floating

My youngest son, 4, learned how to float on his back this week. I know maybe that doesn't sound like much but I was impressed. We went to the pool at the new gym we joined and we saw a little girl floating. I asked if he wanted to try. I attempted to teach him but he wasn't relaxing & would sink over and over. So my oldest son asked me to step aside and in minutes oldest had taught youngest. My oldest realized that the key was relaxing the throat/neck & sticking out the chin...from there the softening of the middle happened & he was floating. At first he needed a hand beneath him as he was getting into position but after a few more minutes he was doing it all on his own, with a huge mellow grin.

I couldn't help but think about how I use the image of floating on top of water to help women through contractions. Suggesting that they make their body soft and open and take up more space, let the sensation lift them up and up and up... And I also thought it funny that the key for my son was relaxing his throat...also so helpful in labor! "What goes above, so goes below".

crazy

You heard it here first. I'm nuts, I know, for thinking that I might just join some friends and train for a half-triathlon. It's not until September. It's about a half-mile swim, about 10 miles on a bike and about 3.5 miles walk/run.

Why is this an out-there idea, you ask?

Well, I am not a swimmer. I swim just fine & used to be an avid scuba diver - I just never learned how to swim and do that breathing to the side thing. I'm planning to train using a mask & snorkel at first. I think the group is hiring a swim coach.

I am not a runner. I make myself run a little between walking sometimes. I'd like to be a runner but frankly they have not invented a jog bra that's strong enough to make it any fun. But I can walk.

I don't even own a bike, but I love spin classes.

I've never done a race of any sort before, unless you count a three-legged race or similar at a field day.

But some of my friends and I just joined a new gym together that is super nice & has a pool (missing from old gym) & the most awesome kid areas, climbing walls & the spinning is amazing, complete with jumbo screens playing bike races.

We also started Weight Watchers, knowing that all of this will be easier if there is a bit less of ourselves to lug around.

I'm putting it here because I'm pretty averse to backing out once a challenge has been set. So I will register and train and see how it goes. But I did buy a magnet for my car similar to the picture above to inspire myself. I had the thought today (in said spin class) that I have had three looong, natural labors and pushed some good-sized babies out, so I think I can do this. And apparently so can some 70 year olds who have to use a noodle for the swim part (or so I am told - this could be a lie to make me feel better - not sure)...so I think I can, I think I can, I think I can...

eight is (more than) enough

A woman gave birth to octuplets today (by cesarean at 23 weeks gestation) in CA. They knew about seven babies...the eighth was a surprise.
She plans to breastfeed all eight babies! Wow - what a woman...my hat is off to her.

to the women in my life

you know who you are - I love you.

the hard sell

I'm home cleaning up, putting the house back in order...in the background has been playing infomercial after infomercial that came on after some show someone was watching earlier & I don't know why I have not changed the channel. Facial rejuvenation, commemorative coins, exercise equipment & colon cleanse programs. I like to think of myself as a pretty informed consumer and, well, not a sucker. But just hearing this constant stream of messages in the background has had me thinking, "hmm- maybe I should try that","ooh - maybe that really works"...

This is just an hour and a half of messages & yet it's been sort of hypnotizing. Is it any wonder that women line up for every bell & whistle that promises a "safe" birth? A lifetime of this barrage...on the news, on fictional TV shows, from our friends, from our mothers, in books...
It's overwhelming & insidious. And yet some of us are able to see beyond it all and trust birth.

I'm going to go turn off the TV - I don't need a solution to back pain...my back feels fine but if I listen long enough I'm sure it will start to hurt. I'm going to trust that I'm OK.

Aretha for Millinery Secretary!

R - E - S - P - E - C - T

addressing anemia

On an eloop I follow, there has been a discussion about anemia in the childbearing year or really anytime. Here are some of the suggestions:

Molasses on oatmeal
Real black licorice, like Panda - it contains molasses
Yellow dock tincture
Cooking in a cast-iron pan
Floradix (both vegetarian & non-vegetarian)
Take a supplement with food-based nutrients (more easily absorbed, non-constipating iron)
Nutritionally

my obamicons

make yours at obamiconme

be the change

This may be Obama's challenge to America...but it comes in pretty handy as a mom. Kid complaining about something? "Be the change, kiddo, be the change". Same goes for birthing women, doulas, anyone - be the change

Happy Birthday To Ya

train platform 1/20/09

goodbye to Bush

crowd sounds

sorry for the jerky movements!

swearing in

the bubble - trip home

inauguration trip

apologies for the bad quality - I only brought a small point & shoot with video...

speech, speech

To the complainers, who say the inauguration went on and on or the speech too long or not "one for the ages", I say:

I loved the speech - but I was prepared to love it & was not listening with a critic's ear.  I can tell you that everyone around me was listening with rapt attention and did not seem bored or impatient in the least.  As for length, this was a ceremony!  It's meant to make memories...what's a few extra minutes?  So many people have weddings rather than going to the justice of the peace not because it makes them more married but because we crave ceremony & ritual.

our dance with history

I'm so glad I went down to DC!   (pictures tomorrow, I swear!)

I really had second & third thoughts but just decided to be along for the ride & be OK with it being a huge series of crowded bummers, but also made room for the possibility that it might just be great.  At the very least, it would be a lark with dear friends.  In the end, I really did feel like we were a part of something big and historic.  It felt important to me to be there and I know that feeling was shared by all, friends and strangers alike.  I'm sad that my 11 year old couldn't come, but he had fun with his plans.

At first, there was some talk from my friends that we might not even try to get to the swearing in - that it might be too hard with kids.  I have to say that I was crushed - how could we not?!  I was thinking that I would have to just do it by myself or try to hook up with other friends to get a ride home.  Fortunately, everyone was made brave by how easily things were going.  We talked constantly about how we seemed to be in a bubble, where obstacles stayed far away.  We were a school of fish and the current was pushing us along in just the direction we wanted to go. In spite of snow, we had no traffic & got down there really easily.  We settled in (at my friend's BIL's house in Alexandria, VA - thanks Scott!) & then toured Old Town.  We had a fantastic meal & got sleep.  

On Monday, MLK day, we easily made our way in.  It was laughable how easy it was, actually - we would walk on a platform and the train would appear with seven seats.  We would walk into a restaurant and there would be one last table, just big enough for us.  It was pretty funny.

We hung out around the Mall, being amazed at all Obamania everywhere we looked.  We visited Yoko Ono's Wish Tree, writing out our wishes for the president, our country and our future and added them to the tree.  We then went to the American History part of the Smithsonian.  Thinking that we were out of luck for doing something meaningful for MLK Day, our main goal was to see Julia Child's kitchen (which was cool).  But as continued luck would have it, we happened upon a celebration at the museum where an actor was telling the story of Dr. King's journey, reciting portions of speeches and playing recordings.  It was very moving - especially at the end when he encouraged the large crowd to grab hands with our neighbors as we sang "We Shall Overcome".  Strangers were hugging with tears in our eyes.  At the very end, they played Stevie Wonder's "Happy Birthday To Ya" (listen to it if you have never heard it - a very happy song) & we joined some women who were dancing - it was a beautiful moment - our own little love fest.  We turned to leave and happened upon the Greensboro Lunch Counter - a critical place for ending Jim Crow laws.  So it turned out to be just about the most perfect MLK Day imaginable...we ended our day with nighttime walking tour of some of the monuments. When I called home to check in, my 4 year old asked, "Did you see him?"  I didn't understand & asked who he meant..."Barack Obama! - did you see him?!"

Tuesday morning came early - time to pack up our sleeping bags and say goodbye to our not so youthful hostel.  We had seven people to get packed and up and out by 6am and we did it.  We stopped for coffee and bought the Washington Post for a keepsake.  We (amazingly) found parking (we had backup plans that were thankfully needless) at the train station.  We had gotten train passes the day before and walked past the crowds and onto a train with seats for us.  We had our walkie talkies ready in case the rumor about cell phones not working were true (cell phones did work after all).  We left all but essentials that we could carry in pockets or hip packs.  The two youngest kids (both 12 - not mine) decided that the best way not to get lost was to hang onto the belt of my hip pack (as they had been doing for the whole trip), so my job as sled dog continued!  They joking yelled "mush" as we trudged along.  As soon as we stepped onto the platform in DC the crowd was overwhelming but elated.  There were spontaneous chants and songs.  When a new train would unload, people would just make room.  We joked about ads for anxiety meds and social anxiety disorder until we all decided not to focus on talks of claustrophobia (given that the subway stations there are basically cement bunkers)...we took some Rescue Remedy & lots of deep breaths...but soon enough (maybe 40 minutes up and out of the station?) there was daylight ahead and we all felt relief.  It was controlled madness on the streets...we just started walking, going where the flow of humanity was heading, hearing which entrances to the Mall were already closed off.  We finally made our way in at 14th street (on the Independence Street side - the parade route was on the other side of the Mall).  The energy was happy and joyful.  There sure were a lot of fur coats (real and faux) around us - many that looked like polar bears...we saw one such polar bear who was quite tall & just followed him.

Once we found our spot, with a good jumbo-tron view, we settled in.  Most of the crowd was lovely, but of course there were some folks who pushed their way in front.  I had a chat with one guy, who was a bit of a jerk but ultimately understanding, asking him to move a bit since he was very tall and chose to push in front of us, cutting us off from the kids.  Other than that, people were great & there was a spirit of cooperation.  I held up one older woman while she tried to put warmers in her shoes.  My friend encouraged an older lady who was sitting on the ground (another polar bear!) with a bad leg to get up, joining others to physically help her, when it was time for Obama to be sworn in.  There was singing and joking and fun. Although it was really cold, body heat kept all but our feet warm.  Obsessive tow wiggling was not enough to stave off loss of feeling.  Some booed Bush 43 though most did not.  Many sang "Hit the road, George and don't ya come back no more" and "Na na na na, hey hey hey, goodbye..."

The bubble of ease burst right after Obama's speech, as people tried to leave.  Somehow, we were basically trapped in.  Human gridlock (or many barriers?) was preventing our area from being able to get out to the street.  I was so grateful not to have tiny kids with me and prayed there would be no panic or medical emergencies.  It was a little frightening a few times, as we were not able to choose our direction and were literally carried by the crowd.  I was afraid for the older folks with canes and such but people would shout back upcoming obstacles, "curb", "rope" and people seemed to be looking out for eachother...some people climbed on top of porta potties to get a better view and yelled instructions about where openings might be found. Someone lost a child but then found them, one young toddler was asleep on his dad's shoulders, draped dead weight on the guy's head.  We gave our kids snacks (it was a weekend of communal mothering) and chatted with people who had come from all over the country.  It had gotten a lot colder with cloud cover...we marched in place to keep warm, took more Rescue Remedy and just kept repeating, "We have a new president"!  The word awesome is used all the time, but this really was an awesome moment.

The irony was not lost on us that when we finally got to the street it was "Independence" and marked as an evacuation route.  One man, wrapped in a flag, jokingly said, "free at last, free at last".  We could not get back to the Metro (subway) so we just walked straight over the bridge across the frozen Potomac (with a great view of the Jefferson Memorial) all the way back to VA!  The highway was closed down and it seemed a little like something out of a disaster movie.  Eventually busses started using the road so we had to clime over the median barrier and were directed by soldiers away from the closer Metro near the Pentagon and diverted further in to VA to the Crystal City area of Arlington - it was only maybe 3 or 4 miles but we felt a bit like refugees.  The kids did not complain once - they were simply amazing - and only talked of being grateful to have been there.  We were so happy to get in out of the cold and get some food.  By the time we made it to the train, we got seats and had an easy time getting back to the car.  Like the trip down, the drive back was trouble-free and I again played iPod DJ, choosing songs of celebration.  We all sang along.

back home safe

it was awesome - will post more tomorrow!

We have a new president!!

Here's a picture of us yesterday, from the Cafe Press site - they were doing a "Button Brigade", handing out buttons and taking pictures...

Ina May & O

a friend passed this along to me (and I'm able to post remotely!):

In the February 2009 issue of O, Oprah's magazing (p. 144) Isla
Fisher, an actress, lists the "5 books on my bookshelf right now" and
one of them is "Ina May's Guide to Childbirth"! She says about it,
"Women are happy to tell you their terrifying birth stories, but
nobody tells you the positive ones. So if you're going to have a
baby, you have to read this -- it's a collection of stories of
women's birth experiences, plus loads of practical information. In
today's world of modern medicine, it's so easy to have the experience
of pregnancy and birth taken out of your hands: You're measured and
blood-tested and ultrasounded. Sometimes it feels as if the whole
experience is happening to you. But women have the right to have the
birthing experience we desire -- whether it's a Cesarean or a natural
birth -- and to have the fear of the pain removed. A friend, Naomi
Watts, gave me this book when I was pregnant. It was such a special
time for me, and it was such a relief to read these stories."