a Belly and some Tea

I know many are wondering what happened to us! We've received some "where are you" emails just today in fact!!

Well, the computer is fried... J is starting to pop out and balancing tea on her stomach while typing is clearly not an option anymore. The tea in the laptop has disconnected us from the cyber world until a fix-it solution is found.

A quick update for ya all!

J is 18 weeks along! Almost half done! Can you believe it? We can't! Yet, it has been a bit of a rough 18 weeks. The all day sickness is the beginning was replaced by pregnancy migraines! J used to get migraines as a teen and young lady but healed herself through diet, water and massage when the pill popping got to be too much. Yet, low and behold, here there are again. Clarice, our new midwife (to be explained), informed us that this happens often. If a woman has had migraines before, they may come back in pregnancy. So although the throwing up from stomach bobbles is over, it returns with the headaches. The good news is it's been a week of headache free J!! We're hoping she's here to stay!

As the belly expands, we are starting to get very excited! We have opted for a 20 week ultrasound that we will be receiving on Valentines Day. We are looking forward so much for this.

So, yes, as stated above, we have new midwives. We have a new birthing place as well! We discovered the Greenhouse Birth Center in Okemos, Michigan! We began looking to switch our home birth aspirations as we learned that our insurance would cover the birth center! So we visited. From the first step in we knew this was where we wanted to birth. The "exam" room is 2 rocking chairs and a day bed. The 2 birth rooms are complete with wood floors, a queen size bed and gigantic birthing tub. The classes offered there are active birthing, hypno-birthing and many more! And the midwifery care model was solid with these women. They trust women to birth and are supportive of their natural process We were sold!

Our first appointment was 2 hours with the midwife where we not only discussed physical history, but also emotional history, present situations, fears, ideas, philosophies. We feel incredibly blessed to be making a deep connection to the women involved in assisting J to labor and deliver our little Voller. A big change from the normal 6 minutes women see their doctor at an OBGYN office.

please check out our birth center! www.greenhousebirthcenter.com

Steve is still plugging along with his consulting firm. He's been keeping busy with winter compost operations out back, shoveling snow and practicing classical guitar, not to mention connecting with baby V every morning with his energy through his hands and with his voice as he says good-bye to the belly each day. We discovered the ears are fully developed and are beginning to read and play guitar to baby.

Steve has finished his first birthing book, Deepok Chopra's Holistic Guide to Childbirth and is on to his second, Birthing from Within. He is so supportive of J and even sat down to do "birth art" as suggested in Birthing from Within. We painted and drew pictures of ideal births, "a womb with a view", a j, a self portrait. We've been having so much fun!

J is going back to massage 6 hours a week and is helping her ex-sister in law with her new Biodynamic Energy business. So the finances should look a little better very soon.

Well, we'll be back soon, hopefully with photos once our computer is returned to us!