Peace and Love

It seems that I may have offended some people with my latest entry. You must know that it certainly was not my intention. We started this blog as an opportunity to document our experiences through this process - a journal if you will.

What a wondrous life that we all get to live filled with choices and experiences that are our own. At the time of that entry, I was battling my own frustration of outside voices being projected on my choices. Choices that have been dear to my heart, and I, too, have been offended.

What a gift, as women, that we have the opportunity to make decisions about our bodies and childbirth. I am so thankful that I live in a city that has the resources that we need to help us learn through this process. I am most thankful that I have a loving and true companion to share this experience with. I know that we have never done this before, and Stella will come at her will, but if we all work together this will be a beautiful first memory for us all.

Every child begins the world again.

- Henry David Thoreau

Dogs win!

I know everyone's been patiently awaiting the final results of our first visitor poll, Dogs vs. Cats.

Dogs = 7
Cats = 3

It's clear that cats can only hope to be slightly less than half loved as much as dogs.

Don't forget to vote in our new poll: diapers.

Hypnobirthing - The Mongan Method

I knew that I wanted to do a natural birth. A very dear friend of mine has a beautiful daughter, Isla, birthed through the Mongan Method of Hypnobirthing. She had such a beautiful story to share about Isla's entry into our world and I always knew I would look into it for myself when the time came.

To me, it makes perfect sense. And the more I learn about it, the more I understand. I mean, is there anything more incredible than pregnancy and childbirth? The fact that Chip and I fell in love, married, decided that we wanted to share that love and have conceived a child is miraculous. But, the real miracle is that this little person inside me starts out as a ball of cells, develops and changes daily and after 9 months will be the size of a small pumpkin and will be ready to join us. I am pretty sure that after all of that, she knows how to find her way out. This is why I have chosen for Stella to have the birth that she wants. She'll let me know when she is ready.

In our class we are practicing deep meditation and relaxation. We are not hypnotized. We have seen several videos of births in our class, and for the most part the mother is completely silent. It looks as though she is sleeping. Even at 10 centimeters, there is a state is calm in the room. If you have ever watch an episode of Baby Story where the mother is in labor for 23 hours, exhausted, drugged, in stirrups and screaming - this is nothing like that.

Calm. Peace. Beautiful Baby.

The most difficult part of sharing this experience with others is the commentary that follows. There are some women and friends that assure me that I will be begging for the epidural. It is sad that women have become so used to being medicated by their physicians, that the thought of conceiving naturally seems wildly abnormal. Call me a hippy, call me crazy, call me whatever you like. But the thought of being so medicated as my child is being born that I feel nothing, and my child being medicated (as we are sharing a lifeline) and requiring a good slap on the ass to wake up, seems absolutely absurd to me.

*Side note: At our 18 week ultrasound, we also found out that I have placenta previa. We will have another ultrasound in 3 weeks to see if the placenta has moved up. If not, I will have no other choice than to have a cesarean. This is obviously not what we desire, but in the end will take a healthy baby no matter how she gets here.

B - U - M - P

Week 23

I know. We've been really bad about posting progress, but the second trimester is kinda boring. I did learn that the second trimester is made up of several mini-mesters: the cake-mester, the donut-mester, the cookie-mester...

The bigger news is that we've enrolled in a hypobirthing class. I'm really enjoying the classes for their application to everyday life, and I'm excited about what it means for bringing Stella into the world. Markana will write more soon about her thoughts and hopes for a natural birth.