35w 1d

Today I'm getting my birth kit out.  I'm picking through my stuff.  Finding what I have in there.  What I need.  I know it's late, but I've been through it before.  I bought my mistletoe tincture, since my last bottle was dumped out accidently.  

I'm making mama cloth pads.  I have begun to make some postpartum pads.  I'm excited to get those for this baby.  I really hate sposies.  

Things are going well.  I'm at 161 lbs, gaining 24 lbs so far.  Measuring perfect. Baby is crazy active.  I'm getting excited!

This is me on Friday (24w 5d). 

To my baby mouse - 32 weeks

Hello my baby mouse.  I feel you inside of me all the time.  I feel you wiggle and move about.  I feel your daily hiccups.  Your brothers and sisters have felt your tiny feet sweep across my ribs.  Last night I put my hand by my pubic bone and felt you move your little head back and forth.  I cry inside thinking of you.  You bring such unmeasurable joy to my soul.  

What a strange and amazing experience it is to feel you growing inside of me.  To know a life is formed, growing bigger and stronger daily.  That you are so unseen to my eyes, but I have been holding you for your entire life.  It seems so impossible, and yet here you are.  So real and true.  

Today I am 32 weeks along.  One day soon you will be in my arms.  I will finally have the chance to see you, to smell you, to touch your skin.  I will finally know you, instead of only seeing you in my dreams.  I will look upon you and have the opportunity to give you a name.  Your true name. 

We will both have gone through the most amazing experience of life.  You began so impossibly small.  You grew and formed into a perfect little person.  You are perfect to me.  I will always love you, baby mouse. 

I am counting down the days and the weeks until I will meet you for the first time.  I can then say, "Hello my baby mouse".  

Brigham's Birth Story

Today is Brigham's 7th birthday.  What a fast 7 years with my sweet man!  I wanted to share his story here.  

He was our first home birth and first boy. I researched all the information while we were TTC so I could 'convince' my husband to have the baby at home. When I told him I wanted to have our baby at home, he said he felt the same way.

Luckily, I didn't do all that work for nothing. All our parents were very against this. They knew I or Brigham would die. We showed them the statistics on how home birth was safer than hospital birth. They didn't get any say in the matter anyway. We found a wonderful midwife the next state over (we lived in MO and was near impossible to find a home birthing midwife.) She did all the prenatal visits at my home. She made me feel very empowered and educated me about pregnancy and birth more than I could have known. I had 3 children before and didn't know squat. Funny how uneducated I was when I put my faith in the doctors. 

I had a friend ask me to call her as soon as I went into labor so she could take pictures and document the entire thing (she's a photographer). She wanted a home birth so badly, but at that time her husband didn't like the idea very much.

I went to bed around 1am and thought, "Tomorrow morning I'll put the waterproof pad on the bed so it won't get wet if my water breaks."

I'm a procrastinator and was a few days overdue. Two hours later I woke up and water hit my knees. Funny! Too bad I didn't get that waterproof sheet on before I went to bed. :) I went to the bathroom and used a little strip to make sure my water broke (I thought what the heck! May as well make sure.) I went to my husband and kind of woke him up. I told him I had good news and bad news. The good news was I didn't wet the bed. I never told him the bad news. He guessed it on his own... No sleep tonight. 

We called the midwife and my friend. I walked around for a while in the house and ate some breakfast my FIL brought to us. I didn't want to eat but they made me. After a while my contractions stopped so Suzanne (my midwife) checked me. She said that my water broke on the top and asked if I wanted her to she could break my water again. I agreed because I was so tired and yet so excited. I couldn't wait to hold my baby.

I labored in the living room. We had a hammock stand and I hung from the hammock. I hung from my doula (who I almost bit). Glad I got my senses back before that happened. I pushed from the hammock for a while, but I was so exhausted that I just couldn't push any more.

They helped me to the couch and I decided to push while on my back. I didn't want to do this position before then, but I knew I could push from that position. I let out a huge scream and, after a few pushes, our little man's head made it into the world. I hear about the ring of fire, but I don't remember that. I do remember how bad his shoulders hurt when I pushed again. He was born a few minutes after 12pm.

What a wonderful experience. I always want our future children born at home. It was so wonderful and spiritual. I appreciated the births at home much more than those in the hospital. It is something else to feel it and know how hard your body is working to bring this wonderful little child into the world.

My First Time On Stage

I grew up as a painfully shy child.  In 5th grade I cringe remembering my English class.  My teacher had everyone recite poems in front of the class.  We couldn't JUST say the poem.  We had to say it with feeling.  Emphasize the emotion in it.  In other words, act it out.  It was miserable for me.  I broke out in tears at one point.  By the end of the year, though, I had begun to come out of my shell. I shocked my English teacher by doing an amazing job (for me anyway) of performing one of the last poems of the year.  He was so impressed, I was asked to skip part of my Science class to do it again in front of his next class. 

Years later, in high school, I wanted to go on stage.  I loved watching the plays.  They looked like so much fun.  I always found a reason to talk myself out of trying out.  To this day I still wish I would have at least tried.  

This weekend was my first time I acted on stage, in front of an audience.  I thought I would be a nervous wreck.  I had a small solo (2 lines), a small duet (2 lines), a skit, and a few jokes, along with group songs, and dancing. 

We prepared and rehearsed for weeks.  We put on Gee Haw 2 (like Hee Haw).  Come the day of our first 3 performances, I was calm.  No nerves.  Then, just as we gathered to go on, I had this overwhelming feeling of bursting into tears.  No time for that!  I took a few deep breaths, gathered myself together, and walked on stage.  

I want to say that that was the most fun I've possibly ever had.  It was a whole different experience.  The whole 3 performances on Saturday I had different little moments of nerves popping up.  Come Sunday, we only had 2 performances (1 of each, as we had 2 different shows).  I wasn't nervous at all.  I was excited to go out, to sing, to dance, and do my skit.  I am looking forward to my chance to do it again.  

Would You Eat Your Placenta?

This is my first placenta I encapsulated.  These are like gold to me.  They are my 'happy pills'; my energy pills; my pills to help my milk production.  They are a way to bring my body back to normal after birth.  The only thing I haven't done is a smoothie and actually cook with it.  However, I will say that I've come across some mighty interesting recipes using placenta... such as Placenta Chef (although it is not 'human placenta' it could be used), Chocolate Placenta Truffles (which I am tempted to make), Placenta Smoothies, and there is even a book on Amazon... 25 Placenta Recipes.

Back in 2009, when I was pregnant with Bekah (baby 6), and was planning a possible unassisted birth (due to anti midwifery laws in KY), I first heard about placentography.  My first thought was what is to be expected.  That it was possibly the grosses thing I'd ever heard of.  However, as time drew closer to her birth, and I did a lot more research into it, I decided to go for it.  I thought she could be my last baby (so wrong with that one), and if I was going to do it, I needed to do it that time.  Only once had I had baby blues (not PPD), and I was more than happy to have something natural to try that might possibly help with that.

I'm sure my husband thought I was crazy.  He still leaves the house when I'm planning to process a placenta.  I also tend to schedule my encapsulation time for when he's going to be gone a few hours, so he's not grossed out. 

I remember the first pill I swallowed.  I looked right at my husband, and said "I'm officially crazy!".  I'm sure he agreed.  I went in a skeptic.  I was just starting to study and understand natural remedies.  I was moving out of the pharmaceutical culture.  This was a HUGE step for me, in more ways than one.

I have now encapsulated 2 of my placentas. I have also made placenta jerky, as well as a tincture. It is amazing the difference I feel when I take a bite of jerky, or a couple pills from the placentas (now located on the top shelf of my freezer).  It has made me a believer, and after researching other ingredients used in widely accepted drugs, has lost it's "ick factor". The great thing is that the placenta ends up looking like any other pill you swallow. 

After all my talking, what are these possible benefits from consuming your placenta? 


Benefits Include:
• Increase general energy
• Allow a quicker return to health after birth
• Increase production of breast milk
• Decrease likelihood of baby blues and post natal depression
• Decrease likelihood of iron deficiency
• Decrease likelihood of insomnia or sleep disorders

"There are a variety of potential benefits to placentography. For one, the placenta contains vitamins and minerals that may help fight depression symptoms, such as vitamin B6. For another, the placenta is considered rich in iron and protein, which would be useful to women recovering from childbirth, and a particular benefit to vegetarian women.
Research on placentography is still in its infancy, although there is a large body of research beginning to develop on postpartum hormone fluctuations and health. Researchers from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) conducted a study that focused on CRH (Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone). CRH is a stress reducer, and is generally produced by the hypothalamus. 

During the last trimester of pregnancy, the placenta secretes so much CRH that the levels in the bloodstream increase threefold. However, it was also discovered that postpartum women have lower than average levels of CRH, triggering depressive symptoms.(1) They concluded that the placenta secreted so much CRH that the hypothalamus stopped producing it. Once the placenta was born, it took some time for the hypothalamus to get the signal that the CRH levels were low, and to begin producing it again. This is just another sign that there is likely a biological cause for the baby blues, directly related to hormone levels. 


Interestingly enough, in 1954, researchers conducted a study on 210 women who were expected to have insufficient milk supply. They gave dried placenta to the women, and discovered that 86% of them had a positive increase in their milk production within a matter of days."

http://www.ocdoulas.com/placenta_encapsulation_services.htm
http://placentamom.weebly.com/

Some Days It's OK To Lose Your Mind

I'm pretty sure that some days it is quite fun it lose your mind.  My house is small. My family is big.  At least, bigger than the average family.  We all get along, for the most part.  There are fights and bickering.  The normal stuff.  However, some days I just want some quiet time.  Not likely to happen unless I'm sleeping.  That doesn't really count, in my opinion.  

What else?  Well, I miss my hubby.  We live in Missouri.  He's been in Arizona for a week.  I'm not sure how long he's going to be out there.  Maybe a week longer.  Possibly a month or two longer. It just depends on how many jobs he gets out there.   

I miss him terribly.  We don't get to talk much due to the time difference.  Normally it's a few minutes at night before bed.  I can't wait for him to come home.  It's been kind of hard to keep my sanity.  

He's going to miss Moses's 5th birthday too. Mo turns 5 on Wednesday.  What a big guy.  My mom is coming up, and if it's nice, we'll go to the park.  I'm looking forward to his little party. 

I would really like to give a shout out to all the single moms, as well as the moms with husbands who are deployed or away a lot for work. You ladies rock.  This stuff is hard.  

Guest Blog - Pelvic Health Risks with Transvaginal Mesh

Pelvic Health Risks with Transvaginal Mesh (Drugwatch.com)

Many women are unaware of the importance of pelvic health. The pelvis houses the reproductive organs as well as the bladder and rectum, all of which are supported by pelvic floor muscles. These muscles support the baby during pregnancy, play a role during labor and childbirth, control continence, control sexual function and contribute to balance.

Pelvic Floor Disorders

Once the pelvic floor becomes weakened, women tend to develop stress urinary incontinence (SUI). Coughing, sneezing or laughing can trigger unintentional urine leakage. Many women accept this as a part of life, however with the proper therapy SUI can be reversed.

Pelvic organ prolapse occurs when the pelvic floor muscles are too weak to support the pelvic organs, allowing them to drop out of place. Some women do not need treatment, but for women experiencing symptoms like pelvic pressure, pain during sex or a bulge in the vagina, there are treatment options available.

More than half of women will suffer from a pelvic floor disorder at some point in life. Supporting the extra weight of the baby while pregnant, and straining the pelvic floor muscles during labor can stretch and weaken pelvic floor muscles. Smoking, high-impact activities, heavy lifting, obesity, chronic cough and constipation can also weaken the pelvic floor.

Risks with Transvaginal Mesh

Transvaginal mesh hit the market in the 1990s and is used in surgeries to repair pelvic floor disorders like pelvic organ prolapse and stress urinary incontinence (SUI). The synthetic device is implanted through the vagina to support the bladder and other pelvic organs.

In 2008, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a safety warning in response to increasing reports of serious meshcomplications. Three years later, the FDA issued a follow-up warning, stating that mesh complications are not rare.

Surgeries that do not use mesh can be equally effective in treating prolapse and incontinence, without the added risk, and should be discussed with a doctor. Treatments that do not involve surgery – including weight loss, Kegel exercises, pelvic physical therapy and pessaries -- should be considered longbefore surgery is scheduled.

Health Risks

After implantation, transvaginal mesh is known to shrink, which can cause shortening and tightening of the vagina and makesexual intercourse painful. Erosion is another serious risk of transvaginal mesh—sharp edges of the mesh can perforate nearby organs, which can make sex agonizing for women and painful for partners as well.

Women also report infections, unusual discharge, irregular bleeding and vaginal odors. Some women report that transvaginal mesh has left them with debilitating pain. They report being unable to work or participate in activities they once enjoyed. Some women are not even able to walk comfortably after mesh surgery.

Correcting these problems is not as easy as simply going back in and removing the mesh. Revision surgeries are often more complex, as the body’s tissues grow into the mesh, and aretherefore more dangerous than the original procedure. There is no guarantee that complications will be resolved with removal of the mesh, and there is no guarantee that all of the mesh can be removed.

After months or years of suffering, many women have brought lawsuits against the manufacturers of transvaginal mesh.

 

Linda Grayling is a writer for Drugwatch.com, a consumer advocacy website. She stays up to speed on the latest medical news, including recalls and clinical trials.