One thing that I want for expectant mothers is for it to be Okay for us to talk about our full range of emotions around pregnancy – the good, the bad, and the everything in between. I want it to be okay for a woman to say that she’s not excited about the baby growing in her tummy right now, even if she’s married, has a big house, and has all circumstances that “seem” ideal for a baby to come into the picture. Read the rest of this entry »
Including Others in the Birth
Jenny chose to have a natural home birth with a midwife present. This immediately made sense to her. Her Mom had done it and therefore she felt she could too. It wasn’t unfamiliar inside her family. Her Mom had experienced a home birth and her mother-in-law had experienced a natural childbirth. So there was immediate support and understanding in her extended family.
Jenny got a referral from a woman who had given birth with a particular midwife a few times. Jenny met with this midwife and found her to be positive and upbeat. The midwife confirmed her decision as a great one, shared her stats with Jenny, and asked if she had any questions. Jenny didn’t. She didn’t look further. She didn’t have to.
An inquiry Jenny spent more time with was who to have at her birth. Read the rest of this entry »
Birthin Them Babies
This week’s blog entry is written by Debi. Debi is a life coach, Children’s book writer (www.njoybooks.com), and regular blogger (www.njoybooks.com/sunnydays).
Debi writes: Angels woke me up the night Ellie was born to let me know that she was about to arrive. I was asleep in one of our living room chairs when I was awakened by the absolute knowing that birth was about to begin. As I arose from the chair, I thought how crazy that was, because there were no obvious signs that that was the case. I went into the bedroom and lay down when suddenly my water broke. From all the literature I had read, we had loads of time before having to arrive at the hospital, so I took my time taking a shower, blow drying my hair, preparing myself. I was still feeling good, just occasionally a slight contraction that would slow me down. My husband, Thom began timing my contractions and he realized that we needed to be at the hospital five minutes ago. Weird. I was still feeling like taking my time. Read the rest of this entry »
Having Conversations that We Have No Practice Having
Pregnancy is such a personal experience. The thoughts and emotions are different for everyone. It’s a common phenomenon that is experienced differently by each individual. We don’t know how to relate to it.
For example, a woman being less than enthusiastic about her pregnancy is a conversation that is not easy for many of us. We don’t have practice with it. Read the rest of this entry »
Making Dad a Partner in Pregnancy
I recently interviewed Stacey for the book and I was really inspired by how she created her husband as a co-parent from the very beginning – not after the baby was born, but from conception. He was a true partner during the pregnancy. I marveled at how clear she was that she needed to make sure they were a team. She said that she had to reach out in ways that were – at times – not natural. Read the rest of this entry »
Don’t Judge Me From This Snapshot!
The other night my husband was walking with my 2-year-old daughter to the local playground. As they walked, they passed 2 ladies with 2 big dogs. Our daughter, as the big dogs got closer, got nervous. She started making little whimpering noises and raised her arms up to indicate to Dad that she wanted to be picked up. My husband scooped her up and together they said hello to the dogs. As they walked on toward the playground, my husband hears one of the ladies loudly talking about how he is raising his daughter wrong and that he is teaching her to be afraid of dogs. It infuriated him. Read the rest of this entry »
Who Do You Talk To?
Leslie tends to be fairly open, transparent, and asks a lot of people their opinions. She certainly did this when she was considering adding to her family as a 44 year-old, recently divorced, single Mom. She asked others: What are the implications to the kid? What about the family? What about the sibling, because Leslie had a 7-year-old daughter. Read the rest of this entry »
Music. It’s therapeutic…
Music. It’s therapeutic, a mood lifter, a companion, a means of escape, a way to get in touch with our intuition, simply fun. Music can fulfill many purposes for us. I find that pregnant women often intentionally use music to help them feel good and get in touch with what they want.
I thought it would be fun to compile a list of our favorite songs to listen to during pregnancy!
What are your 3 favorite songs to listen to during pregnancy? Please leave a comment at the bottom of this blog entry by Wednesday, August 5th and share them with us.
1.
2.
3.
We’ll track the songs you share and put together a list. This list will then be made available as a Playlist on iTunes!
Have fun connecting with your music! And, thank you for sharing your favs.
