November flew by!

Alright, if I'm doing a blog, I really do need to keep it updated more often than once a month!

I don't know what happened to the month of November. It flew by, and a lot has happened.

First of all - Birth Update.

I had three births in November.

First birth - November 15.
Mom's water released while listening to a Hypnobabies Birth Affirmation CD. No contractions, 12 hrs later she was at the hospital. The midwife suggested trying an enema before going with some more interventive procedures, and it worked! Once things got going, it was an easy labor, quick birth, and both parents are thrilled with how things went.

However, BEFORE things got going, mom, dad, and I were walking up and down Labor Alley. This particular mom liked to hike, and had hiked a good 4 miles the day before. So when I say we walked, we WALKED - quickly and for about 3 hours total that day. My legs were killing me the next day - I think that was God's way of telling me I need to be exercising more often!

Second birth - November 24.
This baby was almost two weeks late. I thought for sure she would be born before our Thanksgiving getaway, but that was not to be.

So I need to take a detour here and talk about our Thanksgiving getaway. First of all, the kids totally thought we were going to Lake George. I had left brochures lying around, websites "accidentally" open, and a friend "accidentally" let it slip to my son that we were going there. The kids were all VERY surprised that we were at the beach!

The beach house was AWESOME. It looks even better than the website!!

The living room is decorated in a fish/beach theme - very appropriate for a beach house. "It looks like a webkinz room!" said my 6 yo. Her favorite part of the house was the fishie pillows on the couch. Big Fishie Pillows. When it was time to leave on Saturday, she sat on the house holding one of the pillows and sobbing as though she was leaving her best friend. I almost expected to have something taken out of our security deposit for the tearstains on the fish pillow.

"ALL I want for Christmas is a FISHIE pillow!!!" she was sobbing. Riiiight. Of course the next day, she was pointing out a beanie baby and saying that she wanted that even MORE than the fishie pillow.

Now I wasn't actually THERE for the Fishie Pillow Drama. Why? Because my November 13th mama was finally in labor!! She needed to be induced, but she handled it so well, and was able to achieve her wish of avoiding pain medication. She had been planning on using a birthing pool, but with being induced and needing to stay on the monitors, that wasn't going to happen. So she lost out on her waterbirth and I lost out on my last day of vacation.

I just got my security deposit back, which means that my family didn't leave the place totally trashed.

So...if you are looking to rent a beach house in the Wildwood area, consider renting from these people - Wildwood Rentals And tell them that you found them through me!! Anything that you rent mid-summer is going to be $$$$, so you might as well spend a little bit extra and be right on the beach. You won't regret it!!!

And now it looks like they only have the 3br unit up on their website - I hope they are still renting out the 5br unit - I would love to go there again. I'd better start saving my pennies.

Third Birth - November 30.
I thought I was done with births for the month - and then last Thursday night my doula business partner Jessica was listening to a Hypnobabies Birth Affirmation CD and her water broke! (Sound familiar?) However, she DID go into labor on her own and was holding her baby eight hours later. My very first homebirth!

So that was my November. Have a great week, everyone!