Have a few pictures of Amie up…
Link works fine, I think!

http://photobucket.com/albums/y184/katmagicate/Amie%20Anna/

Weeeee!  :D

Well, I got a call today. The Bad News is that Shiny qualifies for services
for special needs kids because she has gross and fine motor delays. The Good
News is that said services are free, and that her social skills are a
definite strong point.

She is getting SO interactive. She never really did "mindless babbling" the
way most babies do around 3-4 months–it’s all very purposeful babbling that
seems to carry meaning, because she always makes specific sets of noises for
specific things. Like, when she wants to be turned upside down, she says,
"Ah-ooo!" And when she wants to nurse she often yells "mAuh!" or sticks both
fists in her mouth at once. It’s been going on maybe a week or two.

I swear that one of her noises means "Yeah". She is totally aware of who
specific people are. She loves strangers and new faces, but good lord–her
dad came back from a 6 day trip and I was put in mind of my mother’s dog who
would wag her whole BODY when Mom came back from a long trip. Shiny was SO
happy to see him, she just kept looking at him with this rapt, amazed smile
on her face. Sit in a room with a bunch of family and ask her "Where’s
Grandma?" She’ll look around until she finds Grandma. Ask her if Daddy is
Grandma and she cracks a smile and looks at Grandma. She’s been grumpy
because her sister is at camp, but mostly at times when her sister is
usually around, like after my shower or when we’re in the car. She’s taken
to yelling at me (not crying, yelling) whenever I drive somewhere with just
her in the car, like, "HEY. MOM. YOU’RE FORGETTING SOMEONE. SOMETHING’S
WRONG. YOU ATE MY SISTER. I KNOW YOU DID." When someone calls on the phone
and talks to her, she just *loves* it. And my mom’s neighbor, who has a very
special relationship with Shiny, came back after a two week absence and we
swore that Shiny was telling her about everything that happened in between
time. Not coherently, but it was definitely a clear conversation going on.

She rolls a bit, and is very good at creeping on her tummy, not far, but far
enough to get me going. But her head control is still "bobbly"… not
nonexistant, just, it’s clear she has to make a conscious effort to keep her
head up. It’s spotty as to whether she will help or not if you use her arms
to bring her to a sitting position. She reaches and grasps, but not well,
not with any accuracy. Her strongest skill is picking her head up from a
prone position–she is *so* funny with that, looks like a little turtle or
jack in the box when she pops her head up and starts looking around. She can
get her head back *so* far from this position, far more than "vertical".
She’s just starting to try to balance if someone puts her in a sit position.

I got her exersaucers (one for my house, one for mom’s) and she does very
well in them, turns herself all the way around now and can "do" most of the
toys.

She is very quiet and totally not bothered by me taking a minute to go to
the bathroom alone–she doesn’t "tell" me when she wakes up from a nap for
quite a while, and then she just sort of yells, "mUH".

It is almost as if she’s growing up slower than normal….like her time
scale is slower than anyone elses. I suspect she would have been perfectly
content to stay in the womb until 45 weeks. She seemed "newbornish" to me
for far longer than I expected–like until close to 2 months, and she
*still* has some newborny sorts of things about her. It’s like she’s
unfolding a little more gradually. Part of me idly wonders if I’m going to
see her starting puberty at 14 and not getting her period until she’s 20 or
something. Because she looks and acts like a precocious 3 month old, NOT
like an almost 5-month old. That said, I would not be shocked if she started
really moving earlier than her sister did, because she’s *so* mobile
already.

But she still sometimes forgets how to nurse, and I *still* have to do suck
training with her every now and then to get her to latch on even close to
reasonably, and her gain is just at the threshhold between "worrisomely
slow" and "okay". I mean, she was 9/4 at birth. 8/3 a few days later. 9/4 at
1 month old. 11/2 at 2 months old. 13/6 at 4 months old. And 3 weeks later
she’s still "just" 14 pounds, though I’m sure tomorrow I’ll wake up and
found she’s bounced up a few more ounces, just because I’m worrying about
it. But she’s gotten *so* much more active the past few weeks, but she’s too
little to slow down right now. And no, she won’t take a bottle, not for
love, money or hunger. But most of the time she latches on well, gulps
through a feeding, and I’m *still* producing so much milk I leak in the
mornings.
Jenrose

back in the spring (northern hemisphere) there was a discussion about
good news servers, particularly those not related to ISP, anyway as I
was having trouble with mine I registered for one. Details are on my
laptop that got damaged, I now have a new laptop, I should be able to
get the data of my old harddrive, but as yet haven’t got the equipment.
So I’m trying to retrieve the details from the website, but I can’t
find it! I’ve searched google, but I can’t find the thread, or a
general search hasn’t shown up any pages I recognise. I know it was a
german provider and that is about it. I was using it up until about a
month ago and definitely using it when Ada was born. So if anyone can
look at the headers and tell me what I was using I would be very
grateful!

Cheers

Anne

Yesterday around dinner time I felt nauseated and after a while realized
that the nausea came and went in nice 5 minute intervals. I went up to lie
down and lo, some real contraction announced themselves. Nicely regular,
but not extremely painful. After about 2 hours of this I called the
hospital, they suggested to come by anyway, so off we went late evening.

Once there, nothing. After some sleep at 2.30AM things started to get
going and I was unpleasantly reminded of how annoying husbands can stare
at you when you have a contraction, and how painful they can be. Until
about 4.30AM, when things came to a full stop. Gosh, I was *pissed*!!!

This morning we were send home with virtually no increase in dilation,
membranes still in one piece and hardly any contractions worth mentioning.
At least I feel more relaxed at home, but contractions are still hard to
find. It’s not entirely quiet, but also not the real thing yet.

Nevertheless, the told us to call again should things get regular again.
We’ll see what happens tonight…

–
–I
mommy to DS (July ’02)
mommy to four tiny angels (Oct ’03 – Oct ’04)
guardian of DH (age classified)
expecting twins (boy/girl) in August

Wednesday night at 38 weeks and a half during my summer school speech
class, I started having regular contractions. They felt rather early
and not nearly forceful enough to actually go into the hospital to get
checked for labor. Homer was excellent in following my lead, despite
his genetic make up that desperately wanted to drag me in and get the
baby out. We ended up telling everyone that labor seemed to have
started but that it was still very early in the game.

By Saturday night, the contractions remained the same, but ended up
intensifying in my pelvic area. I was really encouraged because it was
something new instead of just days of the same early labor
contractions with no sign of being different. Sunday morning I was
seriously not liking my hips and pelvis and I noticed that Someone New
had dropped about what seemed to be 6 inches downward which was
another sign towards impending stronger labor coming closer (hours,
days, weeks, who knows)

Monday, contractions pretty much were really light, Sunday was just a
positioning day I think. My pelvis was glad for the break. I knew once
I was at class later that day that the walking would trigger them to
gain some power back. I really felt like the day was different and
thus went really early to class to make sure I was signed up for the
first speech of the night. The speech went alright, I went over time
but oh well. =oP I listened to four other speeches and scared some
good old southern boy during his speech by getting up to turn the
lights on and off when needed. When the break came, my contractions
were about every four to seven minutes fairly strong (in the mild
sense of he water hadn’t broken, they were annoying me enough to get
annoyed at everyone around me) but walking to the car set them
approximately 2 to 3 minutes apart and twice as strong as sitting. My
body was telling me to walk, so we went to the mall for dinner.

We were supposed to go to my dad’s house to install the carseat, but
like the crib last pregnancy, labor took over those plans. We ate
dinner and I walked the upstairs part of the mall (cushy supported
carpeting, ideal for laps) and the contractions amped up in length and
strength, again remaining 2 to 3 minutes apart. I decided that I would
go in to get checked just to see if this was the slow going jump of 3
cms dilated to 4 cms dilated. So we went home and packed our things
for the hospital. Juliet in case you were wondering woke up at 9:00
that morning and had no nap that day. So she was tired by this point,
but refused to sleep.

I got to the hospital around 10 I think. Like Juliet’s birth, the
delivery ward was overflowing and so they put me in a room with two
others to determine if they were going to admit me.

To be continued… Is it or isn’t it otherwise known as the beastly bed

Laurel
—
birthmom to Bj 4-12-96
mommy to Juliet 4-13-02
and Serafina 8-9-05

So they put me in a hospital gown and strap the stupid machine to me
to get a fetal tracing one. Their goal was 20 minutes of watching
Someone New’s heart rate with the bottom graph monitoring my
contractions. Keep in mind that there is a big difference in my labor
at this point between me walking (which everything in me wanted to do)
sitting up or laying down. Also remember that the reason why we didn’t
know the gender of Someone New was because she really didn’t
appreciate us being nosy with u/s machine. Can you guess where this is
going?

Two bloody hours of me being stuck in that evil beastly bed strapped
to a machine that annoys the hell out of Someone New. Every three
minutes she would turn away from the monitor and refuse to be kept
track of. I’m annoyed because I hate the bed, my hips hurt from all
the stupid postions they put me into to try and keep Someone New on
the monitor, and the nurses are pleading with my child to just stay on
for five minutes for the records and then I would get to get up and
walk around. (I was 3 cm when they checked me on arrival)

Two hours!!!! Gah. The contractions were strong enough for me to know
I was in labor, but spaced out enough to make everyone else to assume
I came too soon. So not only is the bed annoying me, the monitors
annoying me, the people in the next bed over annoying me, I also had
my family waiting with us. And nothing can drive a peanut gallery
nutters like the “Is this it or not?” waiting game for 2 hours. I lost
any desire to discuss what was going on at the end of those two hours.
I dilated to 3 and a half, plus effaced most of the way (70% to 90%)
despite being strapped to that friggen bed. The only part that kept me
sane was my ipod and zoning out into my own space except when being
messed with for those monitors.

It was decided that I should get up and walk for 15 minutes to see I
there would be a change or if my child would comply with the tracing
afterwards. Oh my gosh, I was so glad to get out of bed. The nurse
tried to insist I keep the two monitor belts on as I walked even
though they weren’t plugged into anything. =oP “Um… no. Those suckers
are coming off.”

And I walked! Contractions immediately picked right back up to 2 to 3
minutes apart. Strength wise they were really good contractions
considering my waters were not broken at this point. The fifteen
minutes were up way too soon.

To be continued… in which Dr. Coolbeans comes to check on me and I
choose to “snag the bag”

Laurel
—
birthmom to Bj 4-12-96
mommy to Juliet 4-13-02
and Serafina 8-9-05

DH has got through the first stage of interviews for Microsoft, next step is
for him to fly out to Redmond for a face to face interview. As far as we
know, there won’t be the opportunity for me to go out there before him
having to make a decision (if he gets a job that is), so I’m looking for
info about the area, stuff like housing costs and general costs of living.
Also, what are education and health services like?

For those who don’t know me, I’m from the UK, where we live right now, in
Cambridge. I’ve worked briefly in the US in Putnam County, NY, but other
than that I’ve not been to the US, so I’m lacking in knowledge in lots of
areas.

I’d also be interested to hear from anyone who has moved back to Europe
after living in the US, we own our home here, so if we were to move we would
have to make a decision whether to sell or to let it out and there are heaps
of other issues, basically any wisdom appreciated!

Cheers

Anne

After having two wonderful sons, my wife and I would like our final child to
be a girl.
I came across a method at http://www.choosethesexofyourbaby.com/ run by
somebody named Martine Lafleur.
She claims 94% accuracy.  Has anyone tried this method or know anything
about it.
I would like to know how accurate it really is, and what
art/science/folklore it is based on.

Thanks
Jim

Hey Girlie

Is there any news on your bump yet? Is she/he OK. I do hope that bump is
just fine, I am sending thoughts and prayers your way….please let us know
that your OK.

April & BabyStrongBow

Mum to:
DS Joshua Tony 28/12/99
DS Jonathan Henry 02/09/2001
BabyStrongBow Due Feb 2006

PREGNANT WOMEN: You can open your birth canal an "extra" up to 30%.

See below.

BABIES AND THE BOSTON GLOBE

Peter G. Hill, DC was quoted in The Boston Globe, August 7, 2005:

"[T]his broken, haphazard medical system…The only answer is…some form of
universal single-payer system…time for a radical change in the system is
now."
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/letters/articles/2…
07/a_case_for_single_payer_system/

OPEN LETTER (archived for global access at http://groups.google.com)

Glenda S. Buell
Letters To The Editor/News
The Boston Globe
(617) 929-3038
g_bu…@globe.com

Glenda/Boston Globe,

I know it sounds bizarre but obstetricians are closing birth canals up to
30% and keeping birth canals closed the "extra" up to 30% as they pull with
hands, forceps and vacuums – sometimes pulling so hard they rip spinal
nerves out of tiny spinal cords.

See ACOG’s 2005 edition: How NOT to birth
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/chiro-list/message/3606

Even more bizarre, chiropractors are remaining silent about this obvious
massive spinal manipulation crime of obstetricians.

Such silence perpetuates costly gross abuses within our "broken, haphazard
medical system."

Todd

Dr. Gastaldo
Hillsboro, Oregon
t…@chiromotion.com

PS The obvious massive spinal manipulation crime of obstetricians is also
happening in countries with universal single-payer systems – as is the crime
of immediately clamping umbilical cords – temporarily asphyxiating
babies/forcing them to breathe with their lungs before they are ready – and
in the process robbing babies of up to 50% of their blood volume.

This latter mass baby asphyxiation/mass baby blood robbery crime is being
committed against EVERY CESAREAN BABY, according retired obstetrician George
Malcolm Morley, MB ChB FACOG.

PREGNANT WOMEN:  It is easy for you to offer your babies these "extras."

The "extra" up to 30% of room in the birth canal can be had by simply
rolling onto your side as you push your baby out.

See again: ACOG’s 2005 edition: How NOT to birth
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/chiro-list/message/3606

I agree with Dr. Hill: The time for radical change in the system is now.

Copied to: Peter G. Hill, DC via chiroh…@aol.com.

Peter, will you forward this to Dubin’s censored version of chiro-list?
Thanks in advance.

This Open Letter to The Boston Globe will be archived for global access in
the Google usenet archive.

Search http://groups.google.com for "Babies and the Boston Globe."