Our Family

Two years ago, the Aviator and I began a lifelong journey together. I cannot believe that it's only been 2 years though. When we're driving in the car, listening to music, and holding hands, it feels like I've known this man for my entire life. As I read more and more about being a mom and having a baby, etc., the more I long to cherish the time I have with this man, just the two of us. It's precious. I can't believe it's taken me 2 years to figure it out! Obviously, I'm looking forward to that time of our life, but more so than ever before, I'm glad to be living in the moment with my soulmate.

Our church is doing a series on marriage/love. The first part of the series was regarding priorities in your marriage. He talked about how women often times forget about their #1 duty as a wife. I feel like the key is to have Christ-centered marriage instead of a child-centered marriage... I do not want to be defined by my children. The Aviator and I have dreams of traveling the world and seeing exotic places when he's retired and we don't have kids at home. If you want to hear the sermon, go to www.gracefamilychurch.tv. It's the first part of the series.

Dax is sometimes concerned that I'm not stirring the sauce enough.

Penny the Priss Marie. She is a gem. If I ever have a daughter, I hope she is nothing like this mutt... :-)

Dax is quite a gentleman. I don't know if you knew this or not... take note. :-)

Snow days

The Aviator and I both grew up on the West coast... Well not right on the coast but you catch the drift...

On Monday we had a wonderful snow day! And the snow is still here 4 days later! That's literally unheard of where we're from... It's pretty icey though. You definitely can't make snow-people out of the ice.

First of all, driving in the stuff isn't so bad except that nobody else around here knows how to drive in the stuff... Obviously, we don't exactly know how to drive in it but either way... Southern drivers are slow, slow, slow on a good day... So you can only imagine what it's like on a snow day!

Penny is officially our cold-weather dog. She has the coat for it! We are both very amused by how much she loves romping around outside. Dax is not quite as interested in the ice/snow... There is a 1' wide path along the house that doesn't have any snow on it and he is very careful to only use that path for his business and then it's right back in to the house, where it's warm.

I'm working on a couple of crochet projects right now. One is a flower slouch hat for my friend Rachael and the other is a very special baby blanket for a very special niece/nephew coming in July... :-)

The Aviator hasn't had to go in to work but two days this week! We've been enjoying the downtime by building snow-people, playing with the dogs, and of course he has lots of reading to do for his Masters' classes...

I stumbled upon the most wonderful cookbook at the Base library a few weeks ago. It's called "Healthy Family Cooking". We both absolutely love the recipes!! I think I've made 2 a week over the past few weeks! From Chicken Tortilla Soup to Tex'Mex Mac'n'Cheese, these are wonderful, family healthy meals!

I'm looking forward to Spring. I hear they have some fantastic Farmer's Markets in this area and I'm super excited to see what they are all about!

All of the lessons at Hearts n Hooves were cancelled this week because of the ice in the parking lot. I gotta say, I just love being able to be a part of what they do there. I love volunteering, kids, and horses so it just works out perfectly! :-)

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and Happy Valentine's day!

Would you or wouldn't you?

I'm curious and I'd love to hear from y'all!

Would you ever consider a natural childbirth? Why or why not? If you have experienced a natural child birth, would you please share your story?

Thanks!!

A Joyful Birth Business Card

Here it is!! :-)

A Joyful Birth

That's what I've settled on.

A Joyful Birth Doula

For your comfort, strength, and peace-of-mind

I can't wait to show you what the business cards look like! They are in the mail... :-)

Wonderful Numbers

DOULAS HAVE GOOD STATISTICS!

Studies have shown that having a doula may:

• Decrease epidural use by 60%
• Decrease C-Section Birth by 50%
• Decrease pitocin use by 40%
• Decrease narcotics use by 30%
• Decrease length of labor by 25%
• Decrease forceps use by 30%

(From: “Mothering The Mother: How A Doula Can Help You Have A Shorter, Easier And Healthier Birth”, by Klaus, Kennell, & Klaus, 1993)

Name Calling

Attempting the 'sidelying' position with my wonderful 'doula' Allison... :-)

The weekend we just spent in Birmingham, AL was by far the most intense and overwhelming 3 days of learning I have ever experienced... College Algebra in 6 weeks wasn't even as intense as this.

We spent 10 hours on the first day in a room with a Birth Doula Trainer named Rae. She is an amazing woman and advocate for women and babies. Just fantastic! The first 4 hours of the ten were spent doing our breast feeding course certification... Not lactation consultant exactly but just skimming the surface of everything there is to know about how boobs and babies go together so beautifully. Then we took a quick lunch break which Jeff was able to attend as well. Then we got back to the class and spend another 6 hours talking about birthing positions and the unnecessary interventions that have become commonplace in hospitals around America.

Day 2 was not quite as long a day but still over 8 hours of learning. We learned about how to comfort the woman in labor with different massages and showing her different positions to labor in that might bring a bit of relief that she might focus on getting through one wave at a time. We talked about reframing. Contractions being called waves or rushes to imagine yourself riding the wave and not being squeezed to death... :-)

Day 3 we talked about worst case scenarios and 'what ifs'. It was so refreshing to hear that I'm not a total lunatic for being so adamant about letting your body guide you in labor... Trusting your instincts. We talked about how OK it is if a woman doesn't want to have a homebirth or a natural birth... It's OK! I know, I know. :-)

Anyway, whenever Jeff picked me up from class, he would ask me about my day and what I had learned. To be honest, I think I was so full of information that I couldn't even put in to words what I had learned. I was quiet for most of the drive home to Arkansas on that last night. I still think I need to decompress... :-)

So I've been trying to distract myself from baby-talk by getting things in line for getting this thing off of the ground. I need a name. I need a name to put on a card that I can hand to people.

I also need suggestions... :-) I'm not much for words so you can imagine how difficult it is for me to come up with something beautiful yet not corny sounding... :-)

So here is what I've come up with so far.

1. BirthRight Doula Services

2. A New Life Doula Services

3. Wonderfully Made Doula Services

4. ???

Any more ideas y'all?? I'm running on empty!

I called the local Pregnancy Resource Center today and it sounds like there is a young gal that wants to have a natural birth! The woman in charge there is getting us in touch! I am excited that this could be my first client... :-) We'll see and I'll keep you posted!

Seriously though... Please give me some ideas on a name for my Doula Service and I'll send you a thank you card... :-) ha ha!