A Birthday Letter to My Little Man....

June 29, 2011

Dear Big Boy Josiah,

Happy birthday, sweet baby boy. What a special day today is. You are 1! I have enjoyed spending the last two days reminiscing about the hours that led up to your birth and the magical first day that we saw your innocent little face. I walked through each moment in my mind and cried tears of joy more times than I would like to admit. I love you so much and I am so thankful that God saw fit to bless our lives with someone as special as you. I could not help myself from kissing your handsome face and playing with those cute little toes every time the opportunity presented itself today. As you grow older you may be curious about what you were  like on your first ever birthday.

~you love attention….always watching to see if we are watching you…and getting the biggest grin when you realized that we are

~you flirt with all the girls in restaurants…smiling with those cute dimples and waving at them as long as they will laugh and smile at you

~you are almost walking. …you’re getting brave and taking 3-4 steps at a time

~you are such a cuddle bug….20 minutes don’t go by without you checking in with mommy, giving a hug, and letting me give you kisses all over

~you would wave, blow kisses, and clap all day if you could

~you love to climb in the Tupperware cabinet and throw all the pieces all over the floor

~You want to explore every single cabinet in the house

~you love sitting on mommy’s lap and reading bedtime stories, although you’re not that interested during the day

~you get the biggest grin of your face when your daddy comes home from work and walks in the door

~when we sing our famous “dancin’ in the living room” song you bounce up and down and shake your head from side to side.

~your are constantly on the move …but will sometimes randomly come over and put your head down on us and cuddle….spending a quiet moment with your mommy or daddy

~you are constantly laughing and have an adorable sense of humor

Thank you, darling, for this amazing year…full of excitement, exhaustion, and unconditional love.

Love, Mommy

Do I have something on my face?

So last night I made some ziti with meat sauce, garlic bread and a nice salad.  Timed it pretty good so that it would be ready right as Brian walked in the door. Well it was ready and Josiah and I were sitting at the table as it stayed warm on the stove...we sat...and talked...and he got antsy just sitting so I started to feed him his dinner....we had a blast, but 40 minutes later still no Brian.


Opps...totally forgot Brian was going to play basketball after work with some guys from church!


On the bright side,  Josiah and had way too much fun with his dinner. Gotta say, Brian totally  missed out on on an awesome memory. Take a look. :)

9 months and counting

A few days ago my precious little boy turned 9 months. I cannot even begin to understand how quickly this time has gone by. It seems like just a moment ago he was swaddled in a blanket content to just take a nap with mommy. Boy how things have changed! At 9 months  Josiah....
~weights 21lbs 2oz
~is 28 1/2 inches long
~has a head that is 47cm in circumference (90th percentile...wow!)
~can crawl like champ
~can pull up on anything and everything AND get down from that position~has eight pearly-white teeth (and isn't afraid to use them!)
~can hold onto something that is rolling and walk along with it....until he realizes I am video taping
~loves to climb on Brian and I and could spend hours playing "climb the parent" during our morning cuddles in bed
~smiles and turns his face when I tell him to give me a kiss and make "kissy" sounds
~loves to look out my bedroom window especially when the trash trucks come on Friday morning
~wants to eat off adult spoons if at all possible
~would rather take a whole cauliflower and stick it in his mouth than eat a spoon of mashed up baby food
~ is an extremely determined young man. He knows what he wants and will grunt and wiggle and get to it at all costs
~Still rarely cries unless hungry, tired, or scared...or if he's in the car and wants OUT
~LOVES water...baths....showers....pools....hoses...sinks....anything.
~Finds turning on and off light switches and faucets amazing
~is always thinking. So many of my pictures of him are with his head down because he is holding, turning, pushing and trying to figure out how everything works
~loves his Daddy's guitar...both playing it and listening to his dada sing and play
We love our little munchkin more and more each day and not a day goes by where Brian or I don't look at each other and say "He's just so cute!"
Thank you Lord.

I love this town!

Brian and I took the little man out for a beautiful and breezy walk through St. Augustine. We spent a lot of time at the Fort, just enjoying the water, boats, and some quality time together.  Josiah loved pulling the grass out and hoping mommy would look away so he could taste it. What a wonderful Saturday!

Our beautiful city!

Looking for dolphins

Exploring a rock

Power to the babies!

Josiah showing his "tough guy" stance

Pulling weeds at the Fort

Fun with daddy

Daddy is dripping water on his head to make him laugh 

Homeward  bound!

Journey to a home birth (Part 3)

The more I thought about it, the more I wanted a natural, stress-free, and mother-led birth. I've always been more of a laid back person and the hustle and bustle of a hospital just didn't seem to fit my style. I talked with my friend, who was teaching the birth class, about how I didn't know what choice I had. I had gone 5, almost 6 months into my pregnancy with this midwife group located in my local hospital. I couldn't just call them up and say "Sorry, you won't be seeing me anymore." Then my friend asked me the question that changed it all. "Why not?" she said.

Why not? Why couldn't I change? Don't people move while they are pregnant and change doctors? Don't people switch doctors if they find out there are some complications that require a more trained eye?

The idea intrigued me. Could I really do this? Did I want to do this? What would Brian think? 

I decided to go to one more appointment while I checked out some homebirth midwives in the area. After I waited 30 minutes in the waiting room only to have a 10 minute appointment where I got weighed, blood pressure checked, and heard my baby's heartbeat and was asked one final time "Do you have any questions". I knew now that I wanted a natural birth (without epidural) so I asked the midwife her thoughts on how that would play out. She told me"Well, to be honest 99% of women that come through here have an epidural, so you're really going to have to fight the nurses for what you want."

FIGHT?!?? In the midst of my labor, during which I will not be able to move around freely (unless it is in accodance with hospital policy) I will have to win a battle of will over the nurses who will want me to get a epideral (easier for them, I'm assuming). Are you kidding me?

At that moment, my mind was made up. I was having a home birth.

Journey to a homebirth (part 2)

The night of the first birthing class had finally come and I was almost as giddy as the first  Dr's visit (expectant mothers are pretty easy to please...anything baby related!) We met at my friends house and started out just talking about our experiences so far. Pregnant ladies love to swap stories (this doesn't end when the babies are born either...)

A movie called The Business of Being Born was the primary thing on the agenda and I was excited to see it because I had heard a friend of mine mention it before.

This movie was amazing. It was like it knew all the questions I had asked my doctor and all the very kind "Oh I'm sorry, we don't do that" responses. It gave scientific fact for all the things I intuitively knew deep down...like women's body's were created to go through this process...and that being comfortable and at ease were crucial to the progression of the labor...and how drugs like epiderals not only lead very often to a cascade of medical interventions that wouldn't have been  necessary otherwise BUT ALSO rob the mother of the complex mixture of hormones that are released while she is laboring/birthing naturally that are vital in after birth bonding.

I saw two contrasting birthing styles. One in the hospital (that I was headed toward) where florescent lights flickered, machines beeped, and strangers walked in and of your room to "check" you. Where Dr.'s sometimes followed your "birth plan" (sort of...) and sometimes pressured you into things that made their job easier. I saw women who sat back and let someone else control their birth for the simple fact they didn't realize it was their moment, their birth, their rite of passage, and could possibly be the most breathtaking and powerful moment of their life.

Then I saw women, midwives, and doulas who believed  in the birthing process...who didn't see pregnancy or birthing as a sickness or condition to be cured. I watched women labor in their dimly lit bedroom or a warm and welcoming  birthcenter without anyone hovering over them. The women knew how to birth. Not because someone was screaming at them to "push!"...bur because their bodies were allowed to move at their own pace in a comfortable environment. They were surrounded by women who believed in their ability to birth and who had done it themselves.

So much was going through my head, but the biggest and most pressing thought was "I'm already 5 months into this thing...what choice do I have now?"

More to come...:)

Our Beautiful (and unexpected) Homebirth: Part 1

A bunch of things have happened this week that have brought me down memory lane to reminise and relive one of the most beautiful and intense days of my life....the day Josiah Anthony Teryek was born.

I'd like write it down, before I totally forget...it has already been 8 months after all (wow!) The details are a little fuzzy, but the warm, contented felling still resides deep in my soul.

When I first found out I was having a baby I couldn't wait to make that first exciting Dr's appointment. I could imagine hearing his heartbeat, seeing him on an ultrasound, and having one of the midwives deliver the baby. I pictured it all going down at a hospital (why not..) and I expected that I'd probably get an epideral (again, why not...)

I started off with a midwife group I had worked with before and I got an ultrasound the first  trip in (awesome!) Everything time I would see a new midwife and I wondered who would be the one on call when I went into labor. I saw a poster of laboring positions at their office and was pretty intreaged by all the options. All of them seemed better than laying on your back (going against gravity didn't seem too smart). After this I started researching options like birthing stools, birthing tubs, and all sorts of unconventional options that I didn't see in the movies.

At my next appointment when she asked "Do you have any questions?" I finally had something to say! I asked a dozen questions about tubs, positions, walking around, etc. Every answer, came back a very tactful "Well that would be against hospital policy" or "We aren't allowed to do that" or "We don't use those here." Hmmmm....very disappointing. But what choice did I have? There weren't any birth centers anywhere near me, so this was the it was going to be.
I eventually resigned to the idea that I would be laying in a bed for most of my laboring and certainly all of my delivery.
After 5 months of thinking I had that I had no real options a good friend of mine who is a Doula (birth assistant) and a childbirth educator offered to do a childbirth class for Brian and I and another couple. After weeks of scheduleing conflicts we finally met up.....that night changed the course of the birth of my son and will forever impact how I feel about childbirth and birthing options.To be continued... :)