Peace

I admit, as much as I LOVE being blessed enough to be able to stay at home with my girls, nap time is probably my favorite time of the day. Or, at least my most peaceful.

It's usually the first time of the day that I actually get to sit down. Without a child on my lap or pulling on my arm.

Nap time doesn't last that long around here and frankly, at almost 5 years old I'm surprised that I can still get the Mermaid to take one. Once they are asleep I love to listen to the piece and quiet and enjoy my time alone. Sometimes I'm good and I do things that I had scheduled, like work on my CBE certification, catch up on laundry, do things for my local LLL group, or for WomenAid but sometimes instead I just head out to the deck with a good book and my second cup of coffee for the day.

I used to be able to take my laptop out there as well, but then it crashed and now I am stuck with a slow and half-broken desktop in the dark basement, where I can only get onto my email by luck, and where I can't take on more writing jobs because I can't log into the websites.

Where I can write new posts for my blog, but can't actually view my blog to see how they came out. It drives me nuts, like I haven't seen my reflection in two months.

No matter how short their naps are (sometimes as short as 20 minutes), I feel fully recharged when they wake up. They run down the stairs, yell "Mommy!" and with a swoop into my arms, rejoin my day. And it feels so right.

Peace

In the News

A few stories that have been floating around the WWW:

CDC Says Cesarean Triples Neonatal Death Risk.
From the article:

While the increased risks of cesarean section to neonatal and maternal health have long been known, an even more grim issue came to light in a study released in the September, 2006 issue of Birth Journal. The CDC conducted research on cesarean section and neonatal mortality, expecting to find that the neonatal mortality rate (defined as death within the first 28 days of life) following cesarean section correlated directly with medical complications of the mother and baby. What they found, instead, was that regardless of risk factors, babies born by cesarean section face a risk of death nearly three times that of vaginally born babies.

VBAC? How About On The Interestate?
An amazing story about a woman a VBA3C on the side of the freeway! Frankly, I'm surprised she was able to find a doctor that would allow her to try a vaginal birth!

Let The Baby Decide: The Case Against Inducing Labor
From the article:

Labor should be induced only when medically necessary, never simply for convenience or because a woman is sick of being pregnant. The risks in these situations far outweigh the perceived benefits. Determining postmaturity or a woman's readiness to give birth are complex processes. We are just beginning to understand the long-term effects on the fetal brain of drugs such as Pitocin, and the exact long-term effects of inducing or augmenting labor are unknown. Pregnant woman wanting information on the safety of a drug can consult the Physicians' Desk Reference or call the product safety officer at the pharmaceutical company where it is manufactured.

The Physical Impact of Cesareans
From the article:

We’re seeing only the tip of the iceberg in regard to the impact of cesareans on women and their families. The reality is that the impact is far larger and deeper than we know. As the cesarean rate increases, so does our glimpse into the reality of the immense proportions of the epidemic and its impact on our lives.

And finally, IKEA Employee Sends Breastfeeding Mother To Bathroom.
From the article:

"On Wednesday I was in IKEA Red Hook in the middle of breastfeeding, fully covered, when I was told I had to stop doing "that" and go to the nearby family bathroom. The IKEA employee and security guards were extremely rude to us. I was hustled off to the bathroom and then had to wait because someone else was using it. I was humiliated, my daughter was upset from being interrupted in the middle of her feed. When eventually I gave up and headed for the car to finish feeding, the security guards who had seen the entire event insisted on checking my receipts.

As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments about any of these stories.

In the News

Still Working On Myself...

Last night I suddenly came down with this awful stomach bugs...you know those weird ones that attack you like crazy where you almost wish you'd get hit by a truck, only to leave you feeling fine 12 hours later?

Yeah, one of those.

To make things worse, the Knight wasn't home. He was waiting for AAA at our broken down van. Yes, it broke. down. AGAIN.

So, I managed to feed the girls dinner (so what if it was cereal, I was miserable) and put them to bed before passing out on the couch.

About two hours later, I woke up from my stupor of sleeping then getting sick in the bathroom to realize that there were some funny noises going on upstairs. Upstairs, where it should have been quiet because both the girls are sleeping, right?

I literally dragged my miserable self up the stairs to find them awake, standing in their bedroom and holding an empty lotion bottle. This particular lotion bottle was BIG and it had nearly been full when I put them to bed, so I wondered very briefly where all the lotion had gone before my eyes focused and I realized where it went. Their entire room was covered, everywhere. The desk, bookcase, bureaus, even the bed. And both girls were covered, too. Lotion EVERYWHERE.

I lost it. I yelled, I screamed, I pointed fingers. I stopped at one point, ran into the upstairs bathroom to get sick, and realized that the bathroom was covered in lotion, too. That's when I really went to town with the yelling.

The whole time, the girls just stood there with wide eyes and jaws dropped. I'm not sure what scared them more, the condition I was in or my anger.

Everything that I had absorbed about positive discipline had FLOWN out of my head the second I had seen the lotion everywhere. There was no reason, no guidance, just ANGER.

I cleaned up as much as I could in the state I was in, put the girls back to bed and threw myself back onto the couch. Shortly after the Knight came home and when he said hello I said, "Oh, can you see me? I'm surprised I'm big enough to exist, because I feel about this small" and held my thumb and index finger a tiny space apart.

Nobody is perfect, and I know that. I'm thankful for that. But the speed and rate that my anger had consumed me SCARES me. I could not believe that I had lost control that quickly, and I can't understand why. It's just lotion. Not paint, not black marker, no one was hurt, nothing was damaged. The girls now have really soft skin.

Even so, for me this wasn't a lesson about how nobody is perfect, or that loving discipline works better for my family then yelling and spanking, but more about learning to forgive myself. Even Jesus lost his temper. It doesn't make me mean, it doesn't make me a bad parent, it just reminds me to be more gentle and easy on myself; to be more forgiving; and to be more open to these opportunities to learn.

To remind myself that I am still, and will be for the rest of my life, a work in progress.

Still Working On Myself...

Wordless Wednesday: Curly Sue

I can't believe how curly and thick her hair is getting!!

For more Wordless Wednesday, visit 5 Minutes For Mom.

Wordless Wednesday: Curly Sue

Linky Love

There are some stories and blog posts lately that I thought were worth sharing...

The Man Nurse Diaries talks about his thoughts on being a man in the delivery room. A must read.


Stand and Deliver wrote a really intriguing post about beds and birth rooms. While over there I would check out the rest of her blog, she offers a lot of information and insight about the maternity system in general.


I also found this excellent website that offers free homeschooling resources. Homeschool Buyers Co-op offers everything from free curriculum to website listings and games.

Where else can you find something this cool besides on Etsy? Wove's shop offers unique creations woven out of willow.

And finally, Natural Moms Talk Radio offers recipes and instructions for making your own shampoo.

What interesting links have you come across lately?

Linky Love

All Children's Furniture Giveaway!!

If you're like me, then you are always on the lookout for high quality children's toys and furniture that won't leave your wallet empty. Sometimes, finding a product that comes at a good price without sacrificing quality is hard to do. That's why I was so happy to find All Children's Furniture.

All Children's Furniture sells everything from bunk beds to toys, all at a great price. Their site is so easy to navigate and provides different search options to help you find that perfect product for your child. You can search by brand, category, and product type. My favorite search option is by price: that way, you can go directly to the high-quality products that fit within your budget. Plus, they are currently having an amazing promotion: free shipping for all orders over $69!

All Children's Furniture is so committed to their products and service that they have generously provided me with a product to give away. This wonderful giveaway is for a Floral Twin Bed Tent by Bazoongi Kids. From the website:

"Made from the same high quality 100% spun-bonded fabric as their play structures, the Flower Twin Bed Tent from Bazoongi Kids is perfect for either daytime play or night-time dreams. Kids will love the beautiful flower garden print and the peek-a-boo door flaps, and there are plenty of pockets both inside and outside for storage as well as multiple mesh windows to ensure plenty of sunlight and good air flow. Designed for a standard twin-sized bed, this bed tent promises to provide plenty of fun and rest for your child and their friends."

I know that the Mermaid would LOVE this bed tent. Can you imagine how much fun this tent would make bed time for your little one?

Here's how to enter this giveaway:

1. Visit All Children's Furniture and look around. Then come back and leave a comment telling me what your favorite products are.

For extra entries...

- Twitter about this giveaway, being sure to add @roxanne600 to your tweet. You can do this once a day to earn an entry a day.

- Subscribe to my feed or follow my blog.

- Blog about this giveaway. Just simply copy and paste the following into your post:

Adventures of a Breastfeeding Mother is having a giveaway for a Floral Twin Bed Tent! This giveaway is sponsored by All Children's Furniture, who sells everything from bunk beds to toys. Visit now to enter for your chance to win!

Make sure you leave a separate comment for each separate entry. This contest is open to US and Canadian Residents only. I will randomly choose a winner on Monday, August 10th. The winner will have three days to reply before I pick another winner.

Good luck!

All Children's Furniture Giveaway!!

WHOOSH!!

*photo by Wormtown Medic

Our house is located on a quiet, dead end street. If you go to the end of the street and cut through the woods, you will come out onto a high school campus. The same high school I attended, in fact.

On this campus is a windmill.

I love this windmill. We can see it from our house, soaring up over our street like a mighty protector. In fact, when we are out and coming home, the Mermaid always knows which way to go because she can see the windmill. When we first moved in, I would wake up and see it out my bedroom window, and the way it moved made me think it was waving good morning to me. Silly, I know.

Most of the time it is really quiet, but on really windy days or on rainy days, it makes a great WHOOSH sound as it rotates. I don't find that sound annoying in the least; in fact, I find it rather comforting. It sounds like a womb, with the mother's heart beating through.

The only time I found it annoying was right after we lost Kalei. I was still carrying him, laying on my bed, and the sound of the windmill reminded me of the sounds we had heard from my midwife's doppler: the great WHOOSH of my heartbeat and vascular system and no tiny bumpbump of a baby heartbeat.

We are also close to two schools, two parks, and three daycares. So, at any given time when you step outside onto my deck, you can clearly hear children playing and laughing and the sound of a bat hitting a ball. WHACK! This is my favorite sound, because it is always followed by people cheering.

My favorite days are when all these sounds come together. The WHOOSH of the windmill provides a nice, relaxing background to the laughter and cheering, the WHACK of the bat on ball. On these days, I love to sit out on the deck with a book while the girls run around in the yard, adding their own laughter to the mix. The perfect sounds of home.

How often do we slow down enough to appreciate all the little things around us, like the sounds we hear? There have been many times that I've been so busy and rushed, unable to appreciate the small gifts that were all around me.

At this point in my life, I am more still, more quiet and relaxed than usual. And I love it.

WHOOSH!!