Doula on board and more changes
My birth experience with Laurel was beautiful. At the time, it was everything I wanted and I was in no way traumatized or made to feel bullied. During the birth I was hooked up to a pitocin drip, had an internal and external fetal monitor, had an IV, remained in the bed for the whole time I labored in the hospital, had an epidural and an episiotomy. However, since then my ideas of what I want my next birth experience to be have changed. After reading some very empowering birth stories in Ina Mae Garten's Guide to Childbirth and having some conversations with women who have given birth without medical or surgical intervention, I decided that was the path I wanted to take.
My first thought was to hire a doula. A doula is a woman who serves as a childbirth assistant to the mother (and the father) and offers support during labor, as well as education before and after the birth. I consulted a few different resources in my area to come up with a group of names. I kept hearing one name over and over...Angie. So Tim and I scheduled an appointment to meet with Angie and to see if she might be the doula we were looking for. One thing I specifically like about her is that she is a Certified Midwife, so in addition to her skills as a doula she has delivered many homebirth babies. I have to say, I immediately liked her and felt like this was exactly the woman I needed. She was friendly and upbeat and seemed to understand everything both I and Tim were telling her regarding what we wanted, what our fears were and why we were looking for a doula. I think she especially reassured Tim that things would be fine and that most emergencies she had personally witnessed were actually during medicated births, not otherwise.
On the way home I laughingly told Tim that I would have hired her on the spot, but I knew I needed to sleep on it and give Tim some more time to digest it all. This morning he woke up and told me, "I'm on board, call her and hire her today." Included in her services are chilbirth education classes (she'll be working one-on-one with us to focus on preparing for and coping with labor and delivery since we feel pretty confident about caring for a newborn and breastfeeding). She'll also attend a couple prenatal appointments with me and, of course, assist me during labor. She said she tries to spend a day or two postpartum also making sure I'm doing well and have everything I need.
Going into the pregnancy I had some reservations about the ability of my medical group to give me the support and freedom to give birth naturally in a hospital setting. (Homebirth was briefly discussed but ultimately the fear of something going wrong and the distance to the nearest NICU were obstacles we could not overcome). At one of my appointments I talked to the doctor about having a birth with few (if any) interventions and the possibility of bringing a doula and she was less than enthusiastic. In fact, she seemed completely unsupportive. In addition, there are eight different doctors in the practice who deliver (plus 3 nurse practitioners that you occasionally see for appointments) so there is no opportunity for a personal relationship.
The group I will now be seeing is a smaller practice of four delivering doctors. As a group they are much more respectful of trying to honor a mother's wish of how she wants the labor to go. Angie said she's worked with the group on many occasions and has a good relationship with them. This switch will also mean switching to a different hospital, which I will admit I was a little leary of because it is a much bigger facility. However, I believe they have the maternity ward fairly separated from everything else. I'm hoping that Tim and I will be able to schedule a tour soon.
Obviously I can't read the future and challenges or obstacles may come up that will require me to change my plans for this birth, but I'm optimistic that Tim and I have put ourselves in the best position we can (given the resources and facilities we have available to us) to welcome this baby into our family in a gentle and respectful way.
My first thought was to hire a doula. A doula is a woman who serves as a childbirth assistant to the mother (and the father) and offers support during labor, as well as education before and after the birth. I consulted a few different resources in my area to come up with a group of names. I kept hearing one name over and over...Angie. So Tim and I scheduled an appointment to meet with Angie and to see if she might be the doula we were looking for. One thing I specifically like about her is that she is a Certified Midwife, so in addition to her skills as a doula she has delivered many homebirth babies. I have to say, I immediately liked her and felt like this was exactly the woman I needed. She was friendly and upbeat and seemed to understand everything both I and Tim were telling her regarding what we wanted, what our fears were and why we were looking for a doula. I think she especially reassured Tim that things would be fine and that most emergencies she had personally witnessed were actually during medicated births, not otherwise.
On the way home I laughingly told Tim that I would have hired her on the spot, but I knew I needed to sleep on it and give Tim some more time to digest it all. This morning he woke up and told me, "I'm on board, call her and hire her today." Included in her services are chilbirth education classes (she'll be working one-on-one with us to focus on preparing for and coping with labor and delivery since we feel pretty confident about caring for a newborn and breastfeeding). She'll also attend a couple prenatal appointments with me and, of course, assist me during labor. She said she tries to spend a day or two postpartum also making sure I'm doing well and have everything I need.
Going into the pregnancy I had some reservations about the ability of my medical group to give me the support and freedom to give birth naturally in a hospital setting. (Homebirth was briefly discussed but ultimately the fear of something going wrong and the distance to the nearest NICU were obstacles we could not overcome). At one of my appointments I talked to the doctor about having a birth with few (if any) interventions and the possibility of bringing a doula and she was less than enthusiastic. In fact, she seemed completely unsupportive. In addition, there are eight different doctors in the practice who deliver (plus 3 nurse practitioners that you occasionally see for appointments) so there is no opportunity for a personal relationship.
The group I will now be seeing is a smaller practice of four delivering doctors. As a group they are much more respectful of trying to honor a mother's wish of how she wants the labor to go. Angie said she's worked with the group on many occasions and has a good relationship with them. This switch will also mean switching to a different hospital, which I will admit I was a little leary of because it is a much bigger facility. However, I believe they have the maternity ward fairly separated from everything else. I'm hoping that Tim and I will be able to schedule a tour soon.
Obviously I can't read the future and challenges or obstacles may come up that will require me to change my plans for this birth, but I'm optimistic that Tim and I have put ourselves in the best position we can (given the resources and facilities we have available to us) to welcome this baby into our family in a gentle and respectful way.
The New Addition
We had our ultrasound today for baby #2! Everything looked fine. The baby's heartbeat was 147 bpm. The only thing the ultrasound tech couldn't see was all of the spine so the doctor will have us do another ultrasound at our next appointment. That will be my 24 week appointment so I'll also have the glucose test for gestational diabetes.
Oh, and we didn't find out the gender, so it's still a surprise!
Oh, and we didn't find out the gender, so it's still a surprise!
Christmas Family Fun
We had our Kerns Family Christmas Party on December 11th with lots of aunts, uncles and cousins, many of whom had never met Laurel. As you can tell, she made friends quick!
A White Christmas
We had lots of fun here at Christmas! We hosted a luncheon on Christmas Eve for both sides of the family and had about 18 in attendance. Later that afternoon we did a gift exchange at Tim's parents house. Later we went to visit my parents. On Christmas morning we woke up and opened our family and Santa gifts. We spent the rest of Christmas Day (and the next day) at my parents house with my little brother Aaron. We were even blessed with a White Christmas!
Laurel was a little unsure of getting bundled up and going out in the snow, but once she did I thought we'd never get her back inside!
Laurel was a little unsure of getting bundled up and going out in the snow, but once she did I thought we'd never get her back inside!
Nursing Dilemma
As you know from the ticker at the top of the page, I'm currently 18 weeks pregnant. What some of you may not realize is that Laurel is still breastfeeding. Before the stones come out, I assure you that it is perfectly safe to do during a low-risk pregnancy and I've not had so much as a Braxton-Hicks contraction at this time. But right now I'm facing a dilemma and I'm not sure what I want to do or what the best decision is.
When I first found out I was expecting again, I contemplated tandem nursing (nursing a toddler and a newborn at the same time). After reading and talking to a few mamas who had been down that road, I decided it was not the best choice for our family.
Right now, Laurel is only nursing once or twice a day (mostly at bedtime). On weekends (when we're together all day) she will also nurse for naps. She has seemed much less interested lately as my milk supply has greatly diminished. Up until two weeks ago she had never gone to sleep without nursing at night. We nightweaned about two or three months ago and have just cuddled with her when she wakes up during the night, but she doesn't get nursies (she did surprisingly well with that). We cosleep, so the cuddling is pretty easy to do when she does wake up, which I can thankfully say is pretty rare now and for usually only a couple minutes!
There have been probably 4-5 nights in the past two weeks where she will go to bed with me and be happy to just cuddle to go to sleep without asking for or needing nursies. There have been a couple instances where I have told her nursies have already gone night-night when it's a particularly late night. She seems to be doing the cuddling to sleep very well.
Initially I had hoped to nurse her until she was two years old (as per the WHO recommendation). Her birthday is Jan. 29th, but I'm afraid that I'll miss a "prime-time" for complete weaning if we keep doing what we're doing for another month and a half just to hit that milestone.
My biggest fear is that while waiting for the next six weeks, she will become reattached to nursing, and we will have to start this weaning process all over again. I want to make this as easy as possible for her (and me), but I was also previously pretty set on nursing to two years old.
When I first found out I was expecting again, I contemplated tandem nursing (nursing a toddler and a newborn at the same time). After reading and talking to a few mamas who had been down that road, I decided it was not the best choice for our family.
Right now, Laurel is only nursing once or twice a day (mostly at bedtime). On weekends (when we're together all day) she will also nurse for naps. She has seemed much less interested lately as my milk supply has greatly diminished. Up until two weeks ago she had never gone to sleep without nursing at night. We nightweaned about two or three months ago and have just cuddled with her when she wakes up during the night, but she doesn't get nursies (she did surprisingly well with that). We cosleep, so the cuddling is pretty easy to do when she does wake up, which I can thankfully say is pretty rare now and for usually only a couple minutes!
There have been probably 4-5 nights in the past two weeks where she will go to bed with me and be happy to just cuddle to go to sleep without asking for or needing nursies. There have been a couple instances where I have told her nursies have already gone night-night when it's a particularly late night. She seems to be doing the cuddling to sleep very well.
Initially I had hoped to nurse her until she was two years old (as per the WHO recommendation). Her birthday is Jan. 29th, but I'm afraid that I'll miss a "prime-time" for complete weaning if we keep doing what we're doing for another month and a half just to hit that milestone.
My biggest fear is that while waiting for the next six weeks, she will become reattached to nursing, and we will have to start this weaning process all over again. I want to make this as easy as possible for her (and me), but I was also previously pretty set on nursing to two years old.
Doing well
Everything is going well with our family. It has been a rough few weeks for some friends and makes it hard to write uplifting, entertaining or informative blog entries. I also don't feel like it's my place to share their very private and heartbreaking experiences.
I am starting to feel the baby move now most days, which is exciting. We're scheduled for our 20 week ultrasound on Dec. 28th. We do not plan on finding out the baby's gender (much to the chagrine of some family members.) Laurel's being her usual brilliant, wild and hilarious little self.
I am starting to feel the baby move now most days, which is exciting. We're scheduled for our 20 week ultrasound on Dec. 28th. We do not plan on finding out the baby's gender (much to the chagrine of some family members.) Laurel's being her usual brilliant, wild and hilarious little self.
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Saturday, January 29, 2011
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Doula on board and more changes
My birth experience with Laurel was beautiful. At the time, it was everything I wanted and I was in no way traumatized or made to feel bullied. During the birth I was hooked up to a pitocin drip, had an internal and external fetal monitor, had an IV, remained in the bed for the whole time I labored in the hospital, had an epidural and an episiotomy. However, since then my ideas of what I want my next birth experience to be have changed. After reading some very empowering birth stories in Ina Mae Garten's Guide to Childbirth and having some conversations with women who have given birth without medical or surgical intervention, I decided that was the path I wanted to take.
My first thought was to hire a doula. A doula is a woman who serves as a childbirth assistant to the mother (and the father) and offers support during labor, as well as education before and after the birth. I consulted a few different resources in my area to come up with a group of names. I kept hearing one name over and over...Angie. So Tim and I scheduled an appointment to meet with Angie and to see if she might be the doula we were looking for. One thing I specifically like about her is that she is a Certified Midwife, so in addition to her skills as a doula she has delivered many homebirth babies. I have to say, I immediately liked her and felt like this was exactly the woman I needed. She was friendly and upbeat and seemed to understand everything both I and Tim were telling her regarding what we wanted, what our fears were and why we were looking for a doula. I think she especially reassured Tim that things would be fine and that most emergencies she had personally witnessed were actually during medicated births, not otherwise.
On the way home I laughingly told Tim that I would have hired her on the spot, but I knew I needed to sleep on it and give Tim some more time to digest it all. This morning he woke up and told me, "I'm on board, call her and hire her today." Included in her services are chilbirth education classes (she'll be working one-on-one with us to focus on preparing for and coping with labor and delivery since we feel pretty confident about caring for a newborn and breastfeeding). She'll also attend a couple prenatal appointments with me and, of course, assist me during labor. She said she tries to spend a day or two postpartum also making sure I'm doing well and have everything I need.
Going into the pregnancy I had some reservations about the ability of my medical group to give me the support and freedom to give birth naturally in a hospital setting. (Homebirth was briefly discussed but ultimately the fear of something going wrong and the distance to the nearest NICU were obstacles we could not overcome). At one of my appointments I talked to the doctor about having a birth with few (if any) interventions and the possibility of bringing a doula and she was less than enthusiastic. In fact, she seemed completely unsupportive. In addition, there are eight different doctors in the practice who deliver (plus 3 nurse practitioners that you occasionally see for appointments) so there is no opportunity for a personal relationship.
The group I will now be seeing is a smaller practice of four delivering doctors. As a group they are much more respectful of trying to honor a mother's wish of how she wants the labor to go. Angie said she's worked with the group on many occasions and has a good relationship with them. This switch will also mean switching to a different hospital, which I will admit I was a little leary of because it is a much bigger facility. However, I believe they have the maternity ward fairly separated from everything else. I'm hoping that Tim and I will be able to schedule a tour soon.
Obviously I can't read the future and challenges or obstacles may come up that will require me to change my plans for this birth, but I'm optimistic that Tim and I have put ourselves in the best position we can (given the resources and facilities we have available to us) to welcome this baby into our family in a gentle and respectful way.
My first thought was to hire a doula. A doula is a woman who serves as a childbirth assistant to the mother (and the father) and offers support during labor, as well as education before and after the birth. I consulted a few different resources in my area to come up with a group of names. I kept hearing one name over and over...Angie. So Tim and I scheduled an appointment to meet with Angie and to see if she might be the doula we were looking for. One thing I specifically like about her is that she is a Certified Midwife, so in addition to her skills as a doula she has delivered many homebirth babies. I have to say, I immediately liked her and felt like this was exactly the woman I needed. She was friendly and upbeat and seemed to understand everything both I and Tim were telling her regarding what we wanted, what our fears were and why we were looking for a doula. I think she especially reassured Tim that things would be fine and that most emergencies she had personally witnessed were actually during medicated births, not otherwise.
On the way home I laughingly told Tim that I would have hired her on the spot, but I knew I needed to sleep on it and give Tim some more time to digest it all. This morning he woke up and told me, "I'm on board, call her and hire her today." Included in her services are chilbirth education classes (she'll be working one-on-one with us to focus on preparing for and coping with labor and delivery since we feel pretty confident about caring for a newborn and breastfeeding). She'll also attend a couple prenatal appointments with me and, of course, assist me during labor. She said she tries to spend a day or two postpartum also making sure I'm doing well and have everything I need.
Going into the pregnancy I had some reservations about the ability of my medical group to give me the support and freedom to give birth naturally in a hospital setting. (Homebirth was briefly discussed but ultimately the fear of something going wrong and the distance to the nearest NICU were obstacles we could not overcome). At one of my appointments I talked to the doctor about having a birth with few (if any) interventions and the possibility of bringing a doula and she was less than enthusiastic. In fact, she seemed completely unsupportive. In addition, there are eight different doctors in the practice who deliver (plus 3 nurse practitioners that you occasionally see for appointments) so there is no opportunity for a personal relationship.
The group I will now be seeing is a smaller practice of four delivering doctors. As a group they are much more respectful of trying to honor a mother's wish of how she wants the labor to go. Angie said she's worked with the group on many occasions and has a good relationship with them. This switch will also mean switching to a different hospital, which I will admit I was a little leary of because it is a much bigger facility. However, I believe they have the maternity ward fairly separated from everything else. I'm hoping that Tim and I will be able to schedule a tour soon.
Obviously I can't read the future and challenges or obstacles may come up that will require me to change my plans for this birth, but I'm optimistic that Tim and I have put ourselves in the best position we can (given the resources and facilities we have available to us) to welcome this baby into our family in a gentle and respectful way.
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
The New Addition
We had our ultrasound today for baby #2! Everything looked fine. The baby's heartbeat was 147 bpm. The only thing the ultrasound tech couldn't see was all of the spine so the doctor will have us do another ultrasound at our next appointment. That will be my 24 week appointment so I'll also have the glucose test for gestational diabetes.
Oh, and we didn't find out the gender, so it's still a surprise!
Oh, and we didn't find out the gender, so it's still a surprise!
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Christmas Family Fun
We had our Kerns Family Christmas Party on December 11th with lots of aunts, uncles and cousins, many of whom had never met Laurel. As you can tell, she made friends quick!
A White Christmas
We had lots of fun here at Christmas! We hosted a luncheon on Christmas Eve for both sides of the family and had about 18 in attendance. Later that afternoon we did a gift exchange at Tim's parents house. Later we went to visit my parents. On Christmas morning we woke up and opened our family and Santa gifts. We spent the rest of Christmas Day (and the next day) at my parents house with my little brother Aaron. We were even blessed with a White Christmas!
Laurel was a little unsure of getting bundled up and going out in the snow, but once she did I thought we'd never get her back inside!
Laurel was a little unsure of getting bundled up and going out in the snow, but once she did I thought we'd never get her back inside!
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Nursing Dilemma
As you know from the ticker at the top of the page, I'm currently 18 weeks pregnant. What some of you may not realize is that Laurel is still breastfeeding. Before the stones come out, I assure you that it is perfectly safe to do during a low-risk pregnancy and I've not had so much as a Braxton-Hicks contraction at this time. But right now I'm facing a dilemma and I'm not sure what I want to do or what the best decision is.
When I first found out I was expecting again, I contemplated tandem nursing (nursing a toddler and a newborn at the same time). After reading and talking to a few mamas who had been down that road, I decided it was not the best choice for our family.
Right now, Laurel is only nursing once or twice a day (mostly at bedtime). On weekends (when we're together all day) she will also nurse for naps. She has seemed much less interested lately as my milk supply has greatly diminished. Up until two weeks ago she had never gone to sleep without nursing at night. We nightweaned about two or three months ago and have just cuddled with her when she wakes up during the night, but she doesn't get nursies (she did surprisingly well with that). We cosleep, so the cuddling is pretty easy to do when she does wake up, which I can thankfully say is pretty rare now and for usually only a couple minutes!
There have been probably 4-5 nights in the past two weeks where she will go to bed with me and be happy to just cuddle to go to sleep without asking for or needing nursies. There have been a couple instances where I have told her nursies have already gone night-night when it's a particularly late night. She seems to be doing the cuddling to sleep very well.
Initially I had hoped to nurse her until she was two years old (as per the WHO recommendation). Her birthday is Jan. 29th, but I'm afraid that I'll miss a "prime-time" for complete weaning if we keep doing what we're doing for another month and a half just to hit that milestone.
My biggest fear is that while waiting for the next six weeks, she will become reattached to nursing, and we will have to start this weaning process all over again. I want to make this as easy as possible for her (and me), but I was also previously pretty set on nursing to two years old.
When I first found out I was expecting again, I contemplated tandem nursing (nursing a toddler and a newborn at the same time). After reading and talking to a few mamas who had been down that road, I decided it was not the best choice for our family.
Right now, Laurel is only nursing once or twice a day (mostly at bedtime). On weekends (when we're together all day) she will also nurse for naps. She has seemed much less interested lately as my milk supply has greatly diminished. Up until two weeks ago she had never gone to sleep without nursing at night. We nightweaned about two or three months ago and have just cuddled with her when she wakes up during the night, but she doesn't get nursies (she did surprisingly well with that). We cosleep, so the cuddling is pretty easy to do when she does wake up, which I can thankfully say is pretty rare now and for usually only a couple minutes!
There have been probably 4-5 nights in the past two weeks where she will go to bed with me and be happy to just cuddle to go to sleep without asking for or needing nursies. There have been a couple instances where I have told her nursies have already gone night-night when it's a particularly late night. She seems to be doing the cuddling to sleep very well.
Initially I had hoped to nurse her until she was two years old (as per the WHO recommendation). Her birthday is Jan. 29th, but I'm afraid that I'll miss a "prime-time" for complete weaning if we keep doing what we're doing for another month and a half just to hit that milestone.
My biggest fear is that while waiting for the next six weeks, she will become reattached to nursing, and we will have to start this weaning process all over again. I want to make this as easy as possible for her (and me), but I was also previously pretty set on nursing to two years old.
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Doing well
Everything is going well with our family. It has been a rough few weeks for some friends and makes it hard to write uplifting, entertaining or informative blog entries. I also don't feel like it's my place to share their very private and heartbreaking experiences.
I am starting to feel the baby move now most days, which is exciting. We're scheduled for our 20 week ultrasound on Dec. 28th. We do not plan on finding out the baby's gender (much to the chagrine of some family members.) Laurel's being her usual brilliant, wild and hilarious little self.
I am starting to feel the baby move now most days, which is exciting. We're scheduled for our 20 week ultrasound on Dec. 28th. We do not plan on finding out the baby's gender (much to the chagrine of some family members.) Laurel's being her usual brilliant, wild and hilarious little self.
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