It is summer at last here in the Pacific Northwest...a highly anticipated time where the gloomy rain clouds dissipate and are replaced by sticky humidity and clear blue skies. I couldn't be happier. It also appears to be a season of change. Pattygirl is about to turn two in a few days. I can't believe it has been that long since I held my sweet girl in the confines of my safe womb, nervously excited for her to make her entrance into this world and be my first and only homebirthed baby. She is fiercly independant, yet a momma's girl still. Her vocabulary is growing daily and she cracks me up now by knowing who certain pop stars are like "gaga" and "boom boom" (black eyed peas). She still nurses and shows no sign of wanting to slow down yet and with her being the last of my babies I am in no big hurry to kick her off the boob quite yet.
Speaking of pattygirl's birth, I recently got word that her birth story will be published in the Fall issue of Midwifery Today. In addition, a poem I wrote for Kayla will be published, as well. Change number 2- I will technically be a published writer. It makes me wonder what else I may be able to write.. I don't venture to assume anything as big as a book, but maybe random articles or stories that I could submit to parenting and mothering magazines and perhaps earn some extra cash? Who knows.. we'll see if anything comes to me and I have the guts to send it in. Submitting a piece of work that has come straight out of one's soul is gutwrenching and nerve wracking.
Change 3 is a new position at work. Yep, after 3.5 years in my current position I finally got promoted. I had hoped to move forward long before, but things always change, hiring freezes happen, maternity leave occurs, etc. At this point I am grateful and happy for the new opportunity and welcome change.
Change 4 is I am going to be an auntie. In a few ways, really. One of my dearest friends is expecting her first baby this fall and I have the honor of attending her homebirth as a doula and witnessing her transformation into a mother. She has attended my last two births and I am excited to return the favor. I also can't help but to delite in her choice of birth... knowing that I had a small smackeral of influence in her knowledge about birth and her being able to witness the labor and birth process uniterrupted and in it's natural, normal form when she saw Jaidy quietly slipped into this world in a tub of warm water by candelight and Ava hollar her way out at home on a hot summer's night.
My own sister is having a baby this fall, as well... it is heartbreaking to me to know that I will not likely ever see my nephew because of the relationship between us.. that she won't let me be there for her and value my experiences as a four time mother and woman who has spent the last 10 years engrossed in everything birth, attending conferences, births of friends, education seminars, etc etc. It terrifies me that she will likely become victim to the machine of the hospital birth system.. where one out of three women "can't" birth vaginally, a large majority of women are induced or augmented, pain relief meds are given as if they are skittles and have no adverse affects on mom or baby.. where food and drink are denied, movement and noise are seen as taboo, where moms are expected to push uphill on their backs fighting gravity rather than using it to their benefit. I sincerely hope the best of for her and her new family.. sadly, she will probably never know this and it's not like she'd read this blog anyways...
Anyhow.. now that I have managed to make myself sad and weepy I am up and off to take the kids to the park to enjoy the amazing weather we have upon us. To let them dip their toes in the water, play in the sand and be free to run around, giggling and being silly.
Change is good.
