WOW... told you I would fall off the earth!

Well... sorry about the HUGE lapse although I doubt anyone noticed since there are just sooo many good blogs out there-- it really is a sharing world these days. But, I'm all about journaling so even if no one else reads this I gotta get it down somewhere... so here goes.

August
27th, 2008
She came in the middle of the night and right on cue (as predicted) when the rain started to fall-- I swore she was coming in a rain storm- mother's intuition or my wish to be in the rainforest of Hawaii, either way she blessed us with her presence at about 2:36am. She was welcomed by the "circus" as Carl affectionately called it-- mom (wouldn't have missed it for the world- hah!), dad aka hanging post coach and rock (I warned him he should have pumped some more iron), big sister Bailee "baby comin'?" accompanied by Aunt Emmie (her first birth let alone natural birth) and my dear friend and doula, Michelle C. Of course my lifeguards (CNMs Angel & Lois) were there with flashlight and "wows" behind their shield as the glistening bag of waters dared to spray them-- whoohoo for bulging... never thought it would actually happen to me, kudos to the incredible edible EGG! Long story short it was crazy intense and empowering and about 6hours later we stopped by the bakery for a dozen celebratory yoder cinnamon rolls and a quick drive thru at Spangles for that awesome OJ slush and we were home- a family of four. JOY!


Blair Anne's stats:
Weight: 7lb 4oz Height: 21.5in Hair color: unknown *but not red* Eyes: hazel (as of 1/27/09)
She's a joy-- so different than Bailee was growing up but just as sweet and cute (if I do say so myself). She had a little hand quirk but we're hoping to get 'er fixed up within the year or so... scared the crap out of her parental units at first but doesn't seem to slow her down much. I'll update on her progress later


So... that pretty much covers August. sigh.
stay tuned for sept 08-jan 09 if you have nothing better to do.

I missed it...

Sigh, I am on a little bit of a low... I "missed" the first birth I was invited to attend/observe.
I had talked to the mom earlier that day (3pm) about her dilation/hypertension, etc. issues and that she was having contractions but they weren't that intense and she thought she might have this baby tonight. Then I called her doula (the person I am observing/assisting) and left a message (4pm) with her husband to have her call me asap. I received a call from the expecting husband at 7:45pm and got my things together, care arranged for Bailee in case I wasn't home in the morning (haha, Carl said--no worries, she's a 1st timer, it will be a while) and I headed out about 8:45pm. I got there about 9:15 and I was greeted by the expectan mom's mom with a, "are you Janine?" yes-- "oh hun, you missed the whole thing... but she did GREAT!" sigh... I guess everyone thought the other person had called me and hadn't earlier than ACTIVE LABOR... so ya, I missed it. But I did get to poke my head in and congratulate the momma- she was a little disappointed in herself (can we say transition- I told her we ALL do it!), very apologetic for me having missed it (oh girl, you had nothing else on your mind?! I just kept smiling...) and she needed some words of encouragement and a smiling face that wasn't hogging the baby... haha, the baby girl was precious, pink, and alert! WOW! Momma started to tell me all about the birth but I told her to rest... her doula assured me we would get together to chat again soon and momma wanted me to meet the fellow birth-junkie sister-in-law (she's an aspiring doula and CB educator who shares a love of natural childbirth and the bradleyR method). So I popped in to stand by the hot oven (birth day cake baking!!) and we chatted while she was nursing her toddler by the way-- whoohoo! I need to keep in contact with her (she is in the process of writing her dissertation on the effects of media on pregnant and nursing mothers)... chatted with the midwives who told me I couldn't let this inspire miss blair to come out... I KNOW! that's what Carl was afraid of too--1.5wks little missy and you can come out!! L&A told me they would do their best to get me in on some other births and assured me they would double check I was called next time (I shouldn't feel too bad, one of the MWs missed it too!) and headed home to pout, do pelvic rocks, and read some more birth books, I know... I'm obsessed-- but all the while I couldn't STOP smiling--I was INVITED, I had advised this mom on natural stuff, and the mom and baby were doing great-- another successful NATURAL childbirth in the books!!!

Bratz... oh Bratz

I hate them and secretly hope they fall of the face of the earth before my daughters become infatuated with them as I see so many young (3 and 4yrs) girls do. BUT, I love this article about how to use the Bratz against themselves and battle bias, miscommunication, while helping our little young ladies grow up to be responsible and thoughtful adults. Kudos to the mom, doula, and CB educator that wrote this article on BRATZ.

2 yrs ago...

6-6-08... 2 years ago on this day I was receiving several "is the baby here yet?" calls today. Not because it was my due date but rather it was the dreaded 6-6-06. I thought this is crazy until I googled it and there were tons (I mean 100s) of moms/families that were opting for c-sections the day before to assure that their little babies were NOT born on the "red" day... sigh. Oh the babies that were hoping their mommies wouldnt' do that. Well, mother nature knew what she was doing and 2 days later our sweet Bailee arrived.

So... fast forward 2 days- a rainy, windy June evening brought our little silver neon to the Birth Center in Yoder KS and my mind is still swirling as to the actual events that night but I do know one thing-- I became a woman. I roared, I swayed, I danced, and I birthed naturally a beautiful 7lb 7oz baby girl right into her daddie's arms. It was the most powerful, beautiful event I have ever had the privilege of being a part of.

Happy 2nd birthday baby girl!

**And now we're on the downward slide to baby #2... can't wait to see how miraculous this time is. I'm REALLY looking forward to it and showing Bailee just how babies are born***

Dr.Bradley... a KS farm-grown boy

I've been up early-early this morning trying to get my head around a few things and so I decided to stop in to my blog again... eek, it's been over a month! Oh my, just wait til H2 gets here... it will probably be longer unless I really get serious about updates.

Anyway, I'm still on a birth-junkie high from our bradleyR teacher meeting of the minds last night-- it was great to meet the few teachers in the are and to talk with my very own bradleyR teacher a little more (we're expecting babies at the same time!)... and right before B and I headed out for the potluck we received a visit from the brown-clad UPS guy.... from bradleyR!!

Teacher aids to be specific (videos and such) and among the brown packing paper and shipping invoice was the spiral-bound Assistant Coach's Manual-- wow! It's so great! It's so simple and down-to-earth, a great starter book for anyone wanting to know a little more about the bradleyR method.

Well, someone's up so I better go... more on bradleyR later.

All little girls need kitchens! (and camo?)

Oh my have play kitchens come a long way... it brings to mind an old story told time and time again about little miss j's lack of imagination. haha, very funny guys. The story goes that my mom worked many tedious hours designing, constructing, and then adding an artiste's details so she could give her little girl a play kitchen. Made out of state-of-art cardboard boxes, she made a refrigerator, oven, and kitchen island and then filled it with tons of stuff (food, tools, not to mention oven mitts, and hand-made towels) and what did this sweet little toddler do? I asked what it was and what I do with it... nice! Okay, so my imagination hasn't changed a whole lot, I would much rather read a book (still true) than "play" with barbies, though the occassional barbie dress-up for the formal or conference (haha!) was okay. This all sounds a little familiar... someone else in our house is a book-a-holic... But this momma found a steal-of-a-deal on a kitchen, fridge, shopping cart + accessories! Check out the loot! So, I hope this soon-to-be 2-yr old will like it and not ask me "what do I do with it?!"

My reward for going out g-saling on Wednesday (really I was out getting some diapers and just happened to see the sign)...







Details, oh the details... and check out those oven mitts, apron, and chef's hat (I'm restraining myself from giving it to her early so "we" can play... okay, "me"!






Check out this food-- the wooden stuff can be "cut" by the awesome invention of velcro-- too cute! And name your toppings on the pizza; they are on there with velcro too. They threw in some other tupperware toy stuff and cheapy plastic foods and utensils, etc. but it all so darn cute!




Oh, what a fun metal shopping cart-- it looks sooo real! And it's stuffed with the last of the accessories, food, utensils, tupperware, etc.
I hope she loves it as much as I do!

Now, I'm just looking for a few other things (or how-to's for daddy to make) and we'll have our own little "world" downstairs. G-dad reed, we're working on the hunting lodge and camo... LOL, that's the thing, we don't have our basement finished (might be able to this winter) so where is it going to go... as you can see it's on the unfinished basement floor now so maybe some carpet scraps and it will be okay.

I'm becoming...

A Bradley childbirth instructor/doula!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And even better... I'm going to the training conference right here in Wichita (makes it all possible because I can stay in my own bed, eat my own food, and be close to my daughter/family-- all for FREE! so I only had to come up with the valuable yet expensive conference fees and I'm pinching a few pennies for the great resources...)

I'm so excited I can't really put it into words... actually I have wanted to do this since the 1st day of our Bradley class when we arrived and our instructor had just had her 8th baby (3 days before!) I was shocked (I still had a lot of learning to do about natural childbirth) and I thought, wow! if she can do that, this natural childbirth thing is for me. Carl would tell you that our instructor was "too" informative but not me, I was SOAKING. IT. UP! I couldn't get enough info, videos, testimonies, websites, articles, exercises, you name it! I was bringing this baby into the world NATURALLY-- and until now I couldn't really explain to you why I felt sooo strongly about it besides the fact that it just felt "right". But now I know.

I have been swirling around in my own insane asylum aka my head trying to figure out what God's will for me is... what do you want me to do? what is my purpose on this earth? And I wish I could say it just hit me and now I "KNOW" but I can't... BUT I do trust I'm headed in the right direction with this Bradley thing... The other day I had an enlightening, tear-spilling episode while I was reading the most amazing book-- well, actually only the first chapter entitled Why I teach natural childbirth. And it hit me... God was literally writing the words as I read them. Every page or so is soaked with His Word and everything I was reading was so real for me. I just started crying... this is it, I've been trying to find a balance between learning more about YOU while providing for my husband and my family (without going out to join the rat race which I despise and You know this)-- I can interweave YOU into this... into all of this... into the daycare, into the Bradley education and doula service, YOU are the reason natural feels so right, because you are the Creator of Nature. Seems so simple but so me. Thank you for opening my eyes and giving such peace...
~Your daughter in Christ
Janine Claire Reed Heincker