A common question people have about homebirth is that there will be a big mess in their house and they will have to do a lot of work to clean up. This video shows a midwife setting up a home for a birth by putting a shower curtain under some old sheets on the bed and a garbage bag between pillows and the pillowcases, which helps make post-birth clean up easy. It also shows supplies for the birth, including old towels, the birth kit, and a bowl for the placenta. At the end, it shows how the midwives leave the room after the birth.
Showing posts with label cleaning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cleaning. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Friday, January 7, 2011
A New Year is kind of like a Birth
Think about it...the newness, the celebration, the hopes of great things to come...I'm suddenly reminded of a Gilmore Girls episode when for some reason they ended up using old New Years decorations for a baby shower "Happy New Baby!"
It's about time for my blog to join 2011! I realize I've been MIA in the blogosphere for the past month or so. The week of Christmas, we had a wonderful stay with my parents at their new house in Florida(they moved the same week my son was born--my dad moved without my mom because she got on the first plane she could get when my husband called her from the hospital after finding out I was at 8 cm) the week of Christmas. Being with family and all, and having my sweet husband not working, I didn't spend my usual (excessive) amount of time on the internet and I realized, I don't need the internet. Not only can I survive without checking everything I used to check daily (and often multiple times a day), I don't need to depend on it for my happiness. Since I've been back, I've been making an effort to enjoy other things in life, including my kids, mastering the art of maintaining a clean home (thanks in huge part to FlyLady, without her, I would have never even known where to start), and I've even had time to read some fiction novels (The Scorch Trials, sequel to The Maze Runner by James Dashner and Paranormalcy by Kiersten White), and I have always really enjoyed fiction.
The point is, I think for a while there, my vision became to narrowly focused on birth (as birth is the main focus of most of what I do on the internet). While I think birth will always be part of my life, I need to remember that birth is not the only thing in my life. In fact, birth is not even the most important thing in my life. Before I discovered doula work and childbirth education as potential careers, I always really wanted to be a stay-at-home-mom. Sure, I enjoyed stuyding Early Childhood Education, and liked working with young children in the classroom, but I never wanted it more than I wanted to have children of my own. I always figured balancing home and career wasn't going to be an issue for me, but then I found my career, and although I don't actually make money at it yet, that is what it is for me. I am blessed that my husband's salary makes it so I don't have to work, and I want my children to have me present for them and not just physically. When they are older, I can put more time into my career. I feel that it's important for the amount of time I devote to things should reflect what my highest priorities are. Don't worry, though, I'm still planning on continuing this blog and still planning on getting my doula and Hypnobabies certifications and teaching Hypnobabies.
I will write another post soon (hopefully) explaining the direction I want to take this blog in the New Year. I will end this post with my goals for 2011:
It's about time for my blog to join 2011! I realize I've been MIA in the blogosphere for the past month or so. The week of Christmas, we had a wonderful stay with my parents at their new house in Florida(they moved the same week my son was born--my dad moved without my mom because she got on the first plane she could get when my husband called her from the hospital after finding out I was at 8 cm) the week of Christmas. Being with family and all, and having my sweet husband not working, I didn't spend my usual (excessive) amount of time on the internet and I realized, I don't need the internet. Not only can I survive without checking everything I used to check daily (and often multiple times a day), I don't need to depend on it for my happiness. Since I've been back, I've been making an effort to enjoy other things in life, including my kids, mastering the art of maintaining a clean home (thanks in huge part to FlyLady, without her, I would have never even known where to start), and I've even had time to read some fiction novels (The Scorch Trials, sequel to The Maze Runner by James Dashner and Paranormalcy by Kiersten White), and I have always really enjoyed fiction.
The point is, I think for a while there, my vision became to narrowly focused on birth (as birth is the main focus of most of what I do on the internet). While I think birth will always be part of my life, I need to remember that birth is not the only thing in my life. In fact, birth is not even the most important thing in my life. Before I discovered doula work and childbirth education as potential careers, I always really wanted to be a stay-at-home-mom. Sure, I enjoyed stuyding Early Childhood Education, and liked working with young children in the classroom, but I never wanted it more than I wanted to have children of my own. I always figured balancing home and career wasn't going to be an issue for me, but then I found my career, and although I don't actually make money at it yet, that is what it is for me. I am blessed that my husband's salary makes it so I don't have to work, and I want my children to have me present for them and not just physically. When they are older, I can put more time into my career. I feel that it's important for the amount of time I devote to things should reflect what my highest priorities are. Don't worry, though, I'm still planning on continuing this blog and still planning on getting my doula and Hypnobabies certifications and teaching Hypnobabies.
I will write another post soon (hopefully) explaining the direction I want to take this blog in the New Year. I will end this post with my goals for 2011:
- Continue to keep my home in order using the routines I established with the FlyLady Beginner Babysteps.
- Play with, sing with, and read to my children daily.
- Devote time each day to developing myself spiritually.
- Find more ways to let my husband know how incredibly much I appreciate him.
- At least finish everything in the CBI doula course except for the two births (I'm very close to doing this! I will probably also get the births in, but if I don't, it's not a big deal)
- Do the hypnosis at-home course and the required reading before the Hypnobabies Instructor Training in July!
- Understanding "Painless" Childbirth
- A Natural Third Stage?
- Why Natural Childbirth is Not Important
- Traditional Birth Secrets: The Rebozo
- Progesterone: the pro-gestation hormone
- Painless Childbirth, revisited
- Hypno-anesthesiology 101, with Dr. Seuss
- Physiological 3rd Stage, without the "as long as..."
- Maslow's Hierarchy of (Birth) Needs
- Will We Ever Reach Peace in the OB v. NCB war?
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Order in Our Lives, Even with a Baby
I know some people say that it is okay for your house to be messy when you have a baby. To some extent, this is true, it is important to not be so focused on having a clean house that you never play with your children, but having a really messy house can really make parenting difficult. When the house always messy, you can never relax and enjoy your kids because you are always thinking about all the cleaning you need to do. Humans need structure in their lives. Order allows us to have peace.
I recently realized that I my kids and I really needed a little more order and structure in our lives. I realized that I felt overwhelmed by my house never being clean, and I was using the computer as an escape from my responsibilities. When I did clean, I would exhaust myself trying to clean everything at once, and then I would feel "burned out" from cleaning and wouldn't maintain it, and the house would soon deteriorate into chaos again. I really wanted to develop the concept of rhythm for my kids, as taught in Waldorf education (which I have been studying after Sheridan blogged about the changes she is making in her home now that her kids are going to a Waldorf-inspired charter school), but I realized it wasn't possible with the level of chaos in our environment.
I found a wonderful system for establishing habits of cleanliness. It's Flylady's Beginner Babysteps. I am on Day 8 today, which means I have been doing it for a week, and the improvement is slow, but it is lasting change, not a temporary fix. I feel like I am finally getting some control in my life. One of the routines is you get dressed first thing in the morning, from head to toe. This encouraged me to finally go out and get my hair cut. I hadn't had my hair cut since I was pregnant with my son, who is almost 9 months old. And my kitchen is clean, which means I can actually cook dinner for my family.
I have been limiting my computer time, and as a result haven't been working on blog posts as much. I have a second post in the works about the book I read, Sisters on Journey, which I will hopefully finish eventually. If you don't hear from me, I am probably either enjoying my kids or working on creating a more peaceful environment for them.
I recently realized that I my kids and I really needed a little more order and structure in our lives. I realized that I felt overwhelmed by my house never being clean, and I was using the computer as an escape from my responsibilities. When I did clean, I would exhaust myself trying to clean everything at once, and then I would feel "burned out" from cleaning and wouldn't maintain it, and the house would soon deteriorate into chaos again. I really wanted to develop the concept of rhythm for my kids, as taught in Waldorf education (which I have been studying after Sheridan blogged about the changes she is making in her home now that her kids are going to a Waldorf-inspired charter school), but I realized it wasn't possible with the level of chaos in our environment.
I found a wonderful system for establishing habits of cleanliness. It's Flylady's Beginner Babysteps. I am on Day 8 today, which means I have been doing it for a week, and the improvement is slow, but it is lasting change, not a temporary fix. I feel like I am finally getting some control in my life. One of the routines is you get dressed first thing in the morning, from head to toe. This encouraged me to finally go out and get my hair cut. I hadn't had my hair cut since I was pregnant with my son, who is almost 9 months old. And my kitchen is clean, which means I can actually cook dinner for my family.
I have been limiting my computer time, and as a result haven't been working on blog posts as much. I have a second post in the works about the book I read, Sisters on Journey, which I will hopefully finish eventually. If you don't hear from me, I am probably either enjoying my kids or working on creating a more peaceful environment for them.
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