Jack | 2 months old

There goes that baby getting a month older... gaw, he's growing up too fast!  Here are the happenings from this past month of his life:

1.  His first trip to Cabot.  Read about it here.

2.  Trying out "tummy time."  This usually resulted in laying in a puddle of spit up.

3.  Jack always "planking."  That kid could bridge a gap.

4.  Occasionally going 6 hours between feedings at night and blessing his mommy with sleep.

5.  Taking down a bottle like a champ.  Ain't no big deal.

6.  Wearing out the batteries in his swing.

7.  "He's so..... long."  (because you can't be called tall at this point in age.  We think it has something to do with all his planking.  He's not really longer than anyone else's babe... he just doesn't fold.)

8.  "Jackercise" in the morning.  i.e. pumping your arms and legs up and down.

9.  Hand Jam.  cousin of toe jam.  A result of wanting to be swaddled 24/7.

10.  Going an entire month without any explosions or waterworks while being changed.  WIN.

11.  Huge smiles in the morning and when you talk to him.  Gosh he's Mr. Pleasant.

12.  Traveling to Crystal Bridges and to Tulsa. (this pic is a 4-for-one: planking, drinking a bottle, old man hair, and visiting Crystal Bridges.)

13.  Destroying entire burp cloths in a single feeding.

14.  His first projectile vom.  Corey was carrying him in the cradle position so it was more like a volcanic eruption.  I thought Cor was overreacting until I walked into the room where it all went down. It was all over Jack, Corey, and the floor.  Not sure why it was funny, but it was.  I couldn't stop laughing and had to go get the camera before I could help Corey clean up.  I think it was the look on Jack's face that made it so priceless.  He was like, "What?... what?  Is there something on my face? What's everyone freaking out about?"  and since I took a picture of it...

15.  Jack putting his 2 cents in when we're having a conversation.

16.  Enjoying temperatures in the 60's.  Walking at lake Fayetteville and Wilson Park.

17.  Losing hair on the sides/top of his head and looking like either an old man or a clown.

18.  He's so strong!  When you try to sit him in your lap he will push up with his legs and stand.

 

19.  He's getting too big for his britches.  I almost cried while packing up all of his newborn clothing... and 3 month clothing won't be around for much longer either.

20.  AND the most exciting thing of all is that Jack rolled over for the 1st time!  I just happened to be videoing so you can see it too!  click here.

21.  Corey and I getting to go on our 1st date.  :)  (We're trying to make this happen at least once a month... this date was January 31st... barely made the cut off on that one! Go Hogs.)

22.  Baby dedication at New Heights church.  Jack you are loved!  This is the after party celebration.

 23.  New nicknames:  "wild man," Jackaroni," and "Spit-ups McGee"

Our [Home] Birth Story | Part I

Preface

            I know what you’re thinking… “oh my gosh you had your baby at home??”  Yes, yes we did.

Up until a year and a half ago I too thought that home birth was something really mysterious.  Home birth was something that those hippie natural people did.  If you don’t eat all organic, plant trees, and recycle then you don’t qualify to have your baby at home, right?

            The first time I EVER became open to the idea was when I was talking with one of my friends who is a certified nurse midwife at a clinic here in NWA.  (Up until this point home birth didn’t even exist to me.)  We were on the topic of babies and I asked her what she planned to do when she had a baby.  (Mostly just wanting an insider’s opinion on what Dr./ hospital she would recommend since she is in the loop.)  To my surprise and shock she said that she would want to do a homebirth.  My reaction was much like all of the reactions I got when I said that I was doing a homebirth, “What?!  Really??  You aren’t worried about something going wrong?”  She then explained to me that most complications occur because of all of the interventions that are done with a medicated hospital birth.  She said that if birth is allowed to happen naturally very rarely does anything go wrong.  I was intrigued.  The wheels were spinning because I couldn’t figure out why someone who WORKS at a hospital would want to have their baby at home.  Personally, I would do almost anything to avoid having anything to do with a hospital.   I left this conversation thinking if I was ever going to be able to have children this might be the route to take.

Important Background Information

            If you’ve known me for any amount of time you may know that I have an irrational fear/phobia of blood, guts, gore, needles, hospitals, etc.   I’ve been like this my whole life.  The earliest recorded incident of this happened when I was 3.  I went with my mom to one of my baby brother’s check-ups at the Doctor.  They did one of those routine heel pricks in order to draw a little blood to test… and as they did, I threw up my chocolate glazed donut and milk from breakfast that morning.  There are 100s of other stories similar to this, but I will spare you.  Trust me, it’s real life.  I always had to sit out in the hallway during health class and occasionally in history class when we would watch a war movie with a lot of shoot ‘em ups and violence.  (You know, the ones where a note had to be signed by your parents in order to watch it or you had to go to study hall.)

            I thought I was the only person with this problem until I met Corey Granderson.  I still remember sitting on the edge of the running track at Cabot High eating KFC at a tailgate party (I was a cheerleader and Cor was in the band). It was there that I had one of the first conversations I have ever had with Corey.  I think we were laughing about how we both waited to take P.E. and Health until our senior year.  (Normal people take these classes their sophomore year.)  Corey then said something about how he was never in health class though b/c he was always sitting out in the hallway.  I was hardly ever in health either, but I couldn’t see why he would be missing so much class.  I asked why b/c he didn’t seem like the type to always be in trouble.  He then described the exact same things that happened to me when he heard about or saw something gross:  It’s starts with getting nervous, then your heart rate picks up, palms become cold and sweaty, the room closes in, it gets harder to breath, your fight or flight senses kick in, you become nauseous and weak, you begin to lose color, things get dark, and then you’re just gone.  I could not believe it.  I had met my soulmate- ha!  (Although I didn’t know it at the time.)  C.S. Lewis was right, “Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another, ‘What! You too? I though I was the only one.”

     And b/c blogposts are more fun w/pics, here's one of me and Cor before our senior prom. :)  You're welcome.  I love that we're squinting in unison here:

            All this being said… I think you can see where we may run into a problem with this whole birthing babes thing.  We’re scared of hospitals and we don’t recycle or shop at Ozark Natural Foods.  What to do?

            A week or so after I had the homebirth conversation with my friend, Corey and I watched “The Business of Being Born” on Netflix instant watch.  We were pretty much sold on homebirth after that.  I won’t go into details here about natural childbirth vs. medicated birth b/c I’m way too opinionated on the whole topic and I run the risk of offending someone… so I’ll spare us.  If you’re curious, watch the flick.  At this point I was still a little nervous about birthin’ babes, but my hope was that if we educated ourselves on the whole topic it wouldn’t be as scary.

            In a nutshell we came to these conclusions about birthin’ babes:    

1. a bajillion people all over the world and throughout time have been having babies at home, in mangers (Jesus), and places outside of hospitals in general. The human race carried on and expanded, so it must be working.

2. As far as the rest of the world goes, we (the U.S.) are the weird ones when it comes to how we do birth. We are a little overboard on all the medical interventions surrounding birth. Most problems and complications are a result of us tampering with something that didn’t need tampering with.

3. God designed birth and it works! In fact, it’s quite perfect how he designed it and it is a very beautiful and fascinating thing. I know, I said it- beautiful. I always thought it was weird when people said that, maybe not asetheically… but by design?

4. Cor and I don’t do hospitals.  Lucky for us- normal, natural childbirth isn't a medical emergency.

5. I am more afraid of hospitals and needles than I am of the pain of childbirth. True story. (I had my baby at home which goes to prove it.)

6. Safety first. We live 2 exits from the hospital in the event of an emergency where medical intervention would be needed. 

Anyhow, here’s all of the background info that you need.  I’m long winded, so I’ll break this down into 2 posts.  Actual birth story will be in part II.  To be continued…