Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Reflections at 8 weeks postpartum

I feel fully "back to life" again. My postpartum bleeding has finally stopped this last week. It was done in 10-12 days with my first two. Not so with Inga and Ivy.


I started exercising today, and I soon realized that I have no core! My stomach is still really squishy and bulging, more than I remember it being with the other kids. If you're interested, I run sprint intervals based on this research. Basically, I run 30 second sprints at maximum intensity with 2-3 minutes recovery, x 4-6 repetitions. I've been doing a lot of gardening, too.

Ivy is starting to settle into a routine at night. I usually can put her down around 8pm and have a few hours of baby-free evening time. I'll often head outside and garden until it gets too dark or until the bugs drive me back inside. Eric and I are watching old episodes of MI-5 (a.k.a. Spooks). Ivy nurses every 2-3 hours at night. Just what I'd expect at her age. She sleeps really well in between nursing, so I feel very well rested.

She also sleeps really well with her grandpa!


In her "baby jail", a.k.a. swaddle wrap.

Her daytime schedule still has no discernible pattern. Sometimes she'll nap for 20 minutes, other times for 2-3 times that long. I remember that my other kids usually settled into a predictable routine around 4 months.

Ivy started smiling when she was 5 1/2 weeks old. They're still fleeting, but I've seen lots more the past few days. I'm glad to have these exciting milestones. They make up for the happy-sad feelings I get when my infants turn into babies and my babies into toddlers...and on and on.


Now for some birth analysis...

I suspect that Ivy might have been posterior the whole labor and pushing stage, until about 5 minutes before the birth. I had constant rectal pressure almost the whole labor...not the "I have to puuuuuush" pressure, just icky uncomfortable pressure that never subsided. I've never had this with my other labors. I think that's also why I didn't feel the endorphin rush between contractions. When I showed my birth video to a group of Home Birth Summit participants, one of the OBs said Ivy was likely posterior and finally rotated about 5 minutes before the birth in that gigantic contraction that brought her down. There's no way to know for sure, but there are so many little things that all point towards that possibility. If so, no wonder why it was my most challenging labor!

More family pictures from our surprise visit to Minnesota:


 


Dio's Angry Bird birthday cake. Really simple. Peanut butter bars were the building blocks, and mini cupcakes with green frosting were the pigs. All on top of a dark chocolate tart (for the adults!). He threw some Angry Bird toys at the structure until it all collapsed.


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Thursday, May 16, 2013

Special discount for the ECV & Vaginal Breech Workshops

There is less than one month remaining before the ECV, Vaginal Breech, and NRP workshops in Niceville, FL!


We are offering two special perks for new registrations:

  • Extended early-bird discount through May 24
  • The next 5 registrants receive an infant scale sling of their choice from Second Womb Slings

If you've been thinking of attending, now is the time to act! Dr. O'Neill is a fantastic instructor. You will leave feeling more confident in your ability to safely attend (and risk out) a vaginal breech birth. Even if you do not offer planned breeches in your practice, you will greatly benefit from the hands-on training in the event of a surprise breech. As we all know, meconium happens if you're in the birth business.

Oh, and look at some of the beautiful new batiks I just bought for the infant scale slings...




Disclosure: The ECV & breech workshops are volunteer-run programs. The conference organizers have invested significant personal funds to cover program expenses.
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Monday, May 13, 2013

Cardinal movements of the breech baby

#breech
Day 2
Jane Evans:
Cardinal Movements of the Breech Baby

I finally got in touch with Jane Evans about posting her lecture on the cardinal movements of the breech baby. She gave me the go-ahead, so here it is!

In this video, UK midwife Jane Evans explains the cardinal movements of the breech baby through the maternal pelvis when the mother is in an upright position. This was an abbreviated version of her physiological breech birth lecture. Please visit her earlier presentation for written notes.

During this presentation, Jane Evans showed photos of upright breech births. We did not have permission to film these images. Other footage of interest:



If you have other pictures or videos of upright breech births, please link to them in the comments.
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Sunday, May 12, 2013

Some Mother's Day awesomeness

I'm the first one up this morning. Ivy woke up to nurse at 6 am and I couldn't get back to sleep. So I watched this clip from Stephen Colbert about the newest trend of going diaperless:



During church, I'm going to fill out this FmH Mother's Day Bingo card. I'll give one to Zari, too, to keep her occupied. If I hear anyone say "all women are mothers, if even they aren't mothers" I think I will scream.

I've never really cared for Mother's Day. When I got married, I was trying not to have children for the first 5 years. Then we had several years of unexpected infertility. Then, once I had kids, I resented how our culture gives lip service once a day to mothers but doesn't otherwise do much to support mothering. Read more at Mother's Day Blues.

What are you doing for Mother's Day? 
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Tuesday, May 07, 2013

Downton Abbey napkins

When my mom came to help after Ivy was born, she got us hooked on Downton Abbey. Wouldn't it be fun--and tiresome after a while--to dress up for dinner every night? Tiara and long gloves and diamonds. A far cry from dinner at our house most nights. 

For my mom's birthday, I made her a set of Downton Abbey napkins. I wrote some of the wittiest quotes from Violet Crawley onto vintage linen napkins that I bought years ago. I followed the instructions from Design Mom's tutorial.



This was a simple, fun project requiring only a few supplies: fabric marker, lettering guide, and napkins. When I was stenciling the letters, I stretched the napkins out and fastened them to my work surface with masking tape. The weave on my napkins made the fabric marker bleed a little, but the overall effect was still quite nice.

If you had the time and skills, these quotes would look amazing with hand-embroidery.

I have several more sets of vintage linen napkins at home. I think I'll make myself another set (or two..or three) when I get home!
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Monday, May 06, 2013

May in Minnesota




We're visiting my parents in Minnesota this week. On the day that we drove in, they received a record snowfall. We saw downed trees and broken branches all over town. Crazy! Even May in Minnesota isn't usually this cold and snowy. But the sun is out now and the snow is gone.

Our first big road trip in the Mazda5 went pretty well. Ivy slept most of the time (except for nursing breaks). True to form, Dio was the worst traveler! We can't fit suitcases in the back hatch area, so instead we packed everything in cloth shopping bags, one per person. We stacked them up and with a little pushing and shoving, managed to close the door. We didn't need to put anything between the seats. So it's nice to know that we can fit a reasonable amount of baggage in this ultra-minivan.

All of us siblings came in from across the country to celebrate my mom's 60th birthday. It was super secret, so I couldn't say anything of our travel plans here or even to our kids. We have 10 adults and 11 grandkids in one house. Fun times.

On Saturday I met up for lunch with a midwife I knew back in my Iowa City years. She was in town doing prenatals, so we caught up on news and birthy stuff. We're already brainstorming for a breech  workshop in the Twin Cities area in summer 2014!
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Wednesday, May 01, 2013

Seeking breech catchers in Calgary!

I just received an email from a 2nd-time mom from Calgary, AB who just discovered her baby is breech. Here's more info on her situation:

At 38.5 weeks, I recently discovered my baby is breech after finally deciding on a home water birth and making all the preparations. I was quite shocked. I had an ECV a couple of days ago, and the baby simply would not turn, for no apparent reason, despite lots of drugs and a very aggressive approach. I am continuing to do some Webster chiropractic treatments, and buying myself some time. The OBs were quick to offer a scheduled c-section, but I don't favor that option. They have told me that I can wait until I go into labor and then show up at the hospital hoping for a doctor willing to do a vaginal breech delivery. But there aren't a lot of OBs with experience doing breech vaginal birth (since it hasn't been offered for the last 10 years here, and only recently has the option opened up again). (My midwife can't offer me a home birth with a breech baby). Unfortunately, if I show up at the hospital and the doctor isn't comfortable/experienced with breech, then I may be required to undergo a c-section!

Let's put our heads together and find her more options before her baby arrives! If you can help, leave a comment or send me an email. 
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Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Cut, Stapled, and Mended: a giveaway where everyone wins!

I'm so excited to announce a fantastic giveaway in conjunction with the release of Roanna Rosewood's book Cut, Stapled, and Mended.


For just 24 hours today (April 30), everyone who purchases one copy of her book receives more than $1,000 in gifts. Yes, everyone!

Here are the 26 gifts you will receive:
  • Songs From the Birth House, an MP3 album ($19 value)
  • Dr. Christiane Northrup's MP3 audio program "The Power of Joy" 
  • Awakening Your Child’s Confidence: An MP3 Audio Program for Children by Heather Chauvin  (Value $197)
  • 12-hour summit by playwright Karen Brody delivered on MP3s ($97 Value)
  • The Ecstatic Journey of Birth & Sex – The Integral Trances of Pleasure & Procreation (online course) AND Wholistic Sexuality: Better Sex for a Better World (ebook) by Sheri Winston (combined $23 value)
  • Susun Weed's Nourishing Herbal Infusions Online Course – Drink Your Way to Health the Wise Woman Way ($150 Value)
  • Webinar with Barbara Harper (Value $50)
  • “I am a Goddess” Affirmation Poster and Meditation downloads from Elizabeth  Harper ($33 Value) 
  • Marlyn Radzat's Leaf Pod Baby PDF Class ($20 Value)
  • Access to Pam England's Cesarean Healing Story ($20 Value)
  • Orgasmic Birth Webinar Class with Debra Pascali-Bonaro (Value: $47)
  • The Most Common Mistakes Moms Make with Coming-Of-Age Girls, and How To Avoid Them! by DeAnna L'am ($47 value)
  • Love Letters from your life, a 33-day email coaching program by Anna Kunnecke ($75 Value)
  • Introduction to Face Reading, a 45 minute Mp3 by Rebecca Wood ($45 Value)
  • Birth Heaven Now! Online Homestudy Course, includes 1:1 coaching with Stephanie Dawn! ($147 Value)
  • Optimal Uterine Health Tele-Class with Dr. Eve Agee ($129 Value)
  • A chance to win your choice of beautiful handcrafted MamAmor dolls (3 winners, up to $200 value each)
  • How to Trust Birth and Your Body by Kristen Burgess ($50 Value)
  • Birth Embodiment!, an online class by Nekole Shapiro
  • Boys Alive! Teleconference with Janet Allison ($50 Value)

How to enter:
1) Purcahse a paperback copy of Cut, Stapled, and Mended on Amazon before midnight EST on April 30
2) Return back to cutstapledandmended.com and enter your order information

That's it! You will receive all 26 gifts.

What if you've already purchased a copy of Cut, Stapled, and Mended? I'd suggest buying another one--you don't want to pass this opportunity by. I'm going to buy another one today and donate it to my public library. 

Happy reading!
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Monday, April 29, 2013

Postpartum Reading List

 ***Very Important Announcement***

Tomorrow (April 30) I will be posting an amazing giveaway related to one of these books where everyone who participates receives a prize. It will only last for 24 hours, so be sure to come back tomorrow for details!

During the week and a half that my mom was helping out, I read three books. I thought I'd read more, but I spent a lot of time working on Ivy's birth story and video.


When I was just 2 days postpartum, I read an advance review copy of Roanna Rosewood's Cut, Stapled, and Mended: When One Woman Reclaimed Her Body and Gave Birth on Her Own Terms After Cesarean. This book is hot off the press--I think it was released 2 days ago!


It was a powerful read. In short, it was the story of her three children's births, the first two by cesarean and the third by VBAC. But it was really a book about finding herself and coming into her power as a woman. And her journey to VBAC wasn't a simple one. Her first two cesareans both began as planned home births. She worked SO hard to birth her babies vaginally. There are no simple answers to why she needed surgery the first two times and why she didn't the last time. I love her story because it doesn't give easy answers or make simplistic pronouncements about needing to "trust birth." It's raw and real and doesn't have all the answers.

You'll remember Roanna from Panel 3 of the Human Rights in Childbirth Conference and from her eloquent address "Who has the right to speak for the baby?". Here she is speaking at the HRCC conference:



Cut, Stapled, and Mended: $12.36 on Amazon


Next was The Midwife's Tale: A Mystery by Sam Thomas. Definitely a fun read! You can learn more about the book and the author at this blog post or on his website.


The Midwife's Tale: $12.98 (paperback) and $16.97 (hardcover)


Last was Jennifer Margulis' expose of the baby industry (from conception to birth to the first year of the baby's life): The Business of Baby: What Doctors Don't Tell You, What Corporations Try to Sell You, and How to Put Your Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Baby Before Their Bottom Line.

 


Written to be an eye-opener (and a bit of a jeremiad), Margulis' book examines how financial interests often undermine the health and well-being of mothers and babies. Some of the chapters were familiar, but others were new to me. Margulis blends investigative journalism with fascinating anecdotes and stories. Sometimes I felt the book was a bit too heavily weighted towards anecdote, but she's also trying to tell a good story as much as she is presenting facts and research.

The Business of Baby: $16.46 on Amazon
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Friday, April 26, 2013

Dio is 4!

Happy birthday Dio! Birth story here, birth photos here, newborn photos here and here


We had a very low-key celebration with homemade cake and whipped cream. Our "party" consisted of going outside and playing in the yard. Eric and I cleaned up the garden and moved some bushes we'd pulled out with a truck. The kids drew pictures with sidewalk chalked, played with the hose, and "helped" as I planted red onions and lettuce. I didn't even buy Dio anything, since I knew he was getting two presents from my mom and that he'd be too busy playing with those to pay attention to anything more.

Dio has been obsessed with Angry Birds for several months now. It's strange, because we don't even own a smartphone. I have no idea why he's completely enthralled with Angry Birds. I make him Angry Birds items on a near-daily basis: slingshots out of tree branches and rubber bands, angry birds and pigs out of crumpled up paper or tinfoil balls or small pieces of tupperware, blocks out of old cereal boxes. I've even made some angry birds out of felted wool and stuffed with wheat. (Dio left it outside, and a squirrel gnawed it open and ate the insides.)

Dio is loving and silly and sensitive and intense. He can push our buttons quite easily, especially Eric's. My mom says I was similarly intense and overly sensitive when I was little, only much, much worse. Sorry mom. I don't remember any of it.

Now for some Ivy cuteness. She's wearing an outfit my friend Kristen gave to me when Zari was born. I love the little bonnet.


Ivy recently discovered her competition:


It's better to act preemptively.


I get to gaze at her sweet face all day long. Sigh...I will really miss this stage.


When I got back from the Home Birth Consensus Summit, Ivy lost her tiny newborn look. She is a plump, bright-eyed baby now. She's getting better at sleeping without having to be on or right next to my body at night. When she's done nursing, I can scoot her over about a foot away and not worry so much about a pillow or comforter being too close to her face. She's taken the occasional nap on the couch or bed, but mostly stays in the sling during the day.
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Thursday, April 25, 2013

Want to read "Labor and Deliverance" blog?

Hey y'all...anyone else out there desperately miss Labor and Deliverance: Observations of a Busy Southern OB-GYN?


He had to go private but is happy to invite anyone interested to read the blog. If you'd like to join, please send me an email. Be sure to include info about yourself and a link to something (blog, Facebook, website, etc) to prove you're a "real" person. I'll pass your emails along to him.
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Sunday, April 21, 2013

Ivy's birth quilt

Here's the finished quilt! I did most of the quilting carrying Ivy in a sling. She doesn't like being set down--which is fine and normal--but she is cozy and content as long as she's on someone's body. I'll probably hang it in Inga's bedroom, which will eventually become Ivy's room when she's big enough to sleep on her own. It looks even better in real life with all the quilting and textures and different fabrics.


The top has a hanging loop of rainbow fabric scraps left over from Zari's Halloween costume:


I finally embroidered the Prince of Wales Hotel onto the square of Waterton National Park in Alberta (month 2):




The back of the quilt is fun, too:



Zari has been asking for her own quilt, since I only started making birth quilts with Dio. So during my last month of Ivy's pregnancy, I started cutting out squares of fabric. We're doing a simple design in a gradual rainbow of colors, all made from leftover fabric scraps. The front is all sewn together now.


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Friday, April 19, 2013

2nd Home Birth Summit

The first Home Birth Consensus Summit in 2011 concluded with the creation of nine Common Ground Statements. We arrived at these through consensus, which was an arduous and sometimes frustrating process. Every single word had to meet everyone's approval.

18 months later, we reconvened for a Review Meeting. Instead of drafting new documents, we reviewed the work we'd been doing in our various action groups to advance the nine common ground statements. We discussed obstacles to achieving those goals and new ideas for each action group. It's amazing to see all the initiatives summit members have already started or accomplished. Once each action group writes its report, they will be posted and periodically updated on the Home Birth Summit website.

Two areas of great concern were health disparities--especially in communities of color--and the future of the CPM credential (including licensure in the remaining illegal/alegal states). Lots of fireworks and intense but productive discussions!

I enjoyed meeting so many people that I'd normally never be able to interact with: OBs, family doctors, pediatricians, nurses, midwives of all different credentials, malpractice & health care insurance adjusters, lawyers, political strategists, researchers, and more.
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Thursday, April 18, 2013

I'm on vacation!

Actually I'm at the Home Birth Consensus Summit Review Meeting in Warrenton, Virginia. But it FEELS like vacation.

I just have Ivy with me. I get to eat (way too much) amazing food three times a day. I don't have to watch my other kids. I don't have to cook or clean. I get to talk with all sorts of interesting people involved in maternity care all day long.

Yes, it definitely qualifies as a vacation!

We just finished our first full day of meetings. We're all exhausted and ready for some down time. I'm heading down for an informal gathering. We'll tell birth stories and just chat until we're ready for bed. Maybe I will show Ivy's birth video...I showed Inga's last time.

I can't write much right now at about the meetings, but it's been really rewarding to see how many positive changes have come about since the first Home Birth Summit 18 months ago. We've been talking in depth about all the work we want to still accomplish towards fulfilling the 9 consensus statements we came up with at the last meeting. 
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Monday, April 15, 2013

Ivy's birth photos

I received 464 photos from the photographer and narrowed them down to 84. I just couldn't go any lower!

Looking through the photos was a surprisingly emotional experience for me--but not in the way I expected. I was flooded with a sense of sadness, knowing that this probably will be our last baby. The photos were the last part of the birth I was still waiting on, so when they arrived they brought with them a bittersweet sense of closure.

Yesterday we had a gathering with friends & colleagues from the university where we work. I also finished Ivy's birth quilt. The months of preparation and weeks of celebration are done. Now it's time to move forward. 

With a few exceptions, the photos are in chronological order. I love how the photographer captured what was going on all around the house: kids playing in the attic, birth assistants napping in the living room (they'd been up the night before at another birth), Eric making crepes after Ivy was born.

Before you view the pictures, look at:

For a full-screen slideshow, click on the image below (or click here).


Smaller slideshow here:


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Saturday, April 13, 2013

Job openings for FNPs and CNMs

Are you a family nurse practitioner or certified nurse midwife looking for employment opportunities? Believe Midwifery Services, a solo homebirth practice owned by Penny Lane, CNM, MSN, IBCLC, is seeking to hire a FNP and one or two CNMs. Located in Thorntown, Indiana (a half-hour from from both Indianapolis and Lafayette), Believe Midwifery Services is a thriving practice operating since 2007.
For more information and to apply, visit the job descriptions.

Below are more details about the openings and how Penny envisions expanding her practice:

Believe Midwifery Services, LLC in Central Indiana is seeking a Family Nurse Practitioner and would consider adding another Certified Nurse Midwife with the right applicant.

The FNP would work one day per week initially as the clientele grows. Our practice has been established for six years and is BUSY so it may not take long to add additional days. Our clients are typically highly educated and of a higher socioeconomic status, so they pay for care that they can't receive anywhere else. They don't want pharmaceuticals as a routine, and they prefer natural remedies and a good sit-down discussion on how to better understand their bodies. They do want access to medical interventions when appropriate.

The nurse-midwife position would begin as a fellowship opportunity. After the first year the midwife could begin working more independently, potentially in a second office or birth center. Experience has taught me that this is the best model for adding a second midwife, but we can be quite creative with schedule commitment.
Our practice is currently booked each month with a waiting list. We are independent practitioners with a growing well-woman practice. Every birth is attended by the CNM and two assistants, most often nurses. All are NRP certified including intubation and emergency medication administration. In the office, we have two assistants as well, so the midwife can focus on the care of the client. Lactation is a huge priority, and we maintain care of our newborns through six weeks.

Our practice has a number of collaborating physicians that are incredibly supportive, so access to care is a non-issue. We receive rather frequent referrals at this point, hence the waiting list and our need to add one or two additional nurse-midwives.

Our websites can be found at www.BelieveMidwiferyServices.com and www.RedRaspberryBoutique.com. We pride ourselves in increasing the standards of homebirth and have high expectations for clinical care. We attend a good number of VBACs and vaginal breeches. We also have very supportive MFMs, which allows us to maintain care of GDM, PIH and such if properly managed. Resumes can be emailed to Penny@BelieveMidwiferyServices.com or faxed to 765-436-7114. Our application can be found on our website as well.     

Penny Lane MSN, CNM, IBCLC

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Friday, April 12, 2013

Outtakes

Right before she left, our birth photographer snapped some photos of the chalkboard wall in the attic.


Notice the baby wrapped in a blanket & nursing (on a disembodied breast!)


I'm putting the birth photos together into a slideshow. It's fun but challenging, since I am trying to narrow the 400+ images down to about 50. I'm just under 100 right now. Here are a few that got cut:

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Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Supergirl, by Eric Freeze

Eric recently had his second book accepted by University of Nebraska Press! It's a collection of non-fiction essays titled Hemingway On a Bike. Here's one of the essays from the collection, a piece called "Supergirl." It was originally published with Barrelhouse.

When I was five and six, I begged my mother for two things: spinach and vitamins.  Both were because of cartoons.  The first was Popeye, the high gravelly-voiced sailor who would get anvils in his biceps when he’d down a can of the green stuff.  The spinach would always come near the end of an episode when Olive Oil or one of Popeye’s other friends were bound up by Bluto or trapped in a sinking boat.  A rush of adrenaline always accompanied my watching these scenes: Popeye with the speed of a fighter jet.  Popeye with legs of iron.  Popeye with a spinning roundhouse that could send you to the moon.  I was in awe of his invincibility and I hoped that spinach would unlock the same physical traits in me.  I would beg my mother to make it and she’d occasionally oblige me even though nobody else in the family would eat it.  She always boiled the leaves in water until they had the consistency of ectoplasm or slime.  I doused the watered-down vegetable with butter and salt and slid the slimy stuff down my esophagus until I could feel a little warmth in my forearms.  Then I’d go into our basement and punch our bean bag chair until my knuckles were dry and cracked.

And an excerpt from the middle of the essay:

To show how society constructs notions of gendered identity, I once bought a Superhero Starter Kit for a class I was teaching.  I wanted students to look at the book as an artifact, to analyze assumptions that it made about gender.  There is a blond boy on the front with wrist bands, a shiny red cape, and lightning bolt stickers affixed to his t-shirt.  The caption reads, “Saving the World Made Simple.”  All of the pictures in the book are of boys.  Boys leaping, hanging, falling (it happens), landing, hiding, running, swinging, spinning.  Boys spread-eagled on chairs, boys scrunching their faces, putting up their toddler dukes.  In one picture, a boy flexes his biceps into a mirror and mimics a look of strain and anger as he flexes.  Other photos have boys with hands on hips, boys reaching for the sky, boys pointing up, fingers raised in number ones.  These boys are masked, tough, superheroes with missions and powers and secret identities.  There is a solitary picture of a girl.  Like the boys, she is mostly smiles but her action is less dramatic.  She wears a pink polka-dot shirt and flips her hair.

When I take the book home, my four-year-old daughter asks, “What’s that?”  Before I can explain, the book is out of its wrapper and she’s trying to remove the red super cape.  Soon it’s velcroed around her neck and she’s running through the house yelling “Wooooo!”  She jumps off our couch, takes stairs two at a time.  In the hall mirror, she poses, shows me her muscles, “almost as big as yours!” and screws up her face in a look of fearsome exertion.  I’m not surprised that the cape has this effect, that she so readily transforms herself into a brawny pre-schooler.  As new parents who are conscious of the impact of gendered advertising, we’ve done our best to steer her from passive female characters, submissive princesses and fairies who long to be led or saved.  But the way she takes to the cape makes me wonder if we’ve over-compensated.  Have we demonized these female representations so much that she misses out on some of the positive attributes of empathy, understanding, and caring?  Of our three children, she’s the most assertive, the most willing to take risks.  And besides an occasional narcissistic comparison to their hair, she hasn’t shown any interest in princesses.  I want to videotape her reaction and send it to the publishing company, evidence that they’re reaching the wrong demographic.  Girls can be super too.

Read the rest here
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Tuesday, April 09, 2013

How do I get stuff done?

I get asked that question a lot.

Most of the time, I wouldn't say that I *do* all that much in a given day. Except, of course, when I'm very pregnant and want to finish all sorts of home projects.

But my super-secret weapon is the attic on the 3rd story of our house. It's a mostly finished space measuring 20x40', plus a 5th bedroom and walk-in closet.

The previous owners left the pool table. I don't blame them--I'd hate to try to move it down two flights of stairs. You can see Eric's foosball table, made by the French company Bonzini. He found it used on Craigslist a few years ago and we negotiated a deal: he could buy it if he gave up bottled beverages for two years: juice, flavored waters, pop, sports drinks, etc.


Turning counter-clockwise, you can see the "jumping couch" and the "jumping bed." Kids love to jump and climb on furniture, so we have a designated space just for doing that. The rope ladder, rings, and swing are from Ikea.


A view from the far corner.


The previous occupants painted the chalkboard wall. (They had 5 kids.) The little door on the wall leads into the knee wall area of the attic. All the kids' toys are on these two sets of shelves. I cut, planed, sanded, and varnished the shelves before Dio was born and finally assembled them last year. One is made from cherry, the other from walnut.


On the other side of the staircase is my sewing area. We have a few walls that still need to be finished. My dad ran wire for a light to go above the sewing desk.


You can see the 5th bedroom that is behind the sewing area. Right now Eric has his weight bench in that room. Eventually we'll move that out and put a bed in the room.


Having this space lets me get so much stuff done--reading, sewing, grading, blogging, or even napping. The kids mostly occupy themselves while I do my own projects. We just had the attic insulated, so now it remains cozy even in the winter. There are no heat radiators on the 3rd floor, but we do have central air conditioning to keep the upper two floors liveable during the hottest summer weeks.

As much as I love the idea of the not-so-big-house, I LOVE our huge old house. Love it. I love having space for everything. I love not having the kids' toys in the living room or in their bedrooms.

To compensate for the size of the house, we invested in a super high-efficiency boiler when we bought the house, which cut the gas bill in half. We also had storm windows made for the whole house and insulated the basement and attic.

Oh, and don't worry--the attic doesn't usually look this tidy! My mom did lots of cleaning while she was here, so I took pictures before the kids messed it up again :)
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