18 month Doctor appointment June 2, 2009

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 May 20, 2009

Pics from my trip.

He only has 5 of them, but they are clean! May 5, 2009

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

Home birth Safety– The facts! April 28, 2009

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!! April 27, 2009

Ice cream social April 23, 2009

Pictures and updates April 17, 2009

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 April 1, 2009

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! April 1, 2009

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.

Spring in Portland looks a lot like Winter in Portland March 28, 2009

(Park visit last Sunday)

Rain, rain, rain. West and I had took advantage of a dry spell yesterday and worked in the garden. I picked up dog poop and pulled weeds. West played in any water he could find and he threw rocks and bark chips all around. He was soaked from head to toe and muddy so he went straight into the bath… more water for him, yay!

I am developing Symphsis Pubis Dysfunction (SPD) again. It started hurting earlier this week. I am already seeing a chiropractor so hopefully it won’t get as bad as it did with West. I am also going to investigate where acupuncture helps. A maternity support belt might help when I’m walking. I just don’t want to get to the point where I can’t exercise or pick up West… though the constant pain stresses me out.

Speaking of exercise I got some prenatal workout videos and both my men did some exercises with me. West attempted some leg lifts and John did some stretching. Such supportive fellas!

I am now in my second trimester of pregnancy. My baby is the size of a peach now. I decided that “it” needs to be a girl because I can’t think of any boy names I like. If I had a good boy name I’d still be routing for a boy. We are month way from find out the sex (and checking to see if all the vital organs are good). Hopefully this baby will cooperate better than West did when it comes to finding out the gender. If not I will try to talk John into going to get another ultrasound done later. I just have to know what we are having.

I am reluctant to share this, but here is my 13 week photo. I won’t make any excuses on why I am so big. We all know I didn’t lose the pg weight from West. Oh well here it is.