new blog.

I believe I am moving again. I have started another blog. At blogger. Here is the address:http://mamadoulagirl.blogspot.com/ i thought i was done w/ blogger forever, it was such a pain in the bum. but it was easier to figure o/ than wordpress. and there were more options.

There are nice things about wordpress, but it is limited, and I can’t even publish videos w/o paying for the upgrade? gimme a break. I am not shutting this one down, or deleting it, yet. But I will be posting over at mamadoulagirl for now….i know, another blog for her?? gimme a break! i feel the same way, i just can’t seem to find a home, if you only knew!!!

roadtrip!!!

Yes, it’s that time of year again….Ronnie and I are heading o/o town. On our way to Chi-town:) to see out fave fab 5 boys. We’re leaving when she get’s o/o work this evening, so I have plenty of time to waste today. I will pack, run a couple of errands and do something fun w/ the kids.

Unfortunately, we only get to stay 1 night. But it will be a great night:D I’d like to take a minute to talk to you about the importance of women taking a moment o/o their lives for themselves.

I have decided that our little road trips are an annual event. When the NKOTB are merely apart of our history again, we’ll find some other reason to treck off to Chicago or some other fun place, Chi-town just happens to be a fave place of ours:)

As women, we’re natural born caretakers. That is what we do. We take care of others. All day, every day, in one way or another. Whether it’s working a job or staying home, we’re taking care. But when is it time for us to let loose and just have fun?? Be silly?? In our case, be 15 again…..

So, I’d like to encourage you, man or woman, to take the time to get away this year. My dh is going away for a week. (!) He’s never done this b4, and I’ll miss him desperately. But he deserves to get away. We all do. We deserve a break from the every day norm of it all. A break from the responsibility of work, of being a parent, of bills. Not that we don’t love our lives or our families. But it’s ok to get away from it. We’re better people for it when we get back:)

birth-day

My sweetest boy. Pixie face, angel boy, are names I call him in my head, not to his face tho. I don’t think he’d appreciate them very much. He was born at 8:02 I think. And he definitely is by far the sweetest of my kids. And right now, the easiest. 1 of the 2 that we tried for. When we found out we were having him, we didn’t even have a place of our own yet. We had just moved back from Missouri, we were still living w/ Dh’s parents. Good times.

I’ve reflected on Zai’s birth many times. There are things I don’t like about, but thankfully, nothing traumatic or anything that I haven’t gotten over.

Zai is a sweet, funny, freckle faced, generous, kid w/ an imagination that rivals the best of them. He loves his family, teases his sister and can’t get enough of his big brother. 

We were talking about talents one, day, as in the gifts God gave us to help others. When asked what he thought his was, he replied, “I make people smile.” Oh yes, buddy, you do.

You are my gift.

i am so there.

I have talked in the past about my headaches. Ok, I’ll admit it. I have complained, griped, and down right whined. In one of many visits to my doctors office recently I spoke to her about it. I thought I had communicated to her that I had figured out that the migraines came about 2x a month along w/ my periods, that regular otc meds weren’t kicking them and could she give me something to take that would. She sent me home w/ Topomax. I filled it, came home and read the instructions and wasn’t happy. I didn’t want a preventative. I wanted something to take when I got one. But, I decided to try it anyway. That was a month ago. I am happy to report, that I am one month, migraine free. I don’t even get as many small headaches. Yes, I take this medicine 2 x a day, every day. And I don’t even care. I feel like I have been living w/ unnecessary pain for too long. Not wanting to take medication every day.

There was no refill on the bottle, so I asked for one. She gave it to me and said we’d try it for another month. I don’t know what will happen at the end of this month. I talked to a friend at church who I found out takes the same thing for her migraines. She went off of it, started having migraines again and went back on it.  She said the same thing about the little headaches too.

I’ve also talked many times about Zac,  ADD and not medicating him. Every school year that we have gotten through w/o medication we have sighed w/ relief, another year. This year was no different in that sense. But there was something else different. Something that I can’t quite put my finger on. Maybe it’s just a few different little things that all added up to it being time to talk about meds.

So we did. Dh and I agreed. I talked to the doc at his well child. I feel ok about it now. I feel like I’ve done everything that I could have done to get to this point. And I feel fine. We might not end up w/ meds, we might, we’ll see what happens. But I am so at this point.  I am so here. And I am so fine about being here.

Birth Matters….

I have a few blog posts that I want to put up RIGHT NOW! But I think this one is timely. The contest I have been shamelessly plugging is happening NOW!! So go to you tube and vote for your favorite video NOW!!  And if you don’t vote, just go watch and hopefully you’ll learn something good and right and positive about birth:)

Here are 2 of my favorites. The 1st one is done by a videographer I met at a doula meeting earlier this month. (very clever name, can you guess what the subject matter is??) The 2cd one was emailed to me, and I have to say, I think it’s great, and some of the things said in it echo things I have felt and thought, also, it was great to see support of doulas from an OB:)

Click on the names to get to the videos:)

Birthing Plain and Simple

Do You Doula?

I’d love to hear what you think about these and also what are some of your faves from the contest..

What a gift

My kids went to church w/ dh and his parents to a revival service at their church tonight. I ended up hanging out w/ a friend. When I got home there was a note on my computer. It was folded up w/ the little “pull tab” sign on it. Remember those? I taught the kids how to do those, that was so fun. I open it and it’s a note from Zac that he wrote to me during church. This is what it said:

I love you mommy. I hope you have a good time, I am having a good time. I wrote a poem I hope you like it.

Roses are red and roses are blue

no one can have a better friend than you.

written by ZAC

What a gift! I’m so touched! We have had a rough week, Zac and I have had a couple of pretty bad days. Sometimes I am surprised at how resilient kids are. A friend of mine told me the other day that this is mothers day week, I guess she was right, b/c I’m still being given gifts:)

Luv it!

I luv it when I hear about celebs, or any one half way famous talking about birth in a positive way. I have never heard of this girl, Colleen Rooney, but a friend of mine sent me this link….. The 23-year-old wife of England footie star Wayne Rooney, says she will have the baby when it is ready.

She wrote in her magazine column: ‘There have been a lot of reports in the papers that I’m going to have a Caesarean.

‘However, I’m planning on a natural birth if it all goes well, so therefore the baby will arrive when it’s ready.’

Here is the link to the very tiny however cute article:)

fear mongering…

I was recently at our doctors office (the office that we have been w/ for 9 YEARS!! but i’ll get to that latter) with Sis. It was her well child appt. Towards the end of our visit the nurse came in w/ a lab order for a blood draw. Here was our conversation:
me: what is this for?
nurse: just routine, hemoglobin, lead..blah, blah

me: she just had her blood drawn last week when she was sick, I really don’t want to put her thru that again.

nurse: well, let me see if there was a hemoglobin in that draw….there was, but she still needs the lead.

me: we’ve lived in the same house for 8 years, she’s been tested b4, we don’t need to do this.

nurse: yes, but she’s not just in your house, she’s in other peoples as well. (at this point I just stared at her, dumbfounded that she actually thought that would convince me.)

nurse: if it was my kid I’d get it done.again, I just stare.(~altho the doula in me was furious! don’t try your scare tactics on me, I see enough of that in the labor and deliver room.)

nurse: (leaves and comes back in again) well, this is protocol, they say you really need to get this done.

me: who is THEY?

nurse: the state. (my kids have michigan medicaide for health insurance)

me: I don’t CARE what the state says!

nurse: well, ok I can just write on here that mother refused, I’m not gonna argue w/ you. (oh, really?? that’s not arguing? b/c that really seemed like arguing to me!?)

me: then write it.

At this point the nurse practitioner comes in, asks us if we live in an older home, I say it is, (I don’t know what is considered older, it is about 50 years old. But that all of my kids have been tested b4 and they were fine. She shrugs her shoulders, says ok, signs next to the refusal and leaves.  I am steaming. Sis has no idea what is going on. She only knows she doesn’t want her blood drawn again.

At 1st I think it is b/c of the medicaide. I’ll admit that. But I recently have had some tests done myself. Dh and I have Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan through his work. (if we carried the kids, he’d bring home little to nothing of his paycheck)

 At a recent appt they were scheduling me for a test that I had to do at the hospital. No one told me they were sending me right then and there. The 1 we had done 2 weeks ago we scheduled for the following week, and they ASKED me. This one they just did it and said, “ok honey head on over there.” I then had to argue my way o/o the fact that I had kids to pick up and no there was no one else to watch them on the spot and no one told me they were doing it RIGHT NOW! The nurse looked at me like I was stupid.

But it was latter, when I was telling dh that I realized the problem. I have been w/ these people since we moved back here in 2000. I have changed ALOT since then. The thing is, I’ve never crossed them before. Up until now, we’ve agreed on most things.  So, we’ll see how things go from here on out. They might well come to dread seeing me. It’s a good thing that we don’t go very often. I hope not, I hope we can come to a mutual respect for each other. We’ll see.

happy happy!!

Happy Mothers Day to all of you gorgeous women out there! You’re a mother in one way or another (hey that rhymes!hee/hee)!! Hope you have a wonderful day doing whatever it is that pleases you…

I, at the risk of offending some, will be enduring a mother daughter banquet, (have i ever told you how much i hate love these things??) in between 2 soccer games and possibly an open house. So, we’ll see how much pleasure I get o/o the day. I guess some would say that depends on my attitude huh??

anxiety………..stress…………..anticipation………….prayer…………..friendship………miles apart……felt everyday…………..frustrations………….joy………albeit shakable, joy……faith…………………pressure……peace…………pubs with skin on…….