QUOTE OF THE DAY - APRIL

A DAY IN MY LIFE - APRIL

I got angry.

Standing in line at the grocery store with all three of my children, I was surprisingly calm for having such noisy passengers. Leila's voice was the loudest - we had just passed a storm trooper and she was proudly singing Star Wars. People standing around us were smiling at her and giggling, all except one: a tall elderly man paying for his items. I was next in line. The cashier told me how adorable Leila was. I felt it was necessary to mention that Leila was too scared to watch Star Wars, but with me being such a fanatic, she learned the music.

"I can't stand that sci-fi shit." The man (I'll name him Adolf, you will see why) stared at me disgustedly.

If he had not been so emphatically irritated, I would not have asked, "Really? Why?"

DAX - A BIRTH STORY

It’s called “hypnobirth”. No, it’s not a cult, or a fad. I won’t get into the details, but if done correctly, it can change a woman’s (and her family’s) birth experience drastically. After reading phrases like “mindfulness,” “painless birth,” and “I can’t believe it went so smoothly” in the reviews, of course I was going to try it. I'm always up for a new adventure.
My midwife was all for it - in fact, she lit up when I brought it into conversation. Her excitement gave me even more confidence that hypnobirthing was the right choice. Sylyna is one of the top midwives in this area. Everyone who knows her absolutely loves her and recommends her with celebrity status admiration, and she wanted to do a hypnobirth with me.
It was my third baby. First time using the hypnobirthing method, first time with a midwife, and the first time I was pregnant and alone. There were many unbelievable circumstances that changed my life, but having this baby alone was all my own choice. As you can imagine, my emotions were usually floating between functional and depressed for most of the pregnancy. Hypnobirthing gave me something to be excited about (other than holding my baby, of course). I did my kegel exercises, practiced breathing techniques, read every book, watched tons of births and classes online, meditated (well I tried, I listened to a hypnobirth audio and passed out five minutes into it) and imagined what this birth story would look like.
On a Monday afternoon, my midwife told me I was already 4 centimeters dilated at 37 weeks. I had been in an uncomfortable blur for a few days, so hearing that was a relief, not a surprise. “At this point,” Sylyna said, “you have two options: You can wait and see what happens, or you can do a tiny bit of encouraging.”