Announcing: Our Second Baby!!!!

A girl born 3-9-09 at home in the water at 1:30 am, weighs 8.2 lbs/ 3.7 kilos.

So 'second baby' what we still call this sweet new daughter, who we thought would be a son! We had a good boy name....

Turns out my last post was an early labor project, things began while writing it, and picked up from there, resulting in a baby born in the wee hours of Monday morning.

Everyone is well, healthy, and tired!

Fresh out!

Welcome to the world!

Dad and daughter crash at the end of Day 1

Sister cuddles

On the blanket made by our friends for the new baby! The strings from our blessing way, time to cut them off!!!
This baby gets to be welcomed to the world by it's Swedish Family!!!

Late Pregnancy Preparations:

The Space and The Birth Supplies

By my measure it is my due date, by BVC (the swedish health clinic), it's not till Tuesday. But here I am. Pregnant, and braced for a possible two more weeks of it since my daughter was late.

I started feeling really clear baby can come any time now as of yesterday, and I have been having some tightening that makes me hopeful it may not be a full two more weeks, but like I said, I hestitate to get any hopes up.

We are planning for the baby to be born at home, and so have a few special preparations ready. Especially since I am a homebirth midwife, I like to have all my little remedies and comfort measures ready. I have way more home remedy stuff than a home birther in the US would need to have on hand, as the US midwife would bring many of these things along. I use a number of things not commonly used in Sweden, so it is comforting to have my familiar stuff on hand. I have these things because I had them for my midwifery practice.

We also are working on keeping up with dishes and laundry so the baby can make it's enterance into to a tidy and beautiful home. This is made much easier by SwedeDaddy's recent addition of a ***>;~DISH WASHER ~;<** to our home. So great.

And I have been busy making food to have snacks on hand for labor, to eat after birth, and for the first days postpartum. If the baby is late, this postpartum food stash will just grow, but we are OK in a minimum sense on the food front for now.

Otherwise, here are a few things we have

prepped for home birthin' ....

The extra Sheets and plastic sheets for the bed. When labor starts, you make the bed with old sheets on top, with a plastic sheet under it over a nice clean set of regular sheets. That way after birth you pull of the top sheet and plastic, wash it, and you are all set with fresh sheets to recover upon. There are also baby blankets for receiving the new one here, and a heating pad that will keep them toasty and warm before the emergence.

The all important birth pool!!!! Yes, its a kiddy fishy pool, but it's the right depth and height. We have a heat exchange system that provides infinite hot water, so I choose the bigger tub since keeping it warm will not be much of a problem for our water heating system. This gets set up with the shower curtain underneath, the hose attached to the sink to fill, and the pump to get it all full. DON'T FORGET to PLUG THE DRAIN!!!

Labor Box: This has my midwife supplies of doppler and BP cuff, because I thought I might as well get them out. But otherwise it has massage tools, a rice sock for warming and keeping on my abdomen, some underpads.

Here is the birth and postpartum box-

a peri bottle, a baby hat and diapers, a few other comfort measures.

And for remedies and herbs....

From Andy (thanks) the Rescue Remedy Pastilles- used for any occasion when things get intense and you feel like freaking out. Like perhaps, birth!

The essential oils I have gathered that are birthy- favorites, and a little battery powered diffuser. I like clary sage for making things STRONGER, lavender for keeping things calm, lemon and rosemary for pepping up a tired crew. And some of Earth Essentials blends from Light, Postpartum oil smells so good, and Peaceful Arrival for exactly that.

My homeopathic birth kit is ready. I have this from my midwife practice and for home remedies. Sweden is NOT big on homeopathics, in fact they are barely used at all and not widely available. Arnica is invaluable as a aid to swelling and bruising after birth, and for sore muscles that have worked hard. Hypericum (St. John's Wort) helps nerves heal, and there are others to help tissues heal fast. Some are good for stalled labor, or for minor bleeding. The remedies were useful to me in my practice, and while i do not know I will be in the space to self diagnose anything, I find them comforting to have on hand! And I WILL Use the ARNICA!

The Midwives here do not use herbs tinctures, so I pulled mine out- cotton for increasing oxytocin's power if things get sluggish, Wombstringe as a bleeding preventative, angelica if the placenta is slow in coming...and a mix of others for comfort and progress if need be.

After Birth, I used to give mamas Shepard Purse/ Pennyroyal tea. Shepard's purse staunches bleeding and acts as an astringent, pennyroyal empties the womb of any remaining bits and blood. I have mine ready for tea to be given right after birth. And I also have an herbal Sitz bath mix for soothing soaks after birth- for use in the peri bottle, in compresses, or in a bathtub. My mix consists of antiseptic sea salt, astringent yarrow and shepard's purse, and tissue healing comfrey and calendula.

When we still had snow...

Our snow has long since melted and we now have the type of weather one fears when moving to a winter climate- gray and stark. But I realized I never put up these photos of the Swedish countryside covered in snow, so I am posting retroactively.

Here are just farmland pictures from our drive one Sunday to a store. A reminder of how pretty things are in just a common, everyday way. On of the things we love is that while many things are the same distance from us as they were in Florida, here in the same travel time we go over hills, through farmland, and past old churches and little villages, seeing a variety of place and a sense of change with each turn. Very different than driving 30 minutes in Florida on a big busy road that is a monotonous drive past McDonald''s, Walmart, gas stations, and strip mall after strip mall.

The remains of the last harvest poking through the snow

Snowy Hills and little Swedish red farmhouses

The Windmill on the Hill near SwedeGirl's school

We had some pictures taken....

The woman who sold us this fabulous house moved on so she could have a photo studio in her home. So with my belly growing ripe, we thought we would go visit her new digs, and have a few pregnancy pictures taken, since we had done this with my first pregnancy.

Click on this photo and link here for the first preview.....

If you live in Skåne, she is a great photographer, and will gladly do a family sitting for you too!!! Check out her website, watermarked on the picture. Her site won best European photoblog! If you can't get her contact info, let me know, I'll pass it on.

PS. Blessings to the powers of PhotoShop for removing my strech marks.

Funny things my daughter says....

So I am making dinner and she is exhausting me with questions....

me: "You know you are asking me a lot of questions..."

her: "I know! That's because I am a kid, and kids do not know so much about the world, so they have to ask their mommies and daddies questions. Mommies and daddies know about the world, but noooot kiIIIddsss...."

Ok.

Also, another one from yesterday which just surprised me because of her concept of time. At breakfast she asked if we can save her movies, so when she has kids, they can watch them. I said sure, and asked "Which ones?" She said, with a wave of her hand "all of them, because I do not know which ones they will like". This would surprise me less if I had saved a bunch of stuff to share with her, but that is not anything I have done. So the idea of saving stuff for HER kids someday is not copying me, but her own idea. I thought it was pretty clever of her to think up on her own, rather forward thinking for a 4 year old!

Keepin' the Faith....

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Late Pregnancy Preparations...

The Body

What is pregnancy about? Soul and body.

The baby inside is "a melody softly soaring through my atmosphere....Where soul meets body..."

(A quote from this song by the band Death Cab for Cutie) ~~~

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uizQVriWp8M

So I have talked a bit about the spiritual preparations I have going on.

For the body, well...let me talk about what I am doing, so as to eclipse the glaring lack of exercise I am getting. Yep, unless it works by osmosis, my prenatal yoga videos are not doing me much good. They have stayed pretty lonely on the shelf.

Didn't I say I was going to talk about what I AM DOING?

Anyway, here is a little sample of the extras I like to add to my life for late pregnancy.

Sleep. Yep, as much as life will allow. I believe whole heartily in SARK's instruction/ affirmation that "You Can Change your Life Without Getting Out of Bed". She talks about the fact that it takes a lot of energy to become your true self. Well, it also takes a lot of energy to build another's entire being! Pregnancy involves heavy work, both physical and psychic, and I believe laying still in slumber allows this work to unfold.

From her book:

"Changing your life can happen when you're not trying so hard, or when you're asleep!

I think that change often slips in when we're relaxed inside of ourselves.

The process of truly becoming yourself takes a lot of energy, and this energy can be replenished during naps.

This book can be tacked under your pillow and it will induce naps. Inside are: Nap permission slips, great nap places, nap clothes, nap exercises, ways to make more money while napping, napping without guilt, special naps for parents, suggestions and games for making changes in your life and more...

My first and best job was as the wake up fairy in kindergarten.

I had a magic wand and touched each sleeping child on the head with it. They awoke from their nap to have little cups of juice and a cookie. Sometimes you could get extra.

As adults, we still need these nap-times. We need tender places in which to repair our souls and put special glue on the broken places.We replenish and repair during naps. Even if you don't actually sleep, setting up for a nap provides an atmosphere of safety and kindness for the interior.

Napping softens all the edges and smoothes the shredded places. Naps are the adult version of a child's fort. A love of privacy and place for make-believe. I believe I can do it now.

Rest adds strength to our souls." - Susan Ariel Rainbow Kennedy (SARK)

Walking: I could do better here, but I get at least two decent walks a week in right now. I walked quite while today, and my toes are suddenly like little sausages, so I think the window for upping the number of long walks in my regimen may be over. But hey, what else do I have to do? And I finally have a functional stroller my older daughter will go in, so that makes neighborhood walking an option when she is home, which is nice.

Pelvic Tilts and Squats: I am doing is squats, especially in my nice deep bath tub. I wish I could get into my old AquaNatal routine here, but the pools are just too cold. It cost about $10 a pop to go to the pool, and it is 72 degrees. When I was in Florida and had a pool, I realized my comfort level for water is about 80 F. Now they won't even let me in the hot tub here since I am visibly pregnant, so my bathtub works ok for the "golden goddess" yoga pose/ squat.

And I do the occasional pelvic rocking...especially good with some circling/ rocking on the birth ball.

Healthy Food: I am eating just normally, as I have through pregnancy. I am not much of a stickler for following a special diet regimen, I tend to trust that the body tells you what it needs. And when it says chocolate, I know that means protein and maybe some magnesium, so I listen to my body's food messages with the same caution I would a when listening to a three year old, which means I am listening for the subtext behind the actual request... I was sick for a pretty extended time in the winter, and had a much lower veggie and protein intake at that time. I think the baby is going to be smaller than my daughter because of it.

Red Raspberry Leaf or Nourishment Tea: I have been consuming a french press pot of either red raspberry leaf tea, or the nourishment tea I posted in this old post.

Red Raspberry leaf is rich in vitamin C complex, thiamine, niacin, carotenes, calcium, magnesium and trace minerals. it is used in folk herbalism to tone the uterus, and is used to nourish the muscles, make labor contractions more efficient, reduce bleeding after birth, and help the uterus return to it's not pregnant state easily, as well as to enrich the quality of the breast milk. I was out of nettles for quite a while (not anymore, thanks Erica) and so I was drinking straight red raspberry for most of the early third trimester. Since i went very over due with my daughter I thought it wouldn't hurt to ingest large amounts of an herb that is purported to help babies not be overdue!

Now I have my nettles I am back to using the exact recipe for nourishment tea mix in Aviva Jill Romm's 'The Natural Pregnancy Book':

2 parts red raspberry

2 part nettles

1 part oatstraw

1/2 part alfalfa

1/2 part rose hips

1/4 part red clover

1/4 part spearmint

Floradix Herbal Iron: even though I do eat red meat these days, and a fair amount of leafy greens, cook in cast iron, and am drinking sooo much iron rich tea I was still lagging a bit in my iron stores which are important for pregnancy. being low in iron is known as anemia, and makes the mom more tired than she needs to be. The baby also will have a low iron diet in it's early life, and relies on the stores of iron it gets from the mother in late pregnancy to carry it through it's first few months. So I have been adding the old midwife standby Floradix. Here is Sweden it is known as "Blut Saft" or blood juice and is widely available. It is the standard, recommended iron source for pregnancy, which is unusual to me because overall the Swedes use fewer herbs and natural remedies than I would have thought. This is largely due to the very regulated state run pharmacy system, which I will post about in another post about 'Only in Sweden' I think.

Super Nutrition Vitamins: My favorite brand of Vitamins is Super Nutrition. I get them in the USA. I found the regular vitamins contain almost the exact same things as the prenatal, and come in a one a day formula. I tend to forget dose 2 and 3 if required to take more than one a day, so I just do two of these once a day, and it has about the same stuff as the prenatal formula.

Nordic Natural Omega- 3's: I also take the Nordic Natural brand Omega -3's, which are good for baby's brain development, keep depression at bay, and help provide the building blocks for the hormones you need. I buy expensive good quality fish oil, because you want to make sure it has been micro filtered so you do not inadvertently consume a bunch of brain cell killing toxic mercury when you are working to boost your baby's smarts. These come in a variety of forms and flavors, and are good to give to little kids with growing brains, or to take when nursing.

Kelp: Yep seaweed. There are lots of creative ways to get seaweed in your diet- in soup, etc.. and I like to snack on straight dulse. But I am out of that right now, so I am munching on a bit of kelp daily. It actually is tasting good to me right now. It is a great addtion for anyone pregnant, but especially valuable in the third trimester. But WHHHhhhhy? You may ask? Well, all seaweeds are super rich in minerals, help the nervous system, and are specific helpers to keep the placenta chug, chug, chugging along in optimum condition until baby is ready to be born. Which is important for people like me, who went way overdue last time. When the placenta starts putzing out, it results in low amniotic fluid, less exchange in general with baby, and can mean more fetal distress in labor. I ate lots of seaweed last pregnancy, and had a *lovely* placenta 17 days after my due date. When eating it is not in the plan for me, I pop a few kelp pills. These are also rich in iodine and help people with low thyroid, which is a family issue, so that is good for me too.

Antacids: These are not actually good for you, they have calcium but the wrong mineral mix to be absorbed properly. but I could not talk about late pregnancy with out mentioning these, my life line, which i do not leave the house with out. Having a balanced ph would help, but I am already so acidic I can not manage lemon water often, so alas, I default to the not very great practice of neutralizing the acid. But guess what, it means I sleep, and see #1 here, that's my favorite thing so I will do what I gotta do.

Dandelion Tea: This really is my latest addition, just added today! But the last two days, I have found that after walking my toes are rather plump and my sock line visible. So dandelion root tea has been added to the tea mix. It is a liver toner and natural safe diuretic in pregnancy. I am hoping it will give me my normal ankles back. I long to go get in the deep end of a pool and recover my ankles via hydrostatic pressure, but the pools, as I mentioned are too costly and too cold for my comfort. So dandelion it is. 1 tsp per cup of boiling water, steeped 15 mintues.

Coffee: I also drink coffee, 1-2 cups a day. This contributes to the acid issue, and overrides some of the benefit of the kelp for the nervous system, but I do it and love it and thought I oughta come clean about that. Starbucks sumatra in a french press with cream and sugar. I really do it up. I am no saint, and no purist. So there. But things that are good for the soul are good for the body, so perhaps its a good habit after all.

Visualizations: So, the "Journeying Through Pregnancy" is getting a good listen to, tuned to track two, the birth visualization. You can click here to read about it, my absoltue favorite pregnancy visualization. but I really wish Sunni Karll would do one, to go with Sacred Birthing, as this is good but does not reach as deep as her work does.


MAP sessions: This makes up for the lack of deepth in the visualization CD- MAP sessions are a personalized energy work program. This where I come clean as a woo-woo, energy worky type. I have been greatly helped by a variety of energy work, craniosacral therapy, and other energy clearing techniques done by healers. I found some great people to work with in my home town, and even did some work with some Mexican shamanic midwives I hosted for a conference a ways back. I got familiar through their work on me of what it feels like to release blockages in the body, and this is ultimately the work that helped me get over the three years of pain I had from two ruptured disks in my back after my daughter's birth. MAP sessions are taught in the "Sacred Birthing" book, and are brief 30 minutes session where you lay still and call in your 'team' of guides, and the healing energies of the natural world, and ask to release things that are not helpful. It's like a prayer you do with your body. The instructions for how to work with this in pregnancy are in Sacred Birthing. I find it really helpful to be able to do this type of work on myself. I can get really stuck in my brain about things or problems, and this is a technique where you basically just ask for things to be released, and never have to know what it was that had you stuck, by passing the brainy brain part of things. I find it works, and feel the shifts happen in many ways after doing the work.