[lotus.blossom]

What are your plans for this birth?
Where do you live, and what do you like or dislike about it?
How did you meet your partner?
Did you/ Do you have a career?

 

[Sadie Lake]

If the you from high school met the you from right now, what would she think of you?

What book has most influenced your views on pregnancy/birth/parenting?

Was there an event of some kind in your life that made you become "natural"? If so, what was it?

What do you plan to do with yourself when your kiddos are older?

Sadie

 

[j_p_i]

Have you done anything nice to pamper yourself lately?

Read any good books or seen any good movies recently?

What are some of your favorite hobbies or things you enjoy doing?

 

[lightheartedmom]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lotus.blossom What are your plans for this birth? Where do you live, and what do you like or dislike about it? How did you meet your partner? Did you/ Do you have a career?

Oh fun.

I'll try to answer a few of these now...some later.

Plans for birth: drug-free, low-to-no-intervention birth at a hospital (or as much can be achieved in that setting). When all is said and done, I'm looking forward to meeting my second born little one and hopefully being able to say that this time, I conquered labor and not the other way around (like last time). I'm hoping it's peaceful.

Living situation: we live in San Francisco. I love being close to everything (walking distance), the weather, my church family. I dislike: the culture (except for the fact that I benefit from the wide availability of crunchy products), the attitudes of most people living here (mean and in a hurry)...other things.

How I met DH: at church bible study 7 (!!) years ago.

We hit it off from the very beginning and I am so thankful to be his wife. Seriously...my life could have taken any number of different paths and I thank God this is the one He set out for me.

Career: I am now a SAHM. Before having DD, I worked for an OB/GYN doing insurance stuff and then front office...so basically, no. I didn't have a career to speak of.

I was supposed to go back to school the year DD was born, but she came along instead. It was a very happy trade-off. Somewhere down the line, I am hoping to become certified as a lactation consultant.

 

[Smithie]

Great career choice! The world needs more well-qualified lactation consultants!

If you could move to any place on earth, where would you choose and why?

 

[lightheartedmom]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sadie Lake If the you from high school met the you from right now, what would she think of you? What book has most influenced your views on pregnancy/birth/parenting? Was there an event of some kind in your life that made you become "natural"? If so, what was it? What do you plan to do with yourself when your kiddos are older? Sadie

I love these questions

Me from high school: I *think* that the me from high school would be...surprised by some of the things about my life, particularly how crunchy I've become over the years and by how not-close I am with my family. But me from high school would also be incredibly happy about the fact that I'm married with a loving husband, a little girl and another baby on the way. This was pretty much my heart's desire since I was 2 years old, so, details aside, I think me from high school would mostly approve.

Books that have influenced me: for pregnancy and childbirth, definitely, Ina May's Guide to Childbirth has been fundamental in forming my views on the subject. For practical parenting issues (health, diet, etc), my favorite book is Baby Matters by Linda Holden Palmer. I've found most of what she wrote in that book to be incredibly helpful.

What made me become "natural"? Probably meeting DH. He was much more health conscious than I was (or my family) and it's been slow changes over the years that have made big differences. I was a big red meat eater before I met him, but when we started dating, I cut it out altogether since he didn't eat it either. A few years later, we cut out all dairy from our diet with HUGE results. I went from getting sick literally all the time to hardly ever being sick. My acne problems cleared up too, but not in time for our wedding.

My parents think I'm nuts when I visit them because I'm very careful about what DD eats (like making sure that her diet is almost 100% organic) and protecting her from germs...I have to say, it seems like once you go down the natural living rabbit hole, it's kind of like taking the blue pill in The Matrix. once you know, you can't pretend like you don't...lately, it seems like our next transition will be off of most household chemicals. This is a HARD switch for me and I have barely begun attempting it, except in our bathroom products (shampoo, conditioners, lotions - trying to make sure they're free of SLS, parabens, pthalates, etc...or at least low-risk).

That was a long answer.

What do I plan to do with myself when the kids are older? Well...when they're out of the nest, like I mentioned before, I definitely am hoping to pursue being a lactation consultant (maybe even before, if it's possible). But I foresee (pray for!) many many years of having a full nest ahead of me.

We're planning on home schooling our kiddos so that will take up most of my time for the next decade +.