Submitted by TaftMommy
How exciting! Getting closer. :)

Birth
Submitted by Anonymous
How can you want your little son to be present at a birth? I mean he's so young...this will be such a shock for him. I know a family who wanted the kids to be present at the birth of the last baby. All the kids afterwards said that they NEVER wanted to have kids. And besides...I wouldn't want my kids to see me like that.

Children at births
Submitted by Tammy
Hi, Anonymous! :)

Well, Yehoshua came into the room about 1 minute after Eliyahu was born, and it wasn't shocking or gross! :) Our home births have been pretty peaceful and relaxed, and I don't have a problem with my child seeing me holding a freshly-born baby. :) I suppose if you're imagining the mom being completely naked and covered in blood, well, that might be shocking. But that's not how my births have been. :)

That said, I don't plan to "make" our children be at the birth. I probably won't want them running around or touching me while I'm laboring... but I know I'll want them to see their new sibling right away! :)

Submitted by mama
That was my thought too "oh no not the toddler in the same room:):)
You look radiant....happy! When are you due?

Due date
Submitted by Tammy
Thanks! We're expecting the baby to come in February... perhaps... one never knows. ;)

Book Rec
Submitted by Anonymous
When I was pregnant with my second we read "Welcome With Love"  to our 2yo. I highly recommend it. I don't know what your birth plans our, but this book depicts a home birth, explains the umbilical cord and placenta and such in a very age appropriate way for toddlers and preschoolers. He wasn't in the room when his brother was actually born (I was planning to let him in if he wanted, but when it got to be time to push I just didn't want him there), but like your son he came in right after his brother was born. He also visited a lot during labor. None of it bothered him at all and he seemed to think it was perfectly normal for mom to be giving birth up in the bedroom while he played with his cousin downstairs!

Children in the room
Submitted by Anonymous
My first two children are ten years apart. I had my oldest daughter in the room with me when her sister was born. She did get a little stressed right at the point of delivery because I yelled a couple of times. She cried when the baby was born (as did everyone in the room). That daughter is now a college freshman and claims to want five or six children. I say that having kids in the birthing room is fine as long as there is an adult available to take them out if something goes wrong or if the child gets upset.

Submitted by Anonymous
I'm due in February too...around the 18. My belly is so tiny compared to yours....I wouldn't be surprised if you had your new little one in January instead! And I don't think it is strange to want your children there at all...homebirth sounds wonderful, and a way to really bond the family. I could never do it...my babies always have required me to be on IV because their heartrate goes sky high during labor. But you know what works for your family and what is good for them....can't wait to see your new bundle of joy!

Submitted by Lilyofthevalley
You look lovely, Tammy! It was nice to read your pregnancy update. :)

~Tanya

Vitamins...Prenancy
Submitted by Anonymous
Hi there-
I've always been a Shaklee vitamin person myself, but I too, loved the SUPER MOM vitamins. I really had a lot more energy when I used them. Thank you for sharing your third trimester photo...you are beautiful with your pregnant glow. I know that you must be so thrilled to be counting down the days until you hold your little one. We'll be praying for you.

Tracy
`www.LinesFromTheVine.com

Looking Good Mama!
Submitted by Anonymous
Glad all is well Tammy, how exciting this time is for a family.

Children at the birth
Submitted by Anonymous
I don't think it's proper (biblically) for a child to see his / her mother's body. I don't see how one can be in the room and not 'see the view'. I know it's a bit different of a situation but Noah's son was cursed for not 'covering his father's nakedness; (Genesis 9:20-27).
Also, your son will learn about the birthing process when he gets to the proper age. In a day and age where all things sexual are explained to kids so young in the public schools, I think we don't need to follow their example. God has meant for things to be taught to us as we mature, not when toddlers.
Coming in a few minutes later when the birth is all over and you are all covered properly, of course that is wonderful! That exitement is probably enough for your children. No need for them to see you struggling through the birth. I've had home births which have been wonderful but I still know labor is hard. Even my husband feels to helpless when I'm going through it and he's a grown man. No need to put a child through that!
Just my thoughts. I believe they are Biblical (which I think you strive to follow) and will stand firm on them.

kids in the room
Submitted by Anonymous
I was 2 1/2 when my sister was born. I was at the neighbor's house while my mom was in labor, but I was woken and brought home as soon as the baby was born. I was 4 when my brother was born. I was there for the delivery. I don't remember being grossed out, horrified, or anything of the sort. We have albums of (graphic) birth pictures from all three of our births. I think they're cool. And I want several children myself.

Submitted by Anonymous
Wow! Your tummy is pretty big! I think I was that big with mine the last month...but he was also my first. You look radiant and lovely like an expecting Mamma should. :D

The multivitamin topic
Submitted by Anonymous
The multivitamin topic interests me. In my first two pregnancies, I could hardly take a vitamin until close to week 20 of the pregnancies due to morning sickness (bad stuff morning sickness). My docs gave me these vanilla-flavored things, and to this day, a sickly sweet vanilla flavor turns me off completely. Anyways, with the third baby, the docs didn't prescribe or recommend vitamins at all. By week 25, I found some in the drugstore and took them just for precautions. Are vitamins necessary? I guess it's a case-by-case situation, of course. Better safe than sorry too, I guess.

As far as children attending births. . . there's another case-by-case situation. But I do have a friend who was present at the births of her two youngest siblings, and she's now a doula. She has always been in awe and respect of the process because of the attitudes her parents had about the whole situation.

You look great in your picture, Tammy! That's a beautiful belly!

Emily

Congrats!
Submitted by Anonymous
You look great! I'm expecting too, estimated due date is February 9th.

funny
Submitted by Anonymous
I think it is funny people are shocked by having a sibling near during the birth. I think it makes a lot more sense and is natural. This is another subject but I think one reason we (our age group) sometimes experiences a lot of trouble breastfeeding is from it being so "covered up" and hush-hush. If we all saw our mothers birth and breastfeed it might seem more natural, do-able, and normal!

Submitted by Jaclynn
I can tell you are bigger and you look great! I loved being present at some of my sibling's births, it is really a neat unforgettable experience.

Submitted by Anonymous
You are definitely glowing, as others have said! You look great!

I take those NOW vitamins, too. I love that I can save quite a bit of money while still getting the same benefits of Supermom. :) I definitely think that the vitamins help increase my energy.

I am planning another homebirth with this next baby (third baby, but only my second homebirth). My last one was born in the bathtub! It was an amazing experience and I hope to do another waterbirth next time (I'm due in April/May). I hope you'll share your birth story here; I love reading about other homebirths (well, I love all birth stories!).

I'm roasting some squash seeds right now, using your pumpkin seeds recipe. They smell yummy!

Take care and have a great weekend.

You look great!
Submitted by Martha Artyomenko
You really look wonderful!
It is one of the best ways to teach children about how natural and wonderful birth is, is to observe it themselves. I was at several of my siblings birth, even ended up delivering one when the midwife did not make it when I was 17 and my sister was 14. We did find out that mom made it look easy....
I did not have my boys there, but they came in after to see me and the baby right away.

Submitted by Anonymous
Are you sure you are not having twins?

-Zan

Submitted by joyfullyhis
Wow, you ARE getting big!! Hmm, sure you aren't having twins?
*grin*
But I forget when you are due... February?
That's so neat that your boys are really intersted and asking questions about the baby and already loving him/her. Precious!
Glad you were able to get those vitamins and for cheaper too. I've heard of NOW and how they are a really good place for getting vitamins etc...

~Samantha

Birth, vitamins, etc...
Submitted by Tammy
Thanks for the sweet comments, everyone! :)

I don't think we're having twins... I'm not any bigger than I was with Eliyahu! :) And he was 4 weeks past the "due date"! Although I really doubt hope this pregnancy doesn't last until March!! :)

About vitamins... well, I am skeptical of a lot of supplements that are sold... because a lot of them are rather useless (e.g. vitamins that don't even dissolve or get absorbed by the body!). So, I am rather selective about what vitamins I will spend money on. I don't want artificial colorings coating my "health supplement", for example! :) Anyway, my "take" is that when there is a dietary deficiency, a good vitamin supplement will fill that void. Vitamins shouldn't replace good FOOD, and yes, many people survive without ever taking a vitamin... but I do feel better when I remember to take my vitamins. And some conditions are quite obviously helped by supplements (for example, anemia during pregnancy has some great natural solutions!). :)

About children being at births -- I think what the child sees/hears will depend a lot on the mother and her delivery... for example, the location/position (water births can be really "modest"!), what she's wearing, etc... I also don't think that Genesis 9 should be used to prohibit a child from ever seeing their parent "uncovered" in any way. If I had a daughter who was interested in midwifery or being a doula, would it be okay for her to attend others' births, but not mine, since I'm her mother? :) I totally respect the fact that most people wouldn't want their children around while giving birth, but I don't think it's necesssarily sinful to allow it, that's all. :)

All that said, during both of my previous labors I have been a very "leave me alone!" type of person, and wanted the house dark and quiet... so there's probably a 90% chance that both children will just be playing in another room while I labor. :)

Submitted by Anonymous
Tell you the truth, I don't take any vitamins, except an occasional Flinstone. They make me too sick.

I don't think the Gen 9 passage applies, either. If that was the case than I am in deep trouble because I leave the bathroom door open when I shower and he comes in and out. Ooops. He sees me on the potty all the time. Am I the only mom who does this. I need to hear what my boys are doing? I don't trust them if I can't hear them and you when you gotta go, you gotta go. *shrugs*

-Zan

PS. The boys will not be near me when I have this baby. No way. I would be too irritated. LOL!

Learning ....
Submitted by Anonymous
I agree with what anonymous said in the post marked "Funny". I do think that our culture is skewed in what we view as acceptable and unacceptable in regards to these situations. Too often, women are looked curiously upon or even criticized for breast feeding in public or home births! Maybe our culture should be more open to promoting these healthy sides of sexuality instead of the other things I consider un-mentionables and the public does not. I was horrified to read in a Christian magazine about a report that a middle school was allowing 11 year old girls to be on birth control pills without even telling their parents!! And high school girls can get an abortion without even telling their parents!!

Welll....
Submitted by Jules
I'm still not sold on homebirth. I'm all for modern tecnology, including epidurals. God gave us medicine,knowledge. I'm learning to not get a bad taste in my mouth when someone mentions they homebirth. And realizing not everyone wants the nice sterile atomsphere of a hospital.

Breastfeeding in public, well, as long as you are covered, it doesn't really bother me. (Covered by a blanket or something.)

Hospitals are not sterile
Submitted by Joshua

Hospitals... sterile?

I would strongly challenge the notion that hospitals are "sterile". They may sterilize objects, but that doesn't mean the facility or its staff are appropriately sterilized at all times. I know a significant amount of my medical training was spent dealing with the causes, and prevention, of nosocomial infections (i.e. diseases contracted in the hospital). In the United States.

- 1 out of 10 (10%) of hospital patients acquire a nosocomial infection; that is about 2 million people a year.

- 88,000 people died in 1995 from nosocomial infections.

- 33% of nosocomial infections are considered "preventable" (i.e. substandard hospital procedures, like using hand sanitizer instead of washing hands) and 90% of deaths from nosocomial infections could be prevented.

These sort of statistics don't indicate the hospital is sterile--far from it. And why should it be? Hospitals are full of sick people with staff who travel from bed-to-bed to treat said people. Human error is part of the equation (not washing hands between every patient and/or not wearing gloves, breaking sterile fields or not following proper procedures, not cleaning basic equipment like stethoscopes, etc) but the reality is that objects like phones, desks, bed rails -- staff scrubs -- are typically changed between patient discharges or shift changes. So throughout the day these objects are touched. People come to the hospital sick and come in contact with handfuls of staff and dozens of other patients. If I have a cold there is a good chance I am going to spread it to someone else due to the sheer amount of contact with people (and objects, like pens at the sign in desk).

A cause of significant concern is the rise of drug resistant staph infections (MRSA), or other, "Superbugs". Hospitals do little testing for these infections and under some circumstances can kill a patient within days. At 94,000 infections a year and 18,650 deaths drug resistant staph is killing more people annually than HIV/AIDS in the United States. Yes, most of these cases contracted the infection from the hospital.

Hospitals are not sterile. They attempt to use sterile procedures and sterilize the majority of objects used in any invasive medical procedure. But that is just common sense stuff and it doesn't make hospitals sterile. Far from it.

Of course if you mean sterile "bland", then yeah, having odd men you don't know checking under your gown in lifeless, unfamiliar environments, then I guess that qualifies!

Submitted by Anonymous
No. They are not sterile. LOL! The week after I took my baby home, an OB nurse came down with whooping cough. Pretty scary!Thankfully, no babies were hurt. TH nurse was a "rent-a-nurse" so the quality of care highly depends on the employees.

I will say that in the OB unit, they try to imitate the home enviroment as much as possible.I labor and deliver in the same room and anything from the home enviroment is allowed, since that is where the baby will be headed in a few days. The entire room is washed with a solution that kills MRSA (I have been exposed to so much MRSA and our hospital tested all the time for it. I think that just about every patient from a nursing home had it; I am exaggerating...a little). People infected with MRSA or surgical patients or patients with infections are kept on another floor, completely seperate from OB and have different staff caring for them. OB is very strict about who can enter their ward.

The majority of docs I worked with were very considerate. They look under you gown to evaluate the bleeding. My doc did it once or twice because he relied on the nurses. Not all docs are careless jerks.

Submitted by Tammy
I do think that hospitals and doctors usually try to be as clean and considerate as possible... I have met a lot of nice doctors, for sure!! :) But the hospital is one of the last places I would want to go if I wanted to stay away from germs... and babies who are born at home are exposed to less outside "stuff". So... that explains why "not everyone wants the nice sterile hospital atmosphere". ;)

Submitted by ruthieroo
You look really well, Tammy!

My two cents about children at births:

I don't think the moral of the story about Ham uncovering his father's nakedness is that children shouldn't see their parents naked. Noah was drunk and unaware of his nakedness and Ham went to talk with his brothers about it (exposing his father's shame even more!) rather than doing what his brothers than did and covering him up. Ham's issue seems to me to be a lack of respect for his father. Unless we view childbirth as something shameful and demeaning we can't really use this story as a comparison at all! I hope I don't sound rude but I was rather taken aback at this example.:-) I'm all about teaching modesty and respect but I don't think that means you have to create an atmosphere of fear and shame around any situation that requires nakedness.

My 18 month old son was present when his baby sister was born. At that age he was so young that he didn't pay attention to a thing (he was running in and out the whole time) until there was an actual baby on my chest. I would have no qualms about having another child of his age and his temperament in the room should I have another baby. For a child any older I do agree you need to prepare a lot more for what they will see but I think it should always come down to freedom for the child to stay or leave and on the mother's part the freedom to say whether or not SHE wants anyone else there. I'm like Tammy and I do prefer to be mostly alone and unwatched so I don't know if I would have any older children in a room with me but I guess I'd wait and see. Like Tammy said, too, I think it does depend on the birth. A movie style "feet in stirrups facing a hospital door, surgical instruments, beeping machines" birth? Yeah, I think that would have scared even my not easily fazed 18 month old. But a birth like mine was literally, "Oh, that's mom walking around my house, she keeps disappearing into the bathroom, oh, now what's she doing? Oh hey a baby!" Sure, there was (some) blood and stuff like that but it wasn't very dramatic or messy, thanks be to God!:-D

Obviously the child being born isn't scarred for life from the way they enter the world, hey?;-)

Ruth

Children at Birth
Submitted by chopsuey
I'd have to say I've never thought about this subject personally, when thinking about my own future births. I think it would be a beautiful thing for my 3 year old to be there, but if it was right now (she is 2 - I'm not pregnant yet!) she probably wouldn't handle it very well, but I am just guessing based on her reaction to my husband and I tickle-fighting. She gets scared! But I don't think he'll be doing that during labour (LOL!!).
I had Sammie in a birthing centre room at the hospital where I work, which was a beautiful setting and felt just like home. They do have the option to have siblings in so it is definitely food for thought...
Sue (Australia)

You are glowing!
Submitted by Anonymous
Wow, third trimester already! Yay! I hope things continue to go well.

As for children present at birth, I think it all depends on the family and the age/gender of the children. I don't think boys should be present for that sort of thing (unless their the dad... or doctor of course... although I like my midwife!) But, daughters are another thing. I think age makes a difference too. A three year old (if their anything like mine was when we had our third) in my opinion is way too young just because they don't understand so much. I think it could be tramatizing at that age for both boys and girls. Even with my peaceful, perfect, quiet, dimmly lit water birth with our last baby, I'm glad that none of our other children saw me like that -- their both only 2 and 3.

As for the comment about epidurals, I'm glad you found something that worked for you. But, typically there are many dangers with an epi. Do research and you'll find that there are alternatives to obtaining painless births and having no side effects. Seriously --- with my last baby, I could've fallen asleep during transition, I felt so good. I wasn't tired or exhausted either; just completely relaxed and soothed. I never heard of an epi. birth being as wonderful as that birth was for me. (water births rock!)

Blessings to you Tammy and I hope you can enjoy the third trimester despite all the aches and pains that come!

-- Court www.coeurdcourt.blogspot.com