My old hat

This was MY hat when I was a baby! My dad saved it all of these years, and now Adelaide gets to wear it. I'm hoping to figure out the pattern someday and replicate it. I think it looks so cute on Adelaide. It's like a hat and scarf in one =)

Warming Socks

I may have posted this before...but here it is again. Now that it's winter and cold/flu season, you might want to try this!! Adelaide has a cold right now, and last night I swear this really helped her! We did it again today for her nap, and will try again tonight when she sleeps.

Warming socks, formerly known as wet socks, is a wonderful and effective treatment for any condition where there is congestion and heat in the head and upper body. The thought of putting on cold, wet socks seems quite awful, but once you have them on with the dry socks you will feel relaxed and enjoy the treatment.

What conditions are warming socks used for?
 sprains, strains, pain, inflammation of feet/ankles
 fever
 headaches/migraines
 ear infections
 sore throats
 nasal congestion
 upper respiratory infections
 coughs/colds
 bronchitis
 sinus infections

Warming socks are best done before going to bed, leaving them on while sleeping. It's an especially effective and easy treatment for children during naptime too. This treatment works best if repeated for three nights in a row, or as instructed specifically for you.

Materials:Pair of medium weight 100% cotton socks
Pair of thick 100% wool socks
Possibly:Warm bath or warm footbath & Towel

Directions:1. Make sure your feet are warm before applying treatment. If they are not, warm your feet first. This is very important as the treatment will not be as effective and could be harmful if your feet are not warmed first. Warming can be accomplished by soaking your feet in warm water for at least 5- 10 minutes or taking a
warm bath for 5- 10 minutes. Dry off feet and body with a dry towel.
2. Soak cotton socks in icy cold water, wring out well and put on feet.
3. Put heavy wool socks over the wet socks, being sure that the dry wool socks cover all of the wet cotton socks.
4. Leave on overnight (or remove when cotton socks are dry).

Effects of theWarming Sock Treatment:This treatment acts to reflexively increase the circulation and decrease congestion in the upper respiratory passages, head, and throat. It has a sedating action and many patients report that they sleep much better during the treatment. This treatment is also effective for pain relief and increases the healing response during acute infections.

Adelaide has a cold

But she is still ADORABLE!

Becoming a Postpartum Doula....WHAT???

I was wasting time on the computer like I often do, and went to craigslist jobs and searched for "doula". I couldn't believe my eyes when an add came up for the local birth center, looking for a postpartum doula. It said that all training was done on the job, and didn't require any certification or anything - but a love for natural parenting and experience with that type of stuff was helpful. I whipped up a resume and cover letter and sent it out. What the heck right? It sounded like a dream job to me, so I applied. I had nothing to loose.

To my surprise the emailed me back!!! The email said that after reviewing my resume she wanted me to come in for an interview. I seriously almost fell out of my chair. Could this really be happening?

The interview was amazing. The birth center is amazing. It is basically this big old Victorian house that has been re-modeled on the inside. It's two stories, has a kitchen on each level, and currently has 3 birthing rooms, although they are currently adding a 4th room. The rooms are BEAUTIFUL. Hardwood floors, each room has a giant bathtub, beautiful furniture etc. AND the job means working around midwifes all of the time! There are something like 12 midwifes that work there. They do home births, and for people that don't want to be home, but don't want to be in the hospital, they have the birth center. Here is a link if you want to see pictures! If you click on the photos, they will bring up a slide show.
The job entails taking care of the house, cleaning and laundry, and most importantly taking care of the mama and baby after birth until they go home. You are trained on taking vital signs, and do things like help with breastfeeding, holding baby if mother wants to sleep and baby doesn't, cooking up herbs for sitz baths, ordering organic food from the local grocery store to keep the house stocked etc... The hard part is that you are on call for 12 hour shifts 9-9. So if you are on call on a night shift than you may be called to come in the middle of the night. But the schedule sounds very flexible, and I may be able to just sign up for one or two call shifts a week (day or night) and see how it goes.....

I won't hear until next week if I get the job. They are hiring 3 people, but I'm sure they are swamped with applications, as this really is a dream job. The pay is not great, but about what I make babysitting, so I can't complain. If I DO get the job the questions will be - what about being a birth doula...do I still want to pursue that? And what about the hours, would it be better to work in the day so I can sleep at night? The problem is that Adelaide goes to bed at 7 - so that means that I wouldn't see her ALL DAY! Not sure if that will work. But working at night means needing to sleep in the day...does that really work? I can't imagine it working well. And what about time with Myles. We already don't get a lot of time together, so I would have to be sure this wouldn't hurt our relationship as well.

I am just leaving it up to fate at this point. I would LOVE this job more than anything else I can imagine, but I'm not sure if I'm ready for it yet. We will just have to see what happens!

First "offical" Check

Of course with all of this Doula business you might be wondering...what about Alisha Photo?? That is my baby and my first real business. Of course I will continue trying to grow that business as well. I love photography so much and know I always will. One of my dreams is to combine photography and birth, and get to photograph people's birth.

I just recieved my first check from my print lab, for prints that people have purchased on my website. All of my hard work is slowly paying off! This was taken right before going to my doula interview =)

Becoming a Birth Doula

I have been obsessed with natural birth for a long long time. Long before Adelaide was born, long before we moved to Portland. I remember my roommate Natalie showing me pictures from one of her mother's home births, and talking to me about how she remembered being there when her brother and/or sister was being born, right there in their house. I think that is when I really started to want to know more about it. Of course those days in San Diego were filled with college fun, hanging out with friends on nights and weekends, drinking and partying and being young. I wasn't ready to try and be a midwife yet, because I didn't want to be on call all of the time. I didn't want to have to miss out on shows and parties and vacations because someone was having a baby.

When we were planning to move from Chico, one of the reasons that I was really drawn to Portland was because there is a direct entry midwife school here, and it was a dream to go there. I toured the little school which is located in a big old house in SE Portland. I took a "so you wanna be a midwife?" class there, and decided that I still wasn't ready to give up my nights, days AND weekends for something like that...plus I needed to work, school cost money, and I didn't have money for that, let alone rent, car insurance, food etc... So my dream was put on hold again.

Once I became pregnant with Adelaide we planned on me taking time off of work, and we saved like crazy. We both worked extra hard doing extra jobs and stayed on a strict budget so that we could be the kind of parents that we wanted our child to have. We are still on that strict budget today in fact. But now that Adelaide is a bit older and a little more independent, my dreams are coming back stronger as well. And what a better job to have than being a Doula if you are a mama. Of course it means being on call at all hours, but you get to choose how many births you take on, and get to work really really hard for a day or two, and then get lots of time to be home. I think it's also a great way to be around birth more and really get a more realistic view of what I really want in my future.

Becoming a Doula is not really an easy thing to do. There are many MANY steps involved, and quite a bit of money as well. If you are certified, you have to take an extensive training, tests, several different classes, and write essays and attend a certain number of births before you can even apply. I have started the process. I want to be a Doula. I want to be there to help women in the ways that I KNOW I needed help. I feel that after going through birth the way that I did, I have a good idea of what women need. I know the things that I wish I had. So I am excited. I'm usually not good at following things through. I've wasted several hundred dollars in the past starting these kinds of endeavors. Once I was going to start my own travel agency out of our house, and spent a few hundred to get that started, and then gave up. I also paid a few hundred to start the process of becoming a childbirth educator. I had a connection at Kaiser and was going to try and teach there, but then decided that the hospital setting was not my passion, so didn't pursue it, although I may look at that again in the future.

Speaking of hospital settings, that is the place that people need and use Doula's the most. Being a Doula means being there for hospital births, and trying to make them a bit more comfortable and personal. That is the place where the Doula is needed the most. And sometimes I wonder how that will effect my visions on birth and my beliefs. Will it make them stronger or weaker? I know that many Doula's move on from their practice BECAUSE of that factor. If you believe that birth is a natural process, it can become hard to always be in a hospital where interventions are inevitable. But I'm aware of that, and ready to face it.

So I have begun my journey. Luckily I already OWN 7 of the required books that you must read. Can you believe that? I have a giant birth library. So I don't have to spend more money in that department! I have paid my membership to DONA for 2 years, and ordered their required reading paper. My journey to becoming a birth doula has begun. There is a training that is 8 weeks in April and May. The classes are Tues and Wed nights from 6-9 pm for 8 weeks. It cost $550. It also includes one all day required class from 8 - 5:30 on a Saturday. Once I have that done, I can start to attend births. I have one friend that is due in June. She is having a homebirth with the midwifes that I used for Adelaide...so that would be a tremendous opportunity. I can only hope that she agrees to let me assist her. She is toying with the idea now. My dreams are beginning. Now I just have to be sure not to get too wrapped up in all of this - and keep Adelaide as my priority. As long as she has me for the times she needs me, I'm willing to work hard the other times!

New Skills

I feel like Adelaide is growing and changing so much every day. I wish I had more time to sit and write about our days, and the things that I notice. Here is a quick list of some of her latest abilities!

-She can peel a tangerine all by herself. I start it off for her, and she does the rest...and she is really good at it!!!

-She loves to eat her cereal and milk in the morning all by herself. I hadn't given her cereal with milk in it before, but now I do (hemp milk) and she really likes it.

-She loves to play with play-doh and makes all kinds of things with a little plastic knife, and sometimes uses a little "fun factory" toy that makes spaghetti and other fun things.

-She loves to feed the cats. She fills up their bowls from the bin and picks up any pieces that she drops. I think this is her favorite thing to do. Then she lays on her belly right next to the cats and watches them eat.

Hazel and a new Elf Hat

I bought this yarn several years ago because I really loved it, but I never could figure out what to make with it. Last night I decided to turn it into a little elf hat. Kind of silly to use such fancy yarn on a dress up thing, but Adelaide loves it, and I think it looks so cute on her.

Here she is with Hazel. We now have her over twice a week, so Adelaide is really getting to know her better. They have lots of fun together.

Frere Jaques

I have been trying to teach Adelaide French.

Pigtails

Myles put Adelaide's hair up in pigtails before her bath. I thought it was the cutest thing ever, but she won't keep them in.

Ring around the Rosies

The lighting in this video isn't very good, so it makes Adelaide look a little bit crazy - but I still think it's really really cute. And you can hear her little language. =)

Water Colors and Eating by herself

Adelaide and Jai

Farmer in the Dell

Dog takes Cat -Hei ho the dairy-o the dog takes cat

Cat takes a Rat, the cat takes a rat - hei ho the dairy -o the cat takes a rat

Cheese stands alone, the cheese stands alone, hei -ho the dairy- o the cheese stands alone!

YAY!!!

Christmas 2010

Christmas was amazing this year. We did several things that will be traditional in our family, and it was so special to see Adelaide respond. She was so excited about everything, and loved every minute of it. I am going to write a different post about our Nativity Scene, because I think that was one of the best parts, but here is a picture from the night before Christmas when the 3 wise men finally made it to the Stable, so everyone was there except for the baby. We were all waiting for Christmas morning when he could be added to the party. Next Adelaide put out cookies for Santa, and an apple for Rudolph. I told her to put them somewhere that Santa would see them, and she decided right on the chair would be good. Here she is in her new jammies that she got to open earlier in the evening.

Then we read The Night Before Christmas (for the 100th time this month). Adelaide really loves this book, especially because her Granny got her a beautiful book with cut outs and pop ups!

Here is Adelaide's stocking all full.
And all of the gifts for her waiting under the tree.
First open - Toy Story!
A bunch of books from her Great Grandmother Eileen! She loved them and sat and looked through EVERY SINGLE ONE before doing anything else. She really LOVES books.
Another beautiful book from Aunt Jamie
Granny and Grandpa Jerry got her a frog towel which she wore for quite some time.

Nativity

I got this idea from a book called "Heaven on Earth- a handbook for parents of young children" by Sharifa Oppenheimer. It's my absolute favorite parenting book, based on Waldorf philosophy, and so full of great ideas for festivals and traditions. We also do a night time prayer from the book. I will have to write a post about that another time, because it is one of the most special times of the day.

I wasn't expecting to get to do the Nativity scene this year because I didn't have one! I was not raised to be religious, and we never had one growing up. I am not religious, but I AM spiritual, and something about this tradition really struck me. I know it is something that we will do every year. And the best part is that my "mama bird" Lisa GOT me a Nativity Set for my birthday!!! It arrived about a week before Christmas. Usually this tradition is done throughout the month of December, with something added to the Scene every week. This year we shortened it and added something every day. It still worked to build anticipation and was SO BEAUTIFUL!

The book says that we can use this as a way to celebrate the return of the Light. The best way for a small child to understand this concept is by the birth of a baby. It also celebrates our own children in a way, because they so recently were born as well. It says that this is a "way to honor humanity's place in the natural order of life" It also states that "This slow building toward a subtle event, the coming of the Child, can act as an antidote to the societal pressures that bombard us at this time." I'm not sure if this is the usual way that the Nativity is used or not, but I really loved it. Here is our version....

Night 1-
I guess you aren't supposed to put the Stable out yet - but I didn't realize that! The first night was to recognize the "mineral kingdom" To do this we put some pretty rocks that we have collected, some of Myles seashells, a crystal that I have had for as long as I can remember, a stone bracelet that I have, and our big crystal candle holder. One the first night (usually first week we lit one candle).

Night 2 - next is the "plant kingdom". We added a plant behind, and also made little trees out of small branches that had fallen from our tree outside stuck in clay. This is also a great night (week) to put up your tree! We lit two candles.
Night 3 - I forgot to take a picture of night 3, but it's the "animal kingdom". This is when you are supposed to add the stable. We added all of the animals, plus another wooden donkey that we got in Costa Rica. This is also a good night to hang up your pet's stockings! We lit 3 candles.

Night 4 - This is the "human kingdom". The night before Christmas we added all of the people except for the baby. Also - the whole time the 3 wise men were making their long journey to the stable. They started on night 1 in our kitchen window on the other side of the house, and every night got a little bit closer, until tonight when they arrived. If you are doing this by the week, they can start their journey at the beginning of the week and arrive on this night, or however you want to do it. It's a great time to talk about the long journey that they had to make it to be with the baby. We lit 4 candles.

Here is a video of Adelaide blowing out the candles on Christmas Eve. She was really into waving the smoke away!

And then on Christmas morning Adelaide finally got to put the baby in the manger (we actually used a little seashell instead! She had been waiting for that the whole week. It was very special. You then light 4 candles AND a very special Christmas candle as well. We forgot the special Christmas candle, but will be sure to find a good one before next year!
This is probably really annoying to those who ARE religious and have specific meaning and use of these things. I would love to hear other versions of the tradition, or other ideas to add to our own special traditions!

All of our greetings!!!

Zoo Lights (woops!)

We went to Zoo Lights on Christmas eve. Big mistake on my part - I swear the email they sent said that they DO have the lights on for Christmas eve...but I must have read wrong. We were the only ones at the zoo, and there were no lights. There weren't even animals. We saw the sealions, and everyone else was put away somewhere. It didn't really matter though because the whole time Adelaide just kept talking about how she wanted to go see the bear at the entrance - and thank goodness he was available!

Peacock Lane

We took a walk down Peacock Lane, where every house is decorated in Christmas lights. It was very crowded, but fun for Adelaide. A good way to see a lot of lights in one place =)

Making Cookies