toothpastefordinner.com

It's actually been this way for a couple of weeks, but I figured I'd give you a chance to speak up if you've been secretly stalking me.

We went to the zoo today!

Jack: That's so wierd.



Jack: Why is he licking his tail? ( And why is it pink? (cut for otter porn)Collapse )

THAT'S RIGHT! This otter has succeeded at what some human males only dream of: fellating himself! For an audience. I wish I could post this on facebook, because it's the most hilarious picture I've ever taken.

Liz Paparella is an extraordinary human being. Almost a year ago, she lost a baby in homebirth due in part to the incompetence of her CPM, who also falsified some of the birth records. The midwife in question basically recieved a slap on the wrist -- probated suspension and a $500 fine-- from a licensing board made up of her friends. Since the birth, Liz has been ostracized on various natural birth websites, and any attempt of hers to post her birth story or any reference she has made to the midwife and what happened has been deleted. While I personally would not choose to have a homebirth, I am a firm supporter of a woman's right to choose how to birth; however, I believe that women should have access to all the information they need to make an informed decision about the choice they are about to make.

I linked Liz's blog from my website, and I'm linking to it here. I feel like she has the right to have her voice be heard, and I feel like other women searching for a homebirth midwife in texas deserve to know what happened.

So a friend of mine asked me to do some research on prenatal depression for her, and I was shocked to find out that rates of antenatal depression are just as high as those of postpartum depression. No one ever talks about this!! It turned into a post over on my website if anyone is interested: Treatment Options for Antenatal Depression. There really hasn't been a lot of research on alternatives to drugs with pregnant women (or really on drugs for that matter), but there is a lot of interesting stuff.

The debate on my doula email list is still raging, and they have decided that c-sections should not be called "surgical births," as it isn't really a birth. HOT DAMN! All this time I've been celebrating Jack's "birth" day, when it was really his "surgical extraction" day. *eye roll* This has been going on for a week now, and all of the voices of reason have given up and dropped out of the conversation. I believe my head will soon explode.

However, on Saturday I finally got to go to a training with PDX doulas, the organization I'm hoping to volunteer with at OHSU! It was so refreshing, because much of the training was on working as a team with the doctors and midwives there, rather than working against them, which seems to be the mindset of many doulas I've come into contact with. We talked about considering the perspective of the medical professionals (the training they receive, the experiences they've had) and giving grace while still supporting our clients. It was amazing, and I really hope that I make it through the extensive application and interview process, because I felt like shouting "AMEN!" for much of the training session, and it really got me excited about working with them. I also think that if I get to work with them, it will make my acceptance into the midwifery program at OHSU much more likely, as I will be working with the CNM's who are instructors in the program!! Fingers crossed.

On a side note...

I read a couple of articles today on breastfeeding and the bacteria that it gets into babies' guts. I wrote a bit about it on my website/blog -- very interesting stuff!

So I've totally revamped the look of my website. I like it a lot better now, actually -- it looks more "birthy." I'm working on trying to get it to rank so when people search for doulas in the area, they'll actually find me. I'll probably eventually have to buy google ads or something, but no money for that right now! So anyway, I'm going to start linking here for a while, since this journal is pretty old/established. Not sure if it will help, but at least it won't hurt! I'd love it if you guys would check it out or comment if you have time!

I've got three new entries:

A review of Birthing from Within.

A post I wrote about due dates entitled "Due Date, Schmoo Date."

And an entry on weight gain and nutrition.

So I'm actually going to do this doula thing! Chris helped me set up a website/blog. It's not in it's final form, because he's eventually going to pay one of his designers to really kick it up a notch, but it's not too bad. I would LOVE it if you guys would check it out and give me feedback. I know that many of you are my target age (childbearing) and demographic (people who feel strongly enough about natural birth to seek out a doula), so I want to know what you think. Also, if you have any ideas of subjects you would like to read about in a blog post, that would be cool too. I'm really excited about this, so it's hard for me to see it through critical eyes. Here is the link.

I've never really understood the allure of vanity plates. Especially if you're the 23rd person to have the same idea and end up with something like Bkyefn23. What's the point? However, the dentist whose office is next to Chris has hilariously unintentionally freakish fail plates. How can she not see this!!?!

Is the DNC five??!?

OK, so we all know Rush Limbaugh is an annoying, pompous douchewindbag. But seriously??!? Do you not have better things to do with your time and money? It's just giving him the attention he craves and needs in order to build his empirebusiness. He'll probably fellate himself every time he's driven by the damn thing.

AND, if your're going to waste funds and precious brain power on taunting him, can you at least come up with better slogans? Out of "tens of thousands of submissions," this shit is the best you could come up with??

"Americans didn't vote for a Rush to failure"

"Hope and change cannot be Rush'd"

"Failure is not an option for America's future"

"We can fix America, just don't Rush it"

"Rush: Say yes to America"

Really? REALLY???

lux_roark has inspired me to apply to be a mentor for adopt_a_mom, so I'm writing out my breastfeeding stories here.

When I found out I was pregnant with Jack, I read a bunch of the mainstream books and pregnancy magazines and decided that I was going to breastfeed for six months. From what I read, I figured it would be cheap, help me lose weight and make my baby smarter. I got a boppy and a Medela pump and figured I was all set.

He arrived via emergency c-section and I was unable to see him for several hours as I was shaking so badly from the epidural in the recovery room. When they finally brought him to me, he refused to latch on. The nurse brought me a fancy pump and I pumped some colostrum and fed it to him with a dropper. For the next several hours it was rinse and repeat -- no latch, pump, feed with dropper. The hospital lactation consultant finally came in and shoved him onto my boob and he actually latched for the first time. Unfortunately, he would only latch for 30-40 seconds at a time and quickly lost interest. Soon my nipples were sore and cracked, and the pain was unbearable. When I got home from the hospital, I was crying every time it was time to feed. Thankfully, my mom, who'd breastfed four children for more than a year, was staying with us and was very encouraging. She would get up in the middle of the night with me and help me to fix his bad latch, which he eventually did. But the pain wasn't going away. I almost gave up -- the formula samples in my cupboard were calling to me -- but I decided to try a different lactation consultant (IBCLC, this time). She took one look at my nipples and diagnosed thrush. Three days after I started treatment, the pain had significantly decreased and I started to feel like I could do this. We also suffered a bout of mastitis in the first month, but after about six weeks it was smooth sailing.

Around the time Jack was six months old, when I was originally planning to wean, I started a livejournal and joined the breastfeeding community. I hadn't realized that there were so many people who breastfed past six months, much less beyond a year old. I was intrigued and continued to breastfeed after doing more online research on the subject. Once I realized the benefits, I decided I couldn't stop. I also started co-sleeping at this time (another internet revelation), and that made those night time feedings so much better. This was fortunate because Jack didn't sleep through the night until I night-weaned him at 16 months. Shortly after he was night-weaned, he started cutting back on daytime feedings as well, and weaned himself completely by 20 months.

Fast forward to the birth of Ruby...I felt much more confident going into it the second time. I had a repeat (planned) c-section and made certain that I could bring her with me to the recovery room. This nursing relationship started off on a much better foot. She came out ready to eat - the doctors placed her next to my face while they were sewing me up, and she latched on to my nose. As soon as we got to the recovery room she latched on like a champ and nursed for about 20 minutes!! I was so excited and just KNEW the beginning of this nursing relationship was going to be so much better than the last. However, in spite of a perfect latch, I had cracked and bleeding nipples -- with the accompanying excruciating pain -- three days after her birth. Fortunately I knew this was a temporary thing, but I also knew this meant there was a problem that needed to be fixed. I suspected thrush and went to an IBCLC for confirmation. It was. I embarked on a massive anti-thrush mission, including changing my diet and taking GSE along with the Diflucan prescribed by my OB and quickly nipped it in the bud. Thankfully it only lasted two weeks as opposed to the six weeks before diagnosis with Jack. This nursing relationship has also been easier because I've co-slept from the beginning, which makes the days following nighttime feedings much better. She's eight months old now, and still vastly prefers nursing to solid foods. And I have no problem with that -- breastmilk poops are much nicer to deal with!