I am fearfully and wonderfully made...

Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out; you formed me in my mother's womb. I thank you, High God—you're breathtaking! Body and soul, I am marvelously made! I worship in adoration—what a creation! You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body; You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something. Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life were spread out before you, The days of my life all prepared before I'd even lived one day. 

Psalm 139: 13 - 16

35 week update...

Well.. Here we are at 35 weeks. 

At this point in my last pregnancy I still had another 7 weeks before I met Molly. Little did I know just how much bigger I could get and how long she would want to hang around inside me. 

Here are a few pics from my last pregnancy just for interests sake..

36 weeks pregnant with Molly

36 weeks pregnant with Molly

38 weeks pregnant with Molly (sitting with the gorgeous 9 month old Felix man)

42 weeks pregnant with Molly and having a coffee before going in to hospital to be induced.. *don't do it!!*  Man my belly was huge!! 

And now for my most recent belly pics.. I am interested in the difference between the first picture above and these ones as there is only a week difference in gestation but I have managed to keep a bit fitter and healthier this time around and I can see a big difference..

I am wearing "new" clothes from Nicky.. I am so grateful for the package that arrived today as I am down to one dress, one pair of pants and 2 singlets.. Thanks honey! And thanks for the wonderful pile of boy and unisex baby clothes.. We have so much pink as lots of friends have offloaded girls hand-me-downs. I am not a pink kind of girl so am planning to dye a lot of the pink items other colours anyway. Yay for a jumpsuit with trucks!! 

This week I have been pretty emotional and have been experiencing spurts of energy and then periods of extreme tiredness. Thankfully I am now on maternity leave and I can kind of go with the flow (to an extent) and an afternoon nap is quickly becoming routine. The pelvic pain is coming and going but I think some of it (ie. the zingy electric shock type sensations in my cervix) is to do with baby beginning to make his/her descent lower into my pelvis. 

I had a little bit of a stress last night that I wasn't going to be able to handle the extreme sensations of labour. Luckily a few of my friends were online and I was able to receive a bit of a pep talk and my friend Kate sent me a wonderful list of birth affirmations. One that really helped was; 

"The power and intensity of my contractions cannot be stronger than me, because it is me."

I need to remember that the contractions I experienced with my induced labour were incredibly and unbearably intense because my body was not producing the right amounts of hormones due to the synthetic ones being put into my body. The hormones that the body naturally produce in an unmedicated labour work also to help manage pain. My uterus was contracting to strongly and without any breaks when I was at only 5cms dilation. I was not weak in opting to have an epidural. I was getting very distressed and because of that, so was my baby. I needed a rest so I could calm down. Pain relief was the sensible option in this situation. Because I was in an extremely stressful environment with a lot of pressure to give birth to my baby before the new year, I could not relax and allow my body's own amazing hormonal cocktail to it's job. 

This is a large part of the reason I have chosen to plan a homebirth. Should I end up in the hospital (fingers crossed I don't) it will be for good reason and supported my my wonderful midwife. 

Hello new people! *wave*

I am pretty sure most of my new followers have been referred from Good Golly Miss Holly's blog. She recently wrote a post about her favourite reads and I was one of the lucky chosen few! I am extremely flattered and very grateful for the mention. Just want to say that your blog is one of my favourites too! 

If you haven't visited yet please click below!

 

Song for Pinky

Not really sure how to make this fit.. I'm not a very good blogger am I??

Anyway. This is a song Molly "wrote" (sang off the top of her head) about her beloved hand puppet Pinky..

Enjoy..

Molly gets the chop!!

Molly babywearing... Cuteness!

34 weeks

A present to myself..

Look what I just bought myself!

I plan to add these to my birth necklace..

Our boobing journey...

I have just sent this to be included at Goochima.. I hope they decide to use it..

Molly was born on December 29th 2006 after a traumatic induced labour. I had epidural anaesthesia and Molly was very sleepy due to the sedative effect that an epidural can have on babies (this is something I only discovered afterwards). This sleepiness led to difficulties with Molly attaching. She would be asleep very quickly after latching on and would just stop sucking. I didn't receive much advice in the hospital apart from information on how much she should be drinking and that I should be trying to feed her every three hours, then express the little that I had left and try to give that to her. This was so challenging as she was asleep and would not take the extra. 

She lost weight very quickly and the advice I was given was to try formula top-ups after breastfeeding her. Let me just say straight out that this was bad advice. It shook my confidence in myself and in my ability to nourish my baby. It was so much mucking around to just give my baby the food it needed. At no stage did any professional suggest that we go to bed, block out the world and spend time skin to skin offering the boob regularly. I had to work this out for myself. 

We had a turning point after a visit from the maternal and child health nurse. She spotted the tin of formula in the cupboard and asked me if I was planning to exclusively breastfeed. I said that I was desperate to make it work and outlined the different advice we had been given. She offered right there and then to take the formula with her. She told me that she felt we had been given poor advice and that she felt that if I just concentrated on feeding Molly from my breast regularly and stopped trying to "top her up". I continued to express after each feed (to increase my supply) and put the leftovers in the freezer rather than get frustrated trying to give it to her when she was asleep. 

Like magic, my supply increased, Molly started sucking more vigorously. She was receiving more nutrition and started waking up more. All of a sudden we had a "normal" breastfeeding routine! She asked for it, I provided it and we both enjoyed it so much. 

Molly weaned herself after a wonderful 19 month breastfeeding relationship. I really wanted to make it to 2 years as the World Health Organisation recommends but Molly decided she was done.

I am now what some would call a "lactivist".. I really love helping other Mamas to breastfeed their babies. I am anti (unnecessary) formula feeding. I understand there are many women who formula feed for a good reason however I am of the belief that human milk is superior. it is a perfect food for human babies and so I do what I can to make sure babies get the milk they deserve. 

The key bits of advice I would have are as follows;

1. Try not to have unnecessary interventions during your labour and birth. Any intervention that messes with the natural release of oxytocin and other birth hormones can impact your milk production & bonding. Epidural anaesthesia (although they will tell you it doesn't affect the baby) can cause your baby to be sleepy in the first days of life. I know, it happened to us!

2. Don't try and do too much or have too many visitors in the early days. You need to spend time alone with your baby. Take your baby to bed, be skin to skin and just feel the love.. Love hormones get the milk flowing. Stress and adrenaline have the opposite effect.. so RELAX!

3. Don't stick to a strict schedule and do NOT avoid feeding through the night. Your baby has a tiny stomach and needs nourishment every 3 or so hours. Books/friends/"experts" that say otherwise are just plain wrong. Feed on demand and if your baby is sleepy, feed as regularly as you can. If you need to use a syringe (if your baby just wont wake for long enough) this is better than a bottle as it will not cause nipple confusion.

4. Seek the advice of an independent lactation consultant if you are really struggling- google the ABA (Australian Breastfeeding Association). Don't try and do it alone. Join your local ABA group and surround yourself with other breastfeeding mothers. Some women find that they are the only person in their circle who breastfeeds and this can be isolating. Get where the boobs are at!!!

I hope this is helpful...

Happy boobing friends!

Ash

Anti-fashionista. For Lori...

I have just been over at Danimezza and discovered that there is a Polly Dolly challenge in honour of Lori from Random Ramblings of a SAHM. I'm sure Dani won't mind me stealing this little excerpt from her blog:

Last week tragedy struck a fellow blogger, a lovely lady named Lori from Random Ramblings of a SAHM, her husband, father to her two young children and sole income earner for the family was admitted to ICU after a very sudden incident that left him fighting for his life. Tony fought for 100hrs but passed away on Monday. Last Thursday only hours before the incident occurred, Lori wrote a post about being an Anti-Fashionista and one of her readers Sarah from Hawker Central, thought it would be fitting to do this week's Polly Dolly in her honour to help raise funds for the young family in need... of course I agreed! You can donate using  following the widget:

Please visit HERE to use the widget in the post to donate.

So in honour of Lori and her family, here is my Polly Dolly Challenge entry...

The dream:

I would love to be able to say that I get up each morning feeling fresh as a daisy and effortlessly throw together a magnificent ensemble like the red collection above. Team this with a deliciously "messy on purpose" up-do and some luscious red lipstick and we have my "dream"... For the record, I don't wear glasses but I do think they make this outfit look extra sassy! I visualise myself wearing this outfit while strolling through my favourite city laneways and eating colourful macaroons.. (are you with me on the imagery?!)

The Reality:

I have a four year old, I am 8 months pregnant. It is 10:44am and I am on the computer, in my pajamas, and I have a whole houseful of chores fun tasks to undertake today.. The red ensemble is very fun and sassy.. and perfect for city strolling and macaroon eating however, not so appropriate for doing laundry, washing dishes, vacuuming and mothering a grubby four year old. So, my every day attire consists of comfy Birkis, jeans or yoga pants (a classy way of saying tracky-dacks) a comfy t-shirt and sunnies (as opposed to cute glasses that I don't need). And my bag needs to be big enough to carry all my stuff plus a packet of textas, drawing paper and a baby doll so no tiny cute handbags for me.

If you would like to participate in this challenge head on over to Danimezza.