June 10, 2007 by veronica.

How many activities can be packed into a single weekend?  Well, I know now that it’s possible to:

• Shop at the MOA
• Shop at IKEA
• Visit a Sibling
• Multiply the dollars in your pocket
• Help a baby be born
• Stay overnight in Bloomington
• Visit a landmark that was once a movie set
• Score almost-free breakfast
• Lose at Air-hockey and then find out how pathetically old you are

Yes, it is possible to do all of that, just not in that order.

Friday marked our five year wedding anniversary.  To celebrate, we had planned a wonderful overnight trip without Lily, which was to include a trip to Valleyfair and then an overnight stay at Mystic Lake.  Unfortunately, Friday arrived and still no baby for my client, which meant there was no way I could leave town Friday night, as was originally planned.  She was scheduled for an “induction” on Saturday morning, so by Friday afternoon, we had made plans to get everything done that we usually do on Sundays (groceries, laundry) so that if baby came early enough on Saturday, we could still take our much-needed mini-vacay.  If baby still was not here by Saturday evening, I had very begrudgingly agreed that our trip would be postponed to another weekend (which would have thrown appointments for next weekend out of kilter, but I would have dealt with that.)

Well, wouldn’t you know, it, but while I was in the middle of a very special celebratory meal on Friday, the phone rang.  It was baby time.  Finally!  I had another very amazing, wonderful, eye-opening experience. Baby came into the world that night and I was home a little after 11pm.  You gotta love shorter labors.  That then meant our weekend plans were a go.

Because our plans were not set in stone until Friday night, we had not made any room reservations at Mystic Lake made until Friday.  When Chris called, though, the one room left was a smoking room, which we later were VERY glad not to tale because that casino is so DISGUSTINGLY smokey I would have wanted to sleep with my head out of the window.  We were gonna wing it Saturday night.

Saturday lunchtime found us at Valleyfair.  After a good, quick lunch, Chris and I set out to explore the wonders of the rides.  Or at leaset we thought about riding rides.  See, here was the funny thing:  It seems that since we were last there, we’ve gotten older.  And less willing to get thrown around at crazy speeds.  The massive coaster Wild Thing?  I was terrified (I once rode it 3 times in a row).  Tilt-a-Whirl?  Almost made me hurl (I think I rode that straight for 15 minutes on night a dozen years ago.) The short-but-jerky Excalibur?  I kept my eyes shut most of the time (I think I rode that 6 times in a row one year.)  Chris and I walked past ride after ride, rejecting them each because it was too scary, too wet, too spinny, etc.  We did watch the IMAX movie about dolphins.  We had a great time at the arcade.  However, 3.5 hours after arriving, we had to face the sad fact that we were too old and too concerned with our own well-being to get on any more rides, and left.

We then decided to go to a neaby mall. I knew exactly which mall I wanted to visit, but I had no idea where it was.  Chris had pointed it out once, but didnt remember ever going past it with me.  So we drove around Shakopee for awhile (and literally, we drove AROUND the tow, retracing our steps a couple of times before I remembered that it was some famous mall.  Chris then realized I was talking about the Eden Prairie mall, site of the movie set for Mallrats, so we drove to that mall, in search of fun.

Yeah, that mall was boring.  It had pretty much the same stores our mall has, just on two floors.  SNORE.   After 30 minutes, we got back in the car, but now to head south to Mystic Lake to gamble out money away.

How was Mystic Lake?  Well, to put it mildly, we won.  We won eough money to pretty much pay for our whole weekend, and then some.  Ok, it wasn’t a HUGE amount, but it was fun.  We had fancy dinner in the middle of gambling, them left dinner and threw our last $20 into the machines…and won a bunch more. Chris did a lot better than I did, but we had a really good time pressing buttons and watching the light flash when Chris hit one of the smaller jackpots on a bank of machines.  It was a good time.  However, we still did not have a place to stay, so we decided to head on up to Bloomington to find a hotel.

After stopping at a gas station, we realized we were just minutes away from Chris’s brother’s house.  Since he has internet, we stopped by to say hi and book a room.  We got one at a hotel just next to the MOA, and even got a great rate that included breakfast.   So off we went, first to shop (for a mere 40 minutes before the stores closed) and then to our wonderful hotel room, where Chris had a great (if overpriced) bottle of wine delivered to our room.  And, for the first time in almost 2 years, we both enjoyed a full night of quiet, uninterrupted sleep.

We had an awesome breakfast, thanks to our package deal.  They even had a waffle bar!  We went to IKEA to peruse the kids room items, then again to the MOA of do a little more shopping (and get there just in time for a fire to break out), and finished our weekend with a trip to the baby superstore to buy a bed in a bag for Lily’s soon-to-be refinished toddler bed.

Lily was happy to see us when we got her from Chris’s parents.  We were happy to see her.  But, all in all, it was a wonderful way to celebrate 5 years of wedded bliss, even if it did almost get derailed by a baby who refused to be born.

Posted in The doula journey, Reviews, Life | 3 Comments »

June 6, 2007 by veronica.

Did you know I had a daughter? Yeah, if you only looked at my recent blog posts, you’d never know it. So I am going to fill one entire posts with amazing and cute stories, and post some pictures that will make you go “awwww.”

As documented on Chris’s blog, Lily can count to 5. She can even recognize some of the numbers. She can say most of the alphabet, and likes to watch Wheel of Fortune and suggest letters to go on the board. Sometimes, she’s right. She knows colors and can draw perfect circles. We’re working on other shapes, but she really likes circles.

Now that Lily’s doing pretty well with the potty training, she’s moved on to teaching her Little People how to go potty. She sits them on the toilet in their house, and she helps them “flush” when they are finished. I am so relieved, though. I thought I would have to potty train the hippie and the sea captain!

For the most part, Lily is very good at following directions and doing what’s she’s asked to do. From time to time she does have her tiny moments of being an angry toddler, but I think it’s caused by a lack of communication skills on her part and by not having enough control over her own world. She is very much her own person, which I’m sure will be awesome when she’s 15, but it’s very tough to deal with at 21 months.

Lily’s hair is getting very long, and I’ve been able to branch out from the tiny pony on top of her head and experiment with other hair styles. My new fave are the pigtails. Last night we were at dinner with Chris’s parents when I realized she looked just like Boo in Monster’s Inc. I even made her say, “kitty” a few times. It made me laugh, and that’s all that counts.

So, to conclude, here are some totally cute pictures:

Lily got into Anna’s Lipstick   Playing dress up      Pigtails
       

Running at Oxbow     Feeding baby

Posted in Raising baby | 1 Comment »

June 2, 2007 by veronica.

I’m not sure if I’ve gone through my struggles to become a childbirth educator before in this blog.  If I have, this is an update.  If not, then I guess it’ll be good to start at the beginning.

I was pretty open about the decision to become a doula.  It was a pretty easy one to make.  One day, I decided to become a doula, and I just started doing (doula-ing) it.  Yes, there were up and downs, and there still are, but it wasn’t tough to pick out a certifying organization.  It was easy to find training.  It hasn’t even been as tough as I thought it would be to find clients (which, by the way, I could still take a July client–otherwise my first open month is December).  I have to finish up 2 essays and I can submit my paperwork for the doula certification.  I’ll be certified soon!  YAY!

The process to become a childbirth educator, though, has been much more difficult.  Figuring out which organization to go with was tough.  Initially, because its HQ is in MN, I thought ICEA would be good.  However, they did not have any trainings scheduled for MN in the last part of 2006 or any of 2007.  When I called to ask about getting one scheduled her, The woman I spoke with very, very rude.  I looked at Lamaze, but the closest training last year was in SD, and that was actually canceled at the last minute.  I looked at other organizations, but they didn’t have trainings close by, either, and if they did, I totally did not support most of their teachings.

Just an aside.  Even though I tend to hop up on my soapbox pretty frequently, it’s very important for me to say that I am not a “militant” doula, nor will I be a biased CBE.  Instead, I firmly believe that everything has its place and time, and its important to know how to manage labor and birth without medication or interventions, but to use interventions when medically necessary.  This is called teaching an evidence-based curriculum.  Not all hospitals have evidence-based procedures, though.  HOWEVER, despite how I may feel about certain things, it’s not my decision.  I am concerned that a woman and her partner be given all information, good and bad, before making a decision.  I’d like to think I’m, at the end of the day, supportive, and that’s what matters most, since it’s not my birth to live with.

I just had to get that out there in case there was a perception that I thought all hospitals and OBs were bad because they are not midwives or homebirths.  So not true.

So, anyway, after lots of tears and much frustration, a Lamaze workshop was scheduled in MN- Shakopee to be exact.  I signed up right away.

I just got back from my final day of the workshop.  As wonderful as my doula training was, this was so amazing.  I am so excited now to get my curriculum put together and start teaching my first class.  I will be doing a class in late July, probably 2 weekends in a row.  I will be doing this free of charge, as it will be evaluated for the Lamaze powers-that-be.  I’ll sit for the exam in late October, and I will find out at the end of December if I passed or not.
I’ll be teaching my own classes next year unless something changes (and things are changing at warp speed right now).  And why would I want to do that?  Because I want to be offering the most exciting, engaging, informative, and effective classes in Rochester, and I think I can best do that under the Lamaze name and on my own.  I’d love to have more guinea pigs for the first class i teach, though.
So what did we do in our training workshop?  Well, lots of stuff.  I learned some brand-new things, learned what’s being discredited (Optimal fetal positing, for one thing), and I learned that I can do this!  It’s all very exciting.  I wanted this so badly, and now it’s another thing that’s becoming a reality.

And, yes, I am still waiting for a baby.  Que locura.

Posted in Living la vida Lamaze, The doula journey | 1 Comment »