Natural Birth

Claire was born on Tuesday, but her birth story started on Sunday. I woke up with spotting, and some Googling revealed it was probably my bloody show (which I never had with Henry). I always thought a “bloody show” was a one-time, dramatic thing, but mine was slow and light and lasted until Monday afternoon [...]

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Little One: 37 Weeks

Time for another pregnancy brain dump!   Physically, I am…   …Meh.  I came down with a really bad ear, nose, and throat infection over the weekend (I have a double ear infection!).  A terrible cold + being 9 months pregnant is kind of the ultimate EFF YOU to my body.  I’m on antibiotics to [...]

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Our Drug-Free Birth Plan

When I was pregnant with Henry, I wrote a lot about my plans for a drug-free birth. Some people said to me, “You can’t plan birth!  What’s going to happen is going to happen!”  That’s true.  You can’t really plan birth.  But I do think that preparation can really pay off, especially if you’re  hoping [...]

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Milestones, milestones.  So many milestones. My little man is now 5 months (and a week…) old.  I can hardly believe it – but I say that every month, don’t I?  It’s just amazing how fast time passes and how quickly children grow.  But in so many ways, it just keeps getting better and better.    [...]

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I summed up Henry’s birth story with this thought:   Labor was, by far, the most emotionally and physically intense moment of my life.  But I look at Henry now and know it worth it.  The entire pregnancy, the labor – it was worth it.  I really believe that all women should be very proud [...]

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Missed Part I?  Here it is!   Where did we leave off?  Oh yes.  My water had broken, I had been contracting for seven hours, and I truly believed I’d be holding my baby soon.  That’s when things started to get intense.  Truthfully, the beginning of labor isn’t so bad.  Contractions aren’t long and are [...]

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This is the story of how Henry was born… We have a mattress topper that I lovingly refer to as “the cloud.”  The cloud is a memory foam topper and is, quite possibly, the most amazing possession that I own.  I can’t sleep well without it.  Throughout my third trimester, I became obsessed with the [...]

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Most of the review of the various types of birth classes (hospital classes, Lamaze, Hypnobabies, Bradley Method) are written post-birth, which makes perfect sense.  But I thought it would be kind of fun to split up my review of Bradley Method classes into two posts – one before birth and one after birth.  After all, [...]

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I spy a BUMP!   I am trying really hard not to get too ahead of myself, but the entire pregnancy journey has been a whole lot of “I can’t wait for this… okay, now I can’t wait for that.”  First it was, “I can’t wait to get a Big Fat Positive.”  Then, it was [...]

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Baby Tour

It’s almost quitting time! And I’m excited.  Thank goodness it’s Friday.  I could do a Friday dance right here in my office chair.  We have a few loose plans, but I’m mostly just looking forward to sitting on the couch and rectifying this sink situation.  It’s truly worse than it looks.   Made a lunch [...]

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Healthy Tipping Point