I bumped into an acquaintance of mine who is attending medical school. Although I hadn’t seen him in some six months or so, and I don’t know him all that well, he started talking to me about how great epidurals were because they made the ‘pain of childbirth‘ bearable. It was a bit awkward going from “Hi, How are you?” to talking about something that happens primarily from between your legs, but anyway… Read the rest of this entry
I promise you, this is not something out of a horror movie… but, if you come over my house, please let me warn you before you open the freezer.
You see, it happens a lot to us ladies who have home births (sometimes hospital births too), and it’s a big question… What do you do with the placenta?
The questions comes up quite a lot in natural parenting circles. Many people (gasp) toss it in the bin, like I did with my first, in the hospital. Well, that’s not a very nice thing to do to the organ that brought a human being into the world and gave somebody a life… now is it? Read the rest of this entry
Big kid, loves boobs
The other day, I was watching this clip of Maggie Gyllenhall, talking about breastfeeding her baby while she was shooting for the movie, White House Down. The actress was saying how her daughter was only 2 1/2 months old when she started the filming, which seems crazy to me… Two months post partum and if I had as much money as her and I think I would be hunkered down with my baby wrapped on my chest and my pajamas on… forget having make up on and being on a movie set… but anyway… It got me to thinking though… why is breastfeeding such a big deal? I’m not talking even about breastfeeding in public, or breastfeeding a three year old, but I mean, just breastfeeding in general? The talk show host certainly seemed a bit conservative about the whole thing, and also was a little confused when Maggie said she was ‘like, really breastfeeding‘… which is right, which is what you do when you have a tiny baby. Anyway… Read the rest of this entry
The fairy princess
Yesterday, we drove up into the mountains to go to a festival called MFest. The ‘M’ as in ‘mother’… MFest is: ‘A Celebration of Motherhood and the Creativity of Woman‘. It was the day before Mother’s Day, and I believe the festival happens every year, in Springbrook, QLD, at the Springbrook State School grounds, way at the top of the Gold Coast’s hinterland. It just so happened to be raining a little that day, I’m sure the rain scared a few people away… but… if you’re going to Springbrook, you can expect a bit of rain! Doesn’t hurt to pack your gumboots and something warm to wear! After all, you are practically in the clouds on top of that mountain!
We arrived a little early, people were still setting up their stalls, and it was raining, so rather than sit in the car and wait, I decided to take the girls about ten minutes up the road to a really cool nature walk called, ‘The Best of All Lookout‘. This walk is really awesome, it’s short, it’s paved and meanders through some absolutely pristine rainforest. You can see these ‘ancient arctic beech trees’ that are reportedly over 2000 years old. If you look close enough, you might even see little fairies living under rocks covered in moss 😉 We didn’t make it far on the walk. I had one girl on my back, and one girl on my front, and an umbrella, and it was cold and windy, so we turned around. I’ve been there before, and while the lookout might not be best of all, it is pretty cool. Margo was pretty excited though, that we were actually ‘in’ a cloud.
Back to the festival and (yay) the sun was shining again. We hopped out of the car and had a look around. It was sort of small and intimate, and had one large tent with live music, food stalls, craft and information, etc. and other smaller tents and stalls scattered around. I have to say, it was a very mixed bag of people attending this event! It was not just mother’s toting around babes and kids! There were all sorts of people from all walks of life!
Margo got her face painted by a ‘Funksta’ Facepainting, of course, she wanted something pink…
Funksta Facepainting
And, the gem of the day (well for me anyway) were two woman giving talks about the placenta.. yes.. the placenta… We all sat around in this cozy tent with pillows and rugs. They even had a stuff placenta as a prop. One woman was a doula and the other was a midwife student. One of the woman, Lauren Manners, based in south Brisbane, gave me her card, her business is called www.accomplishedbirth.com. She specializes in placenta encapsulation. I was stoked to hear that you can encapsulate a placenta, even if it’s been in the freezer for some time… like a couple years even… I might have to ring her up and have mine done one day. They talked about the importance of the placenta, it’s role in sustaining life, the benefits of delayed cord clamping and the rituals of different cultures and even animals when dealing with the placenta. Very cool stuff!
The stuffed placenta
Anyway, the day was a success. We only stayed about an hour and a half or so, it started raining again, so we high tailed it back to the car. Margo loved being in the clouds. I liked being on top of the mountains, and Goldie slept both ways in the car. I even won a raffle ticket!!! Woohoo! Some family voucher to go camping! Looks like we’ll be heading back to the mountains again soon. My only advice if you’re going to Springbrook is to not forget your gumboots!
Natural? About ten hours before Margo was born.
Since Margo is about to turn three, I’ve recently been thinking a lot about her birth. Margo was born in a hospital setting and her birth was considered a ‘natural childbirth’. Spontaneous labour, (meaning that I had not been induced), no drugs, and we had a beautiful water birth. I labored for 36 hours total and 18 of those hours were fully established. It was, as I say, a marathon labor. Read the rest of this entry
Eye check, little Goldie
Ok, well, I don’t know if our midwife, Maria has hairy armpits or not… In fact, I have nothing against hairy armpits at all, sometimes, mine get a bit ‘fuzzy’ as Margo likes to say! And, nothing wrong with birthing under the trees… What?! Ok, enough about hair and trees, I just needed a catchy title!
The Hearing Test (and a really funny face)
Goldie was born peacefully at home and the thought of going to the hospital seemed more of a hassle than anything. But, our midwife, Maria, of Gold Coast Midwifery Practice, recommended that we take her there for a hearing screening. I know that Goldie can hear, she startles at loud noises and looks in the direction of my voice, but the school teacher in me knows that even a slight hearing deficiency is important to catch early, if you can. If needed, perhaps, I might have gone to the extent of reviewing hearing aids (check out https://www.earpros.com/hearing-aid-brands/costco-hearing-aids/kirkland-signature) also. Read the rest of this entry
At home appointment, with Maria, the midwife.
I could feel that the baby was breech for a few days. At 36 weeks and some odd days, I could feel the baby’s head up near my diaphragm. I could feel kicking up high, but I was sure that the little round thing near my ribs was a head because when I poked and prodded it, it was far too round and hard and far too responsive to touch to be a bum. Read the rest of this entry
Margo is the cheerleader: ‘Baby did a poo!!!’
I started Margo on Elimination Communication (EC) when she was 11 days old. I was so scared the first time I took her! Can you believe I was scared to see if my baby would do a poo or wee in a bucket. I think being a new mom, I was even scared just to hold her! Scared to let her cry for a second or two, etc. Also, scared that this cool EC thing I had heard about would never work for me. Like EC would be rocket science and I would be left changing her diapers until she was 4… Read the rest of this entry
Welcome baby girl! (How talented is my husband who took this shot, while looking as if his arm isn’t stretched out holding the camera!)
Everything about the birth of this girl was about timing. On August 9th, I picked Art up from work and he asked me what I wanted to do for my birthday weekend. My 30th birthday was only 3 days away, (August 12th), but for me, I was a bit pre-occupied nesting, cleaning out closets and drawers, scrubbing tiles, and washing cloth nappies, to even think about the big “Three Ohhh”! Hmmm, birthday weekend… Read the rest of this entry
