My birth journey, part 2 - HBAC

This is, as I wrote it about 12 hours after the fact, the home birth after c-section (HBAC) of my second child.

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On March 6 I woke up appearing to be leaking amniotic fluid. After a couple of hours we called my midwives to let them know. They had me start taking regular doses of Vitamin C to boost my immune system in case there was a small tear in the sack. I did labor throughout the day, with the contraction coming very regularly and sometimes very, very strong. Eventually everything slowed down though. My midwives stayed the night while I tried to get some sleep. I did get some sleep, but woke up with strong contractions throughout the night. The next morning they tested my vaginal secretions and found that there was no indication of amniotic fluid, so our thought was that there had been a small tear that ended up healing itself. They went home, and I tried to get some rest.

I labored slowly throughout the day on March 7. My mom, her partner, two of my sisters, and my sisters husband all helped us out, especially by taking care of Little Man. I napped in the afternoon, as well as I could between contractions, and had a pretty laid back rest of the day. Around 8 in the evening I was pretty tired and ready for bed. My husband lit some candles in our room and helped me get comfortable. I plugged myself in to my iPod and propped myself up on a huge pile of pillows, and tried to get some sleep. I was contracting pretty hard at that point, and I think that "sleep" was more equivalent to deep relaxation between contractions. I did well breathing myself through them, and being able to relax and listen to calming music was very helpful. I now realize that this calm, quiet time was when I was truly going through active labor and I'm thankful that I had the sense to rest and conserve my energy!

Eventually, towards midnight, my husband came upstairs and lay down with me. I had been resting and meditating this whole time, but I was so tired I just wanted to lie down and sleep. Lying down made the contractions come HARD. It wasn't too long before an incredibly intense one literally sent me springing out of bed, moaning and groaning at the top of my lungs. My husband leaped out of bed and instantly turned on the light. I can't imagine what he thought was happening! He was incredibly supportive for me from then on out, as he coached me through my deep, slow breathing - reminding me to "breathe up" and breathing deeply with me through the strong contractions. This must have been the time when I was hitting transition, the period of labor where the cervix finishes dilating the last couple of centimeters.

I became very "out of my head." The only response I could come up with when people asked me anything was "I don't know." My mom and husband were enormously supportive. My mom had learned a helpful technique that she used on me. During my strongest contractions she pressed her hands firmly against my forehead and the back of my head, while speaking softly to me about how my tissues were soft and flexible, my cervix was opening properly, and so on. My husband, as I said - he was amazing, and I couldn't have done it without him. He seemed to instinctively know what I needed to help me, and he was amazing at keeping my breathing calm and steady as I had practiced throughout my pregnancy. He and mom both kept me well hydrated between contractions, which I know was extremely helpful.

At some point he went to call the midwives. I loudly insisted that nobody was allowed into the room and nobody was allowed to "tell me how to do things." This was my obstinate point during labor I guess! He went and called them and when he came back upstairs, he told me that he had spoken to them but that they weren't going to come until I decided that I needed them there. I was laboring really hard at this point and this barely registered to me. I realized later that he had actually called and told them to come out because things were moving along pretty quickly!

I had lost all track of time by now and I have absolutely no idea how long everything took at this point. I know that eventually I felt the overwhelming need to kneel on the floor by the end of our bed, and then my body pretty quickly started pushing. When you hear that your body will push all by itself, that is completely true, and I can't even describe the feeling of it. I felt primal while this was happening. I was still listening to music, and my husband still coached my breathing, although when he realized I was pushing he would remind me to breathe down, to start breathing the baby down the birth canal.

After a little while of pushing, I had this feeling that I should reach down and check. I felt something emerging from me, and it was all I could do to moan "I feel his head, somebody catch him!" Everyone in the room sprang into action. Somebody ushered in the midwives, who had barely just arrived. It turned out that what I felt coming out was the sack that had contained him in the womb! It was so strange and neat. There was no gush of waters breaking during my labor because all the fluid was still contained in the sack.

It felt like I pushed forever at that point. At one point I lamented "When will the sack end and my baby come out??" Everyone just kept encouraging me to keep going, as the sack kept coming out more and more. I know that a few times I stopped and wailed, between contractions, that it hurt too much and I couldn't keep doing it. My husband pointed out to me that I WAS doing it and I was almost done. 

Suddenly the sack that had been coming out so slowly just fell out of me. One of my midwives told me when this happened. His head was literally right behind it, and they had me reach down and touch his head. It was the strangest feeling. It didn't feel like a human head at all, it just felt soft and slimy. It was really, really hard work to make his head come down. Later on his head measured at 37 centimeters around, so he had a good sized head that took a fair amount of molding to fit through the birth canal. My pushing urges became enormous and very primal. I feel like I groaned and screamed like a wild animal, but my husband later told me it wasn't that bad at all. Finally after what seemed like forever, his head started actually coming through. I could feel myself stretching around him like I had never even imagined I could stretch before.

The big moment came as his head made its final push through. I had one fierce, long contraction that pushed his head all the way out, and then continued to push him out. He literally came sliding out of me with the force of only one, strong contraction! My midwives later said "Head to toes in just one contraction!" It was absolutely amazing. I realized during that last contraction that all of him was coming out at once, but I obviously couldn't find the words to let anyone else know. I was kneeling over a pile of towels at that point, and he basically flew out of me and landed on them. Instantly he started crying, but it wasn't an upset cry at all. It almost seemed like it was just reflexive. He did this soft, repetitive cry enough to clear out his lungs and his airways, and then he quieted down. We had an absolutely amazing period of eye contact and bonding while I sat on the floor holding him. I was the first person to hold him, which was also amazing!

Once he stopped crying after he was born, he spent several minutes staring intensely into my eyes and talking to me, in that wonderful language that only newborn babies can talk in. My mom was particularly amazed by this. It was like he was telling me a very important story, complete with hand gestures and hilarious facial expressions.

My placenta came very quickly and easily afterwards, and it was in perfect condition. It was amazing to look at it, and my sister took some pictures of it.

Our labor was long and sometimes really hard. I'm very glad that I read, re-read, and read again "Hypnobirthing" while I was pregnant, because those techniques really got me through it. It was totally and 100% worth every moment of every discomfort during my pregnancy and labor though, because at the end I got this perfect experience of bonding with my baby while we were both clear-headed and not under the influence of any drugs, in contrast to Little Man's c-section birth. Boo Boo started nursing perfectly within an hour after he was born, and he's really good at it. He's been nursing often, and he even gifted us with a soaking wet diaper just a little while ago.

The details are, he was born at 3:50 am on March 8. He was 8 pounds 6 ounces, and 21 inches long.

My birth journey, part 1 - unplanned c-section

My first child, who is now getting pretty close to 8 years old, was born at a hospital by unplanned c-section after a failed induction. I'd planned on having a natural, vaginal, unmedicated birth but ended up having the complete opposite. Since then I have learned an incredible amount of information about pregnancy and childbirth, and continue to be passionate about it and to learn more every day.

His birth experience was so traumatic for me that it was over two years before I was able to come to terms with it enough to even write it down. And I remember writing it down and dealing with the panic attacks and honest to goodness physical sickness that I experienced while writing it. Cold sweats, racing heart, choking up, crying jags, even hyperventilating. The title I originally published it under was "Birth Rape: my experience." Birth rape is a known term in the birth support community, look it up. I did, when I first heard it, and it was the first step in my journey towards healing. Many scoff at what a dramatic term it is. But think about it - restraining a woman, performing medical procedures and administering medication without consent or even while the woman is saying NO, mocking her for refusing to give consent, forcefully inserting fingers or objects into her vagina, again without asking for consent or even while she is saying NO - these kinds of things are against the law, except in the delivery room. Even now nearly 8 years later, as I sit here reflecting on how much I've healed and how at peace I am with the experience, at this very moment my heart is pounding and my hands are shaking and my head is throbbing as I'm reminding myself to breathe deeply and let go.

I'm not up for editing it or adding revisions right now, although I probably will at some point in a future post. But here, in its entirety, is the story of my first birth, written two years afterward.

Edited to add: Re-reading this, I realize this doesn't even touch on certain things, like forceful vaginal exams every hour or so to see "how things are progressing." The best analogy I've heard about this one is, have you ever tried to have a bowel movement while someone shoves their fingers up your ass?

Please check out the International Cesarean Awareness Network for more information about c-section awareness and VBAC.

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I planned on a natural birth (no pain medication) for my son. He was due on June 29, 2006. I took for granted that I would have a natural birth. When I was pregnant there were no childbirth classes in our area so I read lots about different birthing methods, I practiced my breathing, and my husband and I wrote out a birth plan that we gave to our doctor and the OB nurses at the hospital.

However, I now realize that everything started to go wrong 3 weeks before he was due. During my weekly exam to check whether I was effacing and dilating (by the way, I now know that unless you have a medical problem, there's no need for weekly internal exams as your due date approaches!) my doctor stripped my membranes - to start things "moving along", she said. Stripping your membranes is a very painful procedure in which the doctor inserts a finger inside your cervix, and manually separates the bag of waters that the baby is in. This is performed to irritate the cervix and cause it to begin dilating. She told me that some women go into labor within 24 hours of having their membranes stripped.

This encounter with my doctor triggered some kind of pre-birth mania in my brain. I became obsessed with trying to find a way to get the baby out. Now, I realize, that there was no need to get him out of there. I wasn't going into labor on my own because it was three weeks before his due date, and he simply wasn't ready to come out yet! I now know that everything I tried to cause myself to go into labor was just more stress on him, as he was trying to finish all the development he needed to do before being born. I was trying every home remedy out there - the nipple stimulation, the raspberry leaf tea, sex, squatting, you name it. Every week we'd go back to the doctor and gloomily report that there was no new activity, she would check me internally, and then she would strip my membranes again. Then she'd suggest some other home remedies to try.

Two days before his due date, I went for my weekly exam. My husband made sure to come with me that day. I'd made up my mind that morning that I was sick and tired of stressing out about getting labor started, and I just wanted to go to the hospital and get induced. Now I realize that, considering how much trouble it was turning out to be to GET labor started, getting induced was the worst decision I could possibly have made. However I was so tired of all the hard work I was doing to make myself go into labor. I was having almost constant Braxton-Hicks contractions (no doubt because of the stress my body and my baby were under!) I just wanted this miserable experience to be over with, and I had the full support of everyone else in my life - my doctor, my husband, my family who was calling every day to find out if I was in labor yet. 

My blood pressure was SLIGHTLY high at that appointment, and amniotic fluid was SLIGHTLY low. (Both, again, perfectly normal considering that the temperature was 100 degrees! But I didn't know that then - I trusted my doctor to know what to do.) Neither one was actually very concerning. What WAS concerning to my doctor, however, was the fact that the 4th of July weekend was coming up very soon. The 4th was going to be on a Thursday, so there would be a four day weekend. If, she told me, my blood pressure happened to go up more - say, during the holiday weekend - it would be "more difficult" to get everyone to the hospital on time, especially of course, if something were to go wrong - and we wouldn't want anything to go wrong, would we?

I realize now, of course, that it was ridiculous to say something like that. I was going to give birth at the hospital, there are staff at the hospital who are perfectly qualified to birth babies 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, even during the 4th of July weekend. However the thought of having a blood pressure emergency during the holiday weekend was terrifying to me. What if something DID go wrong, and I could have prevented it by simply getting the induction? At this point I started begging her to send me for an induction.

We quickly made the appointment to go to the OB department at the hospital at 5:00 the following evening to start the induction. That night I felt more relaxed and calm than I had felt in the past month. I wasn't trying any of my labor remedies. It was probably the calmest and healthiest that my son had been in the past month, too.

I went to the hospital the next night and they inserted the Cervadil pill inside my vagina. I watched some TV while I was sitting there in the bed, hooked up to various machines and monitors, and pretty soon I was ready for bed. The next morning I woke up around 6:30 and they took the pill out at 7. I started having intense contractions almost immediately. I called my husband to tell him to come down because these contractions were different than the ones I'd been having for the past 3 weeks. The response at the hospital was for me to hurry up and use the bathroom, then get back in bed so they could hook me up to the Pitocin drip.

Now I realize, there was no need to hook me up to Pitocin! I was contracting perfectly well after just having the Cervadil. What I should have done was gotten up and walked around, maybe taken a hot shower, eaten a small snack. I hadn't eaten anything since the night before. It was the policy at OB that patients being induced or who are in labor are not allowed to eat - in case they need a c-section. However I did as I was told, rushed back to lie back down in bed, and they hooked me up to the IV.

Immediately the contractions started slamming through me, each one worse than the one before. The nurse who was in charge of my induction told me that soon I could have my pain medication. "I don't want pain medication," I said. She said "Of course you want the pain medication." I said that I didn't want it several more times, but was completely ignored. When my doctor came to check me out she spoke briefly to me, and then spent several minutes analyzing charts that showed my contractions and the baby's heartbeat. She looked at the clock and commented that I could get my pain meds started now if I wanted to. By then I was in agony, I was not allowed to get up and move around or even to change positions on the bed. All I could do was lie there and let these monstrous Pitocin contractions rip through me, over and over again. I resigned myself to the pain medication and they gave me an IV of Torridol.

I became completely disoriented and dizzy from the Torridol. I laid there with my eyes closed feeling like my head was spinning around and around. I kept thinking about how I was failing my baby, how I was supposed to be actively involved in giving birth to him but I was just lying there while these terrible things kept happening to me. I heard someone comment about how peacefully I was sleeping, and how it was good for me to get the rest. I couldn't compose myself enough to say anything, and it was emotionally easier for me to remain shut down in my own dark little world.

I got several more doses of various pain medications over the next few hours. I had quite a cocktail of drugs coursing through my body - and, I realize now, through the tiny body inside of mine. My doctor broke my water at 3 pm - to move things along, of course - and a torrent of dark green water poured out of me. The baby had his first bowel movement inside of me. I stared at it in horror. The doctor told us that it was a good thing we decided to induce today, because he could get really sick from staying in that water. I realize now, that the reason he had a bowel movement in me was because of the horrible stress of the induction - the drugs, the artificially strong contractions, the internal exams, the fact that I was not allowed to eat or move.

At one point, I needed to pee. I told the nurse, and she said "Okay, go ahead." She, in all seriousness, expected me to simply urinate on my bed, on my gown. Nevermind that everything was already wet from all the fluids of the induction. I felt like I was an animal being told to potty on some paper. I told her that I needed a bedpan if I wasn't allowed to get up, and I wanted her to leave while my husband helped me use it. 

They hooked me up to a hose of saline solution that flowed up my vagina to clean the baby off and keep clean fluid on him. The fact that my water had been broken meant that now there was a time limit on my labor. The clock was ticking until the time I'd be sent for a cesaerean section. By this point I couldn't stop crying, and I was going into shock. I needed to wear an oxygen mask several times, and at one point I was uncontrollably shaking. They gave me more pain medication - this time, an epidural. The anasthesiologist came to meet me, and he was the most decent, respectful person I dealt with during this whole ordeal. He spoke to me by name and treated me with as much dignity as someone could in that kind of situation. He gave me the epidural, and he left. Within moments, my contractions completely stopped.

They started the Pitocin again, but it was to no avail. My contractions never became strong enough to feel over the epidural, and they were coming very irregularly. Eventually they made the decision to stop the labor (another drug through the IV) and send me for a c-section.

I was a wreck. I have never been such a mess in my life. I was hysterically crying. When they kept my husband away while I was first wheeled in, I nearly screamed. At one point I just went numb. I just let it happen to me. I just laid there numb while they cut open my body. I felt like I was detached and I was floating around somewhere else. I could hear them saying what they were doing. Sometimes I tried to be a "good little mama" and respond to their comments. Sometimes I made a joke. I feel sick about that now. I needed TWO spinals before I stopped having feeling in my abdomen. I felt them tug and push and pull, and then pull my baby right out of my body. I heard him grunting. I said, "Is it him?" and my husband, with tears in his eyes, nodded yes. 

I was aching to see my baby, to hold him, kiss him, put him to my breast. After the pediatrician took care of him on the examining table, he carried him to me and I looked at him and gave him a kiss on the cheek. I remember the pediatrician saying that he wanted me to do that. I am so thankful for him being there now, and having the decency to give me that moment with my son. Then my husband and our son left the room along with the pediatrician and one of the nurses, and the rest of them stitched me up. After my son was gone, the anasthesiologist was the only person who interacted with me. I told him I was going to be sick, and he gave me a pan to throw up in. He stroked my hair and told me that it was normal and I was going to be okay.

Then I was wheeled to recovery. I kept saying that I wanted to see my baby, where was my baby? They told me that he was fine, and that I just needed to do this first. The nurse in recovery was very nice. He told me about his three sons that were all born by c-section. He said that the wonderful thing about c-section babies is that their heads are beautiful and round, right from the start. I spent 2 hours in recovery. 2 long hours in which I tried desperately to think of a way that I could get to my son. Eventually I lied to the nurse. I told him that I could feel him touching my feet. He told me that I was moving my feet, too. I pretended that I knew I was doing that. He told me that I could go see my son now, and he wheeled me to OB and into my room.

My husband came in with a nurse, and they were wheeling the baby in a bassinette.  I felt so strange, like I was being given this random baby to take care of. I hadn't seen him until he was 2 hours old, so it just didn't feel natural to me. And I still had so many drugs coursing through my body. I got my first breastfeeding lesson, and my mom and some of my sisters came in to visit for a few minutes. They wanted to hold him too. I didn't care anymore. I didn't feel like I had any right to claim him over anyone else. I'd only spent five minutes with him since he'd been born, anyway. I fell in love with him right away but it took longer to feel like he was MINE. 

My sweet boy who is now two years old is awake from his nap now, so I have to end this. But I hope that this story will not scare anyone, or make anyone be frightened of their labor and delivery, but rather to make you think. This is supposed to be one of the most important days of your life. Don't let your special day be hijacked by well-meaning doctors and nurses and their many interventions. Trust your body that it will do what you need it to do. After all, women's bodies are almost magical and have been doing this great work for millions of years. Take an active role in your birth. Don't assume that your caregivers always know what is best - do your own research and be strict about your own rules. Birth is NOT an illness, trust your body to take care of you and your sweet baby.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Bellies and babies...

I guess this is as good a time as any to say that I'm kind of a birth and baby junkie. I've written a lot about pregnancy, birth, and babies in the past and I'm sure I'll write lots more. Fair warning, I hope. ;-)

Five incredible functions of the placenta

Warning, placenta pictures ahead!

Placenta is a word that evokes a variety of different responses from people. Some are fascinated, some are disgusted, many are indifferent. This organ is often called “the afterbirth” and thought of as something that is to be whisked away and discarded as soon as it’s passed. Many women never get a chance to see their own, but in the growing movement to reclaim natural birth in our culture, more and more women insist on viewing, touching, or even eating their placentas. The day after our second son was born, at home, my husband posted “I almost forgot that there is a placenta in our fridge” on his Facebook status, and the variety of responses was absolutely hilarious. Beyond being something to take care of after the excitement of baby’s birth, though, the placenta has many incredibly important (and incredibly fascinating!) functions, both during pregnancy and during birth.

1) The placenta is the go-between, the gateway between the growing baby and the mother’s bloodstream. Growing alongside the baby in the mother’s womb, it is linked with the mother’s blood and then connects to the baby via the umbilical cord, which enters the baby’s body through the abdomen. This organ is like the filter through which the mother’s blood flows, sending vital nutrients, antibodies, and oxygen through the umbilical vein to the baby, and then receiving de-oxygenated blood and fetal waste through the umbilical arteries.

Perhaps one of the most fascinating things about the placental system is that while the blood flows constantly between mother and baby by way of the umbilical cord, being processed through the placenta, the two bloodstreams don’t actually come into direct contact with one another. There are specific blood vessels that handle maternal blood, and specific blood vessels that handle fetal blood - there is no point when the two blood supplies simply flow into one another.

(the fetal side of a placenta)

2) The placenta releases a specific balance of hormones that prevent the mother’s body from terminating the pregnancy and rejecting the fetus. In a very simplified explanation, in the very beginning of pregnancy there are two major hormones at play - human chorionic gonadotropin, or HCG, and progesterone. (Of course there are a variety of other hormones involved in creating and maintaining a pregnancy, but these ones are the really crucial ones in the beginning.)

Since the placenta itself needs several weeks to form, these hormones originally come from other sources. HCG is first produced from the embryo itself, signaling to the mother’s body that the egg has been fertilized and pregnancy is ready to begin. Receptors in the corpus luteum (the remaining follicle after the egg has been released) then receive this signal from the embryo, and it continues its production of a hormone called progesterone. Without the hormonal signals from the HCG, progesterone levels would become lower and lower towards the end of the monthly cycle, triggering the start of menstruation. But when the egg is fertilized and progesterone levels remain high, the uterine lining continues to develop rather than being shed during menstruation. This ensures a safe, thick lining of endometrium in the uterus, for the fertilized egg to implant and pregnancy to begin.

This delicate balance of HCG from the growing embryo and progesterone from the corpus luteum continues for about 10 weeks past ovulation, until the placenta becomes mature enough to take over. Then the placenta continues the process of producing both of these important hormones, and continues to maintain just the right levels all the way through pregnancy.

3) Another important hormone that is produced by the placenta is estrogen. The levels of this hormone are very low during the early parts of pregnancy, but rise steadily during the second and third trimesters, particularly towards the very end of pregnancy.

There are two important reasons for these increasing levels of estrogen. This hormone turns on the receptors for oxytocin, which is an important step in preparing the uterus for labor. It is the flow of oxytocin that will cause contractions during labor, but it is the estrogen produced by the placenta that prepares the uterus in advance, getting it ready to receive the signals from the oxytocin. Estrogen also helps to prepare the breast tissue for milk production. It causes the ducts and other tissues to grow and develop, in preparation for making breast milk.

4) Have you ever noticed your pelvis and hips getting wider towards the end of pregnancy, perhaps causing your hips to slip or give out once in a while? You can thank relaxin for this sometimes annoying but incredibly important part of pregnancy. Relaxin is another hormone produced by the placenta, and it does just what its name says - it causes ligaments to relax. Part of the miracle of birth is that this relatively small part of a woman’s body is designed for fully developed, sometimes fairly large babies to pass through. Relaxin is a crucial part of that, loosening up the pelvic ligaments to allow the pelvis to open wide enough for the baby to pass through. It can be irritating to deal with the discomfort of your loosening pelvis as you’re trying to move your very pregnant body around for daily activities, but the experience of having this perfectly designed little person emerge from what seems like such a small place makes the discomfort worth it.

(the maternal side of a placenta)

5) Speaking of the end of pregnancy, the placenta has an important role in triggering the start of labor. Remember the hormone called progesterone, which helps to maintain a safe environment for the fetus to grow and develop? One of the important effects of progesterone is to prevent contractions of the uterus. This is obviously a very important step in a healthy pregnancy, and is actually called “the progesterone block” by scientists. The steadily rising levels of estrogen, also released by the placenta, reach a point where they override this function, though. Once the estrogen increases to a certain high enough level, it negates the anti-contraction quality of the progesterone. This causes contractions, the beginning of labor.

The placenta is a fascinating organ, the only organ in the human body that develops for a specific, important purpose and is then expelled because it is no longer needed. Its role in a healthy pregnancy goes so far beyond simply providing nourishment for the baby. The placenta, or more specifically the hormones that are released by the placenta, serve many very important functions, from establishing the environment within the uterus during early pregnancy, to helping trigger the start of labor, and even preparing the breasts to nourish the baby after birth. Perhaps if more people were aware of the incredible ways that this organ helps to establish, maintain, and eventually end pregnancy, we would be less apt to think of it as simply “afterbirth”, a waste product meant to be gotten rid of. Without the placenta there wouldn’t be a pregnancy to speak of, so let’s give this incredible organ the credit it’s due.

What do you think of when you hear the word “placenta”? Did you get a chance to look at or touch your own placenta, or do you intend to?

image credit: moppet65535 via Flickr; moppet65535 via Flickr.

*** Note - this was originally published on a now defunct website in the "birth business." I'm the original author of the post and was proud of my work so I decided to repost it here. :)

My Pinterest boards, aka too much time on my hands?

A while back I finally caved and joined Pinterest. Sometimes there will be a really long stretch of time where I don't go on there, but I really do have so much fun when I do. One of the things I do with my boards is try to name them with great quotations, because I'm a sucker for great quotes. I also have a few different boards for photos and human interest type stories. Here are a few of my favorite boards. Please follow me if you want to!

Of course, if I'm going to be using famous quotes as the titles of my boards, there's got to be an actual quotations board, right? "A proper collection of quotations is the whole world digested." -Terri Guillemets. There are some really good ones on here.

Spirituality is an incredibly important aspect of my life, and when I neglect this side of myself, I feel the negative effects in a variety of ways. This board has quotes, prayers, altar inspiration, meditations, interesting thoughts and whatever tickles my spiritual fancy. "We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience." -Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Photos of beautiful, happy, resilient children. They are such amazing little people. <3 "The soul is healed by being with children." -English Proverb

In a future snapshot of my life, I see myself tending lots of beautiful garden space and growing a great deal of our food. This board is a collection of gardening tips, tricks, and inspiration. "I have always thought a kitchen garden a more pleasant sight than the finest orangery." -Joseph Addison

Human bodies! Old, young, male, female, all different shapes and sizes. What story will your body tell? "Our bodies are apt to be our autobiographies." -Frank Gillette Burgess.

Poverty is a problem, all around us, right under our noses. "Poverty is no disgrace to a man, but it is confoundedly inconvenient." -Sydney Smith

People who have made a difference. "Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not." -Dr. Seuss

Meaningful lyrics are one of my favorite aspects of music, and here one of my favorite boards is a collection of lyrics, artfully arranged. "Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent." -Victor Hugo

And for a laugh, my someecards collection. I LOVE these. someecards hilariousness!

Connecting with our kids.

After a long and harrowing week I was browsing around on Pinterest looking for inspiring blogs and fantastic quotes about parenting mindfully and peacefully. This fantastic series is one that I came across, and I will link to it here.

The series is called 10 simple ways to connect with your child. It was originally posted as a weekly series but all of the posts are up so you can see the whole set now. It still seems like it might be worth it to do the exercise one week at a time, though, to really focus on each one. Each of these concepts is so simple but makes such a big difference to kids - or, really, to anybody we know and love. <3

(From the Human Rights for Human Children Facebook page, which shares a lot of fantastic quotes and information, by the way)

The way we talk to our children...

Because I need this reminder...

(image found here)