Happy Valentines Day 2011

She is so big, and my heart is so full. Let's hear it for LOVE!

It's a hard knock life

Myles "doing laundry"

Valentines Day Picture Preview

Here are a few of the shots from our Valentines Day shoot that didn't make it to our card. Adelaide is the best model ever. I will post the winner on Valentines Day!!

This one (below) is the one Adelaide said she wanted me to use for our cards. She is too funny!

The job of my dreams

My job at the Birth Center is exactly what I need right now. I get to be around midwives, mama's and babies that are brand new. It's in a beautiful Victorian house with lots of charm. I get to see this world of Birth that I have been drawn to for so long, and now I'm in it! I feel like I am right where I need to be. I am going to continue with my birth doula training as well...I have been dreaming of doing it for many years now, so I may as well try. Right now Adelaide is my number ONE and I like that I can schedule around Myles schedule with this job. With birth, I could be gone for days at a time. Some women are in labor for a LONG time. Am I ready to be away for that much time in one chunk? Not really.

Here is my favorite part - I have come to realize that all women sound the same when they are laboring (naturally). I think this is very healing for me. I remember feeling so loud and crazy when I was in labor with Adelaide, and now I know that it was normal! I know that sounds crazy, and I know that not EVERY woman may sound that way...but I have had the chance to hear several women in labor now...and I love it. What a tough job that is, to bring a baby down and out of your womb! And the other amazing thing is that I get to be with them soon after that has happened. I get to see women becoming mothers, and babies taking their first breaths and living their first days. What a precious and special time in each of their lives that is..and I...ME...I get to be there with them. And then I get to see the mama glowing and healthy. It's refreshing to get to see the amazing after part, after hearing the process. It makes me feel like all of that pain really is normal, that our bodies really are made to birth our babies (like I always knew), and that with the help of a few amazing women, we really are capable of doing anything.

It also cements my feelings on out of hospital births. There has already been a baby that I met that had to be resuscitated at birth. Midwives have the same exact equipment to resuscitate a baby as the hospital has. They are just as well (if not better) trained to use it, and it works! I am so proud to call myself an employee of this amazing center and I can't wait to see where this job of my dreams takes me.

Adelaide and her friends

Adelaide and Jai. They are such good friends =)

Adelaide and Hazel. Also such good friends!


Adelaide with Phoenix and Jai. Both from our birth group. We love them!!!

Adelaide and baby Eva. We LOVE baby Eva. She is the cutest!

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!!!