Parenting Truths: Top Two

 Is this baby laughing or screaming? Doesn't matter.

A few weeks ago we were having a good morning around here and I was sitting on the edge of the bed and the baby came and sat on my lap, followed by the Saoirse. I hugged them both tight and felt the joy of motherhood overcome me. I said aloud, I think for the first time, "My cup runneth over."

Saoirse can't let something like that go and insisted, "What Mama? What?" So I explained.

Today they were both on my lap and we were happy and just as the feeling of living the dream came gushing in Saoirse said, "Mama's cup of blessings is spilling all over the place!"

That's not all that's spilling all over the place. I read on someone else's blog that motherhood was one of the only positions where it is possible to be simultaneously in heaven and hell. I have found this to be one of the two universal truths of parenting young children. The highs are higher and the lows are lower. And it's possible to have them both in the same hour, or even minute.

The second truth is that nothing lasts, so if you like it: soak it up. If you don't like it: suck it up. Either way, it will be different soon. The years are short and the days are long, but everything changes quickly.

So soak it up or suck it up, and learn to enjoy--or at least be at peace with--the dichotomous rex roller coaster of emotions. Your cup runneth over.

Hands off the Breech

     Here is my breech, with a shirt from the Coalition for Breech Birth Conference. Hands off!

Essential Oil to Turn A Breech

This post has been moved to my new blog location.

www.mybreechbaby.org

Nurse-ing

Look at those milk teeth. MILK teeth. Poor baby.

Last week my pediatrician told me to stop breastfeeding for "at least a week." My 17 month old had been sick with diarrhea and vomiting for 4 days. She said that any kind of dairy, including the kind from my home creamery, would induce the puke and just make the illness worse. I told her the only thing I could get baby to eat or drink for four days was breast milk and I was already worried about dehydration. The good doctor confided in me that if I just refused to nurse, she would "be desperate" and start downing the pedialyte.

I was unwilling to try.

I did, however, try the prescribed steroid (prednisolone) for her "slightly wheezy lungs." This went fabulously. Both the pediatrician and the pharmacist warned us that the drug (a syrup) was really disgusting. I had a treat ready for baby and the sink set up with her stool so she could play at it as soon as we got done shoving goo down her throat (traumatic for everyone). The first dose was administered in the 8th amazing hour since the last puke. We were so excited that she was keeping the fluids down! Until...

Yeah.

So after 3 days of puking upon receipt of medicine, we threw it all away and breastfed more often.

I know doctors are good when you need them. I just wish I knew when I needed them.

New Year's Resolutions

The puker, at a younger age. You see the laundry. You can always see the laundry...

I enjoy the acme of foolishness that is goal-setting and resolving to better myself. This year, as in the past, I got a sick kind of kick making a list of the things I am not yet good enough about. (i.e. Ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put.) Am I the only one who believes that the magic lies in the enumeration of the weaknesses? Surely at the end of the year my inventory of defects will be just that much shorter.

About a week ago I made my usual catalog of these "resolutions."

Today, to that, I say derisively: pfffft.

Perhaps it's because my baby has been sick all week, and I am back to day-long pajamas and too much puke and poop to keep up with the laundry much less the laundry list of desired personal traits. Perhaps it's because I read in Anne Lammot's newest book: "We will be called to survive unsurvivable losses, and we will realize with enormous pain how much of our lives we've already wasted with obsessive work or pleasing people or dieting." Perhaps it's because (gasp) I am almost 30 and a few of my resolutions haven't changed in 15 years.

Today, for this one year, I resolve only one thing.

Whenever I get a piece of floss that isn't quite long enough, I will not wrestle with the short ends and struggle to make it through my mouth on that inch between my pinched fingers. This year I will just get a new piece of floss.

Amen.

An Unnecessarean

Shout out to Jill at cesareanrates.com who I believe coined that word. Absolutely fabulous work she is doing, by the way. Yes, some hospitals have significantly higher c/s rates than others. Check out your local on her site.

Anyway, lots and lots of unnecessary cesareans are being done. Breech babies are a big reason for c/s, and the science just isn't behind it anymore. Vaginal breech birth is as safe, sometimes safer. Now if only there was someone to attend these births...

Here is a fabulous article by one of the wonderful and very brave OBs who is saving the profession. He writes the top ten ways you can know your doc is planning on pushing you into surgery that is not necessary. Read it!!

The Midwife Model of Actually Caring

This is the story of my jury summons, mostly in pictures of words. I wanted to protect my kid's identity, so please excuse the terrible photoshop job. There is no excuse for me.

 

I wrote in asking to be excused from jury duty on the grounds that I was breastfeeding and it would be a hardship at this time. I received a letter indicating that I needed proof from a doctor.

So I called my pediatrician to get a letter verifying that I am breastfeeding. The nurses on the phone told me they would not ask the doctor to write the letter since I could just as easily pump and find childcare. I argued that it was not the doctor's decision whether or not I should be excused. I only needed the verification for the court to decide. The nurses told me they would ask the doctor, but I wasn't getting my hopes up. Some friends in the birth community said that based on their experience I should be able to get excused and that I should ask my midwife to write the letter. Below is the letter she sent.

 I sent it in. I later recieved this letter from my pediatrician, who I chose because she was reportedly extra supportive of breastfeeding.

 You may be surprised to find out that I did not send this letter in to accompany the one from my midwife. Nonetheless:

And my pediatrician recieved the following letter from me.

P.S. I just wanted to add that I do think stay at home moms should serve, just not when it means huge family upheaval, leaving your young children with someone you barely know, or abandoning a nursling for long hours. Women should have the opportunity to serve no matter what their situation.