March 18, 2010

THE BOOK!

In the process of Jason and I taking control of the reigns in the birth of our next child, YOU guys are going to be an educated bunch by the end of our pregnancy. (Lucky You!)

This blog is going to be about the Bradley book that Jason and I are reading called "Husband Coached Child Birth". The basis of the book is about how humans are Mammals, physiologically stemming from the Animal Kingdom. BUT, what this Doctor Bradley has insightfully pointed out, is the way humans give birth and the way all other mammals give birth are completely different. Doctor Bradley decided to ask, why are we so different if we are so similar physically?

GREAT question. Not many people my age have grown up on a farm these days but Dr. Bradley talks about how his experience growing up on the farm was that the animals giving birth on the farm did NOT have complications, they did NOT need medication to give birth, they do NOT have a doctor or ANYone attending their birth, giving birth was peaceful, quiet and unhindered. Our "Human" idea of giving birth is ... hospital, medication, doctors, screaming, painful, recovery, complications, C-SECTIONS!!!

Dr. Bradley goes on to explain that the difference between Animals and Humans is that Animals have a huge instinct as to how to live and give birth. Humans are not instinctual but God differentiated humans from the mammal world by giving them their ability to learn. A perfect example of this, besides child birth, is swimming. When you put an animal in water, it instinctually knows what to do in order to swim. If you put a human in water that has never learned how to swim, they WILL drown. But, the good news and key point to this blog and book is that hunmans can be taught how to swim and give birth.

I like this theory. It makes a lot of sense. With my first birth, I had no idea what to expect, we saw maybe 3 birthing videos but besides that, we never were taught how to have a baby. We were even taught how to raise the baby and care for it AFTER you give birth but we learned nothing about birthing the baby. With this birth, I am going into it more informed and educated than I ever was with the first. If this theory is correct, I KNOW I can do this better the second time around.

With that, I'll leave you with a little intresting fact I learned.

A 9 month pregnant uterus (without including the baby's weight) weighs 15 lbs!!! No wonder women get low back pain with pregnancy. :)

~Mama Beal

March 11, 2010

Alright, Alright!!! I'm gettin' a lot of Guff from certain people from certain states (Montana, you know who you are) to update my blog. Nobody else seems to care too much so this one's for you Ash. :)

So, I'm still pregnant. Yep, still puking on occasion. Still feeling nauseous every morning but at least not puking every morning (have I mentioned that I HATE puking??) I've been getting a lot of headaches, my hips hurt, and my hands fall asleep at night ... I am more uncomfortable with this pregnancy than I was with Abby. Maybe that will make the birth easier. (Fingers Crossed)

Speaking of birth. Not only do I have a great mid-wife that I like but I've taken it upon myself to be more proactive with this birth. I DO NOT want what happened last time to be what happens this time around. Here's what I've been doing to prepare myself for a different experience.

A few weeks ago, Jason and I watched a documentary on Natural Childbirth called it "The Business of Being Born" produced by Ricki Lake (yep, the same lady that had the famous 90's talk show.) Jason was a trooper and watched it with me. If you ever have kids, I think it's a MUST WATCH before you give birth. (A warning: you see a lot of "bush" and they are very blunt leaving nothing to the imagination. Mom, if you don't know what "bush" is, don't look it up.) Although it seems kind of crude, it was actually very touching and done very well.

The other thing I've been doing is research on the Bradley Birthing Technique. It's a natural birthing technique that really incorporates the help of the husband through the whole process. With Abby's birth, I felt like Jason was helpless and he didn't really have any tools to help me through the process. This time around we're going to work as a team. There's also Bradley classes that start in April which several of my friends who have had natural child birth have strongly recommended and I am pretty sure we're going to sign up for them as well.

Lastly, Jason and I are both reading a book written by the "Dr. Bradley" of the Bradley Birthing technique called "Husband Coached Childbirth." I think doing a lot of these activities together as a team will really make a difference when it comes to actually having the baby. I'm so grateful that Jason is willing to go through all of this to show his support and help me achieve the type of birth that I truly want.

I know this birth is going to be different than the last. At this point, we have done so much extra research and we intend to do so much more that it would be impossible for us to have the exact same birth. I'm glad we're on a different track than we were with my first birth.

Well, that's all for now. I'll try to be more vigilant with my blog-up-keep. :p Enjoy this picture of my belly. (just ignore the fact that I haven't washed the mirror for a long time.)



PS, we find out the gender of the baby in about 6 weeks. My prediction is that it's a boy. Here's why I think that; I've been more sick with this one, my acne is terrible (got better with Abby), the hair on my legs is growing like weeds, I'm easily irritated recently. (Maybe the later is not pregnancy related, for Jason's sake, I hope it is.) I'll keep you posted as to the gender when we find out. :)