My short and easy guide to natural child birth

I'm partially baby-feverin' over here, and that means my brain wanders back to birth often. It doesn't hurt that oodles of my friends either have new babies or are pregnant too; birth and babies are all around me!

I had a normal natural birth with Lily, just as I had set out to do. There were a few things I would change (or rather one big thing--move the whole thing back home and out of the hospital), but overall it went well. I didn't take a birth class. I'm not even sure I finished a single childbirth book from start to finish. I had a doula and my husband present, but the former provided more support to the latter, I think, and I mostly kept to myself.

Here's my Short and Easy Guide to Childbirth (tm)

-Keep vocalizations low instead of high pitched
-Keep brow relaxed instead of furrowed
-Keep jaw relaxed instead of clenched

Add to that educating yourself on what's normal (say, going to 41 weeks and beyond), what to expect (oh, perhaps, transition), and what you might have to fight against (the typical cascade of interventions, for example), and you're good to go.

WeeEssentials giveaway!

I love her soap bits for using to wet our diaper wipes :) Go check out this post to enter!

http://weeessentials.wordpress.com/2010/12/15/giveaway/

Oatmeal raisin cookies

4 eggs, beaten
1 cup raisins
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 tsp baking soda
2 cups oats

Combine eggs, vanilla, and raisins in a bowl and let stand for 1 hour. Preheat oven to 350F. Cream the butter and sugars. Sift the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, and baking soda; add with creamed mixture. Then mix in egg/raisins and oats. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto cookie sheet and bake for 10 minutes.

I probably made them a bit too big and I still had enough left over to bag and freeze after baking 2 dozen. Both Lily and I approve of this recipe! Above is my modified version (I halved the sugar, added the nutmeg, took out the nuts), but the original is here: allrecipes.com/Recipe/Oatmeal-Raisin-Cookies-IV/Detail.aspx

Note to self: 21 months is too young to understand that cookies aren't cookies until you bake them, though she did enjoy putting the oats into the mixer with me.

Truly enjoying the season

It seems a common theme out in blog world to write about the stresses of the impending holiday right about now. But I'm not feeling it. Maybe it's because I started my Christmas crafting in July and finished 90% of them the week of Thanksgiving. Or maybe it's because we only put up our tree and stockings for decorations so there's no chasing a toddler away from breakables. Or maybe it's that our tree is only decorated with any ornaments from about three feet and up.

I've got a (sort of surprise) gift swap coming up next week, but I'm well on my way to completing that project too. I skipped out on a mass cookie baking event with some friends and opted to play with the kids while they cranked out dozens of delicious cookies. Art and I will bake some cookies one of these weekends together without the stress of making sure half a dozen kids aren't killing one another. I'll wrap presents soon during one of Lily's afternoon naps. We'll celebrate with my parents early so we only need to go to one place on Christmas Eve and two places on Christmas Day. That's about the busiest we'll be.

I'm really slowing down this year and not feeling rushed at all. I literally slow down while driving past every decorated house on our side streets so Lily can admire them. Maybe one of these nights we'll take a drive to the little outdoor village a couple towns over so she can look into the tiny houses they set up with various holiday scenes. We've played in the snow and drank hot chocolate too. I picked up some candy canes yesterday and anticipate Lily eating her first one soon.

Maybe I'm foolish and it's still too early in the month to tell, but I don't anticipate that hurried feeling sneaking up any time soon. The giggle fits though? Let's keep those coming :)

Snow!

We woke up to SNOW! And not just a light dusting, but a nice thick layer of packing snow that was perfect for Lily's first excursion of the year.

She tentatively walked out...


She agreed to mittens...


And by the end she was all "MORE DADDY BALL!"