Im having a baby!! 

Yeah everybody knows I know I know!!  Im not due until April of next year, wow April was only like 3 months ago…I have a long wait!!  I am super excited you guys have no idea.  Well maybe you might if you are a momma!

So this marks baby #3.  I can’t believe it.  Hopefully it is twins and it will be #3 and #4!  That would be stinkin awesome!!

We aren’t (Lord willing) finding out the sex this time, but I usually have to name the baby right away otherwise I have weird bonding issues.  Don’t ask.  Sooooooooooooooo

Right now we are thinking about….

Devyn Madison or Devyn Brinley……like? dont like??

Our other two are Caiden and Jordan so they go nicely =)

Anyway, Jordy just woke up gotta run!!

Okay so I have been teaching myself to crochet for the past 2 days.  Inspired by a friend…who not only taught herself but made these really adorable shoes!!  That has been my goal, to make these super cute shoes!

It has been some journey let me tell you!!  So I finally have the crocheting under my belt..I can do it..and it makes sense!! 

Now if I can only read the pattern and do JUST what it says…then I might have better luck.  I was hoping to make some christmas presents so I am glad i started now.  It might be a while before I make even the sole of the shoe the way Im working lol.

Good thing I have someone to help me!

Wish me luck everyone!!

Ill post an update if I get anything accomplished!!

So in response to a few people I thought I would publicly share with everyone that blogging has moved down my list of priorities lately.  As recent posts have stated, I won my battle with Eddy in having the option to have more babies.  But I also became sickly addicted to the game I offered to play with him.  It was supposed to be a temporary painful miserable thing but has developed into almost a daily habitual routine.  I’ve really slacked off my game time but it is still superior to my blogging.  Maybe once im sick of it, I will post more frequently.  My brain is a bit preoccupied these days. =)

Now onto a different subject.  I am really disappointed in JEA this past month.  Due to the amount of money we had to pay in the month of June I decided to try some conservation. 

My first priority was to keep the air on 80 degrees or higher with exception of naptime (78) and bedtime (79).  Previous months it stayed at 78 or lower.

We also quit using our dishwasher entirely.

I stopped taking baths, and instead took quick showers.

I kept all lights/fans off except if we were in the room.  Absolutely no lights before 8pm.

I didnt let the computers run all day.

I turned the air up 5 degrees or more when absent from home.

I didn’t let the TV run all day.

I cut my laundry washing down by 3 loads or more a week.

We didnt water our lawn for 2 weeks.

And yet, with all that conservation our bill was $15 higher.

Now JEA had the nerve to tell me that my thermostat is probably broken and it really is 78 degrees or lower when it says that its 80.  I think it is a bunch of crap to get me off their back and hide the fact that they are ripping people off.  They probably arent used to people questioning their bills or trying to conserve energy.

The worst part is, the rates went up last week nearly 30% and so everyone will have a higher bill next month no matter what.

This month, I am not going to use my dryer except for our linens because technically its against neigborhood rules to have a clothes line.  Im also going to keep the air on 81 during the day and 80 at night.  We will see.  Atleast I can compare water and electricity usage.

Anyway, thats my blog for the month.

=)

http://pregnancyandbaby.com/pregnancy/baby/Home-sweet-home-birth-6218.htm

So I am officially addicted to World of Warcraft.  It is so weird to me how obsessive I have become over it!  I know it is a dream come true for Eddy but it is so embarrassing!  I played for 6 hours the other day and average 2-4 hours a day.  Mostly due to Caiden being out of town and Jordan just doing whatever she wants all day, or me staying up suuuuuuper late. 

So I have learned a couple things about myself.  I can stay up late night after night and still function the next day.  I’ve done just fine off of 7 hours of sleep vs. my typical 9 or 10.

Also, I feel like I am in the 5th grade again when I was trying night after night to beat donkey kong country.  Or those sleepless nights I played mario go-kart for hours upon hours.

It’s nice doing something recreational like that although I believe it should be done in much more moderation.  But we will get to that point sooner or later haha.

It’s also been screwing up my running too.  I haven’t run since I started playing (except 2 nights ago) because I want to make sure I am cleaned up and ready to play the second the kids go to sleep lol.  It really is ridiculous, and anybody who knows me knows how out of character this is for me.

Oh well, I trick Eddy into having a baby….he tricks me into getting addicted to his game.  I guess we both won. =)

Wow…Seriously sad.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/21659.php

http://www.thecnj.co.uk/camden/2008/050108/news050108_04.html

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/5/14/nation/20080514095201&sec=nation

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/all-b1-5stroke-q.6380687apr28,1,1393508.story

http://alexanderharris.co.uk/article/Mother_dies_after_the_birth_of_her_first_baby_2242.asp

Well that is enough for now….Here is an interesting article:

Is giving birth at home any more dangerous than giving birth in hospital?

Home births are controversial and some people, including doctors, are convinced they’re a riskier option than giving birth in a hospital.

But a growing body of research – including some in B.C. – suggests, when done properly and attended by a midwife, it can be just as safe as delivering in a hospital.

In 2002, Patricia Janssen, a perinatal epidemiologist at UBC, published a study comparing 800 planned home births in B.C. to about 1,300 births in hospital.

The two groups of women were carefully matched, to ensure both involved low-risk pregnancies and women of similar economic backgrounds.

What Janssen found was home births were no more risky, either for women or their babies, than delivering in a hospital.

In fact, the risk of some complications and interventions was actually lower among women who gave birth at home.

For example, just 6.4 per cent of home births resulted in a C-section (after transfer to hospital), compared to 11.9 per cent for hospital births attended by a midwife and 18.2 per cent for hospital births by a physician.

Just 3.8 per cent of home births involved an episiotomy, compared to 10.9 per cent for midwife-attended hospital births and 15.3 per cent for doctor attended hospital births.

And the risk of infection, while small in both cases, was five times higher in hospital: 35 per 1,000 births compared to seven per 1,000 for home births.

Since the 2002 study was published, Janssen and her colleagues have been working on a followup, looking at all 3,000 planned home births in B.C. between 2000 and 2004.

The results have not yet been published.

But Janssen said the data appears to confirm the earlier study: home births in B.C. are no more dangerous than those in hospital.

“What we know… is that planned home birth with a regulated midwife does not carry excess risk compared to a planned hospital birth,” she said.

Janssen said it’s important to stress the safety of home births in B.C. is due in large part to the fact midwives here are well-trained and regulated.

They also rigorously pre-screen women, to ensure those with high-risk pregnancies are denied home births and sent to hospital instead.

In fact, home births can even be called off because of bad weather since it could make it difficult to transfer a woman or her baby to hospital.

Transfers take place in about one quarter of home births, some during labour and others after.

“Our midwives practise cautiously,” said Janssen. “So, if in doubt, they transfer.”

The focus on regulation in B.C. is important, because studies in places with less rigorous regulation of midwives have found home births can be more dangerous than giving birth in hospital.

One study in Australia, for example, found infant death rates for home births were higher than the national average, something the study blamed in large part on the failure to screen out high-risk pregnancies, such as twins or breech births.

In contrast, studies done in countries with well-regulated home birth programs, such as the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, have found similar results to Janssen’s study.

One of the chief criticisms of home births is, if something does go wrong, the mother and her baby are far from expert help in hospital.

“The fact is that rare, bad things happen in childbirth,” said Dr. Paul Thiessen, a clinical professor of pediatrics at UBC. “And if you’re having [the birth] in the comfort of your own home … are you more or less likely to have a good outcome compared to expert people available at your immediate beck and call?”

Janssen agreed hospitals have the advantage of speed when problems with a pregnancy are discovered.

But the fact rates of injury and death are no higher for B.C. home births suggests something else must be going on.

One possibility, said Janssen, is that because home births are supervised by two midwives, problems are identified more quickly than they are in hospital, making the increased delay in getting to hospital a wash.

“In a home birth you have the focused and undivided attention of an experienced practitioner who may be able to pick up complications very early as opposed to being in a crowded hospital where there’s a mix of both experienced and new practitioners who have other responsibilities

Well everyone knows the positive side to an epidural.  Pain free labor!! Yay!!  If only it were that easy.  In order to keep this blog from going on until tomorrow, I will be short and to the point.  Feel free to ask any questions.

101 Reasons not to get an epidural: (jk only 14)

1. Epidurals slow down labor.

2. Epidurals increase use of pitocin (refer back to previous blogs to understand the dangers of that.)

3. Epidurals increase the chances of baby being removed by vacuum or forceps or having routine episiotomy. http://www.thecnj.co.uk/camden/2008/050108/news050108_04.html

4. Epidurals increase the chances of cesarean section especially in first time mothers.

5. Having the epidural too early into labor, when having slow dilation or when the head is still high in the pelvis increases the risk of having a c-section for poor progress.  Epidurals prevent baby from being able to properly turn from posterior to anterior. (from the wrong way to the right way).

6. Epidurals cause complications, including life threatening complications.  That is even with anesthetists using correct procedures and taking the proper precautions.

7. Epidurals cause fevers, increasing the chances that your baby will be kept in the nursery subjected to different testing and even given preventative antibiotics.  That alone just makes me want to scream!

8. Epidurals cause long term and even chronic probelms.  Headaches and paralysis.

9. Epidural anesthetics DO get to the baby as do the narcotic components of the narcotic epidurals.

10. Epidurals can negatively effect the baby’s heart rate.

11. Epidurals can have adverse effects in the newborn.

12. Lower dosages and new techniques of epidural administration do not reduce the adverse effects of epidurals.

13. Narcotics adversely effect baby’s oxygen levels before birth, can lead to breathing problems at birth and even interfere with early breastfeeding.  On a really sad note I used to have an article saved where this happened to a woman during delivery.  As soon as baby was born the nurse put the baby under oxygen.  Unfortunately, 10 minutes went by before the nurse realized she had been giving the baby carbon dioxide instead of the oxygen and caused permanent long term brain damage.  Unfortunately this could have been prevented even by simply not having an epidural and her baby would have never needed the oxygen to begin with.

14.  Hospitals are expected to have an 80% effective rate use of epidurals in order to maintain proper payment to the anathesiologists on hand.  They make anywhere from $500 to $2500 off of each patient per epidural.

EFM helps a nurse to monitor baby during all stages of labor.   Unfortunately society is led to believe that it is a machine that tells doctors when the baby is in trouble and needs to be rescued, unfortunately that is not it at all.  When studies were done, the results were striking! 

Routine EFM confers NO demonstratable benefit to the fetus, yet poses a significantly increased risk of operative delivery either through cesarean or through forceps.  After two decades of using EFM it has not been shown to be superior to intermittent.  (listening w/ a doppler at set time intervals as would be done at home).

Secondly, there is not much correlation between baby’s heart rate during labor and the condition of the baby at birth.  Few babies diagnosed with fetal distress are born in a poor condition.

As said previously, doctors love to consider labor to be a medical event.  That is why EFM is so wonderful to them because it is such high tech equipment.  Doctors are really just scared and use them for liability purposes. 

Not only does EFM not improve outcomes but often make them worse. 

EFM is basically a box that shows the heart rate and contraction patterns.  Belts are strapped on mommy.  With internal monitoring for baby the lower belt on mommy is replaced by a wire that plugs into a small box strapped to your thigh.  Leads from the box then into the monitor.  The wire ends in a thin, stiff, sharply pointed spiral needle.  This is then placed up under the baby’s scalp and twists to anchor it and keep it from coming loose.  Hmm…Ill pass how about you?

Ways to avoid problems of EFM:

1. Have a homebirth. =)

2. Avoid using it.

3. Refuse internal EFM.

4. Refuse contraction monitoring.

5. Don’t have an epidural.

6. Don’t allow EFM to keep you from moving around and repositioning baby.

7. Turn the monitor off and cover it up.  Avoid looking at it all together.

8.  Always remember, selective EFM produces the same results and outcomes as routine EFM and Intermittent EFM produces the same results as continuous EFM.

=)  Have a great weekend everyone!

Doctors do this in order to avoid using pitocin to speed up labor.  They think it is a better alternative.  Their hope is to reduce c-sections.  The problem though is that it doesn’t.  During a study 9 different random women had their waters broken, and another group did not.  The group with broken waters had an increase in cesarean sections and in particular an increase in cesarean for fetal distress.

As long as everything is in tact, they baby and cord, which carries blood between baby and placenta, float inside like a water balloon.  The fluid protects baby and cord from pressure of contractions during labor.    No wonder breaking the waters lead to abnormal heart patterns.

Two-thirds of women reach full dilation before the water breaks. 

Another problem associated with this procedure is umbilical cord prolapse.  Basically instead of the head coming out first, the cord comes.  This can squeeze on the cord and decrease or even cut off oxygen supply to your baby.

Breaking the waters is also related to maternal infection.  Usually because there are too many vaginal exams. 

Bottom line, it causes abnormal fetal patterns and ups your chances of cesarean sections.  Unfortunately there ARE doctors who will break your bag and not even tell you.  Be sure to tell your doctor in advance your wishes.

Studies have even shown that breaking the water does not always speed up labor and usually has unpredictable effects.    Pretend a baby is posterior (facing mothers belly instead of her back), labor is often really slow until it gets anterior (the right way facing mothers back).  If you break the waters, baby will surge down into position.  In this case it would be the wrong position and then baby will get stuck. 

These are just the facts people.

While breaking the water may shorten labor by some modest amount of time, it is minor in comparison with the length of full labor.

Hope that helps.

http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/index.php?cl=7929731