Our Spring FUN

So the last week has been pretty busy, but really fun! On Sunday we went to my parent's stake center (which is actually closer than our stake center) to watch the Stake Conference Broadcast. Beth refused to sit through more than 20 minutes at a time, so it ended up being a really stressful morning for me. She's been relatively good through 1 hour of sacrament meeting, but 2 hours of a broadcast, is not her cup of tea. Unless the broadcast is of Word World. 

We spent Easter with my family and Beth really enjoyed searching for "Balls" out in Gran Dawnie and Papa's yard. We bought really cute Noah's Ark Easter eggs and I think the adults had more fun looking at the animals than Beth did. It was a really great time.

 After Beth had found all the eggs she started trying to re-hide them on the hose. They kept rolling down and so it was pretty funny to watch.

 Our Family, April 2011.

After the Easter egg hunt the weather was so great that we decided to play with some bubbles. Beth LOVES bubbles. So she had a great time! She might try to eat them, but she rarely succeeds. Papa was showing her how to catch bubbles in a cup, she was quite impressed.

Andrew and I started our Childbirth Refresher Class last week. It was a two night course, so we had the second night yesterday. Since the class was put on at St. Luke's I was unsure if it would focus on any natural birthing ideas, or just hospital protocol. I've definitely changed my expectations of labor this time, so I didn't want to hear things like "It's never easy, just get an epidural" Or "C-sections really aren't that bad".  But, we were happily surprised when our class was taught by a wonderful Doula. She was sweet, and very knowledgeable about handling pain/discomfort in labor and delivery. Her theory is that if you can trust in your body and use different coping techniques you can either go without pain medication entirely, or delay it for a few centimeters. We really enjoyed the class and came out knowing a lot more about the basics of natural birthing. 

During the class our instructor gave the dads the opportunity to wear a "sympathy belly"...It consisted of a tight band around the ribs (to make breathing uncomfortable), about 35 pounds in breast and belly weight, and a "bladder weight" that pushed on their bladder from the inside of the outfit. Andrew, feeling up to the challenge, decided to try it. He wore it for almost 2 hours. I was impressed. I wasn't feeling too great at the class, so in an attempt to lighten the mood, Andrew let me take these pictures.

He'll probably get laughed at by his friends and especially his brothers, but I think it was a nice gesture. I love that man. He always makes an effort to brighten my day. He is working hard and doing really well in school, but he always has time for his girls.

This week we also got around to finding a new Dentist (Dr. Scott Grant), and went and got exams and x-rays done. In high school Andrew had 1 wisdom tooth removed, and it was a terrible experience. So we have been putting off removing the others for awhile.  After looking at the x-rays, we saw that the one wisdom tooth, out of the three left, that he really needed removed was a difficult one. Dr. Grant said that he would not feel comfortable performing the surgery using his sedation, which is conscious sedation. Meaning that Andrew would still be partially awake (and able to swing a fist or two if he was in pain, ha ha ha). So he referred us to an Oral Surgeon. We had a consultation with them yesterday and he said that he could do the surgery, although it will be very complicated. His tooth is coming in sideways, next to a nerve, and pushing on the roots of his molar. So when they bid the amount to have the tooth removed it states "Removal of impacted tooth of usual difficulty"...it kinda made us laugh. We scheduled the removal for a month out. We wanted to have it done before the baby comes, because we'll have NO time after wards. So, I'm hoping the surgery will go well.

We have also started the fun process of house hunting. Although I love our apartment and the area we are in, we are starting to outgrow the space. We aren't in any hurry, so right now we are just looking around to see whats out there. We are working with a phenomenal Realtor and Lender, so the experience has been pretty smooth so far. We are hoping to move sometime this summer or fall depending on how the process goes.   

We have about 8 weeks left till this baby makes her debut, and we can't wait to meet her. I'm also counting down the weeks till my sister arrives, which is about 6 weeks away. We will have a very busy summer coming up with a new baby, summer school for Andrew, a visit from Jana and Jake, a visit from Sam and Jayme Lee, an Aldrich Family vacation, and possibly moving! It's exciting what life has in store for all of us! I hope everyone is doing well and is as excited for this summer as I am!

Happy Blogging!

Homemade Pizza!

So, Andrew typically works evenings, which means I never make dinners. I make something little for Beth and something else for me. But I don't have to worry about home cooked dinners for Andrew. This has been good and bad. I miss having family dinner time where we can make and enjoy food together. So, we've been trying to take advantage of lunch time a few times a week to have family time.

Today, it was homemade pizza day. I. Love. Pizza. It's easy, it's filling, and it's fun! We buy the dough from Winco (the package is enough dough for our little family). We buy all the toppings for it, and make 2 little pizzas. I LOVE stuffed crust pizza, where as Andrew loathes it, and prefers thin crust. So, we can each make a pizza that works for us. 

Beth was working over her dough, while Andrew was tossing his dough pizzeria style!

Beth was enjoying some Olives off her fingers!

This is the finished product!! It was my beautiful stuffed crust pizza! A complete meal with a virgin margarita! We loved spending time making food as a family, it's good, clean, entertainment. Well, assuming Beth doesn't get a hold of any sauce, which she didn't. This time.

We registered Andrew for his Summer and Fall semesters today, and luckily we were able to get most of the classes he needed. He even registered for a self study walking course. It's a course that has you set and achieve health goals through walking. I think that course will be more for me, seeing as it will start around the time Amielia is 6 weeks old. He will be taking a few online courses too, which is nice since he's working 6 days a week most weeks. He is such a great student! I'm very proud of him.

Well, last week I hit the 30 WEEK MARK! We are now counting down the weeks using single digits! We are taking our Childbirth Refresher Course the next 2 weeks, and we have about 30 pages left to read in our HypnoBirthing Manual. Last night when we were reading it, Andrew said "Honey, we need to highlight this section." It made me very happy! Andrew has been nervous about labor and delivery since our 1st experience was completely different than we expected. He hates to see me in pain and not have a way to "fix" it. So it's been a good experience for us to talk about what we want to do different and how he can help me during this labor and delivery.

Sorry it's blurry, cell phone camera!

We are getting more excited as we get closer to meeting our little girl. We've been trying to teach Beth to call the baby "Ami" or "Amielia" but she insists that the baby's name is "shhhhh"....Andrew thinks that's because "Shhhh" is what the mom's on the bus say to the babies who are crying. I guess she's just practicing. Beth has also found a new place to play....in Amielia's crib. I'm hoping that by the time we put Ami in the crib (3-6 months old) Beth will have either grown out of this, or she'll be more cautious around the baby. Fingers. Crossed.

Beth was supposed to be taking a nap......

Beth is getting bigger and smarter every day. Today when I gave her a hot dog and rice for dinner she picked up a piece of the hot dog and asked me quizzically "Doggy??" I couldn't help but laugh. I reassured her they are all beef hot dogs, no doggies, but the name still confuses her. She now asks for "Help" when she can't do something. She loves her letters and tries to point them out on everything. Right now the only letters that believes exists are "O, I, E, S, H and B." I guess that's a good start though.

Well this is the fun we've had the past week! I hope every one is doing well!

Happy Blogging!

A Walk to Beautiful

So this week I really wanted to write about something besides ME. My blog is entitled "A Little of This & A Little of That"....And I'm thinking you are getting more THIS, than THAT these days. So, while pondering what I wanted to write about, I thought about the last week and something that touched me. 

About 2 months ago I came across a Movie/Documentary on Netflix called "A Walk to Beautiful"....the description said: "In Ethiopia, a country with few hospitals and even fewer roads that lead to them, three women are on a journey to rebuild their lives after suffering devastating losses in childbirth." I thought it was interesting, so I added it to my instant queue to remind myself to watch it. I finally did this last week.

If you would like to watch the movie, prior to reading the rest of this entry, you can do so on netflix.com, and I know that PBS has been showing it as well. (Interesting side note, I started watching this on netflix, and had to stop 1/2 way through when Beth woke up from her nap and demanded my attention. The next day I came home and Andrew was watching it on PBS. He was further into the movie, so he turned it off so it wouldn't confuse me. We ended up turning the TV on the next day, and it was just starting on PBS again, so we watched it together).

In this amazing documentary it follows a few women in Ethiopia who have lost their babies during child birth. One of the most devastating occurrences in this country is when a woman labors for days, sometimes even 10 days. And due to her inability to birth the baby, the baby dies in her womb. The reason for the long labors and inability to birth is two fold. First, in this and many other countries women are expected to do large amounts of manual labor. Starting at the age of 2, they carry water and gather food. And as they age, their loads grow in size and weight. This causes young women to not grow to the proper size, sometimes still falling inches short of 5 feet tall at 18-21 years old. And it stunts the growth and width of their bones, specifically their pelvis. So, when they go into labor a baby often times cannot make it past their pelvis. The second reason is that when babies are in an unfavorable position for birth (breech, transverse, ect) there is little to no medical intervention in these countries, especially in remote areas. So, women labor for days until they are able to go to a hospital or a doctor is able to come to them. By that time, most babies and even some women have not survived the labor. 

This was heart breaking for me to hear. I can not imagine the pain that these women go through. After losing a baby, women in these countries are often ostracized. Because they have not fulfilled their role as a wife or mother. They have failed to bring a healthy baby into the world, and will no longer be seen as a member of the family or group in which they live. 

It seems as though there could be nothing worse in life. Unfortunately for these women, there is. Most women who suffer through a long labor and survive will find that not only have they lost their babies, their families, and respect. But they have lost something else. The ability to control their bladder and sometimes even their bowels. Due to the long labor and constant pressure of contractions, blood flow is restricted to tissues in the bladder and rectal area. After this trauma, the tissue will die, and a hole is left. It is called an Obstetric Fistula. It is defined as: "A hole that forms between the vagina and the bladder or rectum during prolonged, obstructed labor. This horrific injury leaves victims incontinent. Some develop nerve damage in the feet and legs."

They are shunned even more because of this condition. People make fun of them because they smell of urine. These women often live with the condition for years. Sometimes waiting over a decade, or never getting it fixed. One of the women said she was waiting for death. Until her friend told her about a Fistula Hospital in Addis Ababa. Women will travel for days to get to this hospital to get treatment. The co-founder of this hospital, Dr.Catherine Hamlin, an OB/GYN, came to Ethiopia over 50 years ago with her husband Dr. Reginald  Hamlin. They decided to open the Fistula Hospital in 1974 after seeing women with this issue turned away from regular hospitals due mostly to their hygiene and lack of income. This hospital does AMAZING work for these women. 

My favorite woman in the movie is Wubete. She is a 17 year old who was raised by her father. At the age of 10 she was forced to get married. She ran away from her husband after a few days. When she returned to her home her father beat her. This happened a total of three times, until after marrying husband #4, she found out she was pregnant. She stayed with her husband until she lost her baby and developed a fistula. He sent her away as "damaged goods". She felt she could not return to her village, so she went to the hospital. She had her fistula repaired after 2 treatments, but still returned to the hospital due to incontinence. The doctors determined that this was due to her entire bladder being damaged during labor. After tests they found a temporary solution until she was able to regain her bladder control through practice.

After this solution was found she explained to the staff that she could NOT go back to her village. There was no place for her. She eventually found an orphanage where she could work and call home. The beautiful part of this story was that she was given the responsibility of 4 beautiful children to call her own. They were told that Wubete was their new mother. And she was finally able to start to live the life she had envisioned. Being a mother. 

Now, why is this all important to you and I? I know there are devastating events that occur through out the world every day. But this one touches me the most. It is so wonderful what the Fistula Hospital is doing in Ethiopia. Just to give you an idea of the magnitude of this issue:

• For every woman who dies from pregnancy-related complications, 20 women survive but experience terrible injuries and disabilities.

• In Ethiopia, there are 59 OB/GYNs and 1,000 midwives for a population of 77 million.

• One woman dies from pregnancy-related complications every minute worldwide; 95% of them live in Africa and Asia.

• More than 99% of The Fistula Hospital patients are illiterate. (The hospital teaches all patients the Amharic Fideles and the Oromiyffa alphabets.)

• Number of patients treated at the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital every year: 1,200

• Number of obstetric fistula cases occurring in Ethiopia alone each year: 9,000

• Number of new obstetric fistula cases resulting from childbirth occurring worldwide each year: 100,000

• Number of new obstetric fistula cases resulting from childbirth occurring in the U.S. each year: 0

• The year the last U.S. hospital treating fistula patients closed its doors: 1895.

This doesn't just occur in Africa, it also occurs in countries like India, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Nepal. The documentary website states that: "It is estimated that there are 100,000 new cases each year, but the international capacity to treat obstetric fistula is limited to only 6,500 per year."

I am SO grateful that I live in a country where medical interventions are available. I am so grateful that my family and friends will love me no matter what happens. I am so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who looks after women everywhere, and will bless them. I hope that more women can find out about this wonderful treatment and that the international capacity to treat will be greater because of this wonderful documentary. If you want to know more about the documentary please visit http://www.walktobeautiful.com/.

I hope everyone has a wonderful week.

Happy Blogging.

                                                                                                                                                           

Love You Forever

So, I've been spending A LOT of time thinking, talking and writing about our plans for my pregnancy, labor/delivery and our new baby. Tonight it hit me that although we have a new baby on the way, I have a "baby" right now in my home. Bethani is a super energetic toddler, who rarely slows down and always surprises me with words and expressions. She is getting smarter EVERY day and it amazes me. Tonight before bed she stood looking at her window calling for "Da-ddy" for about 20 minutes. I went in and told her Daddy was at work. And then she asked for Pa-pa (my dad) for another few minutes, before I convinced her that he was not here, and it was time for bed. I was rather discouraged since she doesn't ask for Mama or Mommy. But my discouragement was short lived.
 

As I picked her up off the window seat to put her in bed, she grabbed my head (mostly by my hair) and proceeded to give me 3 kisses. One on each cheek and one on my forehead. Andrew started this ritual about 2 months ago, and she LOVES doing it with daddy every day. And sometimes Andrew will get her to give me kisses, but this time she would not let go of my hair or let me put her down till she repeated the ritual twice. I felt pretty special. I laid her down and said goodnight. I went on with my nightly tasks, dishes, browsing the internet, laundry, etc. And before I went to bed, I went in and scooped Beth out of her bed and rocked with her. Around 10 months she stopped being a cuddly baby, and at the time I had mixed feelings about the independence. Recently I've tried to take advantage of the time she'll just sit with me and cuddle. And sometimes I have to do it while she's asleep. Because that's the only time she's not running around like crazy. 

By now you may have figured out my post title. While I was rocking her I had a brief memory go through my mind. Something about a mother sneaking into her child's room to rock them after they fell asleep. It took me a little bit to pin it down. But then I remembered this book. I haven't even thought of it since I had Beth. Honestly, I probably haven't read it since Jr. High, when I read it to the kids I baby sat. But I remembered the story. The book is called "Love you Forever." It tells a story about a mother who sneaks into her son's room to rock him and sing to him. And the book ends with the grown son going into his mother's house to hold his elderly mom. The song in the story means so much more now to me that I am a mom.

“I’ll love you forever,
I’ll like you for always,
as long as I’m living
my baby you’ll be.” 

I'd replace "as long as I'm living" with "and for all Eternity"

“I’ll love you forever,
I’ll like you for always,
and for all Eternity
my baby you’ll be.”  

When I found the book website online (http://robertmunsch.com/love-you-forever/#)....I read the background as to how this book came to be. The Author and his wife had 2 babies who were still born. So he had this song in his mind. Reminding himself that as long as he is living they will be his babies. He eventually decided to write a children's book out of the song. After publishing it, his publisher was surprised that the book was selling like crazy to retirement communities. And then they realized it wasn't a book for children, it was a book for parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc. 

I am SO grateful for my family. For it being eternal. I'm grateful for my parents who taught me about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I wouldn't be able to have my eternal family without this knowledge. And I'm grateful for my siblings. I was blessed with a wonderful sister and amazing brother. And I now have parents-in-law, sisters-in-law, and brothers-in-law. I am grateful for my family, immediate and extended, near and far, young and old. 

And at the end of the night, I am grateful for my husband, who teaches our daughter to love, so that when mommy is discouraged she can give me the 3 kisses.   

Beth....a few days old and still a cuddly "baby"

The last two pictures (sorry they are kinda fuzzy, cell phone camera) are of my crazy 21 month old doing what she does best, being silly. After Andrew came home from refereeing spring ball with my dad "papa," Beth put on Andrew's cleats and started playing with his flags. It was cute. In the other picture....Beth saw me folding her swim suit and wanted to put it on, so I let her wear it over her clothes. When she wanted to go outside and play in the rocks she INSISTED on leaving it on....Well OK! I did convince her to take it off before we went to the park.

Sometimes I have to remind myself how lucky I am to have a wonderful husband, a beautiful daughter, and another on the way. And Although most days are long, and the nights are rough, this life is worth it. I hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Happy Blogging!