Its a Small World

Check it out!

I'm am a very strong supporter of letting kids play in the dirt/not using anti-bacterial soaps/playing on the ground and sticking (non choking size) things in their mouth. I ate mud pies and tons of dirt as a kid, and I now have the ability (minus one bad -old jelly fish experience in Thailand-which was just dumb and I knew it at the time) to eat foods and drink water from around the world with no issues. I have a stomach of iron! Troy---well that man has spends most of his life in the bathroom! HAHAHA Now he at least takes the probiotics (bacteria pills) I got him and notices a HUGE difference!

Here is a great article by the NY Times...
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/27/health/27brod.html?em

Well something about having the opportunity for my dream birth got my butt in pregnancy motion. So I have been crazy busy trying to start and check off a to do list. Here is my list so far--please add things that you think I should do!

To Do:
1. Find a Pediatrician.
2. Find a doula.
3. Find a Chiropractor for me and baby and troy if I can get him to finally see one! LOL
4. Book classes for a weekend childbirth prep, breastfeeding, infant CPR refresher and if time-babywearing/cloth diapers classes.
5. Find a eco-friendly online site to register at (the come up with a need list---remember my goal is as much hand-me-downs and second hand I can get) and find a book store to register at.
6. Find/order my placenta capsule kit (I will blog on this later).
7. Figure out how to get Birth Certificate/Social Security card for baby and then get passport.
8. Call insurance company and see if they will cover a home birth, doula, classes, breastpump, etc. (I'm sure they will because we have amazing insurance!) If not nothing changes. Also figure out what we need to do to add the baby to the plan and get it a card.
9. Update my will, get Troy a will. After talking to the two couples we will put on the will for in case we both die with minor children.
10. Troy needs to find a church and become a member so we can figure out the Lutheran baptism stuff, and also figure out the Bahai dedication stuff....figure out when we should do them. It might be alot to squeeze in before we leave so it may have to be when they are a couple months old after our first assignment.
11. Baby shower?!?! No idea how that's going to work....I have an idea of what I want. Did you throw your own or did someone else---if someone else-who and did they offer or did you ask them to? Did you have yours before or after baby?
12. Pick out a new piece of luggage for baby--I love luggage shopping! LOL
13. Get family members to take a infant CPR class (going to need it if you want to babysit! :D And just because you ARE a nurse doesn't count--we want a refresh at least!)
14. Get all birthing supplies ordered

I know I'm forgetting things....help me out ladies/guys does this sound good, what am I missing? I need the list to make sure it gets checked off because once I leave the country post baby it will be so much harder for me to do stuff.

When we decided to start trying to get pregnant- I immediately started looking for a midwife to do a home birth. Well IL state laws only allows Certified Nurse Midwives (CNM) and Doctors to do a home birth. There are a few types of midwives in case you were wondering--all trained. Anyway I did some extensive searching and found out there were three CNM in Chicago that did home births. I contacted them and found out TWO of the three were moving. UGH! And of course the one left was already booked. So that left me with no choice but to give up on the home birth, well actually we considered other states but we agreed we really want Troy not to have to work post baby for a week or two and that was only possible in IL. So I got into looking more into Alternative Birthing Centers (ABC). These can be on hospital grounds or separate--most are just like a hotel room--they have a big tub, queen bed and kitchenette in one large room. Well the stupid state of IL says ABC that are separate are illegal. (I HATE how women don't have the right to choose their birth locations/providers in some states--its ridiculous...but that is a completely different blog! LOL )
And I found ONE that was on hospital grounds and just happen to be not to far from us. So next I figured out the midwife group that was connected to them and I did get in with them!!! The group has three midwives. I really liked them. However----two days ago I find out through my online home birth/midwife/doula group in IL that one of my midwives was leaving the practice to start up her own and do home births! I was beyond excited! So I emailed her to see if I could transfer care with her. I sat up all night (till 4am) hitting refresh on my email account hoping she would email back right away. Well see didn't and I knew I wasn't going to sleep the next night if I didn't find out. So the next day I called at 10om (9am there) to talk to her. She remembered me and our story (it is unique and I'm the only one who had ever called the office asking about jelly fish stings while pregnant! LOL). Well she would Love to have us! I was tearing up when she said that....it was like a dream come true. Oh and the name of her new office----Gentle Birth Care....anyone remember why that may be so cool to me? The name of my Doula company was Gentle Birth Doulas......it was a sign! LOL Oh and I ended up not sleeping last night either--I was WAY to excited!!!!!!


And with my dream comes a happier layout of my blog---I hope it makes you smile :)

I don't think people's blog readers pick up when I update the bump progression thread so I just will add a post telling you to check it out!
So go check it out! :D

Many people have been asking us what the sex is...we are not finding out. So it will be announced when we know at birth.
Also people keep asking about what names we have. To be honest we really have no clue yet! HAHAHA Our plan is to have a couple girls names and a couple boys names picked out and see what fits the baby when its here. We are avoiding all family names and naming baby after someone, so if you were hoping for that, sorry to disappoint. We are going to try to come up with an very individual/independent name for our little bug. But we can tell you its not going to stay Little Bug Small! :D
And nope we will not be sharing our names that we are thinking of even....its a surprise also that will be announced at birth!

Well the little bug apparently is just like its parents---it loves McDonalds. Bug was just having a good old party after dinner tonight. So with all that action Troy finally got to feel some kicks (or odd dance moves hahaha).