tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-183766732013-04-09T10:01:46.584-05:00My writings about natural childbirth and my life a Pittsburgh doula and Hypnobabies Childbirth Educator.Vanessa Manznoreply@blogger.comBlogger136125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18376673.post-27155788824571234252013-04-09T09:34:00.002-05:002013-04-09T10:01:46.591-05:002013-04-09T10:01:46.591-05:00

Now that I'm on my third child, the things that used to stress me out, make me laugh. It isn't something I can usually control, but I sometimes find myself laughing hysterically at the things that make my baby cry. My oldest children are proof that kids are not easily damaged, despite what the internet wants you to think. I guess it is justice that I can now laugh at what used to make me sweat

Vanessa Manzhttps://plus.google.com/111060141264211231601noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18376673.post-10282582655638592442013-02-06T21:28:00.001-05:002013-02-06T21:28:00.873-05:002013-02-06T21:28:00.873-05:00

Of waiting are over! I'm walking... Sort of. I still need a crutch because I'm only supposed to do about 50 percent on my bad ankle. But I can stand normally! And this is what comes of an afternoon of practice: Lovely... And so worth it! And I'm driving myself to PT tomorrow. Also for the first time in over 12 weeks. And to think, I used to hate driving. Never agin!

Vanessa Manzhttps://plus.google.com/111060141264211231601noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18376673.post-45877188075027131832013-01-19T09:07:00.001-05:002013-01-19T10:01:34.405-05:002013-01-19T10:01:34.405-05:00

Well, the girls are! It was a tough decision. I never planned on homeschooling forever and when the girls expressed an interest after the holidays, I jumped on it. We met with the principal of their elementary school on Thursday. The girls counted the hours and picked out special outfits. They wrote a list of questions. And they fit right in. The first thing out of Autumn's mouth when we got in

Vanessa Manzhttps://plus.google.com/111060141264211231601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18376673.post-43141248289569851432013-01-14T11:20:00.002-05:002013-01-14T11:21:43.028-05:002013-01-14T11:21:43.028-05:00

A story about how one family rationalized their choice to not vaccinate and then changed their minds: My oldest was born in 2003. At the time, I knew very little about actual parenting theory or even health. Only a year before she was born, we gave up the wall of soda cubes we stored in our basement for glasses of water. Lacking real relationships in a new town, I turned to internet message

Vanessa Manzhttps://plus.google.com/111060141264211231601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18376673.post-24759851717455547272013-01-08T10:47:00.001-05:002013-01-08T10:47:16.421-05:002013-01-08T10:47:16.421-05:00

Not a very long one, though... between homeschooling my kids and caring for a mobile eight-month old while being short one leg, I don't have much time for introspection, let alone time to write it down. Plus I kinda loathe the whole idea of blogging my thoughts publicly .. I used to write daily in a journal, but when I had kids I stopped because I barely had time to think my own thoughts, let

Vanessa Manzhttps://plus.google.com/111060141264211231601noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18376673.post-60617774906427822052012-10-04T10:18:00.002-05:002012-10-04T11:01:53.152-05:002012-10-04T11:01:53.152-05:00

I will admit to having been sucked into minutia with my first baby. My daughter seemed so perfect and organic in those ultrasound pictures. A clean slate. Unmarked and uncontaminated and I felt it was my job to keep her that way. No drugs at birth and nothing but breast milk, because I didn't want to pollute her tiny body. Heavens, no crying because that released stress hormones that could injure

Vanessa Manzhttps://plus.google.com/111060141264211231601noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18376673.post-56374311638652128882012-08-29T08:17:00.003-05:002012-08-29T08:18:44.783-05:002012-08-29T08:18:44.783-05:00

Seventeen weeks sounds so much longer than three months, four weeks! Seriously, it is amazing to me that this time has gone so fast. 17 weeks of Lola-bird Last night, we tried something new for bedtime. Both my husband and I have noticed that Lola has been fussing more at bedtime, waking and crying just 10-20 minutes after being put down and then immediately settling when we pick her up. So

Vanessa Manzhttps://plus.google.com/111060141264211231601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18376673.post-74129108977797553622012-08-23T17:51:00.001-05:002012-08-23T17:51:17.643-05:002012-08-23T17:51:17.643-05:00

Breastfeeding has been in the news a lot lately. New York city is asking hospitals to lock up formula  and require a prescription for it. Many hospitals are jumping on the Baby-Friendly movement and banning formula samples for moms when they check out with their new bundles. The reaction online seems to be polarized. Either women see this as a big step forward for helping more mothers

Vanessa Manzhttps://plus.google.com/111060141264211231601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18376673.post-3249547939051476722012-08-22T18:39:00.000-05:002012-08-22T19:07:44.524-05:002012-08-22T19:07:44.524-05:00

13 Weeks In college, I took several Psych 101 classes. You know, the intro variety, where you learn a lot about a little and remember next-to-nothing unless you end up a Psych major. I remember precisely two things from my experience: Number One: The importance of sleep. Without sleep, people begin to deteriorate physically, mentally and emotionally. Their body quickly begins to shut down

Vanessa Manzhttps://plus.google.com/111060141264211231601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18376673.post-73716464832810561682012-07-28T12:18:00.003-05:002012-07-28T12:44:13.160-05:002012-07-28T12:44:13.160-05:00

When DD1 (Madeline) was a baby I refused to consider a pacifier. She was a reluctant nurser and it took me over a month to get her to the point where a bottle was not needed. I pumped around the clock for her and developed an unfortunate oversupply and overactive letdown as a result. (Yes, I believe that my tendency to shoot milk 3-4 feet away during letdown developed because of the over pumping

Vanessa Manzhttps://plus.google.com/111060141264211231601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18376673.post-82076981691397411792012-07-25T11:15:00.002-05:002012-07-28T12:19:39.165-05:002012-07-28T12:19:39.165-05:00

Lola May- Eleven Weeks Old! Combined weeks again (11 & 12), brings us to three months old! I know I keep saying this, it is pretty much my daily mantra, but I cannot believe how fast time is going!! This is a big thing for me, as passage of time is a big anxiety trigger. I constantly think about filling the time, enjoying the time and whether time is passing quickly or slowly. To be able to

Vanessa Manzhttps://plus.google.com/111060141264211231601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18376673.post-75147852060301036002012-07-13T08:59:00.001-05:002012-07-13T08:59:46.928-05:002012-07-13T08:59:46.928-05:00

Ten weeks... how did we get here so fast? I remember when Madeline (DD1) was a baby, in 2004, it felt like it took forever to get to three months. And here we are with Lola, staring it in the face. While it does make me sad that she is nearly out of the newborn phase, I don't feel like we have much time to dwell on it! We have two big girls that keep us going all day and make the days go by so

Vanessa Manzhttps://plus.google.com/111060141264211231601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18376673.post-63134850517480017112012-07-03T15:22:00.002-05:002012-07-03T15:22:52.901-05:002012-07-03T15:22:52.901-05:00

Lola had her two month pediatrician appointment yesterday. Sigh. So much for well baby visits. In the end, everything was fine, but I spent most of my day running myself ragged between health care providers. As it turns out, Lola's lack of pooping isn't entire harmless. The doctor took one look at her eyes and said that she is still jaundiced. At two months, one would expect the excess billiruben

Vanessa Manzhttps://plus.google.com/111060141264211231601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18376673.post-51642411488466938832012-06-26T09:19:00.000-05:002012-06-26T09:19:01.024-05:002012-06-26T09:19:01.024-05:00

Combined post because... well... let's just say that I'm not getting much shut eye! In fact, I was getting so little last week that I literally had no energy to post this. I'm lucky I took a onsie picture! So how are we doing? Breastfeeding is going GREAT! I've begun pumping daily to get about 5 oz for a bottle for my husband to give at night. (More on that in another post.) At the same time,

Vanessa Manzhttps://plus.google.com/111060141264211231601noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18376673.post-50013578237449137462012-06-12T15:24:00.000-05:002012-06-12T15:24:01.782-05:002012-06-12T15:24:01.782-05:00

Lola May 6 weeks old! As I write this, I am in the middle of the six week growth spurt. This comes on the heels of several good nights of sleep which culminated in a one-waking night two nights ago. Unfortunately, the abomination of the growth spurt kept me from getting much sleep last night. I had some strange and mangled dreams that left me disoriented and unclear this morning. Luckily,

Vanessa Manzhttps://plus.google.com/111060141264211231601noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18376673.post-59743618393132150912012-06-05T18:38:00.002-05:002012-06-06T10:07:23.325-05:002012-06-06T10:07:23.325-05:00

Disclaimer: This post is about breastfeeding. More specifically, about *me* breastfeeding. If you don't feel comfortable with breasts being used to feed babies or are a male that I went to high school or college with and don't care about breastfeeding, please feel free to close this page ;) Thanks! With less than half of women breastfeeding at the six month mark we have to assume that many women

Vanessa Manzhttps://plus.google.com/111060141264211231601noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18376673.post-14469494025125953702012-06-05T18:04:00.002-05:002012-06-05T18:10:54.243-05:002012-06-05T18:10:54.243-05:00

Lola May- Five Weeks Old Five weeks already?!? Almost to the magic six weeks, when the big growth spurt happens and things start changing. Lola is still sleeping most of her life away. She has some days when I can see a pattern emerging and others when she just wants to sleep and nurse. On the average, she is awake in the AM from 9-10, then sleeps until afternoon and has another short awake

Vanessa Manzhttps://plus.google.com/111060141264211231601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18376673.post-26136452691442291562012-05-29T09:57:00.000-05:002012-06-06T10:08:10.770-05:002012-06-06T10:08:10.770-05:00

Lola May- Four weeks old today! Gosh, these weeks are flying by! When my oldest was a baby, the minutes felt like hours, especially because we were still pumping and teaching her to breastfeed at this point. She also developed colic around this time, so life was really hard. Now it feels like I blinked and I no longer have a newborn! Lola May is four weeks today and she will be a month on

Vanessa Manzhttps://plus.google.com/111060141264211231601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18376673.post-68131818611693414892012-05-22T10:28:00.002-05:002012-05-22T10:30:30.243-05:002012-05-22T10:30:30.243-05:00

Lola May 3 Weeks Old! So, today marks three weeks since Lola made her way earth-side. She is quite an amazing little lady... her spirit is so sweet, it is almost unbelievable. She has begun fussing a little more, but it is almost exclusively in regards to pooping and passing gas, which is quite a struggle for her at certain times of the day (and night!) She went through her newborn growth

Vanessa Manzhttps://plus.google.com/111060141264211231601noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18376673.post-72286854363531474302012-05-21T12:20:00.002-05:002012-05-22T10:30:39.505-05:002012-05-22T10:30:39.505-05:00

  Lola May: 2 weeks old! I'm almost a week late with this already, though the picture was taken on her two-week birthday! This is little Lola, on our bed, wearing one of her newborn onsies. It is my plan to take one of these, every week for her first year, post her milestones here and then use all of them to put together her first year photo book next May. So at two weeks, she is about 6

Vanessa Manzhttps://plus.google.com/111060141264211231601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18376673.post-77764847508908854482012-05-15T14:34:00.002-05:002012-05-15T14:34:25.657-05:002012-05-15T14:34:25.657-05:00

The Birth of Lovely Lola May Lola and Mom, just minutes after birth Most people do not know how long we waited for your arrival, but it was much longer than the standard nine months. After an ectopic pregnancy in 2005, I was left with only one uterine tube, which could have led to fertility issues. But we were expecting Autumn within a few months, so it did not seem to be impacting us

Vanessa Manzhttps://plus.google.com/111060141264211231601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18376673.post-85185552272481200362012-03-28T13:12:00.005-05:002012-06-06T10:08:45.318-05:002012-06-06T10:08:45.318-05:00

As for birth preferences, I typically advise the families I work with to keep it simple. I tell them that their birth preferences should fit on a 4 by 6 note card and I even encourage them to put it on said card. I am definitely violating that advice with my transfer birth preferences. But I feel that it is justified since a homebirth transfer is a bit more complicated than a planned, low-risk

Vanessa Manzhttps://plus.google.com/111060141264211231601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18376673.post-71995275716771585392012-02-16T21:08:00.002-05:002012-06-06T10:09:18.694-05:002012-06-06T10:09:18.694-05:00

I did not see the doctor wearing spandex this time. I am not one who fears or hates the medical establishment. Before getting pregnant, I was finishing prerequisites so I could start the accelerated nursing program at Pitt this fall. I embrace medicine and all the miracles it has wrought. As a doula, I have supported women who very much required medical intervention to birth their babies. I

Vanessa Manzhttps://plus.google.com/111060141264211231601noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18376673.post-6199268389777356922012-02-14T10:02:00.000-05:002012-06-06T10:10:32.253-05:002012-06-06T10:10:32.253-05:00

26 weeks pregnant! Ch-ch-ch-chan-ges: Heartburn has started... I'm really having to time liquids and food more thoughtfully and I LOVE doing shots of ACV. I get out of breath much more easily and I've pretty much given up on running. I can make it about 20 minutes out of 30 if I take a 10 minute walk in the middle. I'm still planning to walk/run the Pittsburgh Marathon 10K. It has been  hard

Vanessa Manzhttps://plus.google.com/111060141264211231601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18376673.post-77106989306672004182012-01-20T11:26:00.001-05:002012-06-06T10:11:13.884-05:002012-06-06T10:11:13.884-05:00

I had a near complete emotional breakdown yesterday. It seems to becoming a weekly occurance, usually on Thursdays... So a warning to my family, you might want to be busy on Thursday! :-P Poor me! What started as a simple incident of dropping a bottle of Tobasco on my dish of peeled, hard-boiled eggs and shattering it all over the rest of my breakfast, quickly became a full-on cryfest.

Vanessa Manzhttps://plus.google.com/111060141264211231601noreply@blogger.com2