they make me feel loved and wanted. Everyone is so passionate, its awesome! We do babywearing meetups, playdates, educational outings, and love walking around all wearing our babies and breastfeeding and cloth diapering!
 

 I am also co-leading bi-monthly Birth Circle meetups with two other doulas. Its a great place for women in all stages to come and share and encourage each other.

I am also attending births pretty regularly, when I have a lull in between births I am keeping busy with prenatal client visits or postpartum with the ones that already gave birth!

Lincoln has made some wonderful friends and has been really loving playdates with his friends. He is also loving our "school" time at home when we do workbooks or something similar together. He loves learning inconspicuously at friends houses though, that is our favorite.

Asher is getting bigger and thinning out. Has seven teeth. Tries to communicate with us, but still really does not use many words. He is happy and loves to be worn and loves his mama milk. He is growing fast, and is doing pretty well when mama is away at births.

Zack is busy with work as usual but finally has set days off during the week! He is moving ahead and up in the company. He is such a hardworker and they love him. Wont be long till he gets his own store, I believe.

The whole pace family is moving! So excited. We found an old farm-type house in the country off a long gravel road. Its old and has a lot of character. Lots of yard, and so much fun! I get to garden this summer!!!

Marylyn's Five Home Birthed Babies in the 70s and 80s.

   I really felt like writing a little introduction to this A Blast From Our Birthy Past post. Marylyn I met probably about 4 or so years ago. We worked together for quite some time and she was around when I had my first and was preparing for my second child. She was an influence on me to pursue homebirth as she would always tell me stories of her births and it seemed so natural and normal to her that it began to be my thinking as well. I knew I had to ask her to share her stories with everyone and to hear why she chose to give birth outside of a hospital. Very awesome lady, I am glad to have met her and wish her the very best in life.

   God has blessed me abundantly especially in my pregnancies, labor and birth of my five children.  I didn't realize it at the time but He was watching over me and my babies from conception to birth and beyond.

     My first son was born in November of 1971.  I was living on the coast of Oregon at the time.  The weather was very blustery the evening I went into labor.  I had obtained the services of a male midwife. He had served as a medic in Viet Nam and said he had helped deliver babies there and my boyfriend was able to barter for his services.   He lived about 50 miles inland from us so it took him several hours to get to me because of the storm and having to navigate a dark winding road with downed trees and landslides.  My friend who had had a home birth earlier that year was there for me to coach me and encourage me through the about 12 hour labor.  The midwife arrived when I was in the final stage of labor.  He was intending to film the birth but he didn't have time to set up the camera. There were also another 6 or 7 people present for the birth.  I was in the traditional position, lying on my back on the bed.  I had a bad tear while delivering the baby's head which I learned how to avoid in subsequent births.  My son was over 9 pounds at birth.  I had four more homebirths all without a midwife.  My second baby, a girl, was born in 1975 in Tucson, Arizona.  Labor was about 8 hours, I decided to give birth in a more upright position on my knees supported by my husband.  My oldest son saw the birth and I also had a  woman friend in attendance.  Third child a girl also, was born in 1978 in Tucson again. Labor was shorter about 6 hours. Gave birth on my knees again.  There was some complications this time; the babie's arm presented first.  My friend tucked the arm back inside and then the head presented with the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck.  My friend slipped the cord over her head and the birth continued with no other problems. Number four birth was in 1981, a son, born in Northern California.  Again on my knees and with my same friend in attendance along with my husband. Labor was around 6-8 hours.  My last labor was about 9 hours.  My daughter was born in Lake Alfred, Florida, 1987, in our converted school bus.  Same position on my knees being supported by my husband and friend in attendance.

     I made the decision to have homebirths after hearing a birth story from my friend.  Then I started to do some research on homebirths and was convinced that it was the way to go.   I wanted my baby to have the best start in life without being drugged, tugged at and handled by several other people before me.  I wanted to be the one to bond with my child the very first moments he came into the world.  I had gone to the doctor when I first realized I was pregnant for the first time.  His attitude and arrogance convinced me that I didn't want to have anything to do with hospitals or doctors who have a schedule to keep and want to determine the time and place my child would be born for their convenience. 

    I can say the one thing in my life that I will never regret is birthing my children at home where I felt comfortable and in control.  I don't regret not taking any pain killers.  I learned to control my pain with breathing, to push when my body was ready, and to stop pushing and allow my body instinctively do the work.  I loved being the first one to hold and immediately nurse my child and unexpressable feeling of joy making any pain I had experience so worth it. Not cutting the umbilical cord too soon so that the baby could get the every drop of nourishment from it.  Not washing the baby off with harsh soaps, but gently rubbing the birthing oils and fluids into his skin. I am so glad I was awake and aware of every moment of the birthing experience.  It is what woman are made for, it is a gift and a privilege that God has given us to have a part in His creation.

Four Births/Four Life-Lessons

I have now attended four births, and am about to be on call for my fifth. I know I am still a newbie, but each experience has been life changing and such a learning adventure. I have learned four life lessons. Let me summarize what I learned with each in one or two sentences.

1.  Birth is beautiful, and women are strong. Birth can be quiet and surreal, and still epically powerful. 
2. Some doctors who catch babies do not love birth, it makes for a tense environment, to say the least. But a woman will face any and everything for her baby, and she becomes a different person the second that baby is in her arms.
3. Birth is spontaneous and so very different for everyone. Trust the woman, she knows herself best.
4. The mind is a powerful thing when a strong woman has her mind on something it is pretty awesome to watch her stick to her guns. Also, medical interventions can still = a totally epic natural hospital birth. 

I love each experience so far. I learn new things with each one and become a different person myself because of it. I love being in the birth field, I would not change a thing. I feel so passionate about birth and how I fully believe it shapes and changes the world. I am so excited for the next four, forty, and one hundred and forty births that I attend and I hope I never lose my passion for it, and that I continue to learn life lessons from each and every birth I attend.

these two paintings were done by:  www.amandagreavette.com/ Simply amazing and inspiring birth art. I want to some day have a room full of her art among a few others that I just adore.

Dear Hubby, ahem.

Dear Hubby,
  When I asked you to come help get the hair band band out of my tangled hair...I did NOT mean for you to actually cut my hair!  You cut the hair band off, not my hair. Now I have a random short spot in the back. Totally not funny, and your still chuckling about it. I. WILL. GET. YOU. BACK. FOR. THIS. ONE!
          All the love I possess at this moment,
                           ~Jess

In hibernation.

     
    Well, Lincoln is the most sick he has ever been and we have been in hibernation in our house since last Friday. It is now Wednesday! I even took him to the hospital last saturday for fear of dehydration. YUCK. Its a combo of fever, not eating or drinking, lots of gross green eye goop coming out of his blood shot eyes, his throat hurts, his belly hurts and overall he just says "I dont feel good, momma". So we have bunkered down in the house, done a lot of tv watching and book reading. Pushing him to drink constant fluids and tried the best we can. He is gradually getting better, finally. Here are some pics of my sick, sick boy.

Not liking Brenner Childrens Hospital

 

yucky looking eyes, thinking pink eye

lukewarm bath with a popsicle helps fever boy

Sleeping SO MUCH

hurting eyes.

First day out to return a redbox, he was crying the whole time