I'm Kind Of In Love

With my girlfriends.

Seriously.

They.are.amazing.

This weekend, I had such a great time celebrating this baby of mine with some friends & family and although it was pretty overwhelming, I felt so loved! My friend Emilee threw the shower & made sure to include all of my pregnancy cravings. She made 4 different types of chicken wings, had margarita's & wine for the non-pregnant ladies to enjoy, and served cupcakes and chocolate eclairs. It was so delicious and perfect. The only thing I wish I had done was taken more photos. I only got to snap a few. And I wish I would have had more time to sit and chat with everyone for as long as I wanted to!

It was just so wonderful to have all of my girlfriends in one room together, who are all just as excited about this baby as I am. Some of my favorite things about the shower: my mother in law gave me a jar of jalapenos & buffalo sauce! My good friend Janelle gave me a thing of garlic as an inside joke since my midwife has me eating garlic everyday. I broke down in tears after reading the sweet card from my friend Laura (who also had a VBAC) and had such encouraging words for me. I got some really adorable baby outfits from my Mom. Receiving such sweet and thoughtful gifts and looking around the room realizing the unique relationships I have with all of the ladies in my life who I'm so grateful to know, made me feel so special!

April & I with our bellies. She is due right around the same time as I am.

My girl Amy looking beautiful & this adorable banner that was made for the shower.

Monday night I had a girls dinner with Sarah & Sarah. I made {THIS} for dinner. 

I'm eager to get in as much girl time as possible before the baby comes.

Last night, one of my dearest friends in the world, Dotty, took me on a girls date. We got pedicures and had the most delicious Thai food at a little hole in the wall restaurant. We ordered dishes that we've never tried. Being adventurous totally paid off. It was incredible. Her "girls date" was one of my favorite baby shower gifts! Thanks Dotty.

Me, sitting back, taking a break to make more room for more food. 

I just seriously have to thank my girlfriends for all of the love you've showed me recently. I can't thank you enough for coming to my shower-showering me with love and sweet gifts for the baby. I felt so loved. Thank you girls again!   

When The Day Is Taking A Major Crap All Over You....

It's nice to call the husband, who is also being covered in loads of crap at work,

and have lunch together.

We met at one of our favorite places to visit in the morning, Town Square and enjoyed each other's company for an hour before we both had to go back to our respectable jobs, engineer & mom (womp-womp!). We love Town Square so much mainly because it's never busy in the mornings, we love sitting in the aisles of Borders looking at books, I get exercise walking from store to store browsing, we can grab a snack at Whole Foods & afterwards, burn off some energy at the water park and be in the car ready to head home for nap time at 11! It's a win, win situation for everyone!

Conrad (and his horse with a freakishly weird amount of realistic looking hair...) had some pizza.

Handsome-ness:

I ate sushi with copious amounts of wasabi all over it.....

Conrad talked to the baby *(my belly), showed the baby his horse by attempting to lift up my shirt and tried to "feed" the baby a bite of his pizza by also trying to lift up my shirt & give some to the baby. He was all, "Here bay-be! have some peeezah!" I wanted to die. It really was almost too much to bear.... I felt like lifting up my shirt was a little inappropriate for public, so we just let him talk to the "baby", with my shirt down.

He and his horse both cooled off while running around on the splash pad.

What a nice break from the our sometimes draining, hard, frustrating & long days.

After seeing my hubby's smiling-handsome face, it totally put a little pep in my step the rest of the day!

Do not be afraid for I have ransomed you. I have called you by name; you are mine. When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through fires of oppression, you will not be burned up. The flames will not consume you!

Isaiah 43:1-2

They Just Don't Fit Like They Used To...

     8 weeks pregnant with baby #2:

I remember taking this photo because I had ran 6 miles that morning. I was so excited 

and pumped about being pregnant (and was determined to keep running while I was pregnant, 

            which didn't happen, but when I got home, I took this photo.)                                  

34.5 Weeks pregnant with baby #2:

I went to the gym today to walk.
My tank top didn't quite cover my ever-expanding-baby bump...
The guy on the treadmill next to me kept looking over and staring.
So I apologized and explained that nothing fits anymore,
and that's why I'm all hanging out everywhere.
To which he awkwardly looked at my belly again and back at his basketball game & said nothing.
Again, it was very awkward.
Maybe he's right. I should try to cover my junk up.

But DAY-UM JEANA' this bump is gettin' BIG!

Long story short, I started feeling weird about our awkward exchange of stares, glares, & silences
 so I took my big'ol self and strutted on home.

I'm so close to the end now, which is great because that means it's almost baby time! But I'm at that stage in pregnancy where the maternity wear is starting to become pretty tight.
Do I go out and buy more maternity tanks or just let it all hang out??


 Ugh. 

Get In My Belly!

Mr. "D's" Is one of my favorite custard places in Vegas. We stopped by to indulge in some yummy custard last week and boy did it hit the spot! You have to treat yourself every now and then! Dustin could barely finish his but I woofed mine down in no time! He was a nice husband for not mentioning how fast I ate mine..... He just smiled and said he was glad I enjoyed it.

I met another fellow preggy recently and we were complaining about our swollen canckles and how it sucks that we pee 40 times a night and while we were complaining (and also talking about the joys of pregnancy too) she said that the best part of pregnancy has been being about to guilelessly eat whatever she wants to eat. I just agreed with her but really, I felt quite the opposite. I have already made my list of junk (spicy lime Cheetos, a glass of wine, candy, a Star Bucks frapuccino, chocolate covered espresso beans, chocolate covered almonds, jalapeno potato chips, deep fried pickles and a whole crap load of buffalo wings, like 24 of them all to myself.....If my husband could just have all of these things ready buffet style, on my kitchen table, my heart would be so happy!) I indulge every now and then, but if I eat too much junk, the guilt sets in. I can't wait to have just one really good day of binge eating after the baby gets here. I really can't tell you how excited I am to guilelessly eat and eat and eat.....

I think I've figured that I'm going to gain just as much weight (if not, a few LB's more) with this baby than I did with Conrad, but the difference is that I feel A BILLION times better and healthier this time around. I ate a lot of processed foods and fast foods before and now I'm making sure to eat a lot of protein and raw foods, so I'm not as concerned about the weight. Dustin has noticed a huge difference too.

I'm looking forward to my buffet of junky-goodness. 

Weekly Surf + Our Maternity Photos

Pretty summer braids
In case you were wondering what we've made to go above the baby's crib... Can't wait to show you!
I can't even handle how adorable these ham burger cupcakes & fries are
Don't forget to pick up your $2 tanks at Old Navy today
If you only click one link on this post, please click this one and watch video
This blog post spoke to my heart this week

This would be a fun "push" present 

Hilarious

Adorbs.

Something to blow the dust off of my soul
In her birth story, she said during this shot, she felt more powerful than ever before. She felt like a lion. I love that. I've been inspired by this image and have kept going back to re-read her story this week.



Tomorrow a few friends of mine are throwing me a little baby celebration! I'm very excited to see these lovely ladies and spend time together eating. After a rather exhausting week of little-to-no-sleep and more hormonal tantrums, I need some girl time! (I blame my tantrums on the baby!) I feel like I've never been so stressed out in my life. But for no particular reason really. We're out of pickles? I should cry about it! Dustin's hand is cramping from tickling my back for over an hour and he stops? That's a good reason for tears! Someone slips through the door at the post office after noticing that my hands were full and my belly was huge and my toddler was being a jerk-face but decided not to hold the door, and then the line was long, and then my head was pounding....so the water works start. In front.of.everyone at the post office. I sobbed. And I didn't apologize for it. I hear the baby's heart beating at the midwife's office.... and burst into uncontrollable tears of joy! Now there's a good reason for tears! Poor Dustin, I'm in tears over the most ridiculous things every.damn.day.all.day!) I see more of my maternity photos and.... you guessed it! Tears!

Click {HERE} to see more!

(Thank you Bobbie!  You're wonderful!)

 Have a great weekend! 

This Week...

-This week I got new glasses. They're slowly growing on me. I like them because they're Burgundy. AND I only paid 20$ for them.

-This week I realized I have a love/hate relationship with my braces. The love part: they fix my grill. The hate part: while getting a pedicure recently, I was asked what hospital I was having my baby, to which I replied, "Hopefully at home!" which opened up a whole can of let-me- tell-you-everything-I-know-about-birth-because-obviously-everyone-&-their-mom-is-dying-to-know-about-the-world-health organizations-suggestion-for-induction-of-labor ON YO' ASS! Note to Chelsea, no one cares! I know. So the whole time I'm staring back at this girl who was sitting next to me, asking me various questions about birth, with this blank stare on her face that I couldn't quite figure out. When I got in the car to drive home, I check my teeth and find half of my salad all caught up in my braces. THAT'S what she was staring at! My nastiness! Awesome.

Why does this picture make me want to go, "Yeeeahhh!" In my lil' Jon voice?

-This week Dustin suggested that if the baby is born with blue skin, we could name it Grover! Really Dustin? Grover? Clearly he is not taking this baby naming business very seriously. Grover... Pfft. He predicts we won't have a name until the baby is a week old. Sadly, he's probably right.
-This week a complete stranger came up to me at the store and excitedly hugged me like I was her best friend and rubbed my belly really hard and fast squealing with excitement and congratulating me, saying, "You are so beautiful! God, you are just so beautiful." I should have been totally freaked out but walked away feeling so happy. I was having a pretty shit-tastic day and she put a smile on my face.
-This week, during a commercial break while watching Tosh.0, and as I got up to scrounge for something sweet and fattening to snack on, I did the booty dance in front of the hubby, you know, the one that guarantees a good time & without even flinching he goes, "Um, babe, you're real cute shakin' your ass and all, but really? You're getting big now. It's just not doin' it for me....I love you, but no." To which I keep shakin my junk all the way to the freezer and play it off like I wasn't trying to be sexy for him anyway! Whatever. I'm cute, even if I'm big and round!
-This week I watched this incredible water-birth video. I bet you can't make it through the whole thing without blubbering like a baby. This was one of my favorites thus far.
-This week at the cleaners, an older, wrinkly Lithuanian lady with a thick accent noticed my belly and without hesitation said, "You're having a boy. Come back in a few weeks and let me know if I was right. I usually am." Just like that. She predicted the sex. So matter of fact. At first, I was kind of pissed at her because why'd she have to go and ruin the surprise. But then as I walked to my car, It hit me. MAYBE it is a boy! I rubbed my belly and smiled.
-This week I ate a turkey burger with jalapenos, BBQ sauce and pickles. It was an out of body experience. I knew those japs were on their way back up but I forced them down and went on wit' my bidness.
-This week as I layed in my dark living room (practicing fake contractions and deep breathing. Don't make fun!) listening to my birth meditation cd, Dustin layed down on the ground next to me whispering sweet encouraging things into my ear. I melted. I can't believe we'll be celebrating 5 years of marriage this week. Yikes! I love that man.
-This week, Conrad felt the baby kicking and shouted, "Baby danced! Baby danced Momma!" OMG, I want to squish his face off.

{Preview of our maternity session with my sweet friend Bobbie. More to come.}

Conrad hasn't stopped saying, "Ride in boat Mommy! We ride in boat!!!" I think that red canoe really had quite a impression on him. Sweet boy. My favorite thing about this photo is Conrad's little toe head peeking out of the boat. He's got such a serious look on his face. 

Lets Talk About Our Lady Parts, Shall We?

I promised you vaginas, so lets talk about them! We all have one and if you're like me, your lady parts are pretty important, so learning how to birth in a way that keeps them intact has become very important to me.

There are so more facts that I'd love to share, but in an effort not to blog you to death with all of this vagina talk (I really could talk about birth for days and days. If you're my friend in real life, you've probably had this internal conversation while nodding and smiling while I talked your face off, "When is she going to shut up....I mean, really. Can we talk about something unrelated to birthing children for once (or Vampire Diaries)!" I really just want woman to know what I DIDN'T know the first time around and

I want woman to have the experience of birth that we deserve to give ourselves.

So lets talk about our lady parts shall we!

What is my perineum and how does it work? The perineum is the region of the body inferior to the pelvic diaphragm and between the legs. It is a diamond-shaped area on the inferior surface of the trunk which includes the anus and, in females, the vagina. The perineum can become engorged and expands during birth. The elasticity of the vagina allows it to stretch to many times its normal diameter.

Episiotomy, the most common of operations in North America is a deliberate injury done to avoid what the perpetrator believes would be an even worse injury to woman during labor.

"Men take it for granted that their sexual organs can greatly increase in size and then become small again without being ruined. If obstetricians and woman could understand that woman's genitals have similar abilities, episiotomy and laceration rates in North America might go down overnight. But obstetricians of earlier generations planted the idea (which is still widely held) that nature cheated woman when it came to the tissues of the vagina and perineum (Give it one good stretch, and it's done for, like a cheap girdle), and A LOT OF WOMAN HAVE BOUGHT INTO THE IDEA THAT THEIR CROTCHES ARE MADE OF SHODDY GOODS." Ina May

As I am approaching the final weeks of pregnancy, and exploring what birth means to me, I've also been asking anyone who will share their expedience with me to tell me what birth meant to them.

A friend of mine gave birth to a five pound baby, unmedicated, in a hospital and before she even started pushing, the doctor said she "needed" to be cut in order to birth her (small) baby. She agreed but hasn't had feeling where her scar is ever since and regrets putting her trust in her doctor. She wonders if she had allowed her body to birth the baby without being cut, if it would have even torn, would the tear have healed better than her episiotomy, especially with having had such a small baby.

(Note, many woman have been cut and if this is your preference, all power to you. I wonder though can birth happen without a woman being cut? Lets explore shall we?!)

Another friend of mine has given birth to two babies (one 9 lbs, the other 10 lbs) at a birth center with a midwife and didn't need a single stitch. I was shocked to hear that she had such good sized babies & yet her vagina was completely equipted to allow both babies to come through with out a tear. Although both of their situations can not be compared as they are both completely different woman, with different birth attendants who have different beliefs about what the body is capable of doing, it upsets me that so many woman are being cut in order to have their babies.

The word "tear" strikes fear into the hearts of most woman, but when you take a close look at what a tear usually consists of, and what an episiotomy consists of, it is the episiotomy that should make woman more apprehensive. I know that a first degree tear is usually less than a quarter of an inch long (and doesn't normally require stitches at all. It will heal on it's own) whereas an episiotomy cut is sometimes much larger and severs tissue and muscle of the pelvic wall.

An episiotomy is a complete severing of all of the layers of tissue, muscle and nerves and is no guarantee of not tearing. in fact it can contribute to much more serious extension.

Episiotomy is done at least 90 percent of first time births in hospitals and again in most second or later hospital births. A maternity center association record of home births shows that out of almost 5,000 home births, there were only twenty two episiotomies and only one third degree tear. That's an episiotomy rate of about one out of every two hundred woman. Most European countries, the rate is only twelve to fifteen percent of hospital births. These facts (found in this book) make you wonder WHY so many woman "need" to be cut in order to deliver their babies.

Strong, consistent evidence tells us how unnecessary routine episiotomy is. Over the last century routine episiotomy have been performed with the theory that inflicting this trauma on the mother saves her form a serious tear, improves her husbands sex life, saves her from urinary and fecal incontinence, saves her baby from shoulder distocia, makes the Dr's job of sewing up afterward easier and prevents oxygen deprivation, mental retardation and brain injury in the baby. All of these claims were made and widely accepted without any supporting evidence by doctors and hospitals all over North America. The trouble is that none of them is true. Medical science knows that routine episiotomy has NO benefits and carries many serious disadvantages.

Disadvantages of an Episiotomy:

-cause pain that sometimes lasts for weeks or months

-increased blood loss

-cause more serious tears because a cut perineum is not as resistant to laceration as an intact one

-often becomes infected

-are associated with wound breakdown, abscesses, permanent damage to the pelvic floor muscles and other complications that cause in continence (for example, recto vaginal fistulas-openings between the vagina and the rectum_

-prevent many woman from breastfeeding because of the pain they cause.

Reasons to receive an Episiotomy:

-When a baby about to be born is in distress or when a breech male baby's testicles are the leading part to be born.

I interviewed a doctor who said that he WILL NOT and does not support episiotomy because often times, a woman gets cut and then they end up tearing anyway, so they have to repair a cut and also a tear. And he stated that sewing up a tear heals more naturally than sewing up a cut. I asked how he helped prevent tearing and he said that by supporting the perineum and guiding the mother to push on her own accord, when she has the urge to push, when she is not on her back and when the baby comes out slowly and gently, tearing is less likely to happen. The problem is that most doctors don't deliver babies this way. They prefer women on their backs.

If you want to avoid an unnecessary episiotomy, find a doctor with an episiotomy rate of 15% or less.

While reading Ina May's book, I realized that I also was under the assumption that maybe you have to be cut to deliver your baby. Maybe my vagina really is just too small and won't open up large enough to fit a baby.... Is it even possible to give birth and keep my perineum intact?

Upon speaking to my midwife about the episiodomy controversy, her thoughts on it were rather surprising. She confessed that when a woman is given the right tools (doing squats to lengthen her muscles, perineum support during birth & keegels) tearing is less likely to happen. She delivers 70+ babies a year and has maybe 4 mothers with tears that needed repairing, while 90% of first time mothers in hospitals are receiving routine episiotomys. Once you sign your rights away, you give the doctor permission to do whatever he needs to do to deliver your baby, whether that means cutting you or not and you may not even realize it's being done.

Babies are squishy! They're meant to squish out!

In building my confidence about the birth ahead of me, it is important to realize what my body is capable of and to discredit the fear associated with giving birth.

This video has a ton of great information.


In preparation for my birth, I have probably watched a gazillion births (not the kind you see on TV, but the real ones where you see full-on baby crowning-vagina in your face, where the mother is not on her back which seems to be best for the Doctor and not always best for the mother....) Seeing these videos, watching my friends birth videos and talking to everyone I can about birth has trained my heart and mind to realize that birth is a natural process and not to fear it.

I strongly believe that woman need to see birth happen with their own eyes so that they can become comfortable with it and know that they are capable of doing it without injury to their bodies & without unnecessary, unwanted cesareans. I also believe that woman can have beautiful, peaceful experiences where THEY are the ones in control (not hospital staff), THEY are the ones making educated choices for themselves and won't go into their deliveries, like I did with my first, completely unaware of how my body worked & how the hospital system worked. I do not believe that home birth, or birth center birth is for everyone, but knowing what your rights are in a hospital is so vital to having the experience of birth that we as woman deserve to give ourselves.

For the less squeamish, for the brave, a vaginal birth