Mason's Resume

Dear Sir or Madam,
I am applying for the job of cutest 3 month old baby. I will fulfill the age requirement in a week. As part of my application, see the enclosed resume and references. Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,
Mason G. Blake


RESUME FOR MASON BLAKE, DOB 07/28/2010



Skills:

I am an expert in the following:

• Drooling
• Blowing bubbles
• Chewing on hands and Mommy's fingers
• Saturating and/or blowing out diapers. My specialty is saturating my diaper over night and then, when Mommy is feeding me, or thinks I have fallen asleep again, I poop and it goes everywhere! Hee hee!
• Target peeing
• Watching Mommy and Daddy with fascination as they fold laundry and clean the kitchen.
• Being fascinated by the crazy things Daddy does
• Keeping Daddy distracted from homework
  
• Splashing in the bathtub while Mommy laughs herself sicker
• Wiggling
• Grasping things
• Cuddling
• Eating, both from bottle and from Mommy
• Cooing
  
• Sneezing
• Yawning

I am improving in the following skills:

• Giggling/ laughing- not quite there yet
• General vocalizing
  
• Scooting around in bed so I am not lying straight when Mommy gets me in the morning
• Playing with rattles with assistance- here is a video of my exercises- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7c28oQXRyI

I will soon be working on rolling over, babbling, putting everything in my mouth, holding things and playing with rattles on my own.

References:

Mommy
Daddy
Auntie Missa
Great-aunt Gina and Liz
Grandma Blake
Tutu

My big baby

Mason is 9 weeks old today, two months old as of yesterday. He weighs 14 pounds 11 ounces and he is in the 97th percentile for his weight, the 91st for head size, and 90th for height. He is one big boy! There were a couple of babies at the doctor's office today that are his age, but half his size!

He is such a sweet little boy. He has blue eyes, and his hair, which has mostly fallen out, is starting to grow back in really good. He is already in size two diapers and has outgrown many of the 0 to 3 month clothes.

I started back to work three weeks ago, and I'm noticing a difference in his attitude. He definitely misses me when I'm not here. He cried when I got to my aunt's house to pick him up last Friday, and he was twice as sweet and cuddly over the weekend and better behaved, not getting as crabby in the evening as he usually does. And yesterday he wouldn't go to sleep until I put him on my bed and laid down next to him. It was very cute, but I hope it doesn't become a habit. At least he let me put him in his crib once he was asleep.

He adjusted to the bottle pretty well as long as it's warm, if it's cold he spills it all over the place, but he still prefers to nurse. I'm pumping at work, so he's getting the good stuff.

He loves water and baths, he took one with me the other day, which he really liked. He is sleeping 6 to 8 hours each night, usually waking up around 4 to eat, and then sleeping until 7 or 8. He behaves himself pretty well for his sitters, and he is a very cheerful baby in the morning, which I miss out on. He is a very smiley boy, and cuddly. He obviously loves his mommy and daddy. I love him more everyday, and hate having to leave him for work each morning!

Mason update

My boy is getting huge!
He is now four and a half weeks old. Tomorrow he will be a month old. He weighed 9 pounds 10 ounces at his two week appointment, and is probably close to twelve pounds now. He's a cutie pie! He slept six hours last night! and hopefully will tonight as well, he's been awake since 4 or 5 other than a nap he just finished.

The Saturday after he was born, we had to feed him formula for the day because he wasn't getting much food from me, my milk hadn't come in yet. Then Sunday, my milk came in, and since then I've been constantly feeding him.

He loves his daddy, Mike likes to play with him, and he enjoys it, but as of yet, he doesn't react much. Mike is looking forward to when he starts laughing and smiling at the silly things he does to them.

I have to go back to work in about two weeks (lame!). My mom is coming out to visit me the week before I go back, and will get to watch my baby for the first week.

I love my baby boy so much! He is so cute and sweet! He smiles at me sometimes!

My beautiful baby

So I have a baby now and he is absolutely beautiful!

It was a tough thing. I was induced Tuesday morning at 6, and went all day, getting to maybe a three. They broke my water and everything, but not much happened, so they turned off the pitocin and I went to sleep.

Wednesday morning at 5:30 they plugged me back in, and it started working very quickly. By noon I was in a lot of pain. My midwife came in and said she'd check me at 3, and hopefully by then I'd be a five and they could take me off the pitocin and let me labor normally.

Well, that didn't work. I was still a four, and by then I was exhausted and in so much pain, I couldn't stand it anymore. I just wanted it to end.

My midwife highly recommended an epidural, because she felt that I would have to have a c-section if things didn't improve. I didn't really want to, but Mike gave me a blessing and we decided it was the right thing to do. So around 330, They got me started on the epidural.

Then things started getting scary. A couple of hours later, I was just a five, and my midwife was getting concerned because Mason's heart rate was dropping after the good contractions, which could mean he was having problems. So she called the doctor who does c-sections, and told us we might have to have one for the baby's safety.

I was devastated. I started crying, I couldn't hold it back. Mike was having a tough time too, but he gave me another blessing, in which he promised everything would be ok. So I held on to that and prayed like crazy.

The next time they checked me, I was a six, so they said we might be able to manage it. And when the doctor came and checked me, he said I was an eight (although my midwife did not agree with that) and to keep going, just watching things. The next check, which I'm not sure when it was, I lost track of the time, she said I was ready! Everyone was so relieved!

I had to use the stirrups, because I had absolutely no control over my legs. It was pretty funny, actually, because my midwife had trouble with the stirrups. So I started pushing with my contractions, and they ended up using a vacuum to get him out faster, because they were worried about the baby's heart rate, and I pushed through about six contractions, then he was out!

He was a mess! The fluid at that point had a lot of meconium (aka baby poop) in it, so they had to take him and clean him up, but he is absolutely gorgeous! He latched on right away when I breastfed, and he is so sweet. He likes to cuddle, he cried when they brought us breakfast, but he wasn't hungry, he cuddled with me for a minute and then went to sleep.

I am so grateful that I got induced, and that it worked out so well. I started to think I'd made a mistake getting induced, but all the meconium in his fluid, which could have caused problems if he had inhaled it, and the fact that his placenta was aging verifies to me that he needed to be born. We are blessed that things went so well.

Mason Gordon, born 9:58 pm on July 28th, 2010. 8 pounds 6 ounces, 20 inches.

Into every life a little annoyance must come

I guess I was feeling too good about life after my last posting because of all the blessings, and something had to be done to take me down a peg or two. Well, it's working, I'm sorry, and PLEASE FIX IT!

Anyway, here's the deal. We have a five year old Malibu that we just finished paying off (see previously referred to blessings) which is the "good" car. We also have Mike's brother's 10 year old Cavalier which somehow has 160,000+ miles, which we don't like to drive long distances, for obvious reasons, and which has no A/C. I drove the Cavalier until it got too hot, since Mike had to drive 45 minutes each way to school last semester and I didn't want him breaking down somewhere. And fortunately, it didn't get too hot till the semester was over.

Last Tuesday, Mike and I left for work at the same time, which is unusual for us. The Cavalier was parked down behind the apartment, and the Malibu on the street, making easier access for me. I get in the car, turn it on, and hear a weird ticking noise coming from somewhere low in the car. Well, I didn't like that, so I flagged Mike down, since he had to drive past me to leave, and he stopped and we tried to figure it out. We weren't sure where it was coming from, but noticed the right taillight was burnt out and thought maybe it had something to do with it. So he headed back to his car, and I got in, and started to go to work.

Except the car wouldn't shift. It would not get out of park. So I called back to Mike, and he tried it. We turned it off and on again, and played with it, but it wouldn't work. So Mike drove me to work.

Mike did some research that day, calling the dealership and researching online, and determined what might be wrong with it. The dealership quoted $400 to repair it, if that was the problem. He also found out that we had towing insurance on the Malibu, though not the Cavalier (which we have since added since it was so handy) so we wouldn't have to pay to get it towed somewhere. We got a couple of numbers of car repair places and got quotes on how much it would be to fix it if it was the problem the dealership thought it was, because we figured if that repair was cheaper, whatever it really was would be cheaper too.

Thursday, after dropping me off at work, Mike went back home and called the tow truck. When the tow truck showed up, he asked Mike to turn the car on and turn the wheel all the way to the side, to make it easier to get it on the truck. Well, when Mike tried, the car wouldn't start. But the two truck guy was able to shift the car into neutral. Weird!

He towed it to the car place, who determined the battery had died (probably thanks to our haunted CD player which tries to work when the car is turned off). When they re-charged the battery, the car worked fine. No ticking noise, shifted, everything. They held it for awhile to see if the battery was bad, and determined that nothing was wrong. They figured the computer pysched itself out into not working, and when the battery died, it rebooted everything. Go figure.

So Friday, we went and picked the car up (no charge, since all they did was charge a battery). We dropped the other car off at home, and went to get a pizza at Papa Murphy's to take to Lizzie's house. When we got back to the car, it was stuck in park again. No problem, we figured, they told us if it happened again to disconnect the battery and reconnect it. Oops, though, problem. We hadn't figured on it happening again so fast, and didn't have any tools with us. So Lizzie drove out with her husband's tool box and we disconnected the battery.

Only it didn't fix it.

We called the car place, and they suggested leaving it disconnected for 20-30 minutes. We didn't have the time to wait around, since we had plans, so we disconnected it, and went with Lizzie.

Later that night we went back and tried again. Not only did it not work, but the trunk kept popping on it's own.

So we disconnected the battery again, so the trunk would stay closed, and Liz drove us home. The next morning, Mike drove out in the Cavalier to get it towed. Only before he called the tow place, he tried the car. And it worked. Still ticking noise, but able to shift. He didn't dare turn it off, so he pulled a move from the God's must be crazy by leaving it in reverse (it was on a slight hill) and sticking the tool box behind the wheel while he locked up the other car, and drove home to get me. We drove back and picked up the other car, and decided to take them both home, since the car place was closed til Monday and we didn't want to leave the car there over the weekend.

Monday Mike drove the car to the car place, and they looked it over, but said, basically, that as long as it is able to shift, they can't determine what is wrong with it. They can do the repair we thought it was originally, but if that's not it, we are out $250. So now we are stuck with an unreliable car that we can't drive long distances, because we don't want to be stranded, and my baby could be born any day now.

I've been driving it to work, since I live 15 minutes from work, and Mike could pick me up if it broke down, but we can't drive it to our birthing class, which is a 45 minute drive, and I don't feel safe driving it to my weekly check-ups, since I don't want to be stranded in in the city. Although, there could be worst places. I mean, if go into labor or something, the hospital is right there.

Fortunately, Liz and Bruce have a second car which Bruce hardly ever uses, that they let us drive to my birthing class (since a 45 minute drive in the kind of heat we are having does not seem like a good idea without A/C right now). I have to drive it though, because it's a manual, which Mike hasn't ever really driven (our next car will be a manual and we'll fix that). And they have let me drive it to my mid-wife appointments as well.

I just want the car to die though so we can get it fixed. It's been a bit of a hassle figuring out how to do stuff without driving the "good" car, since we can't rely on it anymore. And I'm sure the moment we start trusting it, something will happen and we'll be stuck somewhere. Yuck!

The blessings of free stuff

I have been a little worried about money issues, what with baby coming and me not having enough leave to pay for the time I am taking off for him. On top of that, there are all the things I know I am going to need when the baby is born.

Or rather that I needed.

Not that I have everything I need. But lets review some of the big things you need with a new baby.

A crib.
Car seats.
Dresser, or other storage space for clothes.
I wanted a bassinet, so he could sleep in our room for a bit.
A stroller or two.
A pump, as I plan to breast feed but have to go to work.

Of course there are still clothes and miscellaneous small items, but these are the large, pricier items.

Now lets review what we have, and where it came from.

A crib- the bishop of Lizabroo's/ Mike's parents ward gave it to us.
Car seats- A coworker who's baby just outgrew them gave me two nice ones.
Dresser- I got one through freecycle just this last weekend, a nice big one I'll be sharing with the baby which will double as a changing table.
A bassinet- also came off freecycle.
A stroller- A VERY nice one that a family Mike has known for years noticed out on the curb with a "Please Take" sign and grabbed for us. They also grabbed a booster chair and some toys.
A pump- My dear kind sister who gets to stay at home with her kids lent me hers from when her first baby was born.

And of course there are clothes coming from all over the place: my sister has sent me some of Eli's, my sister-in-law April, who works at a thrift store keeps bringing over bags and bags of clothes, my cousin's wife Kaylee gave me some of hers. And I have a shower this week at work and another the end of the month for family and friends.

We have been blessed. It really just takes knowing people, and having patience to wait and see what comes along. Our house has been almost completely furnished with these kinds of offerings, the only things we had to buy were some of our bookshelves. And its not too shabby looking either.

Thank you everyone who has helped!

Baby stuff

I had my most recent appointment Wednesday. I seem to have capped out on my weight gain, I didn't gain any weight. The baby is breach currently, but I have some things to do to get him to flip. Today, I lay down with a bag of cold corn on my high belly and a warm pac on my lower belly, the idea to encourage him to flip. I don't know if he did, but he did react to the cold and pushed against it.

Here is a new picture of me.


My feet are flabby. It's very annoying. They flop a bit when I walk. I eat a lot these days too. Today at work, someone brought four containers of strawberries, and I ate almost a full one myself. They were very yummy.

Car trouble and bananas

I was lazy this morning. Mike woke up at 6 and was very prompt about getting up and going, but I decided I would sleep in because I was planning on going to the DMV to get my name changed on my car title, and they don't open until 8 am. So I got up at seven, right when Mike was leaving. He had a final today and had to be there at 8, and it's about a 45 minute drive to his campus.

My plans changed slightly. While I was in the shower, Mike came in. He asked me if I'd ever had trouble with the car not starting. The newer one, not the junker that I've been driving since January. I told him to take the other car and go, since he had his final. He was concerned about me, and asked how I was going to get to work, but I told him not to worry about it and go. Technically I didn't need to be to work until 9, so I had plenty of time. I figured if needed, I could call Liz and get a ride.

I got ready, and went to the car and tried to start it. It wouldn't work, so I called my father-in-law to ask him to listen to the sounds it was making. He said he thought it was the battery, so I went and bugged my new neighbors for a jump. And it worked! Woo-hoo! I even had time to go to the DMV before work.

Anyway, I figured I should do something nice for the neighbors as a thank you.

My mid-wives suggested I eat more bananas to help with leg cramps. The problem with bananas is I only like them at a certain stage. I like them with just a tad of green on them, up until right before they get spots. And Mike doesn't like them much either, so they tend to go bad before we eat them. So we have been sticking the extra ones in the freezer for use in banana bread or muffins. Mike has been harassing me for not eating them fast enough.

So I decided to make banana bread. I had enough bananas to make four loaves. I gave one to my neighbors, one is for my work's snack day Thursday, one is for a church thing, and one is for our consumption. The last two are in the oven right now, filling our house with the smell of goodness.

I don't think Mike will keep harassing me about eating the bananas for awhile.

Baby update

I've been meaning to put the ultrasound pictures up for awhile. Here they are!




It's amazing the things they can figure out looking at the ultrasounds. I would not be able to see as much as they can. Of course it takes training.

My mom has been bugging me for a pregnancy picture. I thought I'd start with a pre-pregnancy picture, and I found a couple of pictures from the wedding to use for comparison. Nice huh? You can kinda see my belly in these pictures. Now here's one taken last Sunday: Wow baby boy, you are making Mommy fat!

Anyway, I am now starting to walk funny. I'm not waddling yet, but it's a sort of wobble. The baby is getting more active, and I feel him almost every day. Mike felt him a couple of weeks ago, but hasn't been able to much since, he isn't violent enough to be felt much outside of my belly.

I'm really hungry lately, I eat a lot more than I used too. Whenever we go out to eat I want meat. It used to be that Mike and I would split a dinner, but now I am too hungry and have to get my own food. Besides, Mike isn't a huge fan of steak, and I want that a lot.

I get tired a lot and very quickly. And I get short of breath if I walk to quickly or when I walk upstairs carrying laundry. My husband is very good about taking care of those problems for me. He rocks!

And I have heartburn almost every night. Ouch! It is not fun.

Other than that, things are going ok for me. I'm not sick anymore, and I am adjusting to being pregnant nicely.

And my husband is a great guy. He has done a lot to help me. One day I sent him a text letting him know I was having a hard time, and he made dinner, and got me a special treat for dessert.

I am due July 16th, but I assume the baby will be late, so I;m guessing late July, hopefully not as late as August.

Giddy!

I am seriously giddy and excited. D'you want to know why?

I just paid off my car!

Ok, so technically I haven't yet, I still have to mail the check because my bank is lame and doesn't let me do it any other way. But I have the money, I wrote the check, and I am going to the post office tomorrow to send it off certified, since it is a pretty big check.

I bought the car almost exactly two years ago, and took out a $7500 loan to pay for it. It was a six year loan, but I always intended to make extra payments on it, and pay it off faster. Well, for awhile I was putting a lot extra each month, like $300 or so more, because I was living with family and didn't have rent, and then after we got married, we weren't really paying attention to budget, so I kept it up. But then we realized that we had to pay for Mike's tuition, so we needed to start saving, and I cut back. Then tax season came around.

To be honest, I had completely forgotten about tax returns when I was doing financial planning. We figured we'd put whatever we got into savings as a cushion when the baby was born, but we didn't realize how much we were going to get. Being married put a big chunk back in our wallet. So we decided that we were getting enough to pay off my car, and to still have some savings for when the baby came.

We were told by my aunt, who did our taxes, that we would get the tax return next weekend, so we figured we'd pay it off then. Well, I logged onto our bank website today and noticed a big increase in my checking account. I was soooo excited! I logged onto the other bank site to check the payoff amount and wrote out the check immediately.

It's such a good feeling! We now have extra money we can put into savings or my student loans, and we will own my car outright! I don't think I will ever get another car loan. I kind of needed this one, since I was moving and needed a good reliable car, and I'm glad I have it, but I have made a personal goal to never have to do it again. I don't think people realize how much interest they end up paying on loans. The first few payments I made, more than a third of the money went to interest! That's why I decided so quickly to make extra payments. A six year loan paid off in two years? Not too shabby.

We paid off our car!

I think too much

I am working on a new project at work lately which is a bit more complicated than what I used to do, and it requires a lot more brain power than usual. Basically, I have to to think seriously about what to do with each case. So my brain has been getting a lot of exercise lately, and sometimes it goes off on tangents when I am not at work, or on a break. Here is something I thought about the other day that I wanted to share.

I was messing around on facebook, and I found a post where a friend of mine was in the newspaper in Pocatello, so I went to look at the article. On the bottom of the page was links to different news stories, and one of them was about some billboards that seemed to be attacking Mormon beliefs. I read the article, which basically states the billboards are aimed at people who feel like too much is expected of them. Then I read some of the comments, and that's when I got annoyed.

It was the whole "grace versus works" debate all over again. A bunch of people were getting on and making comments about how Mormons don't believe in grace and that they teach us that the only way to get to heaven is to be perfect, and how that doesn't make us Christian.

Now, first of all, there is no grace versus works, not if you read the Bible and try follow all it's teachings. The Bible teaches that we must be saved through grace, but it also teaches that faith without works is dead. So basically, we need both. We should do what we can to follow Christ's example, and then, since we cannot be perfect, Christ makes up the rest. Where is the debate? Just because two different apostles wrote on two different subjects does not mean they disagreed with each other, they were just writing to different audiences, who had different concerns.

Secondly, the LDS church does not teach that we make to heaven solely on our own merit. Our leaders do teach the concept that we need the grace of Jesus to get us there, that he will make up for our shortcomings after all we can do. A very specific teaching that I remember was taught by a video I showed on my mission. I can't find a reference for it online, but I remember the story. I think it was told by Elder Packer.

Basically, it told a parable of a debtor. A young man wanted to buy something really expensive, and decided to borrow the money. He had a good friend who counseled him against it, because he knew the man he wanted to borrow the money from, and that he was a hard man. But the young man went ahead and borrowed the money.

Well, eventually the money came due, and the young man worked and worked to earn the money to pay it back. But he couldn't do it. He realized that it was literally impossible for him to pay back the money in time. The man he borrowed the money come came with guards to take him away to jail since he couldn't pay it back.

The young man's friend came forward, and told the man that he would pay the young man's debts, since he was unable to do so, and saved him from prison. That friend is like Jesus. After the young man did all he could to pay back the debt, his friend made up the rest. And so it is with us. After we do all we can to make up for our sins, Jesus will do the rest if we accept it.

This video helped me to understand how grace works. And it clearly teaches the concept of the need for grace.

Now in writing this, I will acknowledge that people in the church, often women, feel like too much is expected of them, like they need to be perfect. I struggle with that myself sometimes, because I have the desire to be the best I can, and to do more than I can do sometimes. But that is because I am trying to run faster than I have strength, and I realize that. I need to remember that the Savior has taken on those burdens I can't handle, and be grateful for what I can do. It is not the church teaching me that I'm not doing enough, it is my own expectations and sometimes peer pressure making me feel that way. But that does not mean the church isn't teaching about grace, it just means we don't always understand how it works.

I have to say, I'm getting tired of people telling me what I believe and what my church teaches who don't know what they are talking about. I think one of my mission companions summed it up the best way for me. She joined the church when she was eighteen, and when she stated investigating the church, she had people come trying to tell her things about our beliefs to convince her not to join. She told them this, "I will come talk to you about what your church believes, and I will go to the Mormons to find out what their church believes. If you wanted to learn about the Catholic church, would you go to a Jew?"

I feel like I just ranted on and on, but I truly believe that half of the discord that comes between different religions is misunderstanding, and listening to the wrong people. There are people who try to destroy religions in general and there are people who focus on specific ones for whatever reason. And those people are not the ones who are going to give you an objective, truthful history of those religions. And like I said, I think too much.

Pregnancy update

So I am at this weird point, where I have to eat every two hours. I'm not sick or anything, I just get hungry all the time. It feels really weird. I need to replenish my snacks at work.

Also, my slacks are all just about out because they are getting so tight, and my big coat is getting tight on my belly when I zip it up. I still don't have any cool side shots or anything, there is nothing to see there, but I am getting bigger.

And I am tired a lot. Mornings are really bad. I wasn't sure I'd make it through the day this morning, but felt a bit better after lunch.

I have an appointment for an ultrasound on March 2nd, so hopefully we will know then if it's a girl. That's what we think it is, but we'll see. I think that's about it for now. When I start having a pregnant profile, I might post a pic or two. For now, I like my wedding picture.

Being pregnant is funny

It's funny, I've been learning some things about pregnancy that make me laugh at times.

First off, everyone who knows I am pregnant is always asking me how I am feeling. Everyone. At work, at church, even people I barely know. And they ask me every day and every time I see them. It's pretty funny, you'd think I was going to break.

My co-workers won't let me carry anything. Not that we carry around huge loads or anything, but I have to be careful about using the cart when I go get more files, or I get yelled at.

Also, I have to be careful about what I do sometimes. After my appointment with my midwife, I went to call Mike to talk to him about the ultrasound appointment. I figured he was out of class, because I had his morning schedule confused. He was in the middle of class, and he answered the phone because he was worried something might have happened, since he knew I had an appointment that morning. I laughed a bit, and apologized for messing up his schedule in my head. Fortunately it wasn't during lecture or anything. Another time, he texted his mom asking her to call soon about something urgent, and she got worried, thinking something was wrong with me.

Then today, at work, I banged my knee pretty badly one my desk. I grabbed it and made some "Ouch" noises, because it hurt really bad, and one of my coworkers, Mary, got a little freaked out. She said, "What's wrong? Are you ok?" in a somewhat, not panicky, but definitely worried voice, until she got a good look at me, and said, "Oh, it's just your knee." I just about died laughing after that. People are really careful with you when you are pregnant, I guess she thought something had gone wrong.

Being pregnant is funny sometimes.

A few thoughts on childbirth

Now, by no means do I claim to be an expert. I have yet to have my first child. But I have some thoughts about the process of childbirth.

I have always felt that having a baby is a part of life, and something that most people can do without too much help. But I grew up hearing horror stories from my mom and her friends about their labor and about how the doctors treated them. I always hoped that by the time I was having kids, the doctors would lay off some.

When I found out I was pregnant, my sister sent me some books on natural childbirth, talking about things like the differences between midwives, ob-gyns, and family practitioners, and about different interventions doctors practice. I read one of them, and took notes about some of the things I didn't want to have happen, and went to my first appointment with my doctor, who had been recommended to me by a couple different girls, one from work, one from church. I hoped for a good interview, and that they'd be flexible.

Unfortunately, it was no good. My doctor was not in the least flexible. She was not supportive of the idea of not using drugs ("90% of women get an epidural, and those who wait until later have a harder time of it"), she was not supportive about the idea of birth plans ("they never work, the ones who come in with birth plans are more likely to have problems") and she was insistent that I had to have an IV, which I do NOT want.

Now she may have felt she was being reasonable, but she wasn't. The note about the epidural's being worse for those who wait until later was true, but I know why from some of the reading I've done. Basically, an epidural slows things down, and people who wait are farther along when they finally get one, which messes things up. As for the "birth plans never work," to me that seems a self fulfilling prophecy. If the doctor doesn't like birth plans, she makes that clear to the patient, which makes her more nervous, and the doctor will be more likely to be looking for problems to prove her point. As for the IV, I know they couldn't force me to have one, since they have to have patient consent, but I don't think I will be in any condition to argue with the doctor while I am in labor.

So I decided to look into different options. I was talking to one of my coworkers about the problem, and he told me his mother is a doula. He gave her my number, and she called me and gave me a list of different midwives and practitioners in the area who are more inclined towards natural childbirth. I met with one of the midwives on Wednesday, and it was night and day. I didn't even have to ask about the things I had concerns about, as they listed off their policies, they covered every single item that had bothered me about the doctor. I felt so much better after I left. I didn't realize before how much my doctor's visit had brought me down.

Anyway, I would recommend midwives to anyone who is expecting. Midwives are available in hospitals, birthing centers, and for home birth, and they are a valid option, and more likely to go with your wishes. Don't feel like an ob-gyn is your only option.

The love of a mother?

The other morning, my husband made some comment about the special bond between mother and baby while I was puking in the bathroom. It made me laugh, because I do not love throwing up. I thought about it for awhile, and realized that if anything, the vomiting was teaching me how little control I have over anything in my life, which is important, since I will not be able to control my child. I think it's important to realize that, because I've been on my own for so long and used to doing things my own way.

Later I was thinking about it more, and I think in a way, he may have been right about the mother's bond thing. One thing we learn is that sacrificing for others is the best way to both show love, and to increase love for others. So, I almost wonder if part of why pregnancy is so miserable physically is to help create that bond early on, and to get mothers used to sacrificing for their children.

Random thought of the month.