Footling Breech

Isn't it incredibly sweet that the wall says "Happy Birthday".
The little brother of this baby being born celebrated his birthday two days before her birth and the family left the sign up to wait for the baby.
I love it!

This little girl had been persistently breech for the last six weeks. Her mama and midwives tried many things to get her head down but she didn't want to come out that way. We all had a lot of trust in proceeding with this breech birth at home.

There were a few moments of anxiousness these last couple of weeks. Mama went a little overdue and I had another client having several episodes of false labor. I did not want them to labor at the same time. I wanted to be fully present for both births.

I have to admit for the last week or two I was convinced that this baby was going to come out feet first. When we had the ultrasound she wasn't in a classical frank breech, the most ideal of breech positions. I would say she was more in a complete breech position, but looking more like frog legs!



So this morning when dad announced that he saw a foot emerging I was not at all surprised. I was grateful that I had invited another midwife with a lot of breech experience to come along to this birth. But always felt confident that all would be well. I had planned to follow the "hands off the breech" rule, which is easy when mom is laboring in a birth tub. But this tub was only half full of water and you can see that mom's bum in completely out of the water. As baby continued to emerge I was afraid she would come quickly and her head would slip into the water. I kept putting my hand on her while in my head I was chanting "get your hands off". I did not want that baby to fall into the water. When the body was birthed we had the mom stand up to birth the head and I did place my hands on the baby at this time as the baby emerged completely and vigorously! It was beautiful.

Look at those cute little feet! Amazing!

Oh, Please, No!

There has been some recent blogging about a couple of positive birth portrayals on TV. I was so intrigued I logged onto hulu.com (awesome website) and watch "The Office" baby episode. My daughter loves this show but I haven't really watched it. Now I'm wondering why? Funny!!

Except for the hooter hider (which, by the way was really stupid looking), from a birth advocates point of view this was a great episode. First of all when Pam went into labor she did not panic and insisted on not going to the hospital until her contractions were 5 minutes apart. There was a staff meeting with the purpose of finding ways to distract Pam from her contractions. When breastfeeding was becoming a challenge and the nurse acted like it was no big deal to give the baby a bottle, Pam insisted on having a lactation consultant and didn't give up. Of course the lactation consultant was male and while he had his hands all over Pam's breasts Jim's reaction was hilarious! One of the funniest scenes was when Pam finally found success breastfeeding in the middle of the night, then discovered that she had really been feeding her roommates baby....Pam whispers in a panic to Jim, wrong baby, wrong baby! It was great to see a funny, yet positive spin on birth on TV.

Another show that I have not reviewed yet, but have heard positive things about is -SURPRISINGLY- Kourtney Kardashian's labor and birth. Apparantly when her water broke she just went about her life, even taking a shower and putting on makeup before heading to the hospital. When she pushed her baby out she...get this...TOUCHED HER BABY!!! Amazing stuff people. Way to go, Kourtney! I'm going to try to find this episode.

Update:

Here is the link to some video of Kourtney's labor and birth!!

The Boys

G, Amos & Parker

They have to bark at every passerby!

OK, so those who have to listen to me on an almost daily basis are probably sick of hearing about the dogs! But having a new, VERY LARGE puppy move into my house has been quite an adjustment. I recently updated the family room and bought an almost white couch...I know, what was I thinking? (But this was before the big dog moved it) And I am a little anal about keeping things neat and tidy around here.

I was worried about Parker moving back in, but he's been respectful and helpful. His dog on the other hand.....? Is a handful! He has been eating shoes and candles and papers and furniture and anything else he can sink his teeth into. G needs chewy toys, while Amos like soft and cuddly toys. I need to hide Amos' toys while G is here, then Amos gets to play with them while G is gone. Amos has had to adjust too. He has been anxious and annoying.

Emilia has had to adjust too. When Parker leaves for work early in the morning G climbs in bed with her. At first he just wanted to get up and play but he is learning to settle down and sleep a little longer. I am enjoying G being the one waking my little darling up in the morning, I have been relieved of that chore.

Puppies are a lot of work!

Living Room Makeover

I have a funky "L" shaped living-dining room area. Each area is narrow and therefore small feeling. A friend of mine came over a few months ago and had some great ideas about rearranging the furniture. We finally made the time to make the changes and I LOVE the results.

This is the area in front of the big window where I used to have my couch.
Now it is the dining room.


This is the area where the dining room table was. During Christmas when the tree is in front of the window we do have the couch set up similar to this, in front of the fireplace. But now the couch is set back much further and feels roomy.

Another view of the living room. The retro chairs are now in front of the fireplace. I love sitting on the couch facing the fireplace, while still getting a great view out the front window.

The view from the kitchen where the table used to be.
The sofa table is new with a lamp on it. The fish tank was an eye sore no matter where we tried to reposition it, but I wasn't ready to give it up completely. I found a smaller, and much nicer one on craigslist that fit perfectly on top of a small cupboard. I hadn't wanted to part with this piece of furniture because it had belonged to my grandma, but honestly it was almost on it's way out the door because I had no where to put it after re-doing the family room. It had been sitting outside on the patio for months and I didn't have the heart to get rid of it. I'm glad it worked perfectly for the new aquarium!
And I love the new fish tank (even though I still don't love it's location)

Now Emilia keeps begging me to have some parties!