7 months old

Noah is 7 months old! Can you believe it's been that long already??? I never thought I could fall in love with someone so precious and sweet. You can really see his personality coming out now. He's grown so much now. He scoots along the floor, almost figuring out that he has to move his knees and arms together. He can pull himself up on you and then stand, wobbly, but still standing. We put up his baby gate yesterday, which looks really nice thanks to the fantastic custom banister holders. I will post a picture later.

Noah has also been crazy about his solid foods. He is now eating peaches, pears, avocado, green beans, squash, and carrots. He eats 3 meals a day and for now, that seems about right. Sadly his least interested meal is the evening one since I think he gets really tired and cranky in the evening. Probably from all that playing during the day. Speaking of daycare, we have been really happy with them lately. They have been working with him with the sippy cup and doing all the solid foods.

That's all for now. I'll have to get around and post some pictures.

Birthing Choices

I have been looking back on prior posts and I realized that I wrote briefly about our Bradley classes and then I wrote again about our specific birth, but I never really touched on my opinions on certain aspects of birthing, specifically in a hospital.  I want to get this all out there and honestly I don't care what people think anymore.  Somehow through the whole pregnancy, birth, and raising a child process, I've become this "natural", attachment parenting, crunchy mama and I love it.  Not saying that everyone else should be exactly the way I am, but I was not this way before and after doing all my research and thinking and praying, I knew I was making the right decision for our family.  I just want everyone else to research and make the right decisions for their family.  Please don't just let the hospital make the decisions for you.  Birth is a huge event in your life and yes, it may only be 1 day but I guarantee you that it affects both you and your baby for the rest of your lives. 

 

What bothers me the most about birthing in America is the lack of education and knowledge.  Birth is portrayed on television and in movies as this horrific event where a woman is screaming her head off and the doctors and nurses are running around like crazy people.  Sadly birth is none of those things.  Birth should be a quiet and calm event where the medical personnel is assisting you and giving you encouragement.  I'm not saying it doesn't hurt, but there are definitely ways to deal with the pain.  Looking back on Noah's birth, I honestly didn't even feel pain until we got to the hospital, it was more of just discomfort.  Even at the hospital, I was able to move around, I was given water, David and the nurses were saying happy things.  With all of this, it was hard to even realize I was in pain.  And when I did, the contraction was over and I was on a break.  In the end, any pain I did feel was 100% worth the fact that the birth was calm and everything I wanted.

 

Also, I can't stand when women say they don't want a difficult or painful birth so they are going to do an epidural or a C-section.  The only way to have a painfree birth is to not give birth at all!  If you are in this to never have any pain, then you should not have gotten yourself pregnant.  This is just one of the first sacrifices we need to make for our children.  Sure, no one actually likes pain, but it's something that you can deal with, if you have the right information.  Now I'm going to go through a few (or maybe more than a few) birth interventions and what my opinion is on them.  I'm a huge believer in the fact that one birth intervention generally leads to more.  It's hard to say "Oh, I'm just going to have a little pitocin but I don't want an epidural".  Usually with pitocin, you will almost always need an epidural.  This is how a birth can get out of control.  Also a good reason to make sure you have a birth plan that goes into all possible situations even if you aren't necessarily planning on it. 

 

I love love love the book "A Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth" by Henci Goer.  She does a better job of presenting the pros and cons.

 

Continuous Fetal Monitoring - Most hospitals will require this when you are first admitted to be sure you are truly in labor.  However, after the first 10 minutes, not necessary.  The thing is uncomfortable, you have to lay in bed and can't move, and it can detect slight changes in heartrate that are actually nothing to worry about.  Also it is an ultrasound and produces ultrasound waves which some say can hurt the baby.  Alternative - Use a doppler monitor once every hour or whenever they feel necessary.  For me, they wanted me to have continuous once I started pushing and I was ok with that.

 

IV - Generally hospital mandated, but of course, your doctor can override anything.  They want this in case you need fluids for dehydration or they have to rush to the emergency room.  Both can be done in a matter of seconds if needed, so I opt for no on this one.  I told them that I was ok with a Hep Block where they could hook up an IV quickly if needed, but I never needed it and next time, I will specifically say no.  The bad thing with this is it straps you down.    Which leads me to...

 

Drinking and Eating During Labor - The reason they don't want you to do this is because with some meds you can get nausea and vomit and in the case of anesthesia, you could aspirate.  First of all, hopefully you won't end up in a C-section anyway and even if you do, it's unlikely you will need general anesthesia (where this is the issue).  Even then, the risk of aspiration is so slim and it won't really matter if you just ate or ate 12 hours ago (the food will still be in your stomach).  Birth is like a marathon, you NEED to eat and drink or you will get dehydrated and not have the energy to go the distance.  I personally wasn't hungry but David made me eat something at the beginning.  Then I had water by the gallon (it seemed like).  I only got potentially dehydrated at one point, but was quickly fixed with more water.  By doing this, you don't need an IV.

 

Epidural - Needle in your back.  Do I need to say that is going to hurt?  So if you are against pain...  Not to mention I've heard so many stories of "they did it wrong and had to do it again", "my back still hurts months/years later", "spinal fluid was leaking out", etc.  Also when you get an epidural, you are strapped to the bed, can't feel your legs, have to have an IV, no more drinking/eating, have to have a catheter, continuous monitoring, and I'm sure there is more.  Not to mention that epidurals SLOW your labor down (your body can't progress naturally anymore).  When I think back to labor, I just kept thinking "when will this be over?" If someone had said "here take this, it'll make the pain go away (for a little while) but it will drag your labor out longer", I would have said "heck no"!  And yes, even with an epidural plenty of people say they feel all sorts of pain since it doesn't always work perfectly.  This can also lead to the baby being in distress and then a C-section.  I know there are plenty of women who have given birth just fine with an epidural, but the risk of getting a C-section with an epidural is so much greater, that I was not willing to take that risk.  I won't even go into the potential risks to the baby (if it does all that to your body, what does it do to a tiny little infant).

 

Pitocin - This is a drug used to induce labor so first I have to explain my feelings on being induced.  Basically, you shouldn't be.  There are a few medical reasons to why a woman should be induced to protect either herself or the baby, but a majority of the time, women are being induced for the wrong reasons.  Most likely anything seen on an ultrasound (amniotic fluid low, baby is too big, placenta is old) is probably wrong.  Not 100% of the time, but ultrasounds are so inaccurate that you really need to be sure what they tell you is true and sometimes even then you don't have to induce (if amniotic fluid is low, there are ways to increase).  Other reasons to avoid being induced include the usual iv, strapped to the bed, etc.  but also pitocin will increase your contractions (duh, that's it's job) and make them feel twice as bad which means most women will then need an epidural (and now you are traveling down that ugly path to C-section again).  Remember a baby is due anywhere between 38 and 42 weeks.  That baby will tell you when its time (not the doctor).  Let him/her make their decision and it will make the birth that much easier (instead of evicting the baby out).  There are also some natural induction methods although most will NOT work unless baby is ready.  For me, I took a warm bath and did the accupressure points and bam, I was in labor.

 

Scheduled C-section - So we've just been discussing all the choices you have so that you can avoid the C-section and here we are with women who are actually choosing the C-section.  There's the "hollywood" way where you get your C-section and tummy tuck done all together conviently scheduled in your datebook.  But more likely you have the women who don't necessarily WANT the c-section, but because they had a previous C-section or because their doctor is going to be out of town or whatever the reason they were convinced they had to have one.  So there's the breech baby who in St. Louis no doctor will deliver you with a breech baby so yes, that is an automatic C-section although there are lots of methods to turn the baby and those should definitely be tried.  The next is the previous C-section.  VBACs (Vaginal birth after ceseasaren) are so popular now.  Most doctors will do them (if yours doesn't, maybe you should consider a new doctor).  There is one previous C-section type that I think is too dangerous to do a VBAC and I think it's where they cut you vertically, but don't quote me on that one.  Most others do not need to be a C-section.  Please don't let your doctor bully you into this.  Of course they like C-sections (they are quick, easy, and no recovery time for the doctor), but they shouldn't be the way babies are being born. 

 

Cutting the cord - You should let the cord stop pulsing.  This allows baby to get all that remaining blood and oxygen until he/she is breathing good on their own.  You can (we did) have the blood donated if you decide this option as well. 

 

Ok, I think I'm done for now.  I might remember more in the future and revise this.  Please don't think I'm critizing anyone or making anyone feel bad, but these are my opinions and I don't really want to hide them.  Thanks for listening if you made it all the way through.  Oh and feel free to ask me anything.