One minute I find myself ogling at every little thing my baby does, talking baby talk with the best of them, and the next minute I am incredibly frustrated because my kids are screaming while I brush my teeth for the first time that day (at 2pm – hello coffee breath). I swear, I often feel like I am the emotional little monster in the house.
But I hope no one confuses my moments of frustration with my true feelings about my children and motherhood, and the joy I get from those precious moments of total sweetness in between the chaos. My babies absolutely know I’m crazy; they also know I am absolutely crazy about them.
Have you been on that roller coaster today?
If so, below is one recent example you’ll relate to, compliments of social media.
We search the places that someone has promised us they’ve checked.
To the missing ‘W,’
Your run is finally over.
The madness you managed to create in our house was monumental. For months my daughter’s alphabet toy had been incomplete. How was she supposed to finish learning her ABC’s when the W was missing?
No wagon, no walrus, no watermelon.
Whelp!
I searched for you, lost sleep over you, and considered offering a reward to anyone that could find you. Many times I silently resolved to give up on you. But then I always caved, because a good Mom doesn’t give up.
I admit, I got way too excited each time I thought of somewhere new to look. Surely today would be the day I found you!
But it never was. You are indeed talented at the game of hide and seek.
This morning I thought I caught a glimpse of you under the toy chest. I moved it, already planning a victory dance in my head. Instead, it was the wooden bunny from a puzzle. I hadn’t even noticed that she was missing yet, since I was still fixated on the W.
So I thought about it for way too long. At that point I was obsessed with finding you. I pictured you in hiding with the lost red crayon and plastic egg that also keep me up at night.
I thought. And I thought…clearly wasting too much time on the matter.
But then the clouds parted as the the following thought came to mind…
How do Moms find anything?
Check Out these Children’s Books by Author J.K. Coy Here
We search the places that someone has promised us they’ve checked.
No socks in the drawer, just check the drawer.
No toilet paper left in the cupboard, just check the cupboard.
No milk left in the fridge, just check the fridge.
It’s a fantastic starting place for every Mom detective.
So I held my breath, and I lowered my stomach to the floor, flash light in hand. Low and behold, there you were, waiting quietly in the darkness beneath the couch. The same couch I was guarenteed had been checked.
Well played W, well played.
Once I find the red crayon and plastic egg, you’re all in timeout.
One time I got after my parents for wasting too many wipes when they were changing the baby for me.
With my first baby there were so many unspoken rules.
Not the real rules like babies should sleep on their backs, but silly rules I created in my head.
The strangest one, that I can remember right now, is that I decided we would use just one wipe for pee diapers and two wipes for poop diapers. One time I got after my parents for wasting too many wipes when they were changing the baby for me.
Looking back it was ludicrous that I thought I needed to control the number of wipes we used each time.
It’s clear I just felt like I needed to be in control of something. My world was spinning out of control those first few months as a new mom, and I didn’t know how to deal.
Well let me tell you, there is no counting of wipes with the second baby. Not because I don’t love her as much to try to control everything in the world, but because I have more perspective.
The second child gets the hand-me-down goods (like this repurposed sign:) and a more relaxed mama.
Besides, this baby has her own agenda. The moment I start wiping her, she decides to start peeing again. If I’m lucky I can whip the diaper back up in time. But when she’s really cunning, she waits until I have just removed the old diaper, to swap in the new one, and she lets loose. Needless to say, there is a lot of wash. I thought getting peed on was supposed to be a boy thing? Shows how much I know.
It doesn’t matter how many wipes I “intended” to use, I am wiping all the lady parts down again. I burn through wipes faster than I can count. And it’s ok, because #2ndtimemom here. Who the heck cares?!
As annoying as she can be, that frozen girl was on to something. LET IT GO.
First time moms, second time moms, all the moms – what are/were you trying to control in motherhood that is plain crazy when you can think rationally about it?
For some of you, you are probably too deep in to new motherhood for you to pinpoint it now. But if your brain literally hurts all the time (like mine did), and you can barely think in full sentences, there are probably a few things on your list to start letting go of.
I don’t want to be the only crazy person up in here. Feel free to share your #crazymom moment.
You’re in a safe place. I’ve got your back mamacita;)
Which was harder for you – the last two weeks of your pregnancy, or the first two weeks home with your newborn?
Here’s a recipe for an internet disaster: Tell a bunch of tired and hormonal women to RELAX already.
But I can’t. I literally can not hear another women complain about needing her baby out NOW without adding another perspective.
Comment Credit: Nurture Pregnancy App
Note: If you are a nurse or a well meaning friend or family member – please don’t add to that notion either. Help these women relax! Buy them ice cream, rub their feet, but don’t make them feel like their baby NEEDS to come out now.
Comment Credit: Nurture Pregnancy App
This P.S.A. is coming from someone that is currently “past due” by almost a week, so I’m in the trenches too. But not for a second will I be fooled that I can’t wait a few more days for my baby to arrive. Passing your due date is not a reason to panic. It doesn’t mean something is wrong with your body or your baby. You don’t need to start planning your induction the second you reach your last month of pregnancy. I mean, your baby WILL arrive. I have never heard of one baby that grew up and graduated in their mother’s womb.
Comment Credit: Nurture Pregnancy App
Don’t get too caught up in the labor signs either. Some of us have Braxton Hicks and start dilating weeks before baby makes an appearance. Some of us go from 0-10 cm dilated in less than twenty four hours with no prior labor signs. Neither is right or wrong. Our bodies are unique. Our babies are unique. Relax mamas-to-be. You are almost there. Your baby will arrive any day now.
Comment Credit: Nurture Pregnancy App
Trust me, I get it, you are uncomfortable right now. Your ankles may be swollen, your skin may be tight and itchy, you can’t find a comfortable sleeping position. That’s all real.
But I hate to break it to you, you aren’t going to be comfortable for awhile.
If you’ve never been through it or in case you’ve forgotten, once baby arrives, your body is still not the one you are longing to return to for awhile. The unglamorous truth is that your body will be bleeding for a few weeks afterwards, statistically you’ll probably be recovering from stitches (vaginally or a c-section), and you still won’t be getting any sleep.
Comment Credit: Nurture Pregnancy App
Sure you won’t be waking up to pee and reposition every few hours; instead it will be to soothe and feed a crying baby. Your boobs will be huge, leaky, and overly sensitive. Your mind won’t be able to shut off because you have a newborn to check on.
I’m not saying this to scare you. I’m just honestly wondering, do those sound like great alternatives to rush through the last days of your pregnancy?
Comment Credit: Nurture Pregnancy App
Personally, I am in no rush. Baby will come, and I will be thrilled when she does. In the meantime, I am trying to relax, even in my super preggo body. Because relaxing and thinking in concise thoughts is something the newborn stage doesn’t often afford.
Have you read Love You to Pieces, Beautiful Monster or My Mom is the Worst? These children’s books offer a good laugh to a tired parent, and make a great gift. Check them out here.
For the women on the other side of pregnancy: Which was harder for you – the last two weeks of your pregnancy, or the first two weeks home with your newborn?
I wanted to create a place for parents to say “I’m struggling every day. Anyone with me?” But I also want to remember –
I am a parent. I love my child. She cracks me up. She brings me joy every day.
My husband and I attended a parenting conference this weekend. He absolutely loves when I sign him up for this kind of thing.
But I know we both gained some valuable insight. One of the analogies that has stuck with me this week is the idea of bringing home a jar full of marbles (936 to be exact) with your newborn.
Every week, sometimes it feels like every hour, we run in to parenting situations that make us feel like we are literally losing our marbles.
When will they sleep? When will they grow out of this stage? Where did they learn that? When will they grow up? Where did that attitude come from?
But we are literally losing our marbles. Each marble represents a week that we get with our child before they leave home at eighteen (give or take a few marbles). With each week we lose one more opportunity to influence, to love, and to mold our children.
The analogy reminds me that the time with my child is not infinite. Though, the hours can certainly feel that way. It is human and honest to admit my child is driving me crazy. I just don’t want to let myself forget to value the chaos and memories we have together now.
So why am I raving about pants that aren’t even mine, that I plan to wear to the max, and that I’m going to return?
I’m in love with my pants. Hands down they are the most comfortable thing I’ve worn, pregnant or not. The weird thing is, they aren’t mine. Even weirder, I intend to return them.
I’ve worn them three days in a row now and I plan to wear them every day until Baby Two arrives, and probably for a week or two after that. Then, back they go. No point in keeping them since I’ll soon be out of maternity sizes.
My Current Obsession: These Pants!
So why am I raving about pants that aren’t even mine, that I plan to wear to the max, and that I’m going to return?
It’s because over three years ago I joined a rent and return clothing exchange called Le Tote. I initially joined long before I was pregnant, but now this service has carried me through two pregnancies, and all the time in between. Weddings, interviews, casual days, parties, business meetings, trends I wasn’t sure I could pull off, trends I didn’t want to commit to, a growing belly, a shrinking belly – the service has been there with me through it all.
For the first two trimesters I can typically craft something together to wear – a rubber band to give me more room on your pants button, a flowy dress, or leggings and a long shirt – but by that third trimester it starts getting really iffy. That’s when I switch from the regular Tote Box to the Maternity Box for a few months.
Sign up for a monthly plan (cancel at any time). When I’m not pregnant I do the five piece box (three clothing items/two accessories). When I’m pregnant I do the Maternity Box with three pieces (two clothing items/one accessory). They have plenty of name brands to pick from – Lucky, Kate Spade, Jessica Simpson, Vince Camuto, Calvin Klein, etc. and accessories include jewelry, scarfs, and handbags!
Le Tote curates the shipment for you based on style preference, fit, time of year – and then you have 48 hrs. before they ship it to go in to your account and swap items if you want. *I do this almost every time because I usually have an event coming up that I want specific items for.
Your Tote clothing arrives in the mail with a preprinted mailer for your free return shipment.
Wear the items as long as you want (you don’t even have to wash them before you return them), and drop them in the mail. If it’s during the same month, you get to pick more clothes without paying anything else. I typically get three boxes a month for one monthly fee. Ladies, that’s like 15 items for about $60 a month! Plus you can add insurance for five bucks a month in case anything happens to the clothes. Mother’s of little ones, it’s worth the peace of mind.
If you ever want to keep items – they offer awesome discounts off the retail price. But don’t feel like you have to. The premise is wear, return, repeat!
Hoping you find some clothes that make you as happy as my cozy pants make me. Everyone deserves to love their pants and everything else in their closet!
Do you remember when you were a kid and your 1980’s Nintendo started freaking out for some unknown reason. You would just hit that reset button multiple times until it finally worked out its kinks. That’s exactly what I needed, a reset.
I started this morning on the wrong page.
I logged in to my January sales numbers and was not excited by what I saw. Effort and sales were not matching my expectations. It made me freeze up. It made me question myself. It started a negative reel in my head. And negative thinking is a slippery slope. It breeds self doubt.
After an hour I noticed I was sitting in the same spot, getting no where, just feeling worse than before. Do you remember when you were a kid and your 1980’s Nintendo started freaking out for some unknown reason. You would just hit that reset button multiple times until it finally worked out its kinks. That’s exactly what I needed, a reset.
Neil Godwin | GamesMaster Magazine | Getty Images
So I finally pulled my butt out of the desk chair, got away from my computer, and decided to actively participate in a reset with an easy fifteen minute workout.
Here are some “resets” that typically work well…
A Workout: Sometimes this means a really good sweat session if time allows. Other times it means getting away from the screen and just committing to moving. When I used to work in an office this would often take shape in a walk around the complex to clear my head. Now that I work from home, it often means walking the dog, or grabbing the pair of 10 lb. weights I keep in my office and setting my phone timer for 15 minutes. Other times it is just stretching. Ideas seem to come to me more clearly when my body is active.
Ideas On A Page: Walk away from the computer and go old school (as old school as that 1980’s Nintendo I referenced). Grab PAPER and a PEN. Weird, I know. Spend five minutes jotting down a list of all the things you could do next to get to your big goal (Your sales quota, the next meeting you are trying to get, the blog traffic goal you set, the promotion you are going after). All ideas are fair game. After the five minutes are up, reread your list. What is the ONE THING on that list that will have the biggest impact on reaching that big goal in the long run? You know which one it is, even if it’s not the one you feel like doing. That’s the one you must do next. Stop rereading the list looking for an out. Get to work on THE ONE.
Gratitude: When I seriously can’t get a grip on my negative thoughts, I have to force myself to pause and think of somethings I am grateful for. This morning my list included: I get to work from home right now, my efforts today will continue to pay off in the future in ways I cannot see yet, and that I live in a place where “winter” means sixty degree weather on a rough day. Gratitude can also manifest in what we do for others. Pause your negative track long enough to write someone an encouraging note, or grab a coffee for your childcare provider, and see how you feel afterwards!
My fifteen minute workout actually ended up being a five minute workout and a ten minute dance party. My dog told me I looked ridiculous. And I did. But I was also in a much better head space by the time I finished.
It might be hard to start a full on dance party at the office, but one of these other tips should do the trick to reset your thinking.
Who knew coming to a children’s book website was going to make you a millionaire and save you thousands?!
Numbers never came easy for me. My math grades consistently weighed me down throughout the years. But as I grew up, I’ve become fascinated by what math can do. I
think I first got into it when I learned about compound interest while reading Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover, around the same time I was starting my first “real job” as a mortgage loan officer.
Assuming a 12% interest rate, photo cred. @DaveRamsey.com
and paying off your mortgage seven years early (don’t pay a company for this advice – the trick is taking one of your monthly Principal and Interest Payments, dividing it by 12, and adding that to your monthly payment so you have essentially made one extra payment per year). You will save THOUSANDS in interest.
Who knew coming to a children’s book website was going to make you a millionaire and save you thousands?! You can now spare a few bucks to check out my children’s books, and maybe even send a set to a friend. ***Hey I’m about to have another baby and you don’t get maternity pay when you are self employed, so I can’t be above shameless self promotion.***
Anyways, today I wanted to share some other numbers with you. They are the metrics behind the Facebook ads I’ve been placing (you can follow me on Facebook @StoriesbyJKCoy). As marketers we know social media advertising is important, but it can become overwhelming and difficult to know if our spending is moving the needle. Hopefully these will give you a point of comparison for your own social media marketing efforts.
There are so many metrics that can be tracked, and I am still learning. I’m also experimenting with Amazon ads, so expect future posts on that. But today I am going to throw out where my different Facebook ad types are bench-marking.
Below are results for the last 45 days. That is around the time I published my second children’s book (My Mom is the Worst), launched this website, and have gotten more focused on testing and tracking my marketing efforts. I am going to refer to everything at Cost Per Click (CPC). Facebook sometimes refers to these metrics as Cost Per Result because some ads have different goals: getting viewers to watch a video, leave a comment, like a fan page, visit a website, sign up for an event, etc.)
2. Post Engagements (Comments/Shares/etc.): 3 ads, $0.06 CPC Avg., $0.04-$0.16 CPC Range
3. Facebook Fan Page Likes: 2 ads, $0.59 CPC Avg., $0.40-$1.80 CPC Range
Engagement is good. Engagement creates a relationship with customers. It creates fans, and raving fans are happy to market for you even when you aren’t around. So for that, I am pumped to be able to drive a potential fan to this blog to read about a topic that connects with them for $0.12.
But as I said, maternity leave is just around the corner, and we gotta keep a roof over our heads. So, I need to know how this all equates to book sales. Sign up to follow the blog to get email updates as soon as I hit publish on the next marketing results post.
And be sure to add Love You to Pieces Beautiful Monster and My Mom is the Worst to your book collection. (Yep, I’m still trying to fund that maternity leave. The more books I sell, the longer my husband will let me stay home. Kidding….maybe…).
$$$ Remember the thousands I saved you, you awesome little millionaire?!:) $$$
Feel free to let me know how your own Facebook Ad CPC’s compare, and whether you have seen a direct impact on your sales, in the comments. I appreciate your vulnerability. We can all stand to learn from each other.
I got this mailer from my hospital the other day. They mention the pampering experience you receive in the Labor and Delivery ward. That should be illegal.
Watch out! It’s officially birth month. Something pretty large is exiting my body soon whether I like it or not.
Insta Photo Cred @mayavorderstrasse
My due date is Jan. 23rd. So I’m currently 38.5 wks. pregnant. Some might say baby is due any day. Which is possible. But really anytime between Jan. 9th and Feb. 6th should be considered “ordinary” since due dates are an approximation and two weeks “early” or “late” is the normal window in which your body is likely to go in to labor.
In fact, according to Glow’s Nurture Pregnancy App. 95% of babies aren’t born on their due dates. Just 25% of babies come “early” and 70% of babies come “late.”
So, that said, I am just over here trying to keep my cool and enjoy these final weeks before a tiny dictator becomes the center of my universe.
In reality I am excited and nervous at the same time. Birth is like a beautiful body and mind *ss kicking that can sneak up on you at any moment. So psychologically, that’s a blast.
I’ve been trying to stay healthy, positive, and busy to avoid getting stuck in my own head. Birth will happen in its own time, so in the meantime, here is how I’m keeping my mind from fearing birth during these final weeks…
Staying Active: I don’t feel quite as strong, or as active, as my first pregnancy, but I’m still making a decent effort. I’m stretching, doing short (15-20 min.) body weight to 10 lb. weight workouts, and walking. The better shape I keep my body in, the more likely it will be ready to be my teammate in labor.
Relaxing: My bubble bath habits have gotten a bit out of control. Between finishing our master bath remodel and my baby belly growing much faster this time around, baths happen almost every other night. I am not a big t.v. watcher, so the tub is likely where you’ll find me after 8 pm. I also like to get massages. I didn’t enjoy some of the wimpy prenatal massages I received with the first pregnancy. So now that I am in the “birth month” window, I feel comfortable getting a firm massage again, with no fear of it setting me in to labor. At this point, baby is developed. Plus I feel like this aligns my spine and pelvis, which is helpful for baby’s exit strategy.
Checking Things Off My To-Do List: Some of the things are rational, and I really would like to accomplish them before baby arrives: washing the infant car seat that have been in the dusty garage for a year, setting up some book marketing efforts for my children’s books that can run in the background, girl time with my friends. But other silly things just get added on when I start to panic that I will never have free time again – like washing the living room curtains, transplanting my succulents, and filing every piece of paperwork in my house.
Adulting – When you start to think about creating new life, you also start thinking about how you need to get your ducks in a row. With the first baby, our adulting goal was to pay off the remainder of our hefty student loans before our daughter was born. We managed to pay them off the month she was born, except the joke was on us when her monthly daycare and diaper bills ate up all the money we thought we were going to be savings. Kids are fun. This time around, our adulting goal was to write a will. We managed to finish it, but are waiting to file it until we have a name and birth date for Baby Two. But, at least we now have it on paper, and know what each of our wishes are, if needed.
Filling My Head With Positive Thoughts: Is child birth going to hurt? Yup. Am I going to have to try to push through that to have the birth I want? Yup. Is it going to be a walk in the park? Nope. And even with my best intentions, plenty of unforeseen things could still come up. But, having no plan, is like planning to fail. So, I’m filling my head with positive birth stories through the resources I mentioned here, and leaving the rest to the higher power at be.
I got this mailer from my hospital the other day. They mention the pampering experience you receive in the Labor and Delivery ward. That should be illegal.
Unless they now paint my toe nails and tell me I’m pretty during labor, leave chocolates on my pillow during turn down service, and my girly parts feel relaxed and rejuvenated when I go how with my newborn two days later, a pampering experience is a slight overstatement.
I’ll report back in a few weeks and let you know how that pampering experience played out.
Eventually my first pregnancy got to the point that I could no longer ignore that this baby was exiting my body, whether I liked it or not. So I decided to educate myself on childbirth.
Something you should probably know about me: I get real squeamish around anything medical.
I don’t like hospitals. I don’t like feeling like a patient. I didn’t like watching ER, back in the day. I would try to watch, because, you know, Mr. Clooney. But, I’d be caught off guard, every episode, by some bodily fluid spraying out. GROSS.
Many of my family members work in hospitals. I plug my ears when they share medical stories at the dinner table.
When it comes to medication, I’ve always erred on the side of less is more. You’ve all seen the commercials where the list of possible side effects sounds far worse than the things the medicine is supposed to treat.
And, I pretty much blacked out during health class. Too much information about the inner workings of my body.
All that said, I’m not sure if that made me a more, or less, likely candidate for natural childbirth.
But eventually my first pregnancy got to the point that I could no longer ignore that this baby was exiting my body, whether I liked it or not. So I decided to educate myself on childbirth, using the six resources I mention in this post, plus lots of stories of woman with positive birth experiences. (Sign up to follow the blog and you will get an alert when the rest of the series is added).
Below are the reasons I found in favor of natural childbirth. Some are fact based, some are preference based. This list was enough to encourage me to make natural childbirth Plan A.
A 32% US Cesarean Rate, According to the CDC:
Really?! So one third of woman are now incapable of safely delivering their baby? Bull Sh*t. There are scenarios where a cesarean is most definitely life saving for mom and baby, but there were two instances I was not comfortable with: medical interventions that lead to a cesarean (more on that later), and doctors and mothers that casually consider a cesarean a modern option for any inconvenient pregnancy issue. I’ve heard stories of mothers scheduling cesareans so they could pick a special date, chose their time off based on work schedules or visitors being in town, because they are told their baby is to big on the ultrasound, because they don’t want to push, because they had a c-section before, because a woman has a small-frame she is told she will have trouble pushing out a baby, or just generally because labor is not progressing and the mom is getting too tired. The list goes on. I can’t understand why these are sufficient reasons to under go major surgery. 32% was very discouraging to me. I needed to arm myself with the best possible scenario for avoiding becoming part of this statistic.
One Medical Intervention Often Leads to Another:
Many women that are part of that 32% cesarean rate, don’t enter the hospital thinking that will be their fate. They have the best intentions to labor and deliver vaginally. But then the realities of modern medicine intervene.
1. An epidural is administered for pain management, labor slows down because your body no longer feels the natural sensations, nurses administer pitocin (almost 30% of births use pitocin or other induction methods) to speed up labor which causes contractions to intensify (mom often doesn’t notice because she’s had the epidural), baby starts to go in to distress because of the unnatural intensity and frequency of these super contractions, the babies heart rate spikes to unsafe levels, mom is taken in for an emergency c-section to save the baby.
2. A mother is at, or past, her due date so an induction is scheduled. The doctors try to artificially start and progress labor, which can lead to the same scenario described above.
Again, cesareans are a great option to have when things go wrong, but if the medical interventions used to speed labor ultimately lead to the cesarean, we are a victim of our own medical side effect commercial. Medical intervention comes with side effects, and I didn’t like the course that those interventions could put me on. So I chose to avoid step one, the epidural, in hopes of avoiding the other interventions.
I Wanted Support, Not Ulterior Motives, Driving My Birth Decisions:
Many hospitals have standards about how quickly you need to progress in labor before they offer ways to intervene – for your benefit, of coarse.
And, most doctors will only be there for the last few minutes before baby arrives, leaving you to labor alone or intermittently with a nurse.
I knew labor would be difficult, and possibly scary. As a woman you really have no idea what it will feel like. You don’t get a practice run. I knew I wanted a support system that would be there with me for the challenging parts, and keep me calm. I figured the best way to do that would be to hire a midwife. Because the majority of midwives regularly attend natural births, I felt comfortable trusting my midwife during the birth process. You would never hire a coach that hasn’t regularly achieved that outcome you want. That would be silly. Why would I leave my intentions of a natural birth to someone that doesn’t regularly do it, nor encourage it?
I initially looked for a doula to come alongside my OB-GYN, but found that most were more than I had to spend. Fortunately, I ended up finding a midwife that was approved to deliver at my hospital (I live in Orange County, CA – not some small town, and astonishingly there was still just one midwife approved to deliver at my hospital, at that time). This meant insurance would cover it. I got the best of both worlds: an experienced and encouraging coach and doctor, in a hospital setting in case any issues came up.
Walking Around to Labor, Temporarily Wearing the External Fetal Monitor to Check on Baby
I Didn’t Want to Feel Like a Patient:
As I explained, I don’t like medical stuff, which includes feeling like a patient. By forgoing the epidural I was able to wear my own clothes (no paper hospital gown), walk around the room, try any position I wanted to find comfort during contractions, soak in the bathtub in my hospital room, eat and drink, push in any position I wanted (instead of flat on my back – which actually makes your pelvis more narrow), and generally deal with the pain on my own terms with a trained and encouraging support partner.
Labor and delivery was hard work, but I felt like my body was doing something powerful and natural. I was not damaged goods, waiting for a doctor to make me better.
Your body is not a lemon. Our creator is not careless. Your body was made for this.
Come back for the rest of the series – my natural birth story, and mentally preparing for my upcoming delivery of baby two. (Sign up to follow the blog and you will get an alert when the rest of the series is added).
Note: my intention is not to shame anyone that has had a different birth experience from mine. My intent is to provide a positive example of what birth can be, in spite of what most of us are exposed to about child birth in the United States. Educate yourself so you can feel comfortable with your own decisions.
My Mom is the Worst 