Postpartum Belly Binding

In the past few months I’ve been researching postpartum belly binding. The more I research the more I am sad I didn’t know about this after I had West. Belly Binding is one of those things that have been around for centuries, primarily used in Japan, Latin American and Europe. Though it seems like in the U.S. it is gaining ground very fast. I first heard about it on The Ellen Show via a product called the Belly Bandit.

At first I thought it seemed rather gimmicky… but the the benefits of this seem pretty solid.

1. Speeds up weight loss
2. Toning of the abdominal muscles & skin
3. Gets organs back in place after the baby
4. Brings pliable hips back together to post pregnancy width
5. Closes the birth canal
6. Speeds up getting rid of waste blood
7. Promotes great posture
8. Protects back, core and legs – think of weight lifters on this one    (source)

18 month Doctor appointment

The stats:

29lbs, 34 inches, 20 in head circ.

He is meeting and exceeding all of this 18 month milestones. Dr. Merrie said he is on the “advanced end of the spectrum”. Yes I was just mama bragging there Though in new developments West has gotten really people shy again, so although he was fine with Dr. Merrie talking to me, as soon as she started examining him he FLIPPPPPPPEEEEDDDD OOOOOUUUUTTTTT.  He flipped out so bad all I could was hug him and try to laugh it off. Once she was done examining him he was totally fine again.

We decided to do a tetnus shot for him, though didn’t get a chance to do because of the above mentioned flip out. So I will bring him in this week or next for a quick shot. I’m sure he’ll love that.

My handsome men! Oh how I love them!!

Kim and The City

Pics from my trip.

He only has 5 of them, but they are clean!

*correction: 5/6/09: West now has 7 teeth (two just popped up out of no where)

Home birth Safety– The facts!

I’d like to start by saying that our family has been very supportive our decision to home birth. They were just as supportive when we had a Birth Center birth with our son West. I really appreciate that. However I recently ran into an acquaintance who used several fear tactics to convince me that home births are dangerous and that basically I’d be killing my baby if I had a home birth. She works in a hospital and her husband is a family practice doctor who delivers babies. I was caught off guard by her comments but I knew enough to know that she wasn’t’ in least bit educated on home birth safety and all her horror stories she told me were not home birth related and the outcomes would not have been different no matter where the mother birthed the baby.

“The hospital doesn’t react quicker if you are giving birth there, it doesn’t influence mortality rates. In hospital, there is not a sterile team waiting in the operating room in anticipation of an emergency, it takes them about a half hour to be ready. In principle, if you are giving birth at home, it is the same. The moment the midwife calls to say a medical transfer is necessary, the gynecologist brings the appropriate team together.”(source)

Two recent studies, one conducted in the US with over 5,000 births and the other one in Europe with over 500,000, concluded that having a birth at home with a midwife was as safe as having birth in a hospital, and depending on your view of unnecessary interventions (that can often lead to birth trauma and interfere with breastfeeding) home births can be considered safer.

“Planned home birth for low risk women in North America using certified professional midwives was associated with lower rates of medical intervention but similar intrapartum and neonatal mortality to that of low risk hospital births in the United States.” (source)

The only reason I am sharing this data on my blog is to one arm our very supportive family with information that will shield them from other people scaring them about our birth choices.

Please keep in mind that our view on home birth isn’t “home birth or nothing”… ultimately our goal is to have a beautiful healthy baby girl in our arms and as long as that can happen I will be happy. Currently I am low risk and a great candidate for a home birth.

Our baby Girl!!

Ice cream social

Pictures and updates

Here is a picture of the elusive Easter Bunny. Most people don’t capture an image of the Easter Bunny as he hides eggs in stealth of the night. But he was feeling a bit photogenic this Easter.

Speaking of elusive photos, here is a rare one of me, John, West and my 16 week pregnant belly. Our first family shot since being pregnant again.

Updates on the family: John is running again. Yay! He is training for a half-marathon in June (and maybe July). West says so many words now. Though he really like to call everything “cow”. He uses a fork really well and a spoon not so well. But he LOVES practicing with them. New Baby is doing well. Just growing, growing, growing. We have the BIG ultrasound on April 27th where we will hopefully find out the sex of the baby.  I am taking a trip out east in May, heading to NYC to hang out with my friend Chrissy. I am excited. Next week the whole family is going up to Seattle to meet up with some friends I meet who all had babies due in November 2007. It will be a lot of fun.

April 1st revisited

Instead playing an April Fool’s Day joke… I will share a picture a West from April 1, 2008.

This year!

Wow do we need this! Toy Vacuum!

My adorable 16 month old son (not pictured above) goes CRAZY for the vacuum. We can’t hardly contain his excitment when we vacuum. It is the easiest way to get him out of a fussy mood. The real vacuum worked well when he was younger, but now he REALLY wants to vacuum himself and the real thing is just to danerous for him. I think this vacuum from Miele will work perfect for us. It is cansister style like our vacuum and it is not cheesy looking like some of the other kid vacuums.