Striving to be a Domestic Goddess

No, I'm not cooking my way through Nigella Lawson's book, but we just got a Dyson! Wow, what a difference it makes in our house. Our house gets so dirty, so fast... with real, actual dirt. Now I just wish I had the same kind of tool for our laundry. 

The cycle of life is always before our eyes at the farm. This week we said a sad good bye to Moe and Maude, the geese. Unfortunately something of the canine variety found its way through or over the electric fence and met Maude one night and Moe the next.  I've heard of geese being mean, but these two were real sweet. Probably from being raised so lovingly from chicks by our neighbor Greg. At least we got to enjoy a few weeks of their wonderful eggs. 

Today, on the other hand, we welcomed 4 new piglets to the farm.  Lulu is showing them the ropes I suppose. 

Speaking of Lulu.... This is so cute I have to mention it. Bea has been loving the swing that Dan made her so much that he put up a swing for her in the greenhouse.  She can keep Lulu company. If you look closely at the picture you can see a little bell on the fence. Bea can hit this with her feet while she's swinging and ring the bell. Lulu gets excited and runs around. 

Can You Say "Supercute?"

Baxter Lee is Here!

Finally, here we are to announce the arrival of Baxter (born Jan 26th 9:30pm), now that he is about 6 weeks old.  (I guess this is our cyberspace version of the old-time practice of "churching" or bringing the baby out after 40 days). I had started on his birth story but I finally realized that was going to take  a while to finish so I should keep on posting in the meantime. Also, our camera is unfortunately our of batteries so we are low on pictures. We're working on that - for our friends and family who are still waiting to see how cute he is. 

I won't go into the whole story now, but his birth was a bit of a challenge in the sense that it was a lot of hard work - 9lb baby boy from little 5 foot me! Yikes! The labor was about 9 hours, pushing for 3.5. Uhg. Powerful stuff! I was so glad to be home and had the wonderful support of my midwife Elayne, our doula Sarah and friend Rachel... and of course Dan and Bea. Baxter is a hearty, beautiful little guy.

So now we have pretty much adjusted to life as a family of four and spring is on it's way. Hooray!

Still Waiting....

This little boy sure is cozy in there.  After the inauguration yesterday, I feel a certain sense of relief.  Now it seems the world is more of a sane, compassionate, hopeful, intelligent place to be born into.  What a good way to start the new year, to start a new life.  

I've been trying to walk a lot to get this baby moving.  Lately my favorite walking music is Leo Kotke & Mike Gordon. It was pretty chilly today but I went to the farm to walk anyway.  (Of course I would have much rather walked to the farm, but alas our road between the house and farm is still flooded.  There is a chance it may be frozen now, but it wasn't as of last week.) I was pretty chilled so when I got back to the farm I warmed up in the sunny greenhouse and got a nice dose of vitamin D.  It was even warm enough to get some sun on my belly.  

Bea's just come in from helping Dan make dinner with a snack of red peppers and endive.  Time for supper....

Waiting Here in Limbo....

Well, my due date is 2 days away.  With Bea I was 2 days late.  Not too bad.  I am definitely ready to burst.  We are all organized, no lose ends that I can think of so it really feels like I am sitting around waiting.  Wishing I had some crafty projects to work on, but of course I don't really want to start on anything new right now.   (Right now Bea is telling Dan that at school she and one of her friends played that she was having a baby!)

I'm also at a loss for good books to read.  Some good reads about midwifery are Ami McKay's The Birth House and Peggy Vincent's Baby Catcher.  The Birth House is historical fiction set in Nova Scotia around WWI.  It follows Dora Rare, a young midwife, working in her small community while a physician of "modern" obstetrics arrives to try to change the traditional birth practices.

Baby Catcher follows Peggy Vincent's journey from delivery room nurse to childbirth educator, to a licensed midwife. The book includes lots and lots of birth stories and insight on how every woman births differently.  Also she writes about issues facing midwives in and out of hospital settings.  

So with only a handful of days to go I should be savoring this special time with Bea. We have been out sledding and walking in the snow everyday and that has been really nice.  I'll try to come up with some more special projects for us over the next couple days....

Beatrice's Birth Story

Many folks know that our beautiful little Beatrice was born at home 3 and a half years ago.  I've been meaning to share her birth story here as we prepare for our second homebirth.  You don't hear much about women giving birth at home anymore, but a few of us still do it. ( I suppose you don't hear much about people growing their own food anymore either.... but that is another topic.) I really need to share our story because I feel like the power of birth is like a secret that isn't shared, but should be every woman's birth right. Birthing is so intrinsic to our deepest nature and is one of the most powerful physical, emotional, mental, spiritual events in our lives. My birthing of Bea at home was a wholistic process. I felt safe, comfortable, supported, strong and loved throughout the entire labor.

Here is our story.  My labor began around 12:30 at night.  Dan and I had gone to bed around 10 or so.  My water breaking woke me up and I went to the bathroom to see if there was any more to come.  When I came back to bed I told Dan what had happened and we called our doula, Isa.  Her calm at  being called at 1 in the morning was amazing and she assured us she was on her way.  We tried to go back to sleep, but I don't think we slept very much at all.  The contractions came right away.  Honestly, I don't even remember what they felt like.  I did spend a lot of time on the toilet.  I later told my brother that giving birth was like trying to poop out a bowling ball, because it does feel like the baby is coming out your bottom. Hence, the toilet seemed like the most comfortable place to be.  By morning I had dilated almost all the way and we called the midwife, Joanne, and we all thought the baby would be coming soon.  We had the birth tub (a 150 gallon stock tank from Agway) set up, but didn't think we'd need it.  Joanne arrived and when the baby didn't come right away, I decided I would get into the tub. Meanwhile it had turned into a beautiful July Sunday. Once I was in the tub I couldn't imagine getting out again. The tub was amazing - the water was comforting and I found I could press off the sides of the tub with my legs, arms, back. I was pushing with every part of my body.  I started pushing when I got into the tub and ended up staying there for about 5 hours!  At one point the midwife asked if I wanted to get out and walk around, but I couldn't imagine leaving the comfort of the tub. Everyone was cool as a cucumber and I really had no idea that my situation was a little unusual. I was pretty much pushing continuously  and thought, wow I could really use a break and also that it was "hard work". (At the time George W. was using that phrase a lot and I couldn't believe I was thinking about our president during my labor)  Bea was crowning for what seemed to be a long time, but no matter how hard I pushed, she wouldn't budge. There were no signs of fetal distress, so I just kept plugging away.  Finally she started moving down more and it was a tremendous relief to push her all the way out.  Joanne put her right onto my chest and I fell in love with my daughter immediately.  

I got out of the tub to deliver the placenta while Dan sat beside me holding Bea. Soon we were all snuggled up in bed. I ate a good meal and Bea started nursing. I should have been exhausted but I was on such a high, my body coursing with hormones.  I was elated and in love and overwhelmed with being a new mother. 

Only in hindsight did I realize just how lucky I was to have been home.  If I had been at the hospital, chances are good that there would have been some kind of intervention - because my waters had been broken for over 12 hours or because I pushing for so long (5 hours). I thank God for the wisdom of my midwife and doula, for their experience, strength and belief in my ability to birth my baby.  Not to mention the chance for Dan, Bea and I to bond undisturbed in our own home. 

So that is my personal story. While yes I am a little atypical, some might say a crunchy organic farmer or whatever, but I am not flaky.  Nor am I naive. My own miscarriage and the loss of a good friend's full term baby have made me painfully aware  that things don't always go according to our expectations.  Nevertheless, the facts are plain and simple about the safety of midwifery care.  For more info please check out this recent piece from the LA Times by Jennifer Block, author of Pushed: The Painful Truth About Childbirth and Modern Maternity Care. 

Hello Baby... book, not peanut

No our little peanut hasn't arrived early, rather Hello Baby is the title of a wonderful book depicting a wintery homebirth. There couldn't be a more perfect way to introduce Bea to what actually could happen on the day peanut comes out into the world.  The mom takes a walk in the woods, the midwife arrives with her gear, the soon to be big brother helps his dad bring in fire wood for the cold wintery night.... even one of the big sisters is named Bea.  The illustrations are beautiful and convey so much love.  The mom walks around the house during labor with the dad holding her during contractions. The three older children get to see their little brother being born and even get to check out the placenta.  In the evening the whole family camps out in front of the fire.  I first read the book to Bea soon after it arrived in the mail. She was engrossed and I couldn't hold back my tears.  Later that evening Bea was showing Dan the book at the dinner table, he started reading and started crying.  He really hadn't expected to be so touched.  I think this was an "aha" moment for him when he was reminded of the emotions of  birth  and the reality that we are all going to be back at that special place soon. It was so funny. We were both crying, laughing and trying to explain to Bea the strange phenomenon of crying when you are happy.  On Bea's request we are now reading Hello Baby at least once a day.  

Bea is very excited to be a big sister and is becoming very interested about the birth.  "How is the baby going to come out of your vagina?"  If every thing goes according to plan, she will get to find out!