Thursday, March 5, 2009

'Our children are a testament to Love'

Ginger being a great older sis, giving Ransom a massage when he wasn't feeling the best.



It was the best of times.

Oh my goodness!!! We are getting closer! My due date is April 1st, but actually this baby could come at any time. I've been having strooooong braxton-hicks contractions. This pregnancy has been good to me, but much different than the other two.
Let me give you a little history...Ginger, my daughter, was born on June 30th, in Arizona. We birthed her at a free standing birth center. I was in control of my birth experience! It was Rockn' Awesome! My room was set up just like a bedroom except there was a jacuzzi tub in my bathroom (which I labored in!) I enjoyed the whole process of birth, it was really cool to feel my body make changes and so on (yes it hurt, but still very exciting!)...We opted to birth Ginny all natural. I figured women have been birthing naturally since Adam and Eve, I was gonna do my best to have that experience. Although I wasn't stupid, obviously I had never had a baby before, so I knew if I needed them, there would be local anesthetics around. We had such a positive experience with our daughter!
With Ransom, our son, we wanted to birth him at home. It's a good thing we planned it that way, because he would have been a home birth regardless of what our plans were. Again! It was the best experience! Ransom was born on August 18th. I loved it, I was in my domain and no one was telling me what I could or couldn't do. I was so at peace. And of course Ransom was an all natural baby too!
I highly recommend to all you woman who are exploring your birth options (yes, you do have options!) At least meet with a midwife, or a couple if you have more than one in your area, consider a birth center or even home birth. Be open-minded to your opportunities and get the facts. This is my opinion. But how many woman do you know that can say they actually enjoyed everything about their birth experiences.
Midwifery care is very affordable compared to paying ob-gyn doctors' and hospital fees. Some states even cover out of hospital births with Medicaid.
This birth is, as I said before, very much different than the other two pregnancies. A number one reason being, to save cash we are using our Medicaid insurance to pay for the birth, and because we live in Idaho, we have to birth in the hospital (which is changing soon!) Idaho is realizing the costs of midwifery care and out of hospital births as a good thing. We are sticking with a midwife, and I now feel this birth will be somewhat similar to our birth center experience with Ginger.
It has been a difficult transition. For these last 8 months, we have been planning another home birth. Through prayer and process of elimination, Michael and I decided, that this decision would be the best for our current situation. This decision was not decided 'stress free', it felt like we were taking a step in the direction we didn't want to go. I have pondered on this unforseen change a lot. I feel good now about our decision, due mostly to the fact that we are continuing with a midwife, Michael has given me blessings and Heavenly Father has blessed us with calm reassurances.

We love and miss you all, God bless you in all your endeavors.

Love, Aubray and Michael and Ginger and Ransom and Baby