Another baby... :-)

I attended a birth last night. It was really sweet to be there with friends, to see a young mother be born at the birth of her baby... To see how a mom goes though this time, watching as her daughter becomes a mother.

I work with mom's all the time: It is fun, exhausting, exciting, difficult, and awesome... But this one was different for me. I've known this young mother since she was in High school, I saw her in her prom dress, and she was the Young Woman that my young woman looked up to (as a new young Bee-Hive). Remembering back to the day I was able to attend their wedding, as she was sealed for time and all eternity to her sweetheart, and now, to be privileged to be there as that sweet young couple became a family of their own.

It is a bit overwhelming, looking forward to the day when that is me with my baby(s) all grown up, and becoming a mother. Realizing it is not all that far off in the future... I had to wipe at a tear or two today, thinking about these things.

Thank you to this sweet family for letting me be a part of their lives. Thank you to my family for being supportive of me and my desire to help mom's and families. For holding things together when I leave for a birth, late night phone calls that inturupt their sleep, and for being my additional cheering squad, and my sounding board when I get home. For sharing my joys, and listening when I need to vent!

I'm thankful for the opportunity that I have to work with mom's, and for the desire in my heart to help mom's have beautiful births.

p.s. Baby P was born at 5:33 a.m. (labor really started at 11 p.m. on her due date), he was 8 lbs 4 oz, and a tall 23 1/2 inches long!!! The nurse measured several times to make sure that was correct!

He is adorable! and Mom did a fantastic job! A beautiful natural birth.

While I was gone...

My family was AWESOME!!!!! I was able to go and attend my conference and learn some new and interesting things and reconnect with other birth professionals and friends. Thanks to my best friend T for letting me come stay, and for attending the CAPPA conference with me. And even thought she told me afterward she really only agreed to attend because it meant spending time with me, she really did enjoy it and learned some things also. http://givethehug.blogspot.com/ this was a very interesting session. Wish I'd heard some of these tings 18 years ago... I would have loved to try it!
Thanks to her family especially her husband (who is only home for a short time before he has to go back to the Army (they are living in the house they bought several years ago and it hasn't sold, so they are back in it for a while even though S is actually stationed somewhere else hours away across the state -since S will be deploying for Iraq again soon).

- Bill got sick and felt pretty miserable for several days.
- Sariah grew at least an inch and is now taller than everyone else in the house except for dad.
- Rebekah helped Marissa with her birthday party invitations for this next week. She also cooked and took care of the sicko's and the family while I was gone.
- Amanda got sick and has missed three days of school. But helped dad out on Friday when they were all sick and he had a 1 1/2 hr teleconference.
- Hannah had a sleepover w/ our friend S. and got a friends necklace.
- Marissa had a sleepover and built a fort and played with her friend A.
- Liam - did pretty well and survived just fine without mommy... other than the first sleepless night, however he also had some adventures. He was caught one time sitting with his feet and most of the contents off the counter top, all in the my bathroom sink, lotion and toothpaste squeezed out all over and water running! But wait! That's not all!!!!

Lets just say, Bill is still snaking out the toilet in our bathroom and hasn't managed to get it all yet... He has retrieved a hair brush, feminine products, still in the wrappers, plastic gloves, a ton of toilet paper, and he thought he had it all, but then the toilet got stopped again, and then last night he tried the snake again and caught onto something... he got it stuck and had to almost have a tug of war to get the snake back out... well, when it came out, it had something in it and I looked at it and the lightbulb went off in my head. There was a small little hair brush in my bathroom and that is what must be stuck down my toilet!!!!! Bill had snagged it with the snake and pulled off one of the bristles. We're not sure how much work it is going to take to get it out of there!

Cards, Hair and Conferences

Well, this week after cleaning up the stamp stuff Liam got into... it inspired me and I made a few cards. I haven't taken much time to stamp in a while (well, that is stamp for me, not something specific for the kids that is a big rush, because they need it NOW). And I started organizing some of the mess in my stamp/craft cupboard. Not that I finished much of anything, but I accomplished a little bit.

I have been trying to get all the laundry in the house done, partly so it is all done, and partly so that I can pack my bags. I am headed to Dallas on Thursday to attend a Doula Conference for the weekend. And if that wasn't cool enough... I love all the positive birth energy that I get at the conferences (this is my 3rd) and the support and networking with other Birth Professionals, but I also get to stay at my best friend's house for the weekend. She is the one who officially started me on this path, when I got to attend her VBAC nearly 14 years ago. That was the first birth I attended, (where I wasn't the one going through labor). It was the most amazing, beautiful thing I'd ever witnessed! Seeing a new baby fresh from Heaven, come into this world!!! How can anyone look at a new baby and not believe in GOD!!! What an incredible design that we get the opportunity to help create and grow all these cells, that turn into a whole little person!

With Bill getting his hair cut every 2-3 weeks, and Liam needing his hair cut much more frequently than the girls hair, we decided that the cost of hair clippers would be paid for in a month or less. So... I had a sweet friend who helped me learn how to cut Liam's hair yesterday. It wasn't too hard, and I didn't do a bad job over all, and he is looking quite nice again. (instead of all his wild hair, that was getting too long and sticking out all over the place). And the little girls have been wanting their hair cut also. So, D. started the hair cut and showed Amanda how to cut it and she mostly cut both Marissa and Hannah's hair. I didn't let Hannah cut off much, she wants it really short, but doesn't like to let me do anything cute with it any more, and she likes to dress like a tom boy, and daddy said not short where seh ould EVER be possibly mistaken for a boy! Amanda did a great job! Marissa's hair hasn't been this short since it grow past this length as a little girl! It's very cute. I didn't take my camera, of course I didn't think Amanda would be doing the hair cuts either... :-)