Week of May 17!

[Piglet68]

October Mamas Roll Call

momtol&a
snugglebutter 10/01
mirthfulmum 10/03
TracyK 10/04
mhurst 10/04
kraftykathy 10/04
Jillerina 10/04
water 10/06
Proudly AP 10/08
mayasmama 10/08
FutureMama 10/09 BOY!
bluehalo 10/10
allformyboys 10/11
Lucysmama 10/12
bendmom 10/12
momadance 10/13
Mandi 10/14
rhemp 10/14
wannabmommie 10/15
krnflwr 10/16
gmvh 10/16 TWINS!
Piglet68 10/18 BOY!
MommyMuse 10/19
BeauGeek 10/20
BeansMomma 10/20
CourtneyandLogan 10/21
EmbersMOM 10/21
Stanleymama 10/23 BOY!
gottaknit 10/24
3boyz4us 10/24
Ctmom70 10/24
aspiring mama 10/25
truebluexf 10/27
Soogie 10/27
ameliabedelia 10/29
flitters 10/30
AnnR33 10/31

Good morning, everybody! Hope you all had a nice weekend.

Welcome to bluehalo, our newest October mama!

My mother is here and we are having so much fun! She and DD are getting along great and it just warms my heart to see them together. I'm so glad we've decided to move back home - these years are so precious to miss!

Question of the Week: are you taking any birthing/breastfeeding classes?

I'm not. With my first, I attended LLL meetings while pregnant, read up on "The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding" as well as some Dr. Sears books. And of course spent way too much time here at MDC! I felt very prepared for breastfeeding. And since I knew I was having a cesarian, I didn't bother with birthing classes. I did have to attend one as part of a tour we did of our hospital and I got so freaked out when they started talking about labour that I almost fainted - DH had to prop me up in my seat! Guess I would have been a homebirth flunkie, lol!

[momadance]

Hello mommy's!

QOTW? I actually go to my first LLL meeting tomorow. Looking forward to it! My very close friend is a leader, and I know some of the mom's at this group, but I NEED ALOT of support and preperation. I bombed nursing MIles, and it still negatively effects me when I think of the lack of support I had, and how much we missed out on in those first years. I cry just thinking about it! This time I've vowed nothing short of having my breast removed will stand in our way, till #2 wants to stop!

As far as any birthing classes, I'm not too interested in techniques, or methods.
We thought about a Doula, but I'm not interested in that either.

[blessed2bamommie]

I spent the whole weekend on a birth high, since I've found the perfect doctor and the waterbirth is not just me speaking it in faith anymore; but, a reality! I'm *so excited. Its kinda hard not to share it, like at the dinner party we had. They wouldn't understand.... Although, I think if I had been paying attention to the chiro's conversation, he would have! :LOL He was talking about b/c of births going from natural tohaving so many interventions, like forceps, etc, he's having to care for more nbs in his practice. Perfect opportunity to bring it up and one of the girls nearly fall out when she had already said, "I *know you're going for an epidural." I guess not having a theme was probably enough for them that night. :LOL

to our newest dd buddy!


QOTW: Good question....a mama who's here and lives locally said 5 mos for LLL, so I can get the entire series. Do all LLLs have the same sessions? I saw one this month on Advantages, I kinda felt like I didn't need that one since I'm already sold. So, maybe the other sessions. I was interested in Bradley. I'm think its 12 weeks, so I might need to call and see when I should start. I guess I shouldn't wait until *exactly 12 weeks out! I have heard several *first time mamas now who have gone early! I'd also like to take infant cpr. Well, I guess I need to see if I can get my email from the black hole. :

Have a blessed week!

[ameliabedelia]

LLL has a series of 4 different topics for meetings, however each meeting is always different. All LLL groups have these same topics and series, however each individual groups taylors it to meet them moms attending that day. For example, for the advantages one, one month at that meeting they may talk about advantages for the baby. The next time they come around to that topic again (4 months later), they may talk about advantages to mom. I started going to LLL when I was 7 months pregnant with DD and I have been going faithfully ever since. I always get something knew out of it, and have made some great friends through going. I think the support and meeting like-minded moms is as important as the information you will get. Plus, as a pregnant mom, I found it enourmously helpful to see other moms breastfeeding, to hear about their problems and stories (so I could know what to expect), to say babies that had to be breastfed frequently, etc, etc. Anyway, my point is, even if you already know all the advantages of breastfeeding, I would be willing to bet that you will get A LOT of going anyway.

Well, I am already in LLL, and no we won't be taking a childbirthing class. We took Lamaze with DD, and it really wasn't that helpful. I have thought about taking Bradley, but I think I would rather just read up on it myself and share the info with DH. Finding a babysitter for DD to go to class would be huge problem for us, since she has never had a sitter. Plus, I really don't want to spend the money and DH really doesn't want to go. So, we aren't going to worry about that.

I also took a few childcare classes at the hospital while pregnant with DD. They were free to those giving birth at the hospital. Since I am not giving birth at a hospital this time (unless there is an emergency or something), we won't be taking any. Plus, I really didn't get much out of them.

[3bees~1flower]

Mornin' !! We had a good weekend...had 7 graduations to go to.

QOTW: no, we'll not be doing birth classes...i will have a scheduled c-section. as far as bf'ing classes go....well, I'M the teacher :LOL....i'm a certified bf'ing educator. plus this is mt 4th baby to bf so i think we have it down pretty good :LOL.

have a great week!! oh, and i'm finally starting to feel the little bean more...they ain't kidding when they say every pregnancy is different...sheesh!

[Soogie]

This is #3 for me and I've been a member of LLL since 10/2000. I've actually done all the required readings to become a leader but life got busy and the LLL group in Houston that I last went to did not need another leader so I haven't finished up with it. Still debating whether or not I should commit myself. I would really like to take a Bradley refresher course. We tried to take it when I was pg with dd#2, but my ds#1 was only 14 months old when it started and he had a really hard time being separated from us, staying with a babysitter, so we had to quit after just 4 weeks. I didn't feel as prepared the second time around and was more anxious. And this time we're planning a homebirth and I want to be as calm and relaxed as possible. My kids are now 3 1/2 and 2 and I think that they would do okay with a babysitter at this age. And I really want to take it so that my DH and I have time to totally devote to this new being inside me, even if it's just 3 hours a week. I felt like with #2, my pg came second to parenting a toddler. There were times where I actually "forgot" I was pg, until dd kicked me really hard, snapping me back into reality.

Susan
mommy to Aidan (3 1/2), Fiona (2), and little boo edd 10/27/04

[OakEmber]

We had a nice weekend, went boating for a few hours on Sat. Lots of relaxing throughout the whole weekend.

QOTW- You know, I never did any breastfeeding prep with my DD, except for reading online but I think that came afterwards. I ended up nursing her for 37 months so I think I did alright I'd never really been exposed to bottle feeding, everyone in my family has BF so I guess I am pretty lucky. I'd love to attend LLL but I don't really like driving out of town in the evenings, esp. in the winter so that is a real deterent for me. Luckily I have internet access and MDC is all I need!

As for the birth classes, I did attend one when I was pregnant with Ember...we chose to do the "get it all over with at once" type :LOL (the weekend workshop). It was OK but I got more out of the books and internet I'd read (Birthing from Within), it was more to educate Dh. No I won't be attending anything this time, I did just finish Ina May Gaskin's Guide to Childbirth and am now reading Spiritual Midwifery.

T
I decided to book an u/s afterall, I figure that since I had the surprise with DD that this time I'd experience the other way. So I go this week on Friday

[bluehalo]

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone

Susan, I totally hear you about feeling like your second pregnancy was secondary to parenting a toddler. The whole experience of this pregnancy is *so* different to me from when I was pregnant w/ my first child. I don't have the time or mental energy to obsess over everything that I did the first time around. Initially I felt less connected to the baby than I remember feeling w/ my DS, but more and more now, I'm aware of the miracle of the fact that I really don't have to do anything ... my body knows what to do, even if I'm not reading and obsessing over every little stage. And now that I'm much more visibly pregnant, and I feel the baby moving around all the time, I'm feeling much more connected and attached to this new little one

QOTW: DH and I will be taking Birthing from Within classes. With our first pregnancy we took the hospital based class, which actually wasn't bad. But E. was an em. CS due to fetal distress, so we didn't get to use everything we had learned. I wanted to take Bradley classes, but the closest class was too far away, so we read the book and did the exercises on our own. This time there actually are two local Bradley instructors, but we're driving 1.5 hours to take the BFW class. I think w/ the emotional "baggage" both DH and I have internalized from the trauma of E's birth, it will be really important to the success of this birth to try our best to work through it ahead of time. BFW seems like it's targeted towards that kind of internal work, so it seems idea for our situation.

I might start going to LLL a few weeks before the birth. I had no problems nursing my son, but I know I may not be that lucky in the future, so I do want to have a support network in place should I need it.

[mirthfulmum]

Well it's been an interesting weekend here as the stomach flu that knocked me out for a couple of days made its way to Alias and then to my husband (he is currently lying on the couch riding out the tail end of the bug). I'll be glad when everyone is feeling normal again.

QOTW: When pregnant with Alias we took really great birthing classes. They were offered by The Lower Mainland Child Birthing Society and had no hospital or particular technique affiliation. The classes were all about teaching us what our options were, the pros and cons of those choices and empowering new parents to ask questions so that we could have the birth that was right for us. It was in these classes that I first heard about Mothering magazine and Dr. Sears. I am not feeling any anxiety or stress around the baby's upcomming arrival. It has only been two year since Alias was born so I still feel like I have a good handel on labour and delivery. So I most likely won't be taking any refreshers.

[Lucysmama]

Hi everyone! Hope you had nice weekends! Dd's Grandparents took her to the zoo so dh and I went out to a play and dinner. It was very nice. (But the play kinda sucked.)

QOTW: Yes, I am going to start going to LLL. Like momadance, I completely screwed up breastfeeding my first. I ended up pumping and giving it to her in a bottle, and eventually quit and went to breastfeeding. (I have so much respect for mamas on this boars who exclusively pumped for a year! It is SO hard to keep it up that long! I did it for a couple months.) So I need a LOT of help and support with breastfeeding.

I don't think we will attend birthing class. We were going to do Birthworks, but I think I have changed my mind about it. I just wanna go with the flow during labor and delivery, and not be thinking about a method.

[mommy2three]

" I bombed nursing MIles, and it still negatively effects me when I think of the lack of support I had, and how much we missed out on in those first years. I cry just thinking about it! This time I've vowed nothing short of having my breast removed will stand in our way, till #2 wants to stop!"

Momadance- That's what happened with me too! I had a terrible time nursing my twins (ended up pumping instead of physically nursing for what seemed like forever). Anyway, during my second pregnancy I knew I was going to exclusevely nurse and kept that mind set! I'm still happily nursing him now (he's almost 2) with our fourth on the way. I think it really helps having the mindset that you're going to nurse no matter what. I'm not sure if I would have done so well if I didn't think that way because we had thrush issues, poor latch among other stuff but we kept at it and have a wonderful nursing relationship!

[Lucysmama]

Aley- That is so wonderful to hear!

[Jillerina]

Our weekend was a good one too. Yesterday we went to a big end of session party for our community organized playgroup. It was held in a park and there was so much to do. Clara had a blast and so did DH and I watching her run around with a huge grin on her face.

QOTW: I won't be doing any breastfeeding preparation this time either. I seem to be a lucky woman. I went into breastfeeding Clara completely expecting it to be fine and it was so now I'm just gonna go into this experience with the same attitude. I do have lots of people available to me (as well as the local LLL group) if things don't go as smoothly as I expect them to.

I will be sort of taking a childbirth class. The Doula we've hired includes 3 sessions before the birth that cover any topics we are interested in learning more about. I know one of our sessions will be more focused on helping us prepare Clara for the arrival of the baby but the other two will likely be focused on pain management and our birht plan. I did take the typical hospital classes last time - they were OK at best.

Wannabe - I'm so glad you found a doc worthy of you and that your dream of a waterbirth will be a reality.

Bluehalo - welcome!!!!

EmbersMom - we are doing the opposite of you. We found out Clara's was a girl at 19weeks so this time I want to experience the surprise at birth so we didn't find out! Poor DH, thinks it was a mistake now, he really wants to know the sex but it is too late, we've already had our ultrasound.

[Piglet68]

Originally Posted by momadance

This time I've vowed nothing short of having my breast removed will stand in our way...

You know, this attitude goes a long way. I basically went into it with that same attitude. It's hard to describe it without sounding like I'm bashing FF moms, but I really went in thinking "over my dead body", kwim? Of course, I recognized that it might be out of my hands, but I figured I'd deal with that if and when it happened. I think getting a bit angry inside about it really helped, because I am naturally a very non-confrontational person (I start crying uncontrollably) and knew that I would have to draw on some inner resources to battle any formula-pushing hospital staff. It came in handy when I had a visit from just such a ped, who threatened supplementation if DD lost "one more ounce". Being able to tap into that inner anger really helped me cope with that.

Originally Posted by wannabemommie

of the girls nearly fall out when she had already said, "I *know you're going for an epidural." I guess not having a theme was probably enough for them that night

Letia, you crack me up! The "theme" thing gets them every time, lol!

As for your questions about LLL, I encourage you to start going ASAP. Most groups don't stick to the topics that rigidly, preferring to go with the flow and see what questions get raised that day. It's such a wonderful networking resource. I absolutely love it and am looking forward to rejoining my old group back home with this baby, even though I feel that we have the BFing thing down pat, I just loved the social aspect and being around "normal" mothers (who coslept, CD'd, etc).

bluehalo: I feel the same way about this 2nd pregnancy. I'm only just now starting to feel attached as I get bigger and think I'm feeling movement now.
DD pretty much keeps me busy and I don't have time to focus on it like I did before. But then, that might be a good thing, too, lol.

mirthfulmum: BC rocks, doesn't it? My friend in Nanaimo just told me about her classes and how they told the mamas not to listen to anybody who says you need to let your baby cry. they said you cannot spoil a baby and that they need all the love they can get, and to be held, etc. it's so nice to see places where things are not the same old baloney, kwim?

[flitters]

hi everyone!

glad to hear about the good weekends! ours was really nice too. i'm feeling great although i'm already looking forward to next weekend!

QOTW: there is a group which my midwife is part of that offers classes and we are going to take their birthing class. basically it sounds like a general class that isn't specifically one method but will cover various techniques people find helpful for a natural birth. it's 4 weeks and we'll probably do it in september since i'm due at the end of october. i don't really feel like we need it but think it will be good since this is our first. i also think dh will benefit a lot since his plan for the birth is to do whatever he is told to do by me or our midwife so maybe this will make some of our requests more familiar when the time comes. we'll also take the cpr class and i'll probably go to the babywearing workshop at some point. and maybe family yoga for me, dh and the babe. nobody in my family has ever had problems nursing so i don't expect to, but they also host LLL meetings so maybe i'll make use of that too if i need help or support.


and, just as a footnote, i'm loving being pregnant!

[krnflwr]

Hello All, and welcome to BlueHalo.
We had a rainy, drizzly weekend here, and spent today trapped inside one large room with 9 other moms and what seemed like a gazillion little kids (Communication Skills workshop for LLL)...so we are very ready for some warm, sunny, outdoor fun.
QOTW: As a nursing mom and a LLL leader, I think I have the basics of bf-ing down-pat at this point but definitely know how important it is to have a positive attitude and support system to ensure bf-ing success. I'm trying to gather enough local preg moms together to get a Bradley class going, otherwise the closest one is an hour away. With Hannah we took the lame hospital class, which at least helped DH understand the basics ("oh, the baby comes out *there*!"). This time I thought we'd try something a bit more in depth, and hopefully helpful for both of us.

[momadance]

http://65.54.172.250/cgi-bin/linkrd?...goto%3dnewpost

here are a couple maternity things I listed. I don't dig black (at this point in my life) and have NEVER! done pink, so have a look!

[BeauGeek]

Heya Mama's!

QOTW:
With this being my second nursling, I think I got breastfeeding down
I will be taking a VBAC class as recommended by my OBGYN, hes so excited that I want a VBAC.

[blessed2bamommie]

Here's the link again, it didn't work for me:
http://www.mothering.com/discussions...d.php?t=146070

You're too skinny for me. I'm more of a 1x girl.

[gmvh]

I've finally decide to officially delurk... I'm pregnant with twins and their forty-week due date is October 16th; my goal is for them not to show up until at least October 1st. These will be our first two children and we're very excited!

QOTW: I'd like to take Bradley classes but the only instructor in town was midway through a series when I contacted her, so Karin, add me to your list of interested local folks! I've started attending LLL meetings and have found the group to be very warm and welcoming. I'm thrilled that one of the leaders has twins (which she nursed, albeit nine years ago) so hopefully she'll be a great resource.

I've enjoyed reading these threads over the past couple of months and I look forward to participating in the future!