I'm reviving the Blog. I'm doing it. Now.
Our Blog started out about 10 years ago as a static web page. I believe the first post featured our dear friend Tom Godfrey smoking a cigarette while proselytizing the importance of a smoking ban. We've come a looo-ooong way, baby. (A house, 2 dogs, a marriage and THREE babies, to be specific.)
Our family pictures can now always be found on our Shutterfly page (www.scherercentral.shutterfly.com), and they won't be posted here, except when I just have to have a photo to back up my words. Here, you will be blessed with my musings as a mom, a wife, a corporate business and technology consultant and business owner, a pet owner, a reader, a gardener, a sister, an auntie, a daughter, a crazy-person, a friend, an avid photo-taker, a consumer of technology, pop culture, fashion, and more.
Let me begin with what is dominating my thoughts this week. OUR BABY GIRL IS TURNING ONE! Our last baby. One. Also, my awesome BFF from college, Terri Richardson Chaseley kindly recently reminded me and another amazing BFF from college, Kelly Schmuldt Foster, that our child-bearing years are over. And they went fast. I'll admit that one stung. That brings me to the following post... which focuses on child birth, and how we got to where we are.
Our first baby (our Ullrich Michael) was the result of a 72 hour labor with the dreams of a natural birth dashed by a cesarean section. That experience is remembered as a time of Me, Ron (my partner, not yet hubby!), and our awesome doula, Emme Corbeil (www.trilliummidwives.com) against the world. Ron and I learned so much, and this experience colored the rest of our child bearing years (There is that phrase again! Really? Over???!!!). We were in awe (okay, perhaps it was sleep deprivation shock) as Emme helped us understand and protect our rights. Rights such as:
- The right to be treated for maternal exhaustion more than 24 hours into your labor, without submitting to induction via pitocin.
- The right to fully understand our choices through the process, and to make informed decisions.(Who here didn’t know Ron is a badass? I’m here to tell you)
- The right for me to not be alone in the operating room while Ron was with our baby.
- The right to refuse formula feeding our almost ELEVEN pound newborn because the nurses didn't care for his recessed jaw's way of latching.
(PS - We also learned such awesome medical terms as ‘occiput posterior’ and ‘acynclitic’ – thanks Ulls.)
Our second baby (Our Cadel Alana) was born naturally (woot!) in the hospital - also known as VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean). We had the great fortune of finding a group of midwives (the Park Nicollet Meadowbrook Midwives) who were backed by an awesome OB who all believed that natural birth after cesarean is not only possible, but in many cases the best option. For this birth we had what we thought at the time was the 'dream team' - Ron (now officially the hubby!), Emme, and the PN midwives. We delivered our Girl in 36 hours, which included 2 hours in transition (if you have ever been dilated to 9cm w/o pain meds, you know what I'm saying here). Takeaways:
- The first moments with your vaginally delivered baby are so much more tangible and memorable than with your c-section baby. Does this mean I love Cadel more than Ullrich? That notion is LUDICROUS - of course not. But I will always remember her birth more clearly than his, and I will always feel he and I missed out on a moment as I was strapped to a table with my guts hanging out.
- No matter how many babies you birth naturally, the hospital still treats you as a VBAC, and certain protocols (IV fluids, no food / drink, closely watching the clock, etc.) will apply.
- Narcotics do NOT work for me. Come on, who wouldn't try something in a 36 hour event?
(PS – New term learned with this experience? “Advanced Maternal Age” –seriously? Who, me?!)
When we found out we were pregnant with our third baby (AKA Miss Summer James), I thought long and hard about something Emme had suggested to me in one of her visits post-partum: based on what I learned in my experience with Cadel, and now that we really understood my labor pattern (long early labor, no use for meds) I should really consider a home birth for our 3rd. When we were 20 weeks along, and I had taken advantage of all of the testing and diagnostics available in western medicine for my own certainty that we had a healthy pregnancy and a healthy baby, I made the decision to break up with my wonderful Park Nicollet Midwives, and have a home birth. Trillium Midwifery (Emme's practice) didn't have room for us in October of 2010, but Kim Garrett and her partners at Dearborn Midwifery (reco from Emme) did. In the end, we truly ended up with THE ACTUAL DREAM TEAM. Emme's schedule permitted her to be our doula. So at our birth we had: Ron, Emme, Kim, Jane, and Laura - WOW! These amazing women account for easily in the thousand if not thousands of births. (My hubby, not to brag, was also on his 3rd.) Lest the thousands comment makes these wonderful women sound old, please let me clarify that they are energetic, funny, hip women, who make me feel old (and we ALL know I'm a spring chicken, right?). I could go on and on about their accomplishments. Amazing. Women.
This brings me to not only my favorite child birth experience, but my FAVORITE DAY. Ever. In my life. I love the day I married my husband, and as cliché as it sounds, my very best friend. I love being a Mom, and treasure every day that I get to know my kids -- my Bigs and my Baby. I love Christmases, and first recitals, and amazing vacations, and first steps, and first lost teeth, and so many other moments. But to me, this day was so very amazing in a way that is likely to never be repeated. What characterized this day?
- An energy in myself that I hadn't yet tapped into until this point. The ability to talk and think clearly in my labor (beTWEEN contractions, of course!) and feel so so focused -- so much so that just a few hours before Summer joined us, Emme, who had been with me in all of my births questioned if I was even close enough to delivering to get into the birthing tub.
- The feeling that the hubby and I had accomplished something so incredibly special together. For the bulk of my 18-hour labor it was just the 2 of us. In the end, I nearly broke his arm as I pushed our baby out while laying on our bed. His name is on her birth certificate as the person who delivered her. Wow.
- Laying on the couch near the fire (our power went out mid-birth - she was welcomed to the world by candle light!) snuggling our beautiful healthy baby girl within an hour of her birth, and her proud big brother and sister quickly joining us at home with Grandma Scherer to meet baby sister and make complete our sweet family celebration.
- Peace, happiness, calm, quiet, beauty. All uninterrupted.
- Memories that remain so much more clear and tangible as time goes on because they took place in our home, where we are together as a family every day.
I feel so blessed to have had this joyful day one year ago. And even more so that Summer James is in our world now. Happy First Birthday to my amazing baby girl. Happy 'last first' to the whole Scherer family (PS - Ron, we SURVIVED!). Thank you to Emme, Jane, Kim and Laura. You women are amazing, and we feel lucky to know you.
