Got the Smile!

As it turns out, all I needed to do to get smile pictures was take Owen to visit Grandma and Grandpa!

(I haven't forgotten about birth story part two--it's coming soon.)

Owen's Birth Story, part one

I'm sure that many of you have heard Owen's birth story, but I wanted to write it out anyway, so I thought I would post it here for anyone who is interested. Here is the first installment:

Soon after getting pregnant, like most pregnant people I imagine, I began to think about giving birth. I was intrigued by the idea of natural childbirth, but thought it was for people much tougher than I. I knew a few people who’d had good experiences giving birth without medication, but wasn’t sure if I was up for it. I decided to do some reading about it and not make any quick decisions about what kind of birth I wanted to have. After doing some reading, (especially The Thinking Woman’s Guide to a Better Birth and Birthing From Within) I was convinced that I wanted an unmedicated birth, but I wasn’t sure I would be able to do it. I’ve never been a fan of pain or hard physical work and I was afraid I just wouldn’t be able to handle the work or the pain of labor without medication.

I decided that taking a class would improve my chances so I went in search of a class. I looked at websites for Bradley method, Lamaze, and any other natural childbirth class I could find. In the midst of my search, I had a doctor’s appointment. The practice I was with at the time had both obstetricians and midwives who delivered babies. At the prenatal appointments patients would see various doctors and midwives, hopefully seeing most of them in the course of pregnancy in order to have met whoever would be on call when it was labor time. At this particular appointment, I was seeing one of the doctors (the only doctor that I saw, actually; the rest of my appointments were with midwives) and at the end of my appointment, I mentioned that I was considering an ummedicated birth and asked if he had any recommendations about a particular method. Now, in these books that I had been reading, they tell you things that some doctors will say to discourage women from having unmedicated childbirth. “Some doctors may say those things,” I would think, “but not my doctors. They work in a practice with midwives so they must have some appreciation for natural childbirth.” So imagine my surprise when my doctor started saying word for word what the books said doctors would say: “Anesthesia today is very safe and effective.” “Childbirth is the only medical procedure where people would even consider not having anesthesia.” “Natural childbirth is really unnecessary.” He practically compared the birth of a baby to a root canal. I don’t think that everyone needs to have a natural childbirth. I am grateful for modern medicine, especially in emergency cases, and I think that women should have the option for pain relief if they want it. But there can be both physical and psychological benefits to an unmedicated birth—it’s not the same thing as refusing anesthesia for a knee replacement. I left feeling discouraged, but not deterred. If anything, by listening to my doctor summarily dismiss my thoughts and feelings about childbirth I became stronger in my resolve to do everything I could to have the birth experience I thought would be best for both me and my baby.

One of the advantages to the kind of practice I was with was that I saw someone different each time so if I didn’t like the answer to a question from one person, I just asked the same question again the next time. So at my next appointment, I still hadn’t decided what kind of class to take so I asked the midwife the same question I had asked the doctor the month before. Her answer couldn’t have been more different. She was genuinely excited that I was considering natural childbirth and told me about her experience with natural childbirth. When I asked if she had a method she recommended, she told me she had seen really amazing results with Hypnobirthing.

It’s one thing to tell people you are planning to have an unmedicated childbirth and another thing to tell them you are taking Hypnobirthing classes. But after looking into Hypnobirthing and talking to the local instructor, David Todd and I both were impressed and signed up for the class. Hypnobirthing is similar to other methods with one major difference: it claims that childbirth doesn’t have to be painful. Sounds crazy, I know. But I sat in the classes and listened to women tell the stories of their births and say that they wouldn’t describe their births as painful. So we went to classes and I listened to tapes and practiced relaxation techniques. As I got closer to the time of my birth, I found that was wasn’t afraid of labor anymore. I didn’t know what would happen and I was curious and nervous a little bit, but I wasn’t scared of the pain anymore. I knew that things could happen to prevent me from having a natural birth, but I no longer thought that I wouldn’t be able to handle it.

A major change in our plans occurred when we decided to take the opportunity to move to Dallas. Although I was nervous about changing healthcare providers at 36 weeks, I was excited about the possibility of having my baby at a birth center instead of a hospital. There weren’t really any birth center options that I knew of in the DC area, but when we started to look, there were a few places in the Dallas area. After meeting with them and touring the facility, we decided to go to the Birth and Women’s Center in Dallas.

So at the beginning of May, I had made the 20+ hour car trip without going into labor and was moved into the new place, waiting to go into labor.

Smile Pictures

So Owen has been smiling for awhile, but I we didn't have any pictures of him smiling so I thought I'd try to get a picture of him smiling. So my plan was to set him in his bouncy chair, get him to smile and snap a picture. Here was the problem: my camera shines a light in his face for a few seconds before it flashes takes the picture. The light had the repeated effect of causing Owen to make some other facial expression besides smiling.

At first, he was mildly amused.

Honestly, mom, would you stop flashing that light in my face.

Then I had the brilliant idea of taking him outside where there was plenty of light and so the camera wouldn't need a flash. There were two problems. 1. It was about 800 degrees outside. 2. I didn't need a flash, but it was so bright I might as well have been flashing his face constantly.

So, no smile pictures for now, but you can see his buzz cut.