When I don’t snack constantly or when I try eating big meals I’ll feel queasy but I don’t throw up. There have been a few days of me feeling dead tired too (so I rest), my brain is work much slower than normal and I am super forgetful but other than that it’s been smooth sailing here.

I finished choreographing the last bits of a song for one of my old colorguard groups in Arizona. That means I am done choreographing stuff for marching season. I also got a wild hair and just ironed some of N’s work shirts for fun while listening to and singing Judy Garland songs.

My appetite has been non-stop. Literally I am hungry every 10 minutes or so. I’ll eat something and right away I am hungry again so I just keep shoveling food in… Good times!

Today I had me some apple cinnamon oatmeal, tomato juice, tons of water, 1 cup of coffee with tons of cream, 2 garlic pickles, tons of peppercorn ranch sun chips, peanut m&m’s, tons of fig newtons, a huge salad. That just got me through the morning and early afternoon.

Over the weekend N and I headed to the local library to return all our wedding books and to get us some pregnancy books instead. I found a book I am really loving called Pushed by Jennifer Block the summary as described on publishers weekly says

“According to writer and editor Block (Our Bodies, Ourselves), “the United States has the most intense and widespread medical management of birth” in the world, and yet “ranks near the bottom among industrialized countries in maternal and infant mortality.”

Block shows how, in transforming childbirth into a business, hospitals have turned “procedures and devices developed for the treatment of abnormality” into routine practice, performed for no reason than “speeding up and ordering an unpredictable…process”; for instance, the U.S. cesarean section rate tripled in the 1970s, and has doubled since then.

Block looks into a growing contingent of parents-to-be exploring alternatives to the hospital-and the attendant likelihood of medical intervention-by seeking out birthing centers and options for home-birth.

Unfortunately, obstacles to these alternatives remain considerable-laws across the U.S. criminalizing or severely restricting the practice of midwifery have led the trained care providers to practice underground in many states-while tort reform has done next to nothing to lower malpractice insurance rates or improve hospital birthing policies.

This provocative, highly readable expose raises questions of great consequence for anyone planning to have a baby in U.S., as well as those interested or involved in women’s health care.”

The book is easy for follow and has armed me with much knowledge and background info on birthing in the USA. If you are pregnant this is a book you need to read!

Personally, I have always been worried about being pressured in labor and delivery. I have many preferences and views about labor and delivery. Mainly that it is a natural process that our bodies are designed to handle.

I am not keen on having unnecessary medical interventions and I am even more worried that birthing in a hospital will leave me with no choice but to do things the way the hospital wants regardless of whether or not it is necessary (even if it is against my will).

If you don’t mind sharing info about your own birthing I would love to learn from your experiences. I know this is a very personal topic so you can answer in the comments area for other readers to reference or you can email me to privately share your story. I have tons and tons of questions:

• How were your children delivered?  Via vaginal birth, c-section? Was the c-section scheduled?
• What type of birth setting was it in? In your home, birth center, hospital, in a car etc?
• Did you receive an epidural?
• What kind of provider did you use? Obstetrician, midwife, family doctor, doula etc?
• How long did labor last?
• Was your labor induced?
• Did you eat or drink juices during labor?
• Were you given Pitocin to speed up/ intensify contractions?
• Was your water (bag of membranes) broken by the doctor or did it break naturally (Aminotomy)?
• Did you use continuous EFM (electronic fetal monitoring)?
• Was an episiotomy preformed, were you asked first?
• Did they mechanically assist birth with forceps or a vacuum extractor?
• Were you allowed to move around and try out different positions?
• Were you pleased with your experience and why or why not?
• Did you or your child experience complications as a result of delivery?
• Were all your requests honored?
• Anything else you think I should know?

Oh, the pregnancy pool is up to $2.00 now, that is 2 guesses! We need more guesses though! Head over to the pregnancy pool page to see the guesses and to join in of the fun. Remember it is money in your pocket!

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