Birth Story: Ina May Gaskin & The Farm Midwives

There is a new documentary about Ina May Gaskin coming out called "Birth Story: Ina May Gaskin & The Farm Midwives."  For those of you that might not be familiar with Ina May, she is one of the leaders of the midwifery movement today. 
This documentary looks enchanting, and I know Jason and I cannot wait to see it.  Although she has been interviewed and featured in many documentaries on natural and home birth, I'm honestly surprised that there hasn't been a documentary made about her before.  I don't know if my husband, child, and I would have had our beautiful home birth if it hadn't been for Ina May and her knowledge and trust in laboring mothers and the strength their bodies have.

Our babe.

After laboring for 23 hours, Jason and I welcomed our daughter to the world on Monday, July 9th.  Her name is Camille, and I'm fairly certain that she's the most lovely baby I've ever seen.  8 lbs 7 oz, 21 1/4 inches, and perfectly healthy.

With the help of our midwives Debbie and Nichole, we had the natural water birth at home like we had been planning for nine months +.  I'm so happy Camille got to pick her birthday, and come when she was ready.

Still waiting...

This is what almost 42 weeks of pregnancy looks like...in a heatwave.  The worst part of being almost two weeks late in summer, besides sweating all the time, is the swelling of my feet and ankles.  My feet hurt so badly, and my poor toes look like breakfast sausages!

Jason and I have an ultrasound on Friday to make sure the baby isn't under any stress and that she has enough fluid to keep swimming in.  Basically, just to make sure she is healthy.  If we don't have the baby over the weekend, we'll have to go in for another ultrasound on Monday, too.  It will be exciting to see her, but we would rather see her face to face!  Everything looked great at our appointment with our midwife yesterday, but we are still crossing our fingers that she will arrive ASAP!

Crafty Pregtastic.

Have I mentioned that we are still pregnant?  We are.  This baby is so happy in this belly of mine, I'm starting to think she might never want to leave!  But Jason and I both feel that we want her to choose when she is ready as long as everyone is still healthy.  We are planning a homebirth still, but we have a back-up plan in case of an emergency.

I have been listening to the podcast, Pregtastic, to help me throughout my pregnancy.  I've often felt alone since I'm the only pregnant person I know in Madison (let alone the only pregnant person I know in Madison planning a home birth), and although I don't know any of the women on the podcasts, I felt a little like a part of a community.  There is always something interesting discussed, from birth stories and breastfeeding, to prenatal exercise and cloth diapering. 
I love that there are always mom's from different backgrounds and life experiences, and never judgement when discussing any of the topics of the weekly podcasts.  It's so refreshing to get unbiased information to make safe decisions that feel right for my family.
As I've been waiting for baby, I've been listening to a few of the podcast episodes a day as I have been learning to crochet.


Oh yes, you've heard correctly, I'm learning to crochet.  I have always seen myself as being a knitter only.  I used to see crocheting as knitting-lite, and I always saw the rare people who both knit and crochet as unicorns, like they're mythical or something.  Now that I look back on it, maybe I was just afraid that I would not feel comfortable with crocheting.  The challenge of learning a new craft has become the perfect distraction from waiting around for an 11 day late baby!  Now Baby Lamb has more baby booties and hats than she will ever need in her lifetime, but it has sure been keeping me busy, and she will certainly be warm.
While I've been waiting, I've also completed Baby Lamb's quilt.  It's my first completely hand-stitched quilt, and I started it back in February!

J's first father's day.

Baby isn't here yet, but we are only days away from our due date/guess date.  (Less than a week, I can't believe it.)  This point of pregnancy is really eerie to think about because I have a babe inside of me that would live and thrive out in the real world now.  It's very much like being sandwiched between two worlds at the moment.
Since Jason has been so supportive and caring throughout my whole pregnancy, I wanted to do something especially nice for him for Father's Day.   In the afternoon we went to see Moonrise Kingdom, but before our day officially began, I surprised him with breakfast.

Nutella and banana crepes, that is.  They were a big hit, and I was even able to sit while I made them.  (Heavenly.)

Recipe!

**The crepes themselves look a bit darker than they normally would because I used whole wheat flour.**

Pierogies

Jason and I have been hard at work making freezer meals for after the baby has arrived.  We're making lots of lasagna and quiche, and today I made a Polish specialty that's very popular in North-East Pennsylvania;  Pierogies!  I've never made Pierogies from scratch before, but after seeing a recipe I thought, how hard could it possibly be?  It was very easy, but fairly time consuming.  The ooey-gooey European dumplings of joy will be well worth the work now though.  Don't I know it.

I used the recipe from momofukufor2, and it worked perfectly.  After making the dough and the potato and green onion filling, I formed the pierogies and put them right into a freezer bag.  Once I'm ready to make the pierogies for dinner, all I will have to do is quickly boil them until they float and bake them with some onion and olive oil.  Yum!

** This recipe could easily be made vegan if you don't use egg in the dough or add cheese to the filling.   Also, I added two minced cloves of garlic in the potato filling, making it ultra delectable, FYI.

Getting ready for baby.

Since my last update, I completed my Masters in Education!  That took a whole lot of time from blogging, but it was all worth it.  I finished my higher education career (so far) with a 3.7 GPA.  So close to my 4.0 goal, but hey, I'll take it.  It feels good to know that I'm one step closer to a career that I love and excel in, so much so that the grade I get is just the icing on the cake.  Actually learning about what I love doing is far more important to me.

I decided not to walk at my graduation because I would have been at the end of my eighth month of pregnancy, and there is no way that I would want to sit in a cap and gown for hours in the sun, sweating my butt off.  No waddling across stage for me, thanks.  I didn't walk at my undergraduate commencement either, and I never regretted it.  Instead I left straight for my third tour, then moved to Madison to be with Jason, and became closer to the life that I'm living today.  I'd say it was a good decision looking back, otherwise I might not have the life that I have today.

Now that I'm done with school, I'm busy getting ready for baby!  I'm now only two weeks from my due date, and nesting time is starting to dwindle down.  I've been doing a lot of quilting, knitting, and general sewing to finish preparing for my sweet babe.  Jason and I are so excited to meet her and those little feet that have been poking my sides all day long!