Videos About Birth

I subscribe to the Hypnobirthing idea that the more fear we feel as we enter into labor, the more tense our bodies will be. The more tense our bodies are, the more difficult it is for our uterus to do the work it needs to do to push the baby out.

According to one of the doulas we interviewed several months ago, opening yourself to each contraction is something that you have to commit to over and over again throughout the labor process. You have to relax into the experience, working with your body instead of against it.

One of the strategies I'm using to reduce my level of fear as I head into birth is to watch many videos about birth. Watching other women go through the experience helps me anticipate and prepare for my own experience (although everyone's experience is obviously different in many ways).

I watched these videos a while ago:

• The Business of Being Born
• Pregnant in America
• Orgasmic Birth

Recently, I watched these more obscure videos:

• Birth as We Know It (sidenote: I found many parts of this video to be utterly bizarre--think pregnant Russian women in bikinis jumping into nearly frozen lakes to shock their systems, while other new mothers sat on the ice breastfeeding their naked newborns--but I still found several parts of it to be very useful).
• Gentle Birth Choices (the DVD is in the back of the book)
• Born in Water: A Sacred Journey

I'm definitely feeling more and more prepared with each passing day, although I still feel like I have a lot to do to reach my optimal level of preparedness. Fortunately--for now--I still have the energy to work 9-10 hours at my teaching job and prepare for the birth. I think my daily naps and walks really help. I'm nervous about what's going to happen to that energy level when my childbirth classes start this week, and I find myself sitting in class from 7-9:00 or 9:30 twice a week for the next three weeks!

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Crepes!

There are several culinary tasks I am simply too intimidated to undertake. For a long time, vegetarian sushi was among those tasks. I thought it would be too time-consuming and difficult. Then I watched a video on someone's blog about how to make sushi and I was sold. I searched dutifully for a bamboo mat but never managed to find one. I finally just went for it, rolling the seaweed on our counter. It worked beautifully! And I realized that sushi is totally user-friendly and that even I could replicate it at home.

I had a similar experience this weekend with crepes. Again, I thought it would be too time-consuming and difficult. I thought it would require specialized equipment. Boy, was I mistaken! Matt and I simply followed this recipe to make the batter and the delicious, thin crepes. We added Swiss cheese to mine (my midwife really wants me to get protein with every meal, especially in the third trimester) and Nutella and banana to Matt's.

Hooray for a delicious Sunday brunch at home!

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Parenting Book Recommendations

For Christmas, I received a couple of parenting books that I am so eager to dive into:

1. Simplicity Parenting: Using the Extraordinary Power of Less to Raise Calmer, Happier, and More Secure Kids
2. The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Families
3. Making a Family Home

I read about a hundred pages of Simplicity Parenting (which I highly recommend!) but I finally had to cajole myself to put it down and instead read about birth. With so little time left before our due date (about a month and one week), I really need to prioritize other things, such as making sure we have everything we need for the baby, getting the car seat installed, finalizing the baby's room, putting the finishing touches on organizing our house, finding a pediatrician and a back-up obstetrician, preparing myself for the birth, resting, enjoying alone time with Matt, getting all the supplies we need for our home birth, getting my classroom ready for my maternity leave, taking care of all the paperwork associated with my maternity leave, get my blogs ready for my maternity leave, etc.

The problem is that I get random recommendations from people and then I immediately put a hold request on them through the Houston Public Library system. Instead, I simply need to jot the title on a centralized list and then read all those books while I'm spending hours upon hours breastfeeding.

So, please recommend away! I've gotten many, many good titles of parenting books from you all, but please leave them in the comments section again so I can be sure to add them to my centralized list.

Thank you!

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IKEA Scavenger Hunt Birthday Party

I'm way overdue on this recap of Matt's birthday party. Initially, he was going to host a Mexican fiesta in our backyard (with a bouncy house and taco truck), but he decided to pull together a last-minute scavenger hunt at IKEA instead.

Since we had already made way too many trips to IKEA to prepare for the baby's arrival, we decided to write the scavenger hunt items without taking yet another tour through the store. Here's what we came up with:

Take a photo of each of the following:

o five people sitting in a one-person chair (5)

o a member holding a stack of fifteen pillows (5)

o your team helping a person load their car (5)

o everyone wearing a different stuffed animal as a hat (5)

o the before and after of your team cleaning up a disheveled display area (5)

o a kid eating an ice cream cone (10)

o everyone on your team wearing fabric as a cape (5)

o a member of your team pretending to go to the bathroom in a bathroom display (10)

o a member being spun in an office chair (5)

o reenact a scene from a common fairy tale w/props (10)

o a member tucked into bed (5)

o team buying a cinnamon roll for someone in need (10)

o three members posing in front of a picture of meatballs erotically (5)

o a member decorated like a Christmas tree (10)

o team cleaning up trash off the displays or ground (5)

o one member riding another member like a horse in front of a red piece of furniture (5)

o three team members sitting in a fort you made (10)

o critiquing artwork in a display room (5)

o a family photo with everyone in the picture (5)

o a re-enactment of a married couple getting ready for bed (5)

o your team collecting errant shopping carts outside (5)

o your team performing a puppet show (10)

o two team members pretending to hunt wearing an animal skin (5)

o using one of the giant photographs on canvas, play with the angle of the photo to make it appear that one of your team members is in the scene (5)

o argue with teammates about where you are in the store in front of one of the maps posted around the store (5)

o use the chalkboards to write an inspirational message (5)

o bonus: spell Matt’s name with non-letter objects (28)

The numbers after each item are different point values.

On the day of the event, almost 30 of us congregated in the restaurant. We broke into teams of 4-5 and then passed out the scavenger hunt forms (which we glued to the back of IKEA maps). We gave everyone 45 minutes to do everything (although, in retrospect, 30 minutes would have been better).

We met back up at the restaurant and crowned the winners with special IKEA buttons.

A good time was had by all!

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Letter to "Coconut"

(from November 24, 2010)

Dearest Coconut,

We hit an important milestone this week: we are officially 2/3 of the way to your arrival. Your dad and I could not be more excited. We are busy getting your room ready. These scraps of paper are from the labels on your book baskets. We already enjoy reading to you, but we look forward to the day you'll be able to see the pictures...

Your dad just celebrated his 28th birthday by planning a scavenger hunt at IKEA. Almost 30 of our friends came--so much fun! Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. Your dad is with his brothers (your uncles) and his parents (your grand-parents). I'm in Houston with my best friend, Andy. Andy and I just found a very beautiful Indian mirror for your room.

You are growing so much and I feel you moving around constantly. I haven't gotten tired of feeling you move and watching my belly shift. I look forward to holding you soon...

Love,

Your mom

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Baby Collage

When I came across an amazing list of questions in a Hypnobirthing book, I decided that I needed to look at them on a daily basis for a while. That's when I got the idea to combine the questions with images of babies. One strategy I have for helping myself go into the birthing experience with confidence is to focus on the end product: a lovely baby boy! I want to focus on remembering that all of the sensations my body experiences during the birthing process are related to helping our baby enter into the world. I will try really hard to focus on the idea that the intensity is good because it is bringing us closer to holding our sweet baby boy. I figure the more I look at images of babies, the more excited I'll get. So I put together this collage and stuck it next to the water dispenser on our refrigerator. It takes forever to fill up my 40-ounce water bottle, so I have plenty of time to look at the collage each day!

Here are the questions:

• How welcome do you feel?
• How loved do you feel?
• What kinds of messages are you receiving from things that are said?
• What are your feelings about the interaction between your parents?
• What kind of pace do your parents keep? Will there be time purposely created for you?
• What kind of atmosphere will you come into?
• How confident are you that you will be raised with love and patience?
• How calm a world is being prepared for you?
• How loving are the people you will be living with?
• What tone of voice will be used by the people around you?
• Do the people you are going to live with talk in gentle, loving ways?
• Is each motion that you make received with joy?
• What kinds of sounds/music/noises do you live with?
• Is the nourishment that you are receiving conducive to your healthy growth?
  
• How wholesome is the air that you are breathing? Will it foster good heath for you?
• Are your environment and your body smoke free, alcohol free, and drug free?
• How certain are you that you will be helped and guided toward becoming a loved and loving human being?
• What kind of assurance do you have that your parents will give you understanding as you learn to adjust to your strange, new world?
• Are you confident that you will learn by guidance, not punishment?

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Book Review: Simple Sewing for Baby

I'm smitten with one of my new Christmas presents: Simple Sewing for Baby by Lotta Jansdotter. Since we are entering the final stretch of pregnancy (um, a month and a half!), I have to be strategic with my time. I'm also going to have to be really careful not to overdue it, since we have a pretty packed January already. Further, I'm anticipating sleeping difficulties as "Coconut" gets heavier and heavier, so I may need even more time for napping.

I decided to go through the book and make a list of everything I want to make and then number the projects in order from most important (i.e., do first!) to least important.

Here's what I decided on:

1. Fleece hat
2. Swaddling "Snuggler"
   
3. Pants
   
4. Play quilt
5. Tag blanket
   
6. Bloomers
7. Rattle
8. Scarf
   

I vowed not to waste too much time sewing baby clothes, since babies grow at bionic rates and render cute clothing obsolete way too quickly, but I can't resist the temptation entirely. I realized that I can purchase a fat quarter of organic cotton knit from Spoonflower (like this elephant fabric!) for a mere $14. I think baby pants will be a snap to whip up.

In general, I'm not a huge fan of crafting books because I can find so many free patterns and projects on the internet, but I'm excited about this book. I love the simplicity of each project (well, from a cursory glance they seem simple!). I once met a woman at a craft store who said she forces herself to make at least five projects from a craft book before she lets herself buy another one. I wish I had the same resolve!

Come to think of it, I need to integrate these projects into my remaining craft projects and put all of them in a prioritized order:

1. Cushion for the chair in "Coconut's" room
2. Pillows for the baby's bed (to be removed when he's actually sleeping on it)
3. A knit rug to cushion the transition from the baby's Montessori floor bed to the floor
   
4. Then I can start all the projects from Lotta's book...

I'm excited!

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