Wow, where has the time gone? So many times I’ve wanted to get online and share what’s been going on around here but finding the time to write has been challenging. When I get the urge to write (which is often) I have mostly been able to put it out of my mind otherwise my focus is split and Iturn into a big old grouch. Evan is now 23 weeks and Liv is a very spirited two and a half year old. If I actually get to hit publish on this today..wow.

We have moved twice since June. Once to a new city, and once again to the house we were waiting for. Moving is never fun and we have moved more times than I care to remember. The silver lining is the purge of “stuff” each time we discover even more things we can live without and a new resolve to stop buying on impulse.

I continue to be amazed at all the benefits I’ve received since using the HypnoBirthing method. I think more women would take the time to learn about the wisdom it offers if only they knew how much it could transform their experience.

In the days after Evans water birth, I did not have any sore muscles. In  fact, my body to this date has never felt so strong. The normal perineum swelling went away within hours and I did not have any of the “just given birth” feelings.

More than the physical benefits, I think being at peace with our experience and not carrying any baggage into my relationship with Evan has been profoundly eye opening. I have learned so much. The birth experience matters because birth energy sticks around, for better or worse. Had I known what I know now, I would have made much different birth choices for Liv’s birth. C’est la vie! Both experiences are what they are though and now I have a new perspective of which I consider a gift. I’ve certainly learned that the onus is on us to make choices (whatever the may be) or the choices will be made for us.

I was prepared for some postpartum anxiety and depression but I have been feeling pretty good so far. Exhausted, but good. Mostly, I think I have managed my expectations much better this time around. If I’m not able to do or get to something, I try to let it go. In hindsight, I had too much to prove the first time around. I placed tremendous pressure on myself and thus the anxiety and rattled nerves. So far, I’ve managed to set aside the “I can do it all” mindset.

The other big realization is that I have been carrying some anger from Liv’s birth. The anger stems from not having the courage to tell my doctor to get her friggin’ hands off me when Liv was crowning. There is absolutely no reason a doctor needs to push back your skin around the emerging head (thus causing excessive tearing). Intuitively, I knew what was happening was unnecessary. The pain shocked and humbled me and while everything inside screamed STOP…I was mute. It amazes me how much they think they know, yet how much they tend to mess it up (cause they just can’t let someone else be in control for a change). I wish more space and respect was given to a mothers innate birthing wisdom.

We have been drinking up every moment of the infant stage. It just goes by too fast. Evan is such a happy little guy. He is fairly easy to soothe so our transition into a family of four has been much easier – although the new level of chaos and busyness has taken some time to get used to. The baby carrier has been my life saver!!

Evan was sleeping in our bed until just recently. Now I am transitioning him into his own bed. I was too nervous and such a light sleeper to bed share with Liv. Instead we co-slept with a cradle beside us. Bed sharing with Evan has been delightful and I’m so glad to have had this experience. I’d love to say I’m getting sleep, but I’m up every two-three hours right now. Sigh…this too shall pass.

One thing that took me by surprise was how much I wanted to hold Liv as a baby again. I was melancholic for the first two months watching my little girl become a big sister, outgrowing my concepts of her and realizing I had to let go. A toddler and now big sister seeking independence while I mourn the end of Liv as my baby. I still carry some regret about having post-partum with her. The more I relish Evan’s infancy, the more I long to in some way make up for all the times I was consumed with anxiety and not as emotionally present for her as I could have been. Post partum feels like it stole time from me, and I can’t get it back.

Liv has adjusted so well to having a baby brother. She is quite mothering so I try to include her in as much as I can. At times, she has seemed a bit more emotional towards us and so I am always working to find a new balance where she does not get the short end of the stick. She helps with the diapers and laundry and consoles him with “I know, I know  Evan” when he is fussing…pretty cute really.

Liv and I always used to talk about our day during our snuggle at bedtime. Juggling this special time around Evan has been challenging and after a night of repeated interruptions during her story and snuggle I finally realized it was crazy to try and get Evan down while we put Liv to bed. Why not bring him into her room for a big family snuggle? I assumed that she wanted time alone with me but this night was one of the most special nights yet.

I am nursing Evan successfully and he is packing on the weight. To date he is over 16 pounds. He is a no-soother boy. Spits it out like it’s last weeks leftovers! Even though Liv has been weaned since 14 months, she has decided that one breast is hers and one is Evans. I knew this may happen so when she first said she needed some milk I said OK. She leaned in close to me and pretended to drink. A moment later she said she was all done. “It’s pretty good” she states. She’s outgrown this now and these days she gets an ounce in a glass when I pump and freeze for future use.

Well, that’s our update for now. This is all time allows and…I’m going to hit PUBLISH, I swear!!

I hope you are happy and healthy.

I had to share this funny photo. Is this a sign of things to come?

Hey, come visit the me and leave a comment! I'd love to hear from you. If you enjoyed this article, thank you for giving it a boost on social media. © All rights reserved. This post is from HealthyGreenMoms and cannot be republished without express written permission.

Adjusting…Slowly.

We did it!

We received little Evan Lucas early in the morning (2am) on Thursday, April 9th. He is 7lbs, 7oz. I delivered him at home, in water using the HypnoBirthing method. It was beyond anything I ever imagined. Truly amazing.

He certainly surprised us, arriving 2 weeks early. My husband scrambled all day Wednesday to get the room and pool ready, plus all the last minute supplies while I went in and out of labor. What a journey the last 2 weeks have been. Here we are now and the vision is realized. I’m on cloud nine!

I’m feeling terrific and enjoying this Babymoon time. I’ll share my birth story very soon but wanted to quickly share our first pictures with you. I hope you have a wonderful Easter weekend with your family.

Evan at 7 hours old

My baby brother!

Our little man.

Proud Daddy

Hey, come visit the me and leave a comment! I'd love to hear from you. If you enjoyed this article, thank you for giving it a boost on social media. © All rights reserved. This post is from HealthyGreenMoms and cannot be republished without express written permission.

Welcome Evan Lucas!

The last couple weeks have been quite a roller coaster ride. This was certainly not what I expected when I embarked on this HypnoBirthing journey. I’m not normally one to rant on HGM…so bear with me!

I am a healthy woman. This has been a textbook pregnancy with no maternal complications. I am physically the strongest I have ever been. Mentally as well. We have confirmed that baby is perfectly healthy, even with a pelvic kidney, there is no cause for concern other than checking baby out a week or so after birth.

On quite a high from being totally empowered by the approaching birth, I naively thought I would find support from my female doctor. Surely she would understand the call of a woman to reclaim her birth experience? Sadly, my doctor was less than enthusiastic when I shared my birth plan. Actually, she was argumentative and slightly abusive.

Although knowing absolutely nothing about HypnoBirthing, she seemed to think is was an abomination that I would even consider listening to my own body and follow my own contractions as a guide for “breathing baby down” instead of relying on prompted calls to push. Choose an alternate birth position and dare to refuse my water being broken unless medically necessary.? Not on her watch! She revealed to me that she WILL break my water so it does not splash in her face! What an unbelievable intrusion that is not hers to dictate unless medically required. Babies have been born enclosed in their sack. Can you imagine a more gentle transition into this world?  How can any practitioner can take that away from the baby and mother because of their personal preferences disguised as “procedure.”

I suddenly found myself defending my desire to have a natural and gentle hospital birth, as unassisted as possible. She used all the usual fear based rhetoric to cite every possible scenario that could go wrong. And I wonder why women these days have such a fear of childbirth?  Gee, do you think the fear has anything at all to do with how things turn out? Fear is debilitating in life, why would it not also impact how a birth plays out?

I left the office shattered and soon in tears. What I felt most was a feeling of dis-empowerment. I had allowed someone to get under my skin, question my own body, the natural process, and fill me up with fear. How easy it would be to turn control over to someone else to handle an experience that was rightfully mine and my baby’s to decide and experience for ourselves.

When I think about the terror many women feel towards their birth, I understand how they get there with the type of suggestive language that was used on me that made me doubt my own body and abilities while in that office. The doctor has the power, who am I to question “procedures?”

I experienced first hand what the birth activists are trying so hard to communicate to us about how we have given away our power, our faith in our bodies and in the natural process of birth. Somehow, by requesting that we follow a natural and gentle birth plan, I was taking my baby’s life in to my own hands. What a stretch!

I decided to search for a new provider. My doctor had broken my trust and I was not confident that she would support me fully in what I want to achieve for our birth. Instead of being “woman centered” I was fast approaching a “doctor centered” birth experience.

In Canada, we have 2 options. Hospital or home birth. Doctor or Midwife. There are no birth centers here. Finding a midwife with 3 1/2 weeks to go is pretty next to impossible. We are in short supply, you need to grab a midwife the second the dipstick turns pink.  Doctors do not like to step on each others toes either, so I was having a very hard time. But I desperately did not want to return to that office.

We had discussed a home birth in the beginning but when we heard about the kidney we let it go, not knowing at that time what we were dealing with. I also surrendered my life long dream (of having a water birth) because my doctor said she personally would never forgive herself “if something went wrong” and she could have been in the hospital. So I surrendered my power months ago by accepting her suggestive language.

Fear gets under the skin, when in reality, there are no guarantees in either setting. Some would argue that there are far more interventions which then cause further complications in a hospital than in home births.

After days of calling and being turned away from countless offices I finally received a call today. The call came 30 minutes before my dreaded 37 week checkup with my doctor. A midwife was willing to take me on – ahhhh divine intervention!

So, I officially fired my doctor today. This is my experience, not hers.

I had to fight hard this week to keep my desire for a natural and gentle birth alive.

We are now making hasty plans to have a home water birth, using the HypnoBirthing method I have been learning these last few weeks. I have an amazing birth coach who also happens to be my HypnoBirthing coach. I am in great hands.

I wanted to share 2 amazing DVD’s that I have watched this week. These videos are so beautiful and profound. All I can say is if you are pregnant or looking to conceive again, these videos are so empowering and insightful.

What Babies Want: An Exploration into the Consciousness of Infants

Birth Into Being: The Russian Waterbirth Experience (amazing even if you do not choose a water birth as it explores Gentle Birthing, first inspired by these Russian women)

Talk to you soon – Be well!

Hey, come visit the me and leave a comment! I'd love to hear from you. If you enjoyed this article, thank you for giving it a boost on social media. © All rights reserved. This post is from HealthyGreenMoms and cannot be republished without express written permission.

My Quest For A Natural & Gentle Birth

If you are already balking at the very concept of a pain free birth, I urge you to stick with me over the next few weeks! As many of you know, I am weeks away from delivering our second child. I am extremely excited for “the day” and looking forward to the entire birthing experience.

I initially began researching home water births however I soon realized that this was going to be difficult given the lack of midwives available in our area. Although having a home birth does not possible at this point, I want to make sure that whatever environment I’m in, the birth is peaceful & relaxed.

I began begin researching other alternate birth experiences and after reading some incredible birth’s  using HypnoBirthing techniques I decided to look into it further and bought the book HypnoBirthing: The Mongon Method. Needless to say, the book has rocked my world!

In this article, I’ll share some of the basics of HypnoBirthing techniques. I have already committed to using the HypnoBirthing techniques in my own delivery – to “prove” if I can have a painfree birth. At this point, I’ll admit, it’s a dream…and that little voice inside really wonders if it is possible, so we shall see! I am 100% committed to doing everything that HypnoBirthing suggests in order to have a peaceful and painfree birth.

(UPDATE: after reading this article, you can check out my HypnoBirthing Story and see for yourself if I experienced what these techniques promise?!)

Whether or not HypnoBirthing is for you, I hope this series will inspire you as it has inspired me. By the end of this series, I hope to have started a discussion about our own birth expectations, to imagine what could be possible if we chose another way to relate to birth, and what this could mean for a generation of future moms?

When you change the way you view birth, the way you birth will change. Marie F. Mongan

What is HypnoBirthing?

HypnoBirthing puts aside the myth that pain must be associated with childbirth.

When a woman is in tune with her body and is able to relax her mind along with her muscles, the birthing process is much easier. We already know that what lingers in the mind is felt by the body as real so using mind/body relaxation techniques are very helpful anytime, and especially during labor. Relaxing and breathing is something that is not easy during the intense labor process but with practice the woman is able to relax the muscles, especially the muscles of the uterine that facilitates the entire process.

HypnoBirthing is a natural process and differs immensely from the medical process.

It incorporates the use of breathing techniques, self-hypnosis and imagery for a shorter and easier birthing process. HypnoBirthing techniques help to eliminate FEAR, believed to be the main cause of pain and birth complications. Many women have been noted to have not experienced pain when using the method of HypnoBirthing. Marie Mongan, the founder of the HypnoBirthing Institue in New Hampshire, developed the method is now known as “HypnoBirthing – The Mongan Method”.

The entire method revolves around using techniques to remove the FEAR associated with childbirth.

Many times we are afraid of the unknown and is heightened with many subtle suggestions that are common with our cultural experience with birth. The HypnoBirthing techniques will help a woman reclaim her body, learn to relax and enjoy the process of childbirth. When a woman is made aware of how the body functions during the birthing process (instead of all the possible things that can go wrong!) she will be able to relax and be in perfect harmony with her body instead of fighting against it.

With HypnoBirthing you are not under a trance or asleep.

You are fully aware of the entire process and in full control, as a woman should be. You will be completely relaxed and aware of your body’s surges. Surge is a term used in place of contractions. Contractions is associated with pain where a surge is just the feeling you will experience during the childbirth process. Language is very important in the HypnoBirthing process, because your body will react to words differently; the use of positive words helps the mind and body relax.

Here are some of the advantages to using HypnoBirthing techniques:

• Removes the fear associated with childbirth
• Reduces the need for chemical painkillers
• Eliminates the fatigue associated with childbirth
• Reduces the first stage of labor by several hours
• Promotes the special bonding between mother and child as well as birthing partner
• Makes the birthing process a beautiful experience as nature intended
• More rapid post-natal recovery

So what exactly are these HypnoBirthing techniques?

This section is written as an update after having my dream birth. The book, HypnoBirthing: The Mongon Method is a great read – I thoroughly recommend it as a first step in planning for a relaxed and pain free birth. There are numerous simple techniques listed in the book that I feel are also the foundation for philosophy that a woman must have when approaching her birth from an empowered perspective.

I hired a coach for 3 sessions immediately prior to my dream birth. It was very helpful for erasing fears I had around the birth – losing control, ripping, too much pain, the fear of “failure” etc…..I did not even get to finish my sessions because I went into labor – but I was prepared with the breathing techniques and the relaxation techniques for self “hypnosis” (I kind of dislike that word! It’s really just relaxation!)

During the birth – if you read my birth story listed above – you’ll know that I did not have any assistance until the coach and midwives came in the last 1-2 hours. I was able to use the relaxation techniques myself, and keep myself in this state for my entire labor…WOW!

My feeling is that you only need to address the fears and use a powerful relaxation method to attain this state which will allow your body to relax to the point where your birth is peaceful, flowing, spiritual, powerful and gentle!

I have since come across GentleBirth™ – Self Hypnosis for Childbirth which provides, what I feel is, all the same information as the Mongon Method  – but will allow you to study at home without incurring the cost of a coach or doula.

My personal feeling on a doula is that she must totally resonate with you! If there is anything that does not jive, she can actually be a roadblock to your gentle birth process and you carrying out the HypnoBirthing techniques. There must not be any STATIC in your birthing experience and if you find it difficult to declare your needs or ask people to give you space, it’s best to avoid having a doula unless she is AMAZING and sensitive to YOUR needs!

I highly recommend checking out GentleBirth™ – Self Hypnosis for Childbirth which is much more extensive that the Book and much less than hiring a HypnoBirthing Coach. I believe you can do this on your own – you just need the techniques to do it!

As you read the basics about HypnoBirthing, can you imagine a birth that is actually pain free?

What if women looked towards their labor with excitement and anticipation instead of fear?

What if Childbirth became am empowering experience for women once again – how would our culture be transformed?

If I went from fearful to fearless in only a few weeks, you can too. By learning the HypnoBirthing Techniqes or  the Gentle Birth course – you CAN achieve the birth of your dreams!

Hey, come visit the me and leave a comment! I'd love to hear from you. If you enjoyed this article, thank you for giving it a boost on social media. © All rights reserved. This post is from HealthyGreenMoms and cannot be republished without express written permission.

HypnoBirthing: Can Birth Really Be Pain Free?