inside look: home birth video!

So just like I promised, we put together a short video so you could have an "inside look" of our home birth. I did end up having a water-birth as well so you can see the tub we used :-) I wish we had more actual video footage for you, but maybe in the future when there's more time for editing. For right now it's mostly pictures.

I want to say thank you to my husband, who was AMAZING! Brandon was all-around super mid-wife. He even delivered Arista (with aid from the mid-wife), getting right along with me in the tub. Certainly after an incredible birth as we had with this baby, it will be VERY difficult for us ever to return to hospital birth. Birthing in our home brought us closer together in ways that other circumstances would have not otherwise.

I recommend home birth to EVERY couple who remains low-risk during their pregnancy. I really believe pregnancy is meant to be a journey, not something we try to "survive" and just get-through. But God can really use it to bring a family together. God really showed me how pregnancy is a foreshadow of what He desires to do through us. Love produces marriage. Marriage brings covenant. Covenant produces children (fruit). It's the same way in the Kingdom of God as well. We love God because He first loved us. After love transformation, there's a covenant commitment to God (the same we make to our spouse when we say "I do"). And out of that relationship, we begin to birth life in everything we do, say and touch, and even birthing spiritual children through discipleship. Pregnancy, labor and birth are meant to be a transforming spiritual experience for us all. And now I see why God led us to have the home birth this time around.....and to think, only because of a dream. {smiles}

3 under 3: my new normal

Hey Everyone! You'll have to excuse my absence from blogging these last couple weeks! With the adjustment of having three under three, blogging hasn't been exactly at the top of todum poll of priorities right now. But I'm hoping to get back in the groove here soon! And I know I promised an "inside look" at how the homebirth went....and I want to remind you it's a comin'. I just want to be able to provide footage and pictures as well.

Baby has had thrush for the past week, which has developed also into a yeast infection, so things have been not so pleasant for Mama and Miss Arista. But I'm hoping as it clears up to share in the future how this nursing experience has been very different than my last two.

So apart from trying to find a "new normal" by having an addition to our little family, we've still continued to press into God and be a growing family that grows into our God-given destinies. Abigail has been an amazing encouragement to me lately. She prayed for a friend of mine's back pain, and to my own doubting heart, was put to shame when God healed her! Though times are not always easy in the season my family is in, I'm always encouraged and strengthened when I see God use us in supernatural ways. It's really all about Him anyways!

And just for fun, here's some recent pics of the girls

What in your lunch box?

Today we enjoyed carrots, cucumbers dipped in hummus and pine nuts.

Along with cut sharp cheddar cheese and organic strawberry yogurt. Yum!

And sweet Arista is pretty happy on mama's milk =D
She's 4 weeks today!

World breastfeeding week

I didn't even know there was such a thing! But its true....its World's Breastfeeding Week! And I must say....I'm really excited about it!

Why? may you ask. It's not just because I've been a nursing mom for the last 3 years. But I'm also a breast-feeding advocate, willing to fight for our rights to nurse our children everywhere and anywhere. that's right. Did you know that our nursing rights are at stake? that is, if you're in a public place. Here's a mom who was almost arrested in Target for nursing her child publicly. But to assume a mother has to find a "secret" place everytime she has to feed her child is absolutely ludricious to me.....but none-the-less, many are advocating to "close-up-shop" for public nursing. It's sad, but true. Here's some tips on how to discreetly nurse in public.

Apart from how incredibly good nursing is for you and your baby, it's what is normal and natural. God's design was for us to breastfeed. I know not every mother has the physical capabiliy to nurse their babies. I know many mothers who who long for it, but just can't produce milk. But even for their sakes, I choose to exercise my own freedom, knowing that if I'm capable to offer this gift to my baby, then I should absolutely take it!

So Happy Breastfeeding Week to all mommies out there who are advocating our God-given freedom to feed our children naturally! And when you get a chance check out WABA's (World Alliance for Breastfeeding) website to help protect, promote and support breastfeeding world-wide. AND if your in the Rochester area feel free to come out for Little Darling's Breastfeeding week's gathering happening right here at Cobb's Hill tomorrow!