I was one of those people that looooved to watch the TV shows like A Baby Story, Maternity Ward, Labor & Delivery and whatnot. As the years went by I found myself thinking and commenting to myself a lot about what was happening in the shows. "I don't want that to happen" or "That's not going to be me." As the years passed I formed a picture in my head of what I wanted it to be like for me:
I wanted it to be quiet and dark. I really wanted to have a water birth. No doctors and nurses yelling at me to push harder. I wanted to hold my baby right away if not help pull him/her out. I wanted to breastfeed as soon as possible. I did not want spectators. I really didn't want to be hooked up to a bunch of machines. I didn't want pain meds or interventions. I don't watch those shows anymore.
So when I moved home from AZ I started looking into what hospitals offered. Unfortunately the Duluth area does not have any birthing centers or birth tubs in their hospitals. I put off these thoughts for a while until I got married. Now having a baby was a reality and I had to make my 1st decision as a future parent. How was this future baby going to be born? I never really thought much of a midwife until a wonderful friend had her baby at home and spoke about what an amazing experience it was to give birth naturally. I did my research and found a local midwife, Jana. I talked to her, when I found out I was pregnant, we met with her for a little interview to see if it was really the right thing and I knew it was when I left her office.
Just to clear things up: a midwife is a medically trained professional. It's not "some lady who comes to my house to catch my baby." I heard that from a person or two :-) Jana was my friend, therapist, adviser and more. She carries oxygen, meds for hemorrhaging, kits for suturing and various other medical supplies. I looked forward to my appointments. I'm not sure many can say they looked forward to seeing their OB's. My appointments were usually an hour and a half and we talked about everything. My family, her family and kids, marriage, hopes and dreams, fears, nutrition, tests .. everything. I trusted her completely. She didn't pressure me to do anything just gave me the facts and let me decide. Even at the end when my blood pressure was going up and up I trusted her to tell me when it wasn't safe any more. . and she did. She was right beside me the whole time I was in labor, came to visit the next day and made several postnatal visits to my house. We had planned that quiet, dark birth in a tub of water but as I said before God had other plans. You might be wondering if I had to pay for her and the hospital and yes I kind of ended up paying more but luckily we had insurance that covered most of both a midwife and hospital expenses. The money is about the only down side, if you end up going to the hospital. If I hadn't ended up with complications at the end prenatal, the birth and 6 weeks of postnatal care would have been practically free!
At this point I'm not 100% sure what I'll do for the next baby. I'm determined to push a kid out of me and really am going to do everything I can to make sure that happens, whether it's in a hospital or at home!
Monday, July 30, 2012
Friday, July 27, 2012
My Story. . . and Love for Cloth Diapers.
My decision to cloth diaper my child is what started the idea to blog. I thought it would be fun to share my thoughts on cloth diapering, my ideas, my revelations. I wanted to start when she was born but. . . here we are 3+ months later. I've thought a lot about starting one in these last 3 months and it's turned into wanting to just write about my adventures of Being Brynn's Mommy with lots of talk on cloth diapering I'm sure.
So now I have 3 months worth of "stuff" to talk about so I'll start at the beginning: We had planned such a wonderful, quiet homebirth with our awesome midwife Jana but low and behold God had other plans. I ended up in the hospital being induced. I pride myself on not using an pain meds and lasting 16 hours with 2 hours of pushing but our stubborn little girl wouldn't come out and my blood pressure was getting too dangerous so off of to surgery we went. But I would do it all again because I was blessed with a perfect little girl, Brynn Vera.
So we brought our little girl home and the adventures began!! I will admit I was one of those non-mothers who sorta rolled my eyes when people said stuff like "I just couldn't find time to take a shower" or "I don't even have a second to myself." Really, you can't put your baby down for 5 minutes?? Come on. Well they were right. Some days in those first weeks I couldn't even get dressed. I spent all day and night in my robe. I brought her in the bathroom with me, even nursed her just so she wasn't crying while I did my business. My most vivid memory is her in the Moby while I bounced on our exercise ball, in the middle of the night, sobbing hysterically while saying "I will NEVER have any more children!!" That time has passed though. . there will be more if we're lucky!
Now to cloth diapers. My love for them began when I attended the Birth and Baby Fair at the CopperTop Church last fall when I was just a few months pregnant. I met the Little Neetchers people and they invited us to their home to have a consultation. They are amazing and have a wealth of knowledge. If you live in Duluth or the surrounding area: LOOK THEM UP. I was HOOKED!! I read blogs, websites and articles. A co-worker turned me on to www.cottonbabies.com where there was an awesome sale and I bought 3 Artist Series diapers that happened to be Buy 2 Get 1 Free. I did that 2 more times. My mom bought us a couple for Christmas and I put myself on a once a month shopping limit. After Brynn was born I bought a few newborn ones just to try them out. She was 3 weeks old when we officially switched to cloth full time. I love cloth diapers. They are addicting and cute. Brynn has never really had a diaper rash. I love to hang them on the clothes line. We used disposables a couple times at the cabin and I hate them. She pooped once while my dad was holding her and the poop actually flew up her back and plopped in my dad's lap. Gross. PLUS the chemicals or whatever is in them actually makes her poop smell gross. It doesn't in cloth! ANOTHER PLUS it cost maybe $500 for my whole stash of cloth and accessories (wet bags, wipes: yes we use cloth wipes too, diaper pail etc) Did you know it costs approximently $2500 to diaper a baby for 2.5years???? And I can use what I have for the next baby!!! So instead of spending close to $5,000 on diapers for 2 kids I spent about $500 up front. Not to mention there aren't going to be hundreds if not thousands of my child's dirty diapers sitting in a landfill for the next 100 years. Yes I have to wash them every other day. Yes, my water bill went up . . . $2.00 a month Ooooohh. Yes, occasionally I get poop on my hand when putting the diapers in the pail or washing machine. . What parent doesn't get poop on them at some point?? Yes, her pants don't fit as well and she has a big butt. . but it's cute. So anyone looking to save money, your baby's butt, and the environment think of switching to cloth diapers. It's worth the tiny bit of extra effort you have to put in to diaper your child!
So now I have 3 months worth of "stuff" to talk about so I'll start at the beginning: We had planned such a wonderful, quiet homebirth with our awesome midwife Jana but low and behold God had other plans. I ended up in the hospital being induced. I pride myself on not using an pain meds and lasting 16 hours with 2 hours of pushing but our stubborn little girl wouldn't come out and my blood pressure was getting too dangerous so off of to surgery we went. But I would do it all again because I was blessed with a perfect little girl, Brynn Vera.
So we brought our little girl home and the adventures began!! I will admit I was one of those non-mothers who sorta rolled my eyes when people said stuff like "I just couldn't find time to take a shower" or "I don't even have a second to myself." Really, you can't put your baby down for 5 minutes?? Come on. Well they were right. Some days in those first weeks I couldn't even get dressed. I spent all day and night in my robe. I brought her in the bathroom with me, even nursed her just so she wasn't crying while I did my business. My most vivid memory is her in the Moby while I bounced on our exercise ball, in the middle of the night, sobbing hysterically while saying "I will NEVER have any more children!!" That time has passed though. . there will be more if we're lucky!
Now to cloth diapers. My love for them began when I attended the Birth and Baby Fair at the CopperTop Church last fall when I was just a few months pregnant. I met the Little Neetchers people and they invited us to their home to have a consultation. They are amazing and have a wealth of knowledge. If you live in Duluth or the surrounding area: LOOK THEM UP. I was HOOKED!! I read blogs, websites and articles. A co-worker turned me on to www.cottonbabies.com where there was an awesome sale and I bought 3 Artist Series diapers that happened to be Buy 2 Get 1 Free. I did that 2 more times. My mom bought us a couple for Christmas and I put myself on a once a month shopping limit. After Brynn was born I bought a few newborn ones just to try them out. She was 3 weeks old when we officially switched to cloth full time. I love cloth diapers. They are addicting and cute. Brynn has never really had a diaper rash. I love to hang them on the clothes line. We used disposables a couple times at the cabin and I hate them. She pooped once while my dad was holding her and the poop actually flew up her back and plopped in my dad's lap. Gross. PLUS the chemicals or whatever is in them actually makes her poop smell gross. It doesn't in cloth! ANOTHER PLUS it cost maybe $500 for my whole stash of cloth and accessories (wet bags, wipes: yes we use cloth wipes too, diaper pail etc) Did you know it costs approximently $2500 to diaper a baby for 2.5years???? And I can use what I have for the next baby!!! So instead of spending close to $5,000 on diapers for 2 kids I spent about $500 up front. Not to mention there aren't going to be hundreds if not thousands of my child's dirty diapers sitting in a landfill for the next 100 years. Yes I have to wash them every other day. Yes, my water bill went up . . . $2.00 a month Ooooohh. Yes, occasionally I get poop on my hand when putting the diapers in the pail or washing machine. . What parent doesn't get poop on them at some point?? Yes, her pants don't fit as well and she has a big butt. . but it's cute. So anyone looking to save money, your baby's butt, and the environment think of switching to cloth diapers. It's worth the tiny bit of extra effort you have to put in to diaper your child!
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