Heaven on Earth: Part I

I love this picture. Is it flattering, aesthetics-wise? Nope. But it is REAL. The real, raw beauty of bringing a child into the world. When I look at it I see pure joy and I wouldn't want it to look any different. I have come a long way in loving and accepting my body for the miracle it truly is, AS IS. This one picture is truly worth a thousand words, to me.

The world and our family received a 7 lbs 1 oz, 20.5 inch piece of Heaven on Monday, September 12 at 10:02 pm with the birth of our sweet baby GIRL!!! 

(If you’d like to know what we chose for her name then send me a message on Facebook…I think her blog name will be one Miss Priss has been calling her: Cupcake. It may change…)


Jonathan discovered the gender first since I pushed her out on my knees…so I was facing backwards from the whole “scene” and I am so happy he saw her first.

The moment he announced “It’s a GIRL!!” was one that only Heaven has words wonderful enough for…‘Cause I don’t have them.

Keeping her gender a surprise was one of the best decisions we made for this pregnancy. I don’t regret finding out with our other children at all. But this time…it was totally, completely worth the wait. SO fun. I recommend it. :-)

And now on to what everyone is REALLY reading this post for: THE BIRTH STORY.

Am I right?!! I LOVE a good birth story and I’m pretty sure others do too…so here ya go…and it’s gonna be long and laborious (pun intended :)…so BUCKLE UP:

So I was scheduled to be induced (due this THIS fiasco) on Tuesday. I had worked out a very nice “compromise” with my midwife and the maternal fetal medicine doctor I saw during my pregnancy for the induction that I was comfortable with. I did a TON of research on natural induction methods, in the hopes that I could avoid Pitocin.

Why no Pitocin? The semi-short answer is that I hoped to avoid the risks associated with using Pitocin (for example uterine rupture) and also the other interventions that come “standard” with using Pitocin at the hospital I chose to give birth at, namely continuous fetal monitoring and IV fluids.

And now you may be asking “Why not?” for those interventions: Because they would really restrict my ability to move freely into the positions that I would instinctively want to get into to be more comfortable as I went through the birth. (TUCK THAT LAST SENTENCE AWAY FOR LATER ON, OKAY?)

By the way, I prepared for this birth using the Hypnobabies “method” of hypnosis for childbirth. I used Hypnobabies with MUCH success and satisfaction for Mr. SweetSweet’s birth and was SO excited to use again for this birth!! I felt very empowered in the decisions I made for this birth because of the excellent birthing education I received through Hypnobabies.

Short story: I LOVE HYPNOBABIES. THE END. :-)


So back to my natural labor induction methods research. I was directed to a wonderful midwife in Arizona who had an AWESOME, detailed plan of how to use a handful of natural inductions methods to induce labor. It included castor oil, blue cohosh, nipple stimulation, walking, hot showers and I added hypnosis and essential oils to the list. One thing I would have loved to use, due to the great research I found on it, was acupuncture. BUT, with me being on an anti-coagulant AND being pregnant…it wasn’t going to happen.

…and this concludes Part I of the “Heaven on Earth” post. I have WAY too much to write to get it finished in “one fell swoop” so forgive me for doing it in segments! I also need to feed a hungry baby who I need to grow this weekend to get her back to birth weight. :-)

Until next time…