Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays!
This is our first paper-free Christmas "card." We are still living in Lancaster, PA where we have made some wonderful friends and are thankful to be able to avail ourselves of wonderful local foods of all kinds. We could, however, deal with being closer to family and with a warmer climate. We made yet another temporary move over the summer to an apartment with outside access and friendly neighbors. Owen has been able to enjoy the outdoors a bit more, and it is much easier to get groceries and kids inside than in our old apartment building.

Abram is in his third and final year as a visiting assistant professor in the Department of Classics at Franklin and Marshall College. His article on Vergil's adaptations of Homer and Euripides has been published in Classical Quarterly, and he is currently applying for fall 2011 positions.

Melinda has almost completed the process for accreditation for La Leche League leadership and is looking forward to serving soon. She is also still working with the Birth Circle and the Tot Spot indoor playground cooperative as well as learning to be the mother of two.

Owen turned three in April and enjoys swimming, being outdoors, movies, and crafts. He learned to swim this summer in our apartment pool and can now swim the width of the lap pool at the gym without assistance and likes to swim down from the surface to the bottom of the pool. He is intense and very busy.

Caedmon arrived on November 13. His unassisted birth was a wonderful surprise. He is a very calm and easy going baby. He is starting to smile these days and is growing fast.

We hope your holidays are warm and wonderful and that 2011 is a great year for you and your family.
With much love,
Abram, Melinda, Owen, and Caedmon

I Did It!

I went on a complete outing in the car alone with my two boys!
Caedmon was 5 weeks old yesterday, and I had been on accompanied outings. Just this Wednesday we'd come home from the doctor - just me and the boys. Tuesday night, Caedmon and I went to Birth Circle. On Friday Owen, Caedmon. and I took a short walk to do an errand, and yesterday, we walked over to a Christmas party at the apartment office.
And today, we went out the door. I put Owen in his car seat, Caedmon in his, and we drove to the grocery store where we parked in the "new and expectant mother only" spot, printed some photos, and did a little shopping with Caedmon in a sling and Owen in the cart. I got everyone home and inside and got the groceries in too.
Maybe it doesn't seem like a big deal, but I'm proud to have done it and glad it went so well. I didn't go anywhere alone with Owen for six weeks. (He was a terrible car screamer - hated it like you wouldn't believe.) When I finally did, I locked us out of the car at Whole Foods and didn't even realize it until after we'd done our shopping which was interrupted by multiple nursing sessions.

Family

Caedmon (and the rest of us) have had some important visitors.
Grandma Sharon spent 8 days taking good care of us after he was born.

Granddaddy and Anne came for thanksgiving and cooked up a storm - including an 18 lb. turkey.




Uncle Micah even held him, although Micah and Owen seem to be a better match.

We are looking forward to introducing Caedmon to more family over the holidays!

Microscope

Today Owen opened his Christmas present from Grandma Sharon early. As it was delicate and we will be traveling with limited space, she had it sent here. It magnifies to 40x, 100x, and 400x and came with a few prepared slides and some blanks to do your own.

We looked at prepared salt crystals, mouth cells, and paramecia and our own blood (Abram's), hair (Owen's, mine, and cat's), breast milk, goat milk, onion skin, paper fibers, and a penny. Owen's interest in microscopes came while reading a book about blood this summer. He's been talking about needing a microscope (sometimes called a telescope) since then. He was keen to get some blood and to see the red blood cells, and Abram was our willing volunteer.

The Birth of Caedmon Duane Ring

This was the birth for which I prepared three and a half years ago – the fast, unassisted birth where all I needed were some extra towels.

Friday, my “due” date, just before my noon yoga class, I noticed I had a lot of mucous. It was a great class with lots of stretching; I wondered if it had been prepared especially with me in mind. Later we enjoyed a Tot Spot Potluck, and some time during the night I noticed a bit if bloody show, a sign that my cervix was getting ready for the big event.

Saturday morning, I was having some contractions but they were really easy – easy enough that I was talking and laughing through them. Abram timed them at about 6 minutes apart as he cooked breakfast, but they really were super easy contractions. I’d had harder and at times more frequent ones with Owen – for days. Abram decided that he would take Owen to his usual yoga class and then to a birthday party. After breakfast, Owen and I wrapped the present, and I called our midwife Karen to give her a heads up that something was happening. Abram and Owen blew up the birth pool. Owen gave it a go using it as a cozy place to read,

but when he just couldn’t resist being a bit rough I asked Abram to deflate it - citing my inability to have Owen messing with it for the next three days until we needed it.

After they left, I piddled around the house doing some laundry, reading Amanda Blake Soule’s Soule Mama blog, taking a picture of myself in case I was at my biggest,

putting out some frozen soup to thaw for dinner.

Abram called around noon after Owen’s yoga class, and I reported that I was fine and they were safe to go on to the party. I heated some left over chicken and kale soup for lunch and noted that it was nearly 1 o’clock; Karen had asked that I call by then if things were picking up so she didn’t head off in the opposite direction for a postpartum visit. Things didn’t really seem to be picking up.

Around 1:30, I decided it really would feel good to get into the tub; the contractions were getting more intense. I called Abram to return home and get the birth pool ready and then called Karen who wanted to know how frequent the contractions were. I, of course had no idea, and she said Abram should time them and call back. Abram found me already in Labor Land when they arrived home. Owen boomed into the bathroom telling me all about the birthday party, and all I could do was “shhhhhhhhhhhh” him with my eyes closed through a big contraction. Abram timed a couple of contractions which were fairly short but less than 1 minute from start to start. He called Karen right away, and she and Katie headed out immediately. He also called Ariel to come be with Owen, started blowing up the birth pool, turned off the bathroom light, and got me some juice. At some point I directed him to get Owen’s birth kit (filled with disposable gloves, a couple of new Duplo kits, fun foam dough, glow in the dark things, a big brother t-shirt, and a hat for the baby). The whole time, he doubted I would make it to the birth tub which they were having a bit of time getting inflated as the battery had run low during the first pumping of the day.

As the contractions got increasingly intense, I began to wonder if I would be able to handle them as well as I had with Owen. I just wasn’t sure I could do this for hours and hours more. Often, my whole body shook with the intensity and energy of the contractions (and yet, I have to say, they were never painful) as I lowed through them on my left side in the warm bathtub in the dark. And then, quite by surprise, I felt my body pushing – part of the maternal-fetal ejection reflex described by Michael Odent – but, it wasn’t time to push.

This was far too early to push.

Of course, my body knew better than my mind, and it continued to push. I raised my right leg up onto the edge of the tub and continued to let my body do its work.

I briefly felt the “ring of fire” as the baby passed through my cervix.

I felt the baby’s head slip down through my vagina with each contraction and involuntary push and then slip back.

I felt for the head as the baby slipped out, and felt a bulging bag of water instead.

I heard Abram answer Karen on the phone that the baby was crowning (at 3:10 by Karen’s phone).

I felt the head come all the way out.

I kicked at Abram who seemed to be putting his hands toward the baby.

I turned over onto my hands and knees and roared a battle cry and pushed.

Abram slipped the baby through one loop of cord that was around his neck, and the baby’s legs and feet were out (at what we approximate was 3:13).

Abram passed him! to me through my legs, and I sat down in the warm water and snuggled my baby boy and nursed him (well, worked on getting him to latch) while Abram got something to cover and keep him warm.

Owen and Ariel were surprised when Abram told them the baby was here, and they came into the bathroom to see us. They brought Caedmon a hat and some socks, but we couldn’t get them on in the tub.

When Karen and Katie arrived a little later, I had still not delivered the placenta. We finally decided to cut the umbilical cord which had stopped pulsing for quite a while. Abram held Caedmon while Karen helped me to the bed. Once situated, I tried nursing Caedmon again to see if it would stimulate contractions and delivery of the placenta.

After a bit, Karen offered me some Placenta Out herbal syrup to encourage the placenta to come on, and Abram and Owen held the baby again while I made my way to the toilet where I delivered the placenta into a sitz bath pan on the toilet.

Owen was pleased with the tour of the placenta that Karen gave us. Karen complemented me on such a large and healthy placenta.

Katie did my exam, while Owen looked on, saying “What’s that?”

We all watched the newborn exam, and learned that baby Caedmon weighed 8 pounds, 15 ounces after his first poop. He was 21 ½ inches long, had a 14 inch head, and was perfect in every way.

Ariel quietly slipped out; the midwives left; and we enjoyed the soup I’d set out earlier.

Caedmon slept well that night, but I was still on a birth high.

I was pleased with my body’s ability to birth a baby so efficiently. I was proud that Caedmon had been born with just me and Abram there and that we’d followed our instincts so well. I was comforted to have Ariel there with Owen

and to have Karen and Katie arrive soon after the baby. I was amazed at how fast birth could be. I was amused at the list of things we’d never needed or used - the birth tub, a liner, the hose to fill it, two purchased and one borrowed air pump, loads of labor snacks. . .

In preparation for my first birth, I felt like I needed very little (“some straw in the corner” was how I put it) and focused quite a bit on what I (or we) would do if the baby came before the midwives. Then I’d had more labor than I’d ever imagined. This time, I was surprised but prepared and very, very glad.