friend kidly

You really need to see this very cool photo montage created by my midwife, Sue, of a recent birth she attended helping these beautiful twin girls into the world. This is so inspiring and truly amazing. Before watching this I had never witnessed a natural birth of multiples let alone at home! What amazing vessels God has made us.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I love that to children there’s not much of a difference between a hug and a choke hold…

…or walking at least.

Please excuse the huge gap between posts, we moved almost a month ago and have only been able to get online when our wireless card caught our neighbors signal which was unpredictable at best.  A lot has happened this past month including our move, the Christmas season, the birth of my sister’s first child, the birth of a really good friend’s second son and Charlotte learning to walk.  I think that covers the big events.

I really can’t post about the birth of these new little men without mentioning that they were both over 9 lbs!  My sister’s son (Gabriel Paul) was 9 lbs 3 oz and my friend Linsey’s son (Henry David) was a whopping 9 lbs 10 oz.  Throughout my sister’s pregnancy she kept voicing aloud her observation that midwives seem to deliver big babies and boy was she right.  God blessed each women with a safe delivery and healthy babies and I can’t think of a better way for this year to start.

As for my wee one walking I must say I was a bit sad at first…OK, I might have teared up.  She’s just changing so much and my baby seems to be fading away.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m very thankful for a healthy beautiful daughter.  I just need to enjoy each moment with her.  That being said I am going to end this and play with some blocks or something.

Happy New Year!

Billy, a very good friend of ours, crafted this beautiful jumbo diaper pin for my sister’s baby shower which will eventually hang in my nephew’s nursery.

To think that just a couple of weeks ago this was just a piece of wood waiting for someone to make the chopping down of a tree worthwhile. I am so impressed by his handiwork and all others who can craft this well…it’s inspiring. It also makes me feel good to give handmade gifts whether made by myself or those talented people who surround me. We plan on painting it and hanging letters that spell my soon to be nephew’s name from it. I will post pictures of the finished project along with shower pics later.

My suggestion for the day is to commission the talents of those around you. The finished project is a unique gift and is worth more than just mere money. Thank you Billy!

I’m going to chalk it up to the weather.  The beautiful melancholy overcast of autumn is making me sad (and it probably doesn’t help listening to Mason Jennings).  I’ve realized that since Charlotte is almost nine months she’ll soon need more than just nursing to grow and thrive.  I’ve introduced many pureed veggies and fruits none of which she favored or even enjoyed enough to take more than a few bites.  So last night I decided to buy some whole grain rice cereal to get her really going on solids and it was with this decision my sadness set in.  To be honest, I don’t want her to need food beyond my motherly nutrition.  I know that she’ll still nurse but I’m sad that my baby’s growing up so quickly.  Although, it did make me happy that she didn’t wolf down the cereal and still nursed throughout most of last night.  In fact, she didn’t seem interested in cereal at all :)  So hopefully this transition will be gradual enough for me to wrap my head around and to be thankful instead of sad.

While listening to an interview with Peggy Ornstein on our local NPR station I was struck with a situational question that I haven’t given much thought to before.  How do women who are pro-choice deal with the loss of a child due to miscarriage?  Are they not supposed to grieve because they didn’t actually lose a baby but something that wasn’t a fully formed human being?

Ornstein was on Fresh Air promoting her new book Waiting for Daisy in which she writes about the six years it took her and her husband to have a child.  In the interview, Ornstein stated that she found it difficult to reconcile the grief she felt when she miscarried her 3 month old baby with the fact that she was 100% pro-choice.  Difficult?  Try impossible.  She admitted to using different terms for a miscarriage vs. an abortion; the former she used the term baby and the latter fetus…talk about confused.

It saddens me that some are unable to admit that abortion is ending life, not ending “potential” life.  Because of this, it’s important to remember pregnant women and their babies in our daily prayers.  O Lord, have mercy upon us miserable offenders…

…the magazine that is.

In the July 2007 issue of a certain magazine aimed at people with children there was an article that was worthy of an email to the editor. This article talked about protecting infants from various dangers such as falls, burns, poisoning, choking and suffocation. A worthwhile article that unfortunately contained some very bad information; read on and I’ll explain.

Upon broaching the topic of suffocation, the article plainly stated don’t sleep with your infant. “We just don’t know how to do it safely”, the expert Dr. was quoted as saying. How is it possible that we don’t know how to sleep with our infants? Did we somehow unlearn this as time progressed and houses got bigger? Is it something that the western culture doesn’t know how to do because in most Asian countries today you find it the norm for mothers to sleep with their infants without it leading to large numbers of fatalities. If they can do it safely that must mean that it can be done…right?

But, instead of going on to explain how to sleep with your infant safely this portion of the article only went as far as recommending that you place a crib or bassinet bedside if you want to be close to your infant. Well, that’s not good enough. If you’re going to tell someone that they don’t know how to do something safely I would think that you would want to follow that up by providing safety guidelines. So I felt the need to write to the editor and tell them just that.

It’s a fact that at one time or another most infants will be brought into their parents bed and because of this parents need to know how to safeguard it. If you would like more information on sleeping safely with your baby I recommend the reprinted Cosleeping issue of Mothering magazine found here (last selection on bottom of page).