6 Weeks

Gerritt & Sophia playing the alphabet soup


Saying hello to the chickens at the Kelsey Creek Farm

I am almost 6 weeks pregnant. I am feeling fine with the exception of more fatigue. Some days I am ready to go to bed at 8 or 9 pm instead of my usual 10 pm. Occasionally, on my days off, I will take a daytime nap (which is rare for me when I am not pregnant). I don't have many cravings. I sent my husband to the store the other night to buy a real whipping cream since I was craving strawberry shortcake with whipping cream (the whipping cream from the spray can just didn't cut it for me). Thankfully, that craving only lasted 1 day! I've always eaten a healthy diet, but small changes that I've made involved becoming really aware of my protein intake (my goal is 80-100 grams/day), cutting out non-essential snack items (juice, chips, sweets) & finding time for aerobic exercise at least 3 times a week. There will be plenty of weight gain in the 3rd trimester, so I need to curb my caloric intake now while I can. If I have any hopes of having a successful home birth, I must be in great physical shape. The part I am looking forward to the most is feeling the baby move (around 13-20 weeks). That will definitely make this pregnancy more real.
This week I found the placenta encapsulation specialist, Amber Matusky, from Vashon Island. The service costs $250 & involves 2 visits to my house (about 2 hours each). I am so fortunate to live in the community where this service is so easily available. Doing the placenta encapsulation myself is also an option, but I didn't think it would be realistic for me (I want my babymoon to start as soon as possible after giving birth). :-)
Another example of things falling into place - I was able to sign up for short-term disability (STD) insurance through my work benefits. I always thought I couldn't sign up for this type of insurance once I was already pregnant, but apparently I can since it's during the yearly enrollment period. The STD insurance would cover part of my salary if I am unable to work at any point in pregnancy (e.g., preterm labor & needing to be on bed rest) & up to 6 weeks of post-partum recovery after normal vaginal delivery & 8 weeks after a C-section (when I run out of my vacation & sick leave time that is).
I'll be having the first meeting with my new midwife on Monday, March 28th. I hope I'll like her. I've contacted my old midwife, Sally Avenson, who delivered both Gerritt & Sophia (at my husband's insistence; he's still hoping for a "free" hospital birth). If I wanted to birth with her, I would have to be in the hospital & give up my dream of water birth (none of the Seattle-area hospitals allow water VBACs due to all of the monitoring required). Also when I asked her whether I could birth in an upright or kneeling-down position, I was told it would be ok as long as she could "see what's happening" & I was "stable." This leaves a lot of room for interpretation, & not good enough for me. I am not a fighter by nature, & if Sally determined she didn't have good visualization during birth & asked me to change my position from kneeling to semi-reclined, I probably would not have any will or energy to object. This is one of the multiple reasons I want to attempt a home birth. This time I want to birth on my terms.

Spring - a time for new beginnings

First spring flowers are blooming in our yard, & 3 major things have happened in the past couple of days:

1) My husband & I filed the I-130 form (officially called the petition for alien relative by the US Citizenship & Immigration Services) for my Mom to immigrate here permanently. I entered her in the Green Card Lottery this year, & the results will be available on May 1st. However, it's called a lottery for a reason, so we are not holding our breath. With the baby coming in November & whether my Mom wins the lottery or not, I felt like we needed to take matters into our own hands. We have a more realistic chance of getting her here by the end of November by filing the petition 1.5 months earlier than planned.

2) My term life insurance agent called & told me I got the Banner Life Insurance's best rate by being in such "excellent health." A quoted monthly rate of $27.34 for $750,000 term life insurance made me very happy. My intuition that told me the previously quoted rate of $60+/month (from a different company) was too high turned out to be correct.

3) I found my doula yesterday! Famous Patti Ramos is a birth doula, photographer & a childbirth educator. I've been reading her birth photography blog for almost a year now (thanks to DrMomma for the introduction!). I could not be more thrilled to have her assist in my homebirth! We have our first meeting in about 3 weeks & I am looking forward to meeting Patti.

My Home Birth Budget

I will be renting something like this to use as a birthing tub

I found my midwife today! I've been calling around since yesterday. Since I've had a previous C-section, it makes finding a midwife willing to do a home birth a bit more complicated (even though I've already had one successful vaginal birth after Cesarean). The difficulty lies in the midwife's malpractice insurance not covering out-of-hospital VBACs. The midwife can't bill my health insurance for a delivery at home, so I would have to pay for it myself. I wasn't going to give up & kept calling & inquiring. I've made a decision to have a home birth & it was so important to me that I was willing to pay out of pocket.
I was fortunate to find a midwife right here in Bellevue through the Mothering magazine online community, so, thankfully, I wouldn't have to do a long commute (I was prepared to do that too, if that meant I could get my dream birth). Charlene Campbell, LM, CPM is the owner of www.birthjoyeducation.com. She is originally from Canada & has been a midwife since 1985. Charlene is one of 9 children (all born naturally & breastfed) & had her own 5 children with midwives. She is not only a midwife, but also taught midwifery students for many years & produced a set of educational DVDs for midwifery students & educators. She has done many water births & sounded excited to provide this service for me.
It is amazing how things just fall into place sometimes. We had our benefit fair at work last week, & I found out I was pregnant shortly after. I now have a great opportunity to enroll in the Health Care Flexible Spending Account (FSA) to cover some of my out-of-pocket birth expenses.
In case you are curious, some of the eligible pregnancy & birth-related expenses include birthing classes or Lamaze, chiropractic services, compression stockings, fertility monitor, fertility treatment, lab work, naturopathic visits, pregnancy tests, prenatal vitamins (if any of them are not covered by one's health insurance, of course). Certain medical expenses are reimbursable under a Health Care FSA if a licensed health care practitioner can testify that the service or product is medically necessary. The examples of medically necessary services include buying or renting of a breast pump, lactation consultant fees, home birth fees not covered by insurance, birthing tub rental, & birth doula (all confirmed by me via multiple phone calls!).

Here is my home birth/post-partum budget:

1) Home birth - $1800 (if paid before 20th week of pregnancy, otherwise it's $2000)
2) Birthing tub rental - $175
3) Birth kit - $50
4) Birth doula/birth photos & video - $1475
5) Lactation consultant - $300 (Home visits run around $150/visit, & I am thinking I will need at least 2, but probably more. I could travel to the lactation clinic for only $75/visit, but it may not be feasible. Sadly, my Premera Blue Cross insurance doesn't cover a lactation consultation unless it's included as part of hospital admission or for infant's failure to thrive).
6) Breast pump rental - $50 starting kit + $45-70/month x at least 6 months.
7) Placenta encapsulation - $250

Total price: $4370 - $4470

As you can see home birth is a choice that doesn't come cheap. Thankfully, I can probably save 30-40% on at least $3500 (the annual limit) through use of the Health Care FSA. Many of my expenses are not related to home birth, but to birth in general (I would still hire a doula, do placenta encapsulation & rent a breast pump even if I gave birth in a hospital). I could probably save around $2200 by giving birth in a hospital. Some (including my husband) may wonder why a woman would choose a relatively expensive home birth when she could have a hospital birth for free. The reasons are numerous & too complex to describe in one or two sentences, & I will address them in my later posts.

A Miracle

By now you must be wondering what all of these photos have in common. If you guessed #3, you were correct! Two toddlers were not the easiest to coordinate, but I did my best.
I knew something was up when I became superemotional (crying at commercials), was constantly hungry & close to falling asleep while sitting on the couch in the evenings. Suddenly, I became more aware of my breasts as the more-than-usual tingling & heaviness set in. I knew my body temperature was elevated since I kept waking up sweaty & hot for several nights in a row. I was sick with a cold at the end of February, so I had a late ovulation (cycle days 17-19) with a period due on cycle days 29-31. It was the first month my husband & I tried to conceive & with my previous 2 children this process took 3-4 months. In fact, we had tried only ONCE. What were the odds? I took 2 pregnancy tests 2 days apart (I just felt different) which came back negative. On Monday, March 14, the kids & I were visiting my friend who couldn't wait to find out so she made me take a home pregnancy test (even though it expired 2 years ago). It came back faintly positive. Even with an expired pregnancy test, in my heart I knew the test was correct.


It's difficult to describe my mixed emotions. Disbelief, happiness, anxiety, & the main one, "How will I tell my husband?" He was definitely open to having more kids, just not quite so soon. He had dreams of restful nights, at least one of the kids being potty trained, out-of-town family trips, larger savings account, a bigger house, & possibly a less stressful job.
I was the one ready to expand our family. In fact, I've been seeing birthing & newborn dreams for at least 2 months now. I've been taking my prenatal vitamins for several months & bought a few boxes of pregnancy herbal tea from the Earth Mama, Angel Baby online store recently (it had a 50% off sale & I stocked up for future pregnancies sometime far off in the future, or so I thought). I still have a large bag of prolactation herbal tea in my freezer that I've decided to keep "just in case" (I bought it when Sophia was born from www.lowmilksupply.com). The funniest thing even happened last week. I got an email from a person in HR asking me to confirm my maternity leave dates. I promptly emailed her back stating I wasn't pregnant & she confused me with someone else. Little did I know... :-)
I already haven't slept for 2 days thinking about the possibility of being pregnant, so I told my husband the news as soon as I got home from my friend's house. I just couldn't handle another night of keeping the secret all to myself. His first response was, "No way!", then, "There is still a possibility of miscarriage," & finally "We can handle it! Why don't you make it worthwhile & have twins!"
A few minutes later he called to share the news with his Mom. She was asleep & my husband had to repeat himself about 3 times before she finally understood. "The more, the merrier!" was her response. My Mom was also thrilled, & we had a conversation about her immigrating here sooner than later. If there is any hope of me breastfeeding my new baby, I will need a live-in helper to take care of my other kids for at least first 6 weeks (until the milk supply is fully established). We told Gerritt, "There is a baby in Mommy's belly." "Can I have some milk, Mommy?" was his response (at 3.5 years old, he may need a few more months to process these news).
Wow!!! I am still coming to terms with my new pregnancy. I am thrilled & happy, but have my share of down moments. But I am fully convinced it was meant to be as God doesn't make mistakes. I find the whole process of human conception nothing short of miraculous. What a glorious gift! Having children is rarely convenient, & there is no perfect time to have one. Having another child 1 or 2 or 3 years from now will not make it less stressful.
I have so many dreams & hopes for this birth! I have been reading & researching the natural birth blogosphere (see my favorite blog list) & have learned quite a bit since my last 2 births.

Here is my plan in a nutshell (assuming I will have a healthy pregnancy, the baby will turn head down before delivery, I won't be having twins, my platelet count won't be too low, etc.):

1) I will have a home water VBAC (vaginal birth after Cesarean) with a midwife & doula.
2) I will arrange for photos & video to celebrate the wonder & miracle of my next child's birth.
3) I will not find out the baby's sex until his or her birth day.
4) I will not have any diagnostic tests (such as routine ultrasounds) unless absolutely necessary.
5) If this baby happens to be a boy, he will not be circumcised.
6) I will breastfeed for at least 1 year (Yep, I will carry a breast pump with me everywhere I go). I will learn as much as I can about breastfeeding & have a lactation consultation prior to & after baby's birth.
7) I will encapsulate my placenta & use it to manage my post-partum blues.
8) I will form a solid plan for a babymoon to allow myself to heal & bond with my new baby. I will allow other people to take care of me instead of rushing to take care of others before I am fully ready.
9) I will not be anxious to get back to work & stay home for at least 4 months.

My due date is November 23rd. I have less than 9 months to get to my dream birth - everything I didn't get with my first two. And I will not be leaving anything up to chance...

Spaghetti & Meatballs

Spaghetti & meatballs is one of our favorite meals in cold weather. Both of the kids love soft noodles & the delicious fragrance of meatballs gently simmered in tomato sauce. There are many spaghetti & meatball recipes out there, but we were thoroughly pleased with this Rachel Ray's recipe. This recipe is lower in fat since the meatballs are baked instead of fried prior to being added to the tomato sauce. It was the first time I used the Worcestershire sauce in a meatball recipe & was pleasantly surprised by its flavor intensity. To be honest, I didn't have time to make the sauce from scratch, so I just used the tomato & vegetable sauce from the jar. I sprinkled some chopped fresh parsley on top prior to the dish being served. Enjoy!

Spring organizing

The first sign of spring


Only glass & BPA-free plastic!


Goodbye stuff!

This post should have been written in February (where it belongs), but I didn't have a free evening until today. Maybe attachment parenting & cosleeping is not what it's cracked up to be? Gerritt won't go to sleep without me, so we both go to bed or we both stay up. Most of the time I choose to go to bed with Gerritt intead of keeping him up so I could blog.
It was only the end of February, but I got really excited about spring being near after seeing my daffodil flowers getting ready to bloom. I went through all of my clothes & got rid of everything I haven't worn in the past year. Goodbye size 4 & 6 Ann Taylor outfits, supershort t-shirts, shorts & miniskirts! I will probably never be size 4 again, so I didn't want to hang on to clothes that I might wear someday while it was going out of style. I also got rid of the kids' toys that were not exciting anymore & some of infant paraphernalia (everything is BPA-free nowadays). My husband could barely lift 2 large bags of clothes to take to the Goodwill.
I also went through the kitchen cabinets & got rid of all of BPA-containing plastic. I even took the time to search for BPA-free plastic water pitcher (check out the Saychelle water pitcher). We have officially become only glass & BPA-free-plastic family! Next on my list was the document file cabinet. All of the old receipts, bills & papers kept "just in case" went straight into the paper recycling container. What a relief!


It is a winter wonderland again


Snowball fight with Daddy


It turns out my spring dreaming was a bit premature, as suddenly we got 2 days of snow. On one of the snow days my clinic even opened 2 hours late, which hasn't happened in over a year. I used all available plastic buckets & paper boxes to cover up budding daffodils, hyacinths & tulips to prevent them from freezing (I worked so hard to plant them last fall). Gerritt loved the snow & took my husband & I outside late one evening in order to play snowball fights & to build a snowman. We could hardly convince him to get back inside. There is definitely some Russian blood in that boy! Perhaps a few more weeks before spring decides to stay for real?

Sophia's Milestone

Today is the day to remember. Sophia slept the whole night through for the 1st time EVER! She went to bed at 9:30 pm yesterday (just couldn't stay up to finish the American Idol we were all watching) & woke up just before 8 am today. As I got up to get ready for work, I saw my husband changing Sophia's diaper & giving her her bottle. I asked him why he was feeding her when our nanny would be here any minute to feed both kids their breakfast, & he announced that Sophia was "starving" because she hasn't eaten all night! I couldn't believe it, so I've asked again to make sure I heard it right. Yes, March 4th 2011 is the day I'll remember forever!


My little boy is growing up fast. He is not so little anymore - all I have to do is to check out my blog entries & photos from 2008 or 2009. Gerritt's favorite sentence now is "I can do it!" And he does - getting & putting on his coat & shoes, programming & starting washer (I just add the soap), taking off & putting on his diaper, opening tricky candy wrappers & packages of milk & juice, getting into the car seat, propping the doors open for me while I push Sophia in the stroller, returning books to the library, etc. The list goes on & on. He really prides himself on his independence, & I support him as much as I can.
I don't know if it's related to being the firstborn, but he is a disciplinarian as well. He is often the first one to reinforce the rules. I often hear him yelling, "Mommy, put Sophia in the naughty chair! She spilled the juice (or ripped a book, or threw the markers/playdough containers/puzzle pieces all over the floor)." Of course, Sophia is not old enough to understand that she must stay in the naughty chair, so usually 5 seconds later I hear, "Mommy, Sophia got up from the naughty chair!" Sometimes Gerritt takes matters into his own hands, "I am going to punch Sophia!" & then I have to run really fast to save her from Gerritt's justice. :-)



One of Gerritt's favorite games is called "going to sleep." It involves putting all of his stuffed animals under the covers & convincing Sophia or his friend Madison to get under the covers too. He turns off the lights & shuts the door. When I attempt to walk into the room to check on them, he declares, "We are going to sleep, Mommy. Shut the door!!!" Sometimes he'll get a tiny flashlight to make interesting shadows on the ceiling or to show Sophia the glow-in-the-dark insects under the covers. They can be busy playing this game for up to 45" at a time. A little quiet time when no one is needing Mommy "right now" is just fine by me!


Gerritt is also fascinated with the Transformer toys. Transformers are robots that can reshape themselves into cars, trucks, hellicoptors or airplanes. Gerritt used to sleep with them, but now he mostly drives Daddy crazy asking him to turn a robot into something else (which takes a while). Then with one push of a button, Gerritt transforms the car or airplane into a robot again & then the whining starts, "Daddy, can you fix it?"
It warms my heart to watch Gerritt playing with Sophia. She is about 2 months away from turning 2 years old, & Gerritt is enjoying his little sister more & more every day. She is not a bothersome baby anymore, but a playmate. He shares toys & food with her & comforts her when she cries. He often wants to do things together with her & even gets upset if she doesn't come when he calls.
Gerritt talks constantly & I often catch myself laughing. I forced myself to write down a couple of his phrases this week:

"I don't like this, Mommy. It makes creepy sounds!" (Gerritt spitting out chocolate with crunchy bits of almonds when trying it for the first time).

My husband was putting Sophia to sleep. I see Gerritt laying on the floor in front of Sophia's bedroom & waving his fairy wand enthusiastically. I asked him what he was doing & he replied, "I want all of Daddy & Sophia's wishes to come true." I inquired further, "What do they want?" Gerritt declared, "Well... Yellow boney for Spikey (our dog), yummy salad for you. Sophia is wishing for a toy airplane & Daddy is wishing for a nice newspaper!" :-) A toddler's thought process is so amusing!