mama of the week, 11 june -- 17 june!!

[brooklyn_warbler]

this week our showcased mama is...

LISALULU!

not only do i love doing this threads and finding out so much about each mama, by the way, i love doing them because they make the weeks seem like they're going so fast. "what, time for mama of the week again??"

okay, so questions...

* how did you find your way to mdc?

* tell us a little bit about your childhood!

* how has this pregnancy been different from your first?

[scheelimama]

Tell us about your username.

What was your first labor/delivery like?

How do you want this one to be different?

[*GreenMama*]

Tell us about a hidden talent you posess.

more later!

[De-lovely]

Tell us about you and your dp.

[Heather Marie]

What is your favorite flower?

How do you relax?

Do you have a favorite TV program?

[yogachick79]

Oooh!

* what are your birth plans (who, where, how)

* what are you most excited about with this babe

* what is your fav thing to eat right now?

[Rikki Jean]

-Tell us about dc #1

-What kind of car do you drive?

-Any strange food aversions right now?

[crystalalene]

My new favorite question: Are you excited about having another baby?

[lisalulu]

Oh wow! We've been at my moms all day because our house just went on the market. I'll be back in just a little bit...

[lisalulu]

* how did you find your way to mdc?

It was one of two ways and I honestly can't remember which one. It was either from reading Mothering mag at the dr's office while waiting or from an old coworker who frequented the boards.

* tell us a little bit about your childhood!

Well I'm an only child (which I didn't like too much until I got to my teens ). I grew up going to Catholic school (all girls for high school) although my mom isn't a very regular Catholic. I was "good" kid until high school and then I went through a rebellious phase in which I am sure I was a pleasure to live with! We never moved or changed schools so to this day I have some very close friends from early elementary school. Can't think of anything else really interesting...

* how has this pregnancy been different from your first It hasn't been too different. My morning sickness was better than with my first-but it wasn't particularly bad with him either. I am more tired with this one but if I was getting as much sleep as I did with my first it might be the same Oh and I haven't had an aversion to yogurt this time around!

[lisalulu]

Tell us about your username.
My best friend in high school called me Lisa-Lulu and it kind of stuck.

What was your first labor/delivery like?
It went pretty well with one little glitch. I had planned a birth center birth with a LM. I tested positive for GBS and I had planned on doing a hep-lock of abx during labor. My water broke on a Monday night around 9. By 4am I was calling the doula and by 5am I was at the birth center. Around 6am they got the hep-lock ready and injected the abx and I immediately started getting itchy-my arms, my eyes, my head. At that point my midwife realized I was allergic to the abx they gave me (I had no idea I had an allergy) and gave me a shot of epinephrine. She called the attending at the local hospital and he told her to just give me a different one but she wasn't comfortable doing that (I think by birth center rules it was probably a transfer anyway for insurance reasons?). So I transferred to the hospital around 7am. I was very lucky to be able to transfer to a hospital that is very NFL/AP. Their midwife pretty much left me alone to labor with dh, my doula and the lm until delivery. And at 4pm ds was born!

How do you want this one to be different? I definitely want to skip the transfer! I am really worried about having another allergic reaction though which is making me nervous about doing the GBS test. I would also like to try and labor longer at home if we end up going the birth center route. In retrospect I probably could have stayed home longer with ds but I was nervous about getting there.

[lisalulu]

Tell us about you and your dp

DH and I were set up through our mutual friend. I was 22 and just starting college and he was just starting a career in software (although he was 31 at the time)-this was in 1997. We started living together about a year after we met. After we'd been going out for about 4 years we took a big trip to Europe to celebrate me finishing school. He proposed when we were in Venice and we got married a little over a year later.

We both really like to travel but haven't much time or money to do it in the last couple years. We also love music, hiking and gardening.

[lisalulu]

What is your favorite flower?
Toss up between peonies, star gazer lilies, dahlias and lilac

How do you relax?
Reading and listening to music-I really like my alone time so anything that gets me some quiet alone time is good.

Do you have a favorite TV program?

The only thing I really watch right now is Lost-we don't have cable though

[lisalulu]

* what are your birth plans (who, where, how)
Well we can't decided between a home birth and a birth center birth. We are using the same midwives as last time and our dog isn't super fond of one of them-barks and barks. We are in the middle of selling our house and are hoping to get a bigger spot where he could have his own space (ie basement, etc) during the birth away from us and the midwife. Or we will try to find someone who can take him for a day or two on the spur of the moment.

I would be more seriously considering the birth center except that they have torn down the one that is closest to us that our midwives are based out of (building a bigger, better one). The other really nice one around is a trek across the lake and the commute, if during rush hour, can be over an hour. I remember the 5 minutes from the birth center to the hospital with ds and it was unbearable-I can't imagine going that far in the car.

I'm currently wavering on getting a doula. The doula from my first birth is going out of town for Thanksgiving on the 23rd. My due date is the either the 16th or the 19th. There is a good chance if I run late she can't make it. I am going to interview her backup but I am really lacking energy to deal with it right now. Part of me wants to scrap the whole idea and find a friend to be there-dh isn't hot on that idea though.

* what are you most excited about with this babe
I'm hoping that the initial postpartum period will be less stressful. I don't partucularly have super fond memories of it with ds. We struggled with breastfeeding for two months until we finally got it down. I also really love to sleep and it was a hard adjustment getting up so often. I guess I am looking forward to going into with a little more realistic idea of what to expect.

And there were things I didn't do the first time around that I want to this time-belly cast, more pregnancy pictures.

* what is your fav thing to eat right now?
Peaches and nectarines-especially those little donut peaches-yummy!

[lisalulu]

Tell us about dc #1
DS is really energetic and not much of a sleeper. I'm really enjoying him as a 2yo right now. His language is really developing so he's always making me laugh with the short phrases he comes up with. He loves trains, cars, bugs, the color pink and won't go to bed without listening to Bach's Brandendburg concerto's.

-What kind of car do you drive? Oh this is a sore spot for me. Right before I found out I was pregnant with ds in 2004, we bought a new Miata. It was the first car I ever got to really pick as I had had hand-me-downs from my family before. I test drove it, I picked the options, the color everything-it was like my first baby. We had to wait a month for it to get here because it was a special edition with a turbo engine. Anyway, dh ended up loving to drive it to so we decided to keep it and he would commute in it after the ds came along. That worked great until he got a job close to home and started walking to work. So when we found out we were having #2 there was just no denying that we were throwing money at a car that never got used. So we sold it about a month ago and I was so bummed. But I've gotten over it for the most part-until I see someone driving around in their Miata with the top down and the sun shining. So all the build-up to say I drive a 1990 Geo Prizm It is actually a super reliable car (just no fun to drive) but we may end up getting a Mazda 3 this fall if we find reasonably priced housing and dh can't walk to work anymore.

-Any strange food aversions right now? I am normally a coffee addict. But when I'm pregnant I have a hard time with it. I can have one now and then but especially in the morning the thought of coffee is just revolting.

[lisalulu]

Originally Posted by crystalalene

My new favorite question: Are you excited about having another baby?

So to be totally honest, it has taken a while. This is our second unplanned pregnancy-we wanted kids but this wasn't the exact timing we were aiming for. So it was a big shock and its caused us to change some things around-we're selling our house earlier than we would have otherwise, sold a car, etc. I wasn't 100% committed to being at home full time but now I kind of have to. I was thinking of finding something part-time before I was out of the job loop for too long but I think that will be on hold for awhile.

So its really taken until the last couple weeks for me to start getting excited. I am just now starting to think of buying stuff. Some days it still doesn't quite feel real. I can still wear some of my regular clothes and I don't feel a lot of movement yet. I think it will really start to get exciting after we have the ultrasound in a couple weeks. It will help me to be able to start picking names and buying things (both of which I was holding off on until we know the gender).

[lisalulu]

Originally Posted by *HolisticMama*

Tell us about a hidden talent you posess.

more later!

I left this one until last because its a hard one for me. I had to ask dh because I just couldn't think of anything. He told me that I have a good eye for design?? He means interior. We just got through packing up half our house and getting it ready to go on the market and he was impressed with how it came out. And we've gotten compliments on the color and the furniture I've (I mean we ) picked out.

[brooklyn_warbler]

this is all really interesting!

Originally Posted by lisalulu

How do you relax?
Reading and listening to music-I really like my alone time so anything that gets me some quiet alone time is good.

what kind of music do you listen to most? (or, if it's easier, what are some of your favourite bands?)

[lisalulu]

Originally Posted by robina_josephine

this is all really interesting!



what kind of music do you listen to most? (or, if it's easier, what are some of your favourite bands?)

I listen to a mix of stuff-mostly depending on my mood-indie rock/pop, goth/industrial, grunge. Let's see-in the cd changer now is:
Snow Patrol
VNV Nation
Interpol
Pearl Jam
Dead Can Dance
Band of Horses

But my all time favorite band is U2.

[wwisdomskr]

What are you doing to prepare ds for his new sibling? Will he attend the birth?

What's your favorite flavor of ice cream?