Green Wrapping Paper: Furoshiki

I am turning over a new leaf. That green leaf is called furoshiki. The Ministry of the Environment from the Government of Japan has made available instructions for multiple forms of furoshiki, which is the wrapping of gifts in cloth. This eco-friendly presentation of presents not only staves off the waste incurred from traditional wrapping paper but also gifts the recipient beautiful fabric which they can reuse to furoshiki a gift to someone else. How fantastic!

The Tree Without a Footprint

In my efforts to start being more conscious about reducing my carbon footprint and saving the earth for both myself and my daughter, I have been increasingly aware of the waste that happens at Christmas.

The trees that get chopped down after years of growth for a one-month-stay in a living room seem like such an incredible loss after all the massive amounts of deforestation in the world.

For this reason (and the fact that we will be in Europe for the holidays), we slimmed down our tree and made sure it was a little more "green" friendly than in years past.

Mommy Eats Colors

There is an age old question: "does life imitate art or does art imitate life?" There are scholars who debate in both directions, but at any rate, children imitate their parents.

Aoife is quickly coming up on five months and naturally the question arises, "are you introducing solids soon?" (FYI: The answer is no, Joshua and I intend to feed Aoife only breastmilk for the for her entire first year. There is too much evidence that introducing solids too soon can be harmful for an infant, not to mention it is infinitely more easy to breastfeed than it is to prepare meals for a baby!). The second popular question we receive makes me laugh, "is she showing interest in food?" My answer is almost always, "of course!"

I love looking at the world through Aoife's eyes and this one is the one that tops the charts. It must be so odd for her to watch me eat. There are colorful objects on my plate: orange carrots, green broccoli, red peppers, brown rice, and pink salmon that I scoop up and put in my mouth and then, it doesn't come back! How bizarre. Aoife is at that stage where absolutely everything ends up in her mouth. She must look at me like I just inhaled one of my toys. She probably wonders how it is that I can consume my colorful toys but she cannot. She watches the process very carefully and I can tell that her little mind is trying so hard to compute where those 'toys' are ultimately ending up and if I can play with them again tomorrow.

I can understand parents thinking their children are showing interest in "food", however, if they have never had an introduction of their own to adult foods, then it will not occur to them that they are missing out on an opportunity. I also know that the flavors of the food I am consuming is passed to my daughter through my breastmilk, so she begins to discern different tastes and preferences of her own. The wonderful part of this process is that I am already giving Aoife a head-start on healthy eating. When I consume healthfully, she develops a desire for those wholesome foods as well and when we do begin solids those foods will be her preference. Unfortunately, the converse is also true, so I better stop eating sweets after church on Sundays or she will become permanently addicted to all things chocolate (of course, as a female, I think she may already be doomed).

As far as the question goes, life does imitate art and for Aoife, I want to make sure what she emulates from me are healthy eating patterns since there will come a day when that she will be eating mommy's "toys" too.

Pregnancy & Delivery Books: An Overview

With the ridiculously old-fashioned nature of our pregnancy and delivery, we naturally received a lot of questions about what we read, why we chose what we did, how we came to certain conclusions, etc. Below is a springboard of books we read, starting in order of recommendation:

1. The Pregnancy Book by Dr. William Sears:: Get this: M.D. marries R.N. and have eight children (with one adopted) and have horrible hospital birthing experiences... until they have a home birth. With their incredible exposure, they begin a whole library of texts which are focused on natural, normal, healthy, non-interventive pregnancies and labors. This particular text is an excellent replacement for "What to Expect When You're Expecting"


2. Lord of the Birth by Jennifer Vanderlaan:: Short book, but great devotional to approach the topic of natural childbirth from a Christian perspective. This text really reminded us of God's greater design and our calling as Christians to "remember who we are", even in labor.


3. Husband-Coached Childbirth by Dr. Robert Bradley:: Dr. Bradley returns back to a more natural field study approach, showing how other mammals birth and approach a fear-less laboring experience. He places major emphasis on the need for the husband to coach the laboring mother through delivery. Bradley practiced in the OB during the early 1940's when the only member able to be in the delivery room was the laboring woman. He implemented change at the hospital administration level to promote the benefits toward the labor experience by having her mate accompany and encourage her. Bradley also focused on the need for food while laboring, quiet atmosphere, focusing on positive mental imagery and home birth for healthy moms. ["As a doctor and advocate of natural childbirth I can have no arguments with Ashley Montagu and other experts on human relations who contend that from a bacteriological, sociological, psychological, moral and spiritual standpoint, human babies should be born at home...Hospitals also introduce new complications that home births don't have... In my practice, about three percent of our patients need cesarean sections. Of the remainder who have had their babies through the vaginal route, 96.4 percent achieved spontaneous, uncomplicated, unanesthetized births that could have been managed at home" (Bradley, 1981). ]


4. The Secret Life of the Unborn Child by Dr. Thomas Verny:: Phenomenal. Dr. Verny is by title a neo-natal psychologist who researched out the learning abilities of babies in utero. Through empirical evidence he decisively proves the intelligence of "pre-born" babies who enjoy interaction, touch, sound, learning language and intrauterine bonding. Verny also focused on how a person can be influenced by the birthing experience. This was a major eye-opener for us in our pregnancy and one that changed our approach to the birthing experience. ["For his mother, for his father, his birth may represent an unperishable memory, the fulfillment of a life-long dream, but for the child himself, it is something much more momentous--an event that imprints itself on his personality. How he is born--whether it is painful or easy, smooth or violent--largely determines who he becomes and how he will view the world around him" (Verny, 1981).]


5. Natural Childbirth: the Bradley Way:: This was the first book we read and it was an excellent book to detail out reasons against typical American labor interventions: episitomies, induced labors, cesarean deliveries, epidurals, etc. This book really focuses on the nitty-gritty science of why certain procedures are not adviseable. If you are already leaning toward a natural pregnancy, this book is not needed. I needed to read the science to support my position and so this text was excellent.


6. Childbirth without Fear by Dr. Grantley Dick-Read:: This book actually predates any other on this list. Dick-Read in an Englishman who wrote academically on the effect that fear has on the laboring woman, with especial regard to pain. Dick-Read's writings influenced the further study of Dr. Robert Bradley who pioneered the idea of fear-less childbirth in the United States.


7. Supernatural Childbirth:: This book takes a different approach to childbirth: painless, fearless, pleasant childbirth. It is a radical and transformational view of the Christian process of laboring. My husband and I have spoken to people who have had this experience and then have spoken to others who believe this falls under the "name it and claim it" movement. Either way, it is an excellent text to be read with a grain of salt; if for nothing else, the prayers in the back are worth the purchase.


8. The Birth Book (Dr. Sears):: In this book, Sears focuses on everything delivery, labor, post-partum. This is an amazing resource. He and his wife detail out their birthing experiences and provide well-balanced, quality advice from a medical profession perspective on natural birthing techniques, coping strategies, preparation and overview.


9. Hypno-birthing (The Mongan Method):: She claims to have started some of these concepts indepentantly of Dr. Robert Bradley but it seems to be a complete reiteration of his research. This book is good for emphasis on positivity, but was slightly too granoly for our tastes.

Catching Up: A Natural Pregnancy

It has been entirely too long since I have approached this blog: one year.

In summary of the last year, my husband and I had a completely natural pregnancy, resulting in a completely natural delivery of a healthy 10 lb. baby girl in June. Aoife Nadeen was nearly 23 inches long and was born at home: vaginally, spontaneously and without intervention. My daughter opened her eyes as soon as she was birthed and she recognized her father's voice immediately. Aoife was breastfeeding within the first hour and has yet to be separated from us.

Aoife is now four months old and completely off the growth charts. She is nearly 2.5 feet tall and 24 pounds. She is intelligent, healthy, and girly as can be.

What was once scary, daunting and unknown is now common-place and familiar. We are looking forward with expectation toward our future pregnancies, knowing full well we would not have it any other way.