Welcome Halle

All last week my Mac was out of commission. Oh how I missed my beloved computer! I almost kissed the Genius who handed it back to me. This is the 2end time I have had a problem w/ my Mac Book and the 2end time I have been pleased w/ how Apple handled my problem. Thank you to Apple for great customer service and incredible products that you know how to stand behind (and fix for free).


I am still tied for 1st in the gozone contest. Just over a week to go, so it looks like I will be one of several names in the drawing.


My good friend Rae had her little girl this past Friday. Her labor went so fast that the midwife was only there for about 45 minutes before the birth. What a God send! Everything went perfectly and little Halle was welcomed into this world in full joy by her happy family. I love that Rae took up her responsibility in childbearing and learned how to care for herself as well as her baby during pregnancy and delivery. Delivering a baby is a learned skill that requires preparation before hand. And even then a midwife or doctor is needed to help out. Sometimes doctors are need for more, but so much of that is in a womens control. At least over 90% of the time. I wanted the same thing in childbearing that Rae wanted. A healthy baby first and to birth my child myself second. Educating myself on pregnancy, labor, and delivery is the only reason I was able to achieve my goals through all three of my pregnancy's. It always urks me when people say, "you were so lucky to have uncomplicated pregnancies and deliveries." While I realize that there was some luck (or genetics) involved, the larger reason for my successful childbearing came from me taking an active roll in my health before and during pregnancy. My husband and I practiced- yes we actually did practice- labor and delivery. I learned non focused awareness (NFA) and other ways to deal with labor pains. I practiced yoga as a way to learn deep breathing, relaxation, and how to isolate and use specific muscle groups while keeping all others at total rest. Having a baby is hard work, harder then any race I have ever run. I approached pregnancy, labor and delivery like I would any other thing in life I wanted to succeed at. I learned how to increase my chances of attaining my goal, found someone (or lots of someones) to help me ( my doctor and midwife), made sure that my goals were understood by myself as well as my helpers, and recognized the valied possibility of things not going as planed. But I had a lot of peace in knowing that my Doctor and I had done and were doing all that we could to reach my goals. If I NEEDED a cesarean then it would be done in order to reach the number one goal of this pregnancy- the delivery of a healthy baby.

Wow. I sorta went off there. But being this is my blog, thats ok. Childbearing is something I feel passionately about. Bring new lives into this world is an incomparable gift from God. The memories I have from my three pregnancies and deliveries form so much of who I am as a women. Child birth can be so empowering. The bond I have with my kids because of the work I did to get them here and the respect I have gained for my own body through bearing them is incredible. It saddens me that so many women are too afraid to birth their children. But I still try to be respectful of their decision. It is hard b/c I feel like so many women would choose differently if they were educated about it. But it is also, at least some of the time, their decision on whether or not to get educated. So when my friends are all talking about epidurals and the crazy women who go with out an epidural, I try to smile and keep my moth shut. I honestly mean them no disrespect for choosing as they have, and there is no reason to try and make a women feel bad about a decision that can't be taken back.