Birth goals

With the new year on the horizon I've been thinking about goal setting. I recently got something in the mail from someone I've worked with that had some ideas about resolutions and new beginnings. I was going over some of these things and wanted to apply them to birth. I've made a handout that I'm going to share with my clients when we go over "birth plans". Here are some of the details from the handout. One of my goals for this year is to post more regularly in this blog and keep it birth related. We'll see!

1 - Choose your goal
Specifically ask yourself, what is it that I want? Write it down!

2- What will make attaining this easier?
Attending a childbirth class, hiring a doula, planning a homebirth, attending ICAN, LLL or other supportive meetings, choosing a supportive doctor or midwife.

3- What's my motivation?
Why is this type of birth important to you? What are your beliefs about birth?

4- Obstacles and solutions.
Write out your obstacles that hinder your goals and possible solutions to help you overcome these obstacles.

5- What's my roadmap to success?
Create a plan. Figure out what you need to help you achieve your goal - then do it!

6- My moral support
List the people you can rely on who will truly be supportive of what you need. People can have specific roles, or just be there to count on for positive conversation, meals, babysitting, or labor support.

7- Visualize
Imagine yourself achieving your goal. Where are you? How are you feeling? Who is with you? What is going on around you?

8- My slogan
Think positive! Use affirmations such as, "my body was created to do this", "I am beautiful and healthy", and "I can do this!".

I have not been productive at all today so my brain feels like mush. I've been trying to clean out closets but my sweet little guy is on a nursing kick. It's great because I can sit and chill (and surf the net!) but I really want to get some stuff done! To everything there is a season. The closets will wait and I'll enjoy this time!

the one with breasts

So I was reading a thing about weaning your baby and this lady said she really wanted her breasts back and her husband really wanted them back. I have nursed every day for the past 5 years and 3 months except for a few weeks during one pregnancy. I do not like nursing during pregnancy very much. But we did it and it was ok and it made everyone happier in the end. I like breasts though. They're great. And my nurslings like my breasts. They both get incredibly excited when they see them. My husband - I'm sure he'd say he likes them too, except that the moment he hears the word "breasts" he probably stops thinking a little bit. (I don't know if he reads this so I can probably make fun of him all I want. If he gets mad I can show him the breasts right?)

I read another article, this time in Newsweek, about "mommy makeovers". You know, the plastic surgery we get after we have kids so we don't look like we had kids? I'm lazy so I'm not going to go get the magazine and quote but this lady said something great about how- hey! we're not 20 anymore and we had kids! What's so wrong with looking like that? Plenty I guess. And then someone ordered me a subscription to Glamour in my maiden name and it's being sent to my parents. They have implant ads, much like pharmaceutical ads. The back page of the add lists all the adverse reactions and such and I had no idea that they were so problematic. In the first 7 years or something there's around a 50% chance of needing them replaced. And it said in there that an augmentation is not a one time surgery, that you should expect to do it multiple times in your life. And doesn't it hurt? Because that would be the biggest turn off for me. I used to be not entirely happy with my body, mostly because of crap like that. We can doctor and photoshop everyone and then plaster it all over and say THIS is beautiful when nobody really looks like that. I just want everyone to feel beautiful. My friend Bonnie has a website called The Shape of a Mother that I just love. It's a service to women everywhere.

But back to my boobs. I am nursing a now 3 year old and a 5 month old. And I am wanting to be done with the 3 year old. I have never weaned a child before - I have fully believed in child lead weaning. Until now. Until I had this child that screams and kicks and hits and begs and cries to nurse. I do not want to be cruel. I don't want to take something from him that he obviously feels that he needs. But I want to be done with it. And it's so hard because my boobs are always there because of the baby.

Have you ever weaned a toddler? What did you do? (If any of these ideas could help him magically sleep in his own bed, I would love that too!)