Olive Branch

2009-09-22T08:03:00.000-07:00

Layered Learning

I was at a loss the start of the school year on how to manage both my second grader and my kindergartner. My 2ND grader was used to having me all to herself for school, and really did not like having to share. My kindergartner needs a lot more hands on help. My morning would go something like this; I would be helping one child, and the other would constantly interrupt and try to get my attention. Back and forth, all day for the first week. I knew that this could not go on and be a healthy, fun school year for all of us. I also wanted to be the most time efficient considering I have 2 other children not yet school age. So now we do what I've nicknamed Layered Learning. This would probably seem really obvious to all of you reading this, but I'm quite proud I thought it up. Every subject, we do at the same time. I just gear it to each kids level of learning. I do spend one lesson a day with each alone, usually Language Arts. They really bloom under the one-on-one contact. My 3 year old is even sitting with us and demanding a lesson to do. I purchased the Handwriting without Tears curriculum, and there's these wooden shapes you can use to form the alphabet. So she sits down and matches all the pieces to the letter pages. We are all really enjoying school now. Since we are all doing the same lesson, they are both getting my attention at the same time and all the struggle is gone. Sometime it takes me awhile to figure out practical solutions, so I was really stoked to come up with such a neat solution.

2009-09-10T18:51:00.001-07:00

2009-09-10T18:28:00.001-07:00

2009-09-10T17:47:00.000-07:00

What I'm making for dinner

Red beans cooked with whole peeled tomatoes and basil
Brown Rice
Crockpot Drumsticks
Yogurt cheese

I started by putting the beans in the crockpot. I added salt, pepper, garlic powder and frozen chopped basil leaves. I would have added onions too, if I had remebered. I covered generously in filtered water, than added the chicken and the tomatoes. # hours later, I realized it wasn't going to cook in time, so I transferred the beans and liquid to the stove and left the chicken in the crockpot. I'm glad the chicken cooked for a while with the beans, though-the beans have a richer broth and the chicken had time in the spices. We usually eat this dish with sour cream but I am on a new food budget where I don't buy anything that's not 100% healthy and low fat. I have a ton of yogurt so I decided to make yogurt cheese. All it takes is a coffee filter and a mason jar. Put the coffee filter in the jar and rubber band the top around the jar. Mix some yogurt with salt, spoon into the filter and than wait. I'm going to add green onions from my friend Beth's garden when it's done, and maybe some garlic and fresh basil. Great, tasty alternative to sour cream!

When the beans are done I am going to cook some brown rice.
When it's done, you just lay down a circle of rice, top with beans, top with chicken, add yogurt cheese.
My kids really like this dish, surprisingly.

2009-09-08T11:25:00.000-07:00

Labor Pro

The most important thing I've learned as a doula is how to read a labor. I can tell, just be looking at a women through her contractions and how she acts between them, what stage of labor she is in. It's an art, not a science, and of course there are some women who are the exception. It's an art, born of respect, love, patience, and time. One of my biggest frustrations in a hospital is the litigation based care. Women labor best if they are uninterrupted. How easy is it to create a pattern and rhythm if you are being poked and prodded and belted? With a doula it is definitely easier, but still hard to keep momentum. And I have seen women told over and over "this is what is best for your baby" blah blah blah. In research studies, intermittent monitoring is just as safe. They need that 20 minute strip every hour in case you have to go to trial. (I am not talking about high-risk cases, by the way. Or if you are undergoing an induction. It is vital in those cases to be continuously monitored, because Pitocin can really stress a baby.) A women needs to move doing labor. A women needs to feel in charge and powerful during labor.
The saying "less is more" is absolutely true about labor and birth. But just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, I found this. This really has the potential to invade hospitals and become the new standard of care.

Labor Pro

Labor Pro is “a novel labor monitoring system that using ultrasound imaging measures continuously and objectively measures fetal position, presentation and station along with cervical dilation. Labor Pro quantitatively assesses and records vital labor parameters in real-time to enable obstetricians to make informed and accurate decisions throughout the labor process to improve both the quality and cost of obstetric care."

The website lists Labor Pro’s capabilities as able to:

* Determine continuous station & position of fetal head by ultrasound imaging,
* Provide radiation-free pelvimetry & birth canal modeling.
* Perform one-step computerized “non-invasive” trans-vaginal digital examination (I
* Determine intermittent or continuous accurate measurement of cervical dilatation
* Record comprehensive labor data recording

It also touts its “unique benefits” as the following:

* Non-invasive, precise measurement of station & position
* Improves assessment of non-progressive labor
* Supports decision-making before operative delivery
* User friendly, on-screen display of all labor parameters
* Enhances patient comfort and sense of security

First you have to place “just four little electrodes” externally on the mother’s pelvis in order to continuously assess fetal station and position and also enables the user to ”recognize CPD early”. Second you just have to clip (or screw) “just a few position sensors” to the woman’s cervix to accurately and continuously measure cervical dilation. And third you just have to screw “just a small little electrode” into the baby’s head.

According to Frost & Sullivan, the organization that awarded Trig Medical for the Labor Pro technology, “The Labor Pro is staff and mother-friendly and requires only basic training in ultrasound usage, obviating the need for an obstetric ultrasound expert,” adds Ms. Prabakar. “Moreover, the technology employs non-invasive, radiation-free pelvimetry as well as a single-step computerised digital examination. All labor progress tracking data including the fetal heart rate monitor are integrated in the Labor Pro display and automatically recorded by the system, which helps reduce staff workload.”

This is absolutely horrendous. That a company would even think this was a good idea!
One thing that really concerns me is the chance for serious infection. All those wires are just like a superhighway into the uterus. Hospitals are not clean places. MRSA is a big threat. Constant cervical checks are bad enough. This is a disaster.
People need people, not machines.

2009-09-03T17:00:00.000-07:00

Birth

I became a doula originally because I love babies. Over time, well still doing it for my love of children, my focus had broadened. I love mothers. Watching a women find her strength and motherhood in the midst of a birth is why I am a doula, now. If I can be any help at all to support a women transforming into a mother of one, or two, or five, well, I feel like I am doing what I was born and created to do. One day, Lord willing,I will be able to do that full time. For now, I feel like I am turning my daughters into doula's. In a spiritual sense, because a doula is basically a servant, a mother to mothers, someone who helps in the birthing process. And there are all sorts of births, all over the world. Spiritual birth, ministry birth, physical birth. I am honored to be a doula in the literal and spiritual sense.

2009-01-20T14:56:00.000-08:00

The Dalai Lama, a lifelong champion of non-violence on Saturday candidly stated that terrorism cannot be tackled by applying the principle of ahimsa because the minds of terrorists are closed.

"It is difficult to deal with terrorism through non-violence," the Tibetan spiritual leader said delivering the Madhavrao Scindia Memorial Lecture here.

He also termed terrorism as the worst kind of violence which is not carried by a few mad people but by those who are very brilliant and educated.

"They (terrorists) are very brilliant and educated...but a strong ill feeling is bred in them. Their minds are closed," the Dalai Lama said.

He said that the only way to tackle terrorism is through prevention. The head of the Tibetan government-in-exile left the audience stunned when he said "I love President George W Bush." He went on to add how he and the US President instantly struck a chord in their first meeting unlike politicians who take a while to develop close ties..

2008-09-25T13:43:00.000-07:00

Elisabeth Charity Clementine
born September 23rd 8:12pm
9 pounds 9 ounces
18 inches long

2008-09-16T09:49:00.001-07:00

If you are a Christian, and are really considering voting for Obama
this is the issue

"The way I understand it, the Infants Born Alive Bill was introduced to the IL Senate and Obama voted against it because he wanted it to have the same language as the Federal Born Alive Bill. When the bill was re-presented containing that clause, Obama voted against it again. So, given the chance, twice, to vote against infanticide, Obama voted for.

He also lied about all of this earlier in the campaign, before admitting that he was lying.

Obama has the most liberal voting record you can have on the issue of abortion. He does not, like Joe Biden, draw the line at the savagery of partial-birth abortion - he sides with the scissor, the vacuum and the death. He does not draw the line (as Nancy Pelosi and even Hillary Clinton do) at infanticide. He says, “that baby was supposed to be dead; let it die.”

Sen. Barack Obama doesn’t seem comfortable, at all, straying from the side of death.

None of us is God, none of us has perfect wisdom…but for that reason alone, if you’re not “morally” sure about something, if you really think that theologically and intellectually it’s all “above your pay grade,” then shouldn’t you err on the side of life? Not on the side of death?

It occurs to me that in this election - more so than any election in recent memory, we have the “clear choice” that Moses also gave to the people:
I call heaven and earth today to witness against you: I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live, by loving the Lord, your God, heeding his voice, and holding fast to him. (Deuteronomy 30:19-20a, New American Bible)"
found on The Anchoress blog site

2008-08-29T23:37:00.001-07:00

2008-08-11T16:51:00.000-07:00

My girls

2008-07-26T13:23:00.000-07:00

2008-07-24T12:34:00.000-07:00

This is Aelfgifu and Andrea, my primary doula client(s) right now.
She is pregnant with twins, and due in August,

2008-07-17T18:30:00.001-07:00

I found this on a blog I was reading called "at your cervix"
written by a labor and delivery nurse and wanted to repost it.
Very good advice.

How to have a natural birth in a hospital setting

Natural births are my favorite "type" of birth. However, giving birth in a hospital and giving birth naturally seem to not co-exist on the same plane sometimes. As an L&D nurse, I can give you some handy hints and tips on how to achieve a natural birth in a hospital setting, if that is what you desire.

1. Find a good practice that has midwives. Ask for referrals from pregnant friends for natural birth promoting midwife and/or obstetrician practices. Yes, there are some awesome doctors out there who promote natural birth.
2. Do not allow your doctor or midwife to talk you into a medically unnecessary induction. Most inductions are medically unnecessary (post dates, baby is too big, baby is too small, blood pressure starting to rise but you're not preeclamptic, advanced maternal age, maternal exhaustion, convenience, elective inductions, social inductions, diabetic mother, hypothyroidism, etc....I could list more).
3. Educate yourself on pregnancy. Read books about pregnancy. Join a support group online.
4. Take childbirth education classes that focus on preparing you for natural childbirth.
5. Practice breathing techniques.
6. Learn how to preform self-hypnosis (also known as Hypnobirthing).
7. Learn about focal points and visualization. Pick some focal points or have some images handy to focus on during your labor. (My personal favorite was imagining a rose slowly opening with each contraction, the rose symbolized my cervix.)
8. Although you have pain with contractions, the contraction are over in about 60 seconds. You can do anything for 60 seconds.
9. Each contraction brings you closer to seeing and holding your newborn.
10. Plan to labor at home as long as you possibly can. The sooner you arrive at the hospital, the greater chance you have of medical interventions.
11. Formulate a birth preference list that is sensible, and reasonably thought out. Do not just cut and paste a cookie cutter birth plan from the internet. Be open to changes as deemed reasonable. Your birth preference list should be no more than a half page of paper.
12. Let your provider know of your intentions for a natural birth as soon as possible. If they make you feel uncomfortable in any way of your choices, find a different care provider.
13. Learn ahead of time what the "standard protocol" is on your labor and delivery unit for laboring patients. Usually, they require a minimum of a reactive non-stress test on external fetal monitoring, which can be done in as little as 15-20 minutes.
14. You can refuse anything offered to you, but be reasonable - periodic fetal monitoring is for your baby's well-being. Continuous fetal monitoring is more for your care provider's ease in doing their job (because your nurse is usually caring for more than 1 laboring woman at a time).
15. An IV is not needed to give birth naturally, provided that you do not need IV antibiotics for being group B strep positive. Even with antibiotic treatment, make sure you are unhooked from the IV fluids and left with only a "hep well" or "saline lock" left in place.
16. Ambulation in labor is important. Keep moving in early labor, with periods of rest. Stay upright as much as you can in active labor.
17. Use of hydrotherapy helps with labor pains, and can also help make your labor progress. Use the shower or tub (if available). Stay hydrated with oral fluids (water, juice, etc).
18. Believe in yourself and the power of your body!
19. Make sure that your partner supports you emotionally, as well as physically for your plans of a natural birth.
20. The birth process is a very empowering time period in a woman's life, and it can and will leave lasting impressions in your mind.
21. Speak up for what you believe in. Don't be afraid to say no if you don't agree with something. Ask questions.
22. Hire a doula, if so desired, to help you achieve your natural birth.

2008-07-01T14:03:00.001-07:00

this is a grateful dead song, but i reminds me of the time leading up to becoming a Christian and, the time after, at the Land.

There were days, and there were days
And there were days between
Summer flies and August dies
The world grows dark and mean
Comes the shimmer of the moon
On black infested trees
The singing man is at his song
The holy on their knees
The reckless are out wrecking
The timid plead their pleas
No one knows much more of this
Than anyone can see
Anyone can see

There were days, and there were days
And there were days besides
When phantom ships with phantom sails
Set to sea on phantom tides
Comes the lightning of the sun
On bright unfocused eyes
The blue of yet another day
A springtime wet with sighs
A hopeful candle lingers
In the land of lullabies
Where headless horsemen vanish
With wild and lonely cries
Lonely cries

There were days, and there were days
And there were days I know
When all we ever wanted
Was to learn and love and grow
Once we grew into our shoes
We told them where to go
Walked halfway around the world
On promise of the glow
Stood upon a mountain top
Walked barefoot in the snow
Gave the best we had to give
How much we'll never know
We'll never know

There were days, and there were days
And there were days between
Polished like a golden bowl
The finest ever seen
Hearts of Summer held in trust
Still tender young and green
Left on shelves collecting dust
Not knowing what they mean
Valentines of flesh and blood
As soft as velveteen
Hoping love would not forsake
The days that lie between
Lie between

2008-05-28T09:56:00.000-07:00

2008-05-19T18:30:00.001-07:00

2008-05-09T12:12:00.000-07:00

Surprise, surprise, we're having another girl!!!!!
This is Elisabeth Charity

2008-05-05T12:43:00.001-07:00

Grief

Debbie's baby passed away this morning, before a scheduled c-section.
Please keep her in prayer-and pray for me, that God would give me wisdom and grace to minister to her exactly what she needs.

2008-04-29T08:02:00.000-07:00

I have a new doula client. Her name is Debbie. I met her through my business card, and her therapist, who was calling to pre-screen doulas for her. She needed that buffer because she doesn't know when her baby is going to die. She was diagnosed with trisomy 18, and life expectancy is at a very small percentage-and the ones who do survive are severely handicapped. I am still shell-shocked, i think, and haven't had time to fully let the weight of this hit me. Life is so busy, and it's so important that I just be focused on serving Debbie and her needs, i have been keeping a tight rein on myself. But the tears threaten to overwhelm at the oddest moments. This lady is so brave, so loving and accepting of what God has given her. She wakes up every morning thanking Him for another day with her baby. This will be her first and last pregnancy-she is almost at the age for menopause. I can't even put into words how that rips at my soul. She's been through a lot-intense pressure to abort, a divorce, her dog died; and she is now living in a maternity home. I am writing this to beg anyone who reads this to seriously pray for this lady-to join me in praying that God would miraculously heal her baby. Thankfulness really is a state of the heart, not of situation.

2008-03-31T19:05:00.000-07:00

Trapped

I'm in need of serious prayer right now. I don't know what changed this week, for me-or if this has been growing for awhile, and is just now noticeable, but I feel trapped. Trapped, by my beloved Santa Cruz. My home, my dream, the place i always longed to be, is strangling me. Maybe, i tell myself, it's just a mood, maybe it's because you are pregnant and scared-scared of how expensive this place is, how the price of living here just keeps rising, and rising; and the thoughts tumble through my brain, chokingly-how are we going to raise 4 kids here? How are we going to have ten kids here, like I hope? I was looking through the classifieds at rentals and realized the futility-what use would it be, to move to another two bedroom? Which is at the very limit of what we can afford. And then I come back to faith-the realization that we have never lacked here, that God has led us here, that He has used us here in mighty ways. We have touched lives and forged heartstrings and there are friends here i dearly love. I need the peace and trust to look around, to stay in the moment, to rest in the fact that right now, this moment, this month, this year, we have everything we need. We always have everything we need. Never more or less. I need to stop looking at the needs of the future and freaking out. Jesus is taking care of us.

2008-03-25T09:33:00.000-07:00

Grammie Fix
Church on Easter

2008-03-24T21:27:00.000-07:00

I passed my blood glucose tolerance test!
In other words, diabetes free-yay!

2008-03-14T14:38:00.000-07:00

I thought this was funny

The Pitch *

It's late in the winter of 2005. Hillary and Obama are having lunch in the Senate Dining Room, brainstorming campaign ideas to pitch to the Democratic National Committee.

Obama: Why don't they have salsa on the table?

Hillary: What do you need salsa for?

Obama: Salsa is now the number one condiment in America.

Hillary: You know why? Because people like to say "salsa." "Excuse me, do you have salsa?" "We need more salsa." "Where is the salsa? No salsa?"

Obama: You know it must be impossible for a Spanish person to order seltzer and not get salsa. (Angry) "I wanted seltzer, not salsa."

Hillary: "Don't you know the difference between seltzer and salsa?? You have the seltzer after the salsa!"

Obama: (Just throwing it out there): This should be the campaign.

Hillary: What?

Obama: This. Just arguing. Arguing about nothing.

Hillary (Dismissing): Yeah, right.

Obama: No I'm serious. That sounds like a good idea.

Hillary: Just arguing? What's the campaign about?

Obama: It's about nothing.

Hillary: No real policies?

Obama: No, forget the policies.

Hillary: You've got to have policies.

Obama: Who says you gotta have policies? Remember when we were voting for... for that Senate resolution that proclaimed 'making good people feel good is a good thing' that time? That could be a whole presidential campaign.

Hillary: And who is running in this campaign about nothing? Who are the candidates?

Obama: I could be a candidate.

Hillary: You?

Obama: Yeah. You could run for President as a woman who is not really a woman, except when you cry, and I could run for President as a black man who is not really a black man, except when I go to church. Democrats would buy it. They really would. They're Democrats!

Hillary: So, on my campaign trail in 2008, there's a candidate following me around named Barack Hussein Obama?

Obama: Yeah. There's something wrong with that? I'm candidential. People are always saying to me, "You know you're a quite a candidate."

Hillary: And who else is on the campaign trail in this campaign about nothing?

Obama: That poof Edwards could be a candidate. Kucinich....

Hillary: Now he's a candidate..... So everybody I know is a candidate in the campaign?

Obama: Right.

Hillary: And it's about nothing?

Obama: Absolutely nothing.

Hillary: So you're saying, I go in to the DNC, and tell them I got this idea for a campaign about nothing.

Obama: WE go into the DNC.

Hillary: "We"? Since when are you experienced enough?

Obama (Scoffs): Experience. We're talking to Democrats.

Hillary: You want to go with me to the DNC?

Obama: Yeah. I think we really go something here.

Hillary: What do we got?

Obama: A concept.

Hillary: What concept?

Obama: A concept for a winning presidential campaign.

Hillary: I still don't know what the concept is!

Obama: It's a campaign about HOPE AND CHANGE. It's about nothing!

Hillary: Right. Who does HOPE and who does CHANGE?

Obama: I'll do HOPE and CHANGE because I can do nothing about them. You can do EXPERIENCE because you don't really have any. All these Republican candidates are going to campaign on something. We'll campaign on nothing!

Hillary: So, we go into the DNC, we tell them we've got an idea for a campaign about nothing.

Obama: Exactly.

Hillary: They say, "What's your campaign about?" I say, "Nothing."

Obama: There you go.

Hillary (After a moment of pause): I think you may have something there.

2008-03-07T12:16:00.000-08:00

Diapers

I had resigned myself mentally to diaper duty for many many years. It's the only drag for me, as a parent. Well, I was wrong. My diaper changing days are OVER. Gone, stolen, disappeared forever. Well, at least until Bella loses interest. I let her change one of Abby's nasty diapers the other day, after days of pleading every time i changed one, and that girl won't even let me near the diapers now. She checks her diaper at lest 4 times an hour. In addition, she rinses the dishes for me, and does all the vacuuming. All on her own. It's so sweet. And Hannah washes the floor. I don't think I will have to change any diapers when the baby comes. I'm so glad I get to be around my kids all day-seeing them grow and bloom and become responsible.