Tuesday, 23 April 2013
Maternity Photos Part 2!
Earlier in March, we headed to Elmira for maternity photos with Steve Brooks Photography. Here's our awesome images from the day. Can you tell we almost froze outside in that park??
Maternity Photos!
Through bebo mia, I was fortunate to be in touch with Adriana from UmlaPhoto as we had done some collaboration and business referrals. She found out I was expecting and offered us an amazing opportunity to do some photos with her to document my "Journey to Motherhood"! This would include maternity photos, a "Fresh 48" session (sometime within the 48 hours after birth), plus two more sessions before Gavin's first birthday. Of course we said yes! Her lifestyle photography is meant to document a "day in the life", which she definitely did! We had her over on St. Patrick's Day and she captured everything from making breakfast to reading stories to my belly to folding baby laundry! We were so impressed with the photos and love that we were able to document our typical day leading up to baby's arrival!
Check out our features on the UmlaPhoto and bebo mia blogs: here, here and here
Check out our features on the UmlaPhoto and bebo mia blogs: here, here and here
Monday, 22 April 2013
Backtracking...
I have a LOT of catching up to do...but for now, here are our final two chalkboard installations! Mid-labour and with our little man on his due date!
Sunday, 7 April 2013
The Perfect Baby
So probably every parent thinks this about their own child. But seriously...Gavin is the perfect baby. He's a champ! We were so worried about establishing breastfeeding since we were separated for so long at the hospital. He latched on his first try and after a few bumps the first few days, he now eats like a pro. He sleeps. And sleeps. And sleeps. To the point where we constantly check him to make sure he's ok! I feel like knocking on wood the entire time I write this post, just because I'm seriously waiting for the other shoe to drop and him to go crazy on us. He is sleeping for 3 hour stretches, even through the night, giving us some much needed rest. He had his first bath tonight and didn't even fuss! Ok, so he did rocket-poo on me right after he got out, but still!
That's my brag for the night.
That's my brag for the night.
Friday, 5 April 2013
He's Here
Our precious baby boy, Gavin William, arrived at the stroke of midnight on April 1st. There is so much to say and so many photos already...I have a lot of work ahead of me to tell the story of our real little pea's arrival.
Gavin was born at home after a long and very intense labour. He had some trouble in the final hour and EMS was called, taking him straight to hospital by ambulance after he was born. Being separated from him was devastating. Fortunately, he improved by the minute and it was heaven to finally be able to hold him at 4 hours old once I arrived at the hospital. We are settled into life at home with our perfect little man and have so much to tell about the last few days. Until then, just look at those eyes. Love.
Gavin was born at home after a long and very intense labour. He had some trouble in the final hour and EMS was called, taking him straight to hospital by ambulance after he was born. Being separated from him was devastating. Fortunately, he improved by the minute and it was heaven to finally be able to hold him at 4 hours old once I arrived at the hospital. We are settled into life at home with our perfect little man and have so much to tell about the last few days. Until then, just look at those eyes. Love.
Thursday, 28 March 2013
Just Relax...
What's the first thing that comes to mind when you hear "we're taking a Hypnobirthing class"? Probably picturing people sitting in a circle with incense floating in the air and someone chanting meditations at you. That's pretty much what I thought when I first heard about Hypnobirthing through bebo mia when I first started working with them. Still relatively new to this whole world, I was on a bit of overload. Doulas and homebirths were one thing. Hypnobirthing and placenta encapsulation were a whole different story.
Until I sat in on a class.
As part of my intro to bebo mia over a year ago, I was invited to sit in on the first class of a Hypnobirthing series so I could have an idea of what went on and would be able to explain it from experience. That one class completely changed my mind about what Hypnobirthing really was, and how helpful it could be to achieving a calm birth experience. The class description does a really good job of introducing what Hypnobirthing is, but it's also so much more. I just love the very first sentence of the description:
"HypnoBirthing® is a birth education program that teaches you to replace fear and tension with confidence and relaxation."
Sounds good, right? Who wouldn't want that! How could it be that easy without everyone doing it? I think it's simply that people either don't have the resources to hear about it, or the name totally turns them off (guilty!). I really wish they would have picked a different name.
So, I'm not a big textbook reader in general, but I really got a lot out of reading the Hypnobirthing book that came with the course. Combined with discussions in class, there were a few things in particular that really stood out. Things like:
When you are presented with a stressful situation, your body is programmed to go into Fight or Flight mode. In the case of labour, Fight isn't really an option, unless you punch your husband, which might make you feel better for about 3 seconds. Flight also isn't really an option since you can't escape your own body. But when your body goes into a sort of "flight'' mode, all of your energy (including blood and oxygen) spreads to your extremities (arms, legs), in order to help your body get away. We heard a story about about a woman who had such a traumatic labour and was so completely terrified that when she ended up in a C-section, her uterus had turned completely white since all her blood had gone to other areas of her body. YIKES. So what happens when you can't fight or flight in labour? You freeze. When you freeze, your body essentially shuts down, you tense and tighten...meaning that every muscle that should be relaxed to allow for a natural birth has closed up and baby can't get anywhere. All of a sudden, your labour slows or stalls, baby is distressed, and boom: surgery. No fun.
Somewhere along the way in our history and culture, birth became something negative or something to be feared. This explains why there used to be (and still are) women who stop their walk through a field, lean against a tree, birth their baby, and go on their way. There's a fantastic story in the book about Dr. Dick-Read (a central influence in Hypnobirthing) and how a birth in 1913 changed his entire mindset about childbirth. He had gone to assist a poor woman living in the slums of London with her birth. This was when they would use chloroform to knock you out and deliver the baby while you slept. When he tried giving her the chloroform, she refused and kept breathing deeply. She birthed her baby with a few deep breaths, calmly and silently. The doctor asked why she had refused pain relief and she shocked him by saying "It didn't hurt. It wasn't supposed to, was it Doctor?". Whaaaaat?! This prompted his assumption that the absence of fear during birth also meant the absence of fear, and after years of research, he called his theory the "Fear-Tension-Pain Syndrome". Meaning that it's as simple as that. If there's fear, there will be bodily tension which physiologically causes pain. Without fear, there may be discomfort, pressure, etc. but no pain.
Why can we trust our bodies to know how to conceive a baby, how to grow a baby during pregnancy, but quickly doubt our bodies ability to birth the baby? (We talked about this a lot in my prenatal yoga class).
Anyways, this is getting long winded and I've probably somewhat made my point. I'm sure Hypnobirthing in it's entirety isn't going to be for everyone. But at it's essence, learning how to tune out fear and draw on relaxation techniques during birthing is something anyone could benefit from. I'm off to listen to the relaxation CD and very very likely fall asleep...
Until I sat in on a class.
As part of my intro to bebo mia over a year ago, I was invited to sit in on the first class of a Hypnobirthing series so I could have an idea of what went on and would be able to explain it from experience. That one class completely changed my mind about what Hypnobirthing really was, and how helpful it could be to achieving a calm birth experience. The class description does a really good job of introducing what Hypnobirthing is, but it's also so much more. I just love the very first sentence of the description:
"HypnoBirthing® is a birth education program that teaches you to replace fear and tension with confidence and relaxation."
Sounds good, right? Who wouldn't want that! How could it be that easy without everyone doing it? I think it's simply that people either don't have the resources to hear about it, or the name totally turns them off (guilty!). I really wish they would have picked a different name.
So, I'm not a big textbook reader in general, but I really got a lot out of reading the Hypnobirthing book that came with the course. Combined with discussions in class, there were a few things in particular that really stood out. Things like:
When you are presented with a stressful situation, your body is programmed to go into Fight or Flight mode. In the case of labour, Fight isn't really an option, unless you punch your husband, which might make you feel better for about 3 seconds. Flight also isn't really an option since you can't escape your own body. But when your body goes into a sort of "flight'' mode, all of your energy (including blood and oxygen) spreads to your extremities (arms, legs), in order to help your body get away. We heard a story about about a woman who had such a traumatic labour and was so completely terrified that when she ended up in a C-section, her uterus had turned completely white since all her blood had gone to other areas of her body. YIKES. So what happens when you can't fight or flight in labour? You freeze. When you freeze, your body essentially shuts down, you tense and tighten...meaning that every muscle that should be relaxed to allow for a natural birth has closed up and baby can't get anywhere. All of a sudden, your labour slows or stalls, baby is distressed, and boom: surgery. No fun.
Somewhere along the way in our history and culture, birth became something negative or something to be feared. This explains why there used to be (and still are) women who stop their walk through a field, lean against a tree, birth their baby, and go on their way. There's a fantastic story in the book about Dr. Dick-Read (a central influence in Hypnobirthing) and how a birth in 1913 changed his entire mindset about childbirth. He had gone to assist a poor woman living in the slums of London with her birth. This was when they would use chloroform to knock you out and deliver the baby while you slept. When he tried giving her the chloroform, she refused and kept breathing deeply. She birthed her baby with a few deep breaths, calmly and silently. The doctor asked why she had refused pain relief and she shocked him by saying "It didn't hurt. It wasn't supposed to, was it Doctor?". Whaaaaat?! This prompted his assumption that the absence of fear during birth also meant the absence of fear, and after years of research, he called his theory the "Fear-Tension-Pain Syndrome". Meaning that it's as simple as that. If there's fear, there will be bodily tension which physiologically causes pain. Without fear, there may be discomfort, pressure, etc. but no pain.
Why can we trust our bodies to know how to conceive a baby, how to grow a baby during pregnancy, but quickly doubt our bodies ability to birth the baby? (We talked about this a lot in my prenatal yoga class).
Anyways, this is getting long winded and I've probably somewhat made my point. I'm sure Hypnobirthing in it's entirety isn't going to be for everyone. But at it's essence, learning how to tune out fear and draw on relaxation techniques during birthing is something anyone could benefit from. I'm off to listen to the relaxation CD and very very likely fall asleep...
Tuesday, 26 March 2013
Week 38
My due date is next week. NEXT WEEK. Whaaaaaat!!! I'm excited, nervous, overjoyed and terrified. Mix that up with a bit more discomfort and you've got a COUNTDOWN until baby arrives!
How far along: 38 weeks - so close!
Total weight gain: a solid 30.
Maternity clothes: well check me out this week: jeans and a non-maternity t-shirt!
Stretch marks: none!
Sleep: more uncomfortable, more wakeups, more bathroom breaks, more hip pain :(
Best moment this week: a relaxing weekend to ourselves...probably the last one just the two of us!
Miss anything? flopping down on my stomach and my joints not feeling like an 85 year old
Movement: almost seems like more this week! lots of poking around even though our midwife says baby's head is fully engaged
Food cravings: trying to curb my bad habits before baby comes out and I have to get tough on eating healthier!
Anything make you queasy or sick: nope, but definitely feeling crampier this week
Gender: can't wait to find out!
Labour signs: more cramps sporadically throughout the day
Symptoms: sore joints, sore tailbone
Belly button in or out: victory! still an innie!
Wedding rings on or off: on
Happy or moody: happy but getting more anxious
Looking forward to: Easter weekend with the fam and lots of yummy food!
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