We have a fabulous birth story that we never tire of telling – but I’ll spare you from hearing me say “vagina,” ten times.  So you can get the censored version from Chris or I.

Mere days before he was born, I decided I had to have a home birth.  I’d wanted all natural, but was slowly learning that “nurse midwives” (the ones that work at a hospital) are a far cry from traditional, proper midwives.  I absolutely wanted nothing to do with induction (pitocin), epidurals, heart monitors, or any of the crap that’s become common place in American births.  (Crap that causes all the problems it was designed to prevent.  Being induced – getting pitocin, hugely increases the odds that you’ll wind up getting a c-section.)

In any case, I’ve become a loud advocate for home & natural births – if you’ve talked to me for more than 10 minutes, you’ve heard my ranting.  For those who haven’t – let me just reassure you that it’s absolutely safe, and there are actually FEWER complications and far greater need for medical interventions with home births than with hospital births.  Home birthing is how birth was meant to be – birth is not a problem that needs to be solved, something that “happens” to women.  It’s something that we do & that our bodies are quite capable of handling.

Ok.  //end rant.  However, if you’re interested in the whole topic, a couple documentaries & books I highly recommend:

Pushed: The Painful Truth about Childbirth and Modern Maternity Care by Jennifer Block

Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth by Ina May Gaskin (the most famous midwife in the States)

Orgasmic Birth (dvd/documentary)

The Business of Being Born (dvd/documentary)

We – well, I – have officially become dirty hippies.  Thankfully, Chris is happy to let us be so.  Well, minus the “dirty” part.  We had a 100% natural home birth (and we would have used a birthing tub, except Nugget wanted out too quickly for that to be set up); I’ve been working harder than I’ve ever worked on anything to make breastfeeding a successful venture (you’d think something so natural & good should be easy, right?);  we co-sleep (the benefits of co-sleeping are immense and honestly, I can’t imagine abandoning him in a completely separate room from us to sleep); and as soon as the sling that I ordered arrives, I’ll be “wearing” him throughout the day.  Oh, and then there’s the vaccination issue – but I’ll not get into that here, because I’m not in the mood to argue it at the moment.

One of the biggest benefits of co-sleeping?  The very first thing I see when I wake up and open my eyes in the morning is this:

He’s such a little man.  When we put him in bed, next to us, we lay him on his back & he immediately rolls over onto his side to face us.

Having him in the comfort of our own home was such an amazing experience – all of pregnancy, really – that I’ve decided on a career change.  I haven’t decided what, exactly – originally I wanted to go to the midwifery school in Seattle, but I’m not sure that’s the exact path I want to take.  My Doula gave me a great idea & suggested I think about childbirth education.  I think that might be it.

In any case.  This is Nugget’s blog, so let’s get back to him!  He had a wonderful birth, was in perfect health, just a little low in weight.  We had a short struggle over feeding, but now that we’re on track, he’s gaining weight in record time.  Our little Monster is thriving, for sure.

He’s bright-eyed & alert, sleeps wonderfully at night, has a huge range of faces (there will be video) and lately, he’s taken to lots of gesturing with his arms.  Sometimes I think he’s orchestrating something in his head.  (A budding music/sound man, like his dad?)