Thank Heaven for Little Girls

When I got pregnant with Lily, I did NOT want to have a girl. I remember waiting in my OB's office right before my 20 week ultrasound. I kept saying, "Please don't let it be a girl!" I was so terrified that if I had a little girl, she would be a funny looking, stubborn little brat like her mother:)

What an idiot I was. Little girls are THE BEST! I'm sure she'll give me grief later... but right now Lily is PERFECT! She is such a peach. And she is SO CUTE!!! I just love her to pieces. She melts my heart every day.

Here are some pictures of our little princess.

Looking for dandelions in the backyard this Spring.


Playing in Aunt Emily's pool


Making faces for the camera.


Miss Lily the Librarian.




Her first pony ride at Draper Days.


Kissing her brother :)




Ice Cream at the Gateway Mall


Playing in the fountains.




All ready to go!


Trying to be just like her brother.




Swimming with Beach Grandpa:)


Kickin' it at the Marriott.


With her idol, Minnie Mouse.




Checking on her pie at Minnie's House.


Heisman Trophy Pose... in her tutu.


All Aboard! On the train with her cousins.



Eating watermelon on a hot summer day.




She's so perfect, her eye drool sticks to her face in heart shapes.


Our little princess!

Stuff That's Bugging Me Right Now

1. The blue carpet in my basement.

Seriously? Who buys blue carpet and installs it in their basement? (The people who lived here before us... that's who!) If you're going to install wall to wall carpeting, please pick something more neutral... like beige.

2. Americans.

We are a nation of glut and laziness. What happened to the hard working, problem solving, innovative melting pot that used to be us? Instead of working hard and solving problems, we're all sitting around on our fat butts wasting time on facebook. (Myself included.)

Read this book.

3. Carnivores.

No offense. It just really bugging me lately that we are using our precious grain to feed cows, pigs, chickens, etc. just so we can eat too many burgers, get fat, and die early. And this is all happening while children in Somalia are STARVING to death! And speaking of Somalian children starving... have you donated to UNICEF lately? Here's the link.

(Text FOOD to UNICEF (864233) to donate $10, enough to feed a child for 10 days or provide 321 sachets of nutrient powder to boost infant survival and development.)

*And I have to add a note here to my fellow Mormons... Since when did eating meat "sparingly" become bacon for breakfast, a burger for lunch, and fried chicken for dinner? Living in Utah has really opened my eyes to the growing problem of LDS people neglecting the Word of Wisdom. We are blessed to have the most perfect health code (A diet plan created by God himself!!!) but most of us completely neglect it and then wonder why God gives us trials like obesity and heart disease. Do yourselves and your families a favor and try something vegetarian.*

Read more about the Word of Wisdom here.

4. Health Care.

Our system is broken in so many ways. Pharmaceutical companies create drug after drug trying to fix problems that are only getting worse. Doctors prescribe pill after pill, trying to fix problems with the pills that only cause more problems.

We spend more on health care than any other nation and we're still the sickest. (Again, most of it has to do with our diet.)

The business of obstetrics is also really driving me crazy right now. Since when did sawing through a woman's abdomen and uterus become a "safer" method of delivery than a normal, vaginal delivery? (Oh yeah, since it only takes a doctor 45 minutes to deliver via c-section and insurance companies PAY MORE FOR IT!)

Have you seen The Business of Being Born? Cool documentary.

5. And of course, Football.

The mindless game invented by men, for men. I've tried so many times to make myself like it... but I just can't. It pains me to waste three hours of my life watching sweaty men tackle each other trying to fetch a stupid ball (all while self-absorbed blonde women in short skirts and pom poms cheer them on). My husband loves it, of course, so in the interest of our marriage and our children I will tolerate it... BUT IT DRIVES ME CRAZY!!! So I guess I'll just try to tackle the problems of the world (or at least punt) while my husband watches BYU tackle the University of Florida. And I'll try not to complain because, hey, there are a lot worse things he could be addicted to...

That's all for now.

Thanks for listening.

So Many Pics... So Little Time.

Dear Lily,

Please stop growing.

You are perfect just the way you are.

Thanks!

Love,

Mom

Little O

Here's little Owen. Isn't he cute? I'm always surprised how much I love my babies once they're out of me. He was a colic-y terror the first two months of his life... but now he is just the cutest, fattest, happiest and most easy going little guy you'll ever meet.

Owen's Waterbirth

Hi guys!

I'm back!

And I had my BABY!

YAY!

Here he is! (Right after birth.)



We named him Owen Russel Jacobson
He was eight pounds and four ounces and twenty inches long.

I feel so good! I'm exhausted but so happy to be de-pregnated. :)

Six weeks ago I wasn't so happy. About six week ago at this time I was completely dilated and effaced... moaning and groaning and sweating and aching and finally giving birth to my second son, Owen, in a bath tub.

You read that right, Owen is a water baby... born in a bath tub at a birthing center without drugs, monitors, machines, scalpels, nurses or an Obstetrician.

I know, I know. You probably think I'm nuts.

When I found out I was pregnant with Owen, I was SHOCKED... and worried. (He wasn't exactly planned.) We didn't have maternity insurance and we didn't have time to sign up for supplimental insurance before he was born. I knew we couldn't afford to pay for a normal hospital birth with an OB, so after doing a TON of research on the safety of home births and birthing centers and interviewing midwives all over the state, we decided to use a midwife team and a birthing center.

My prenatal care with my midwife team was excellent. I never thought I would ever use a midwife but now I don't ever want to go back to ab OB. The midwives we used were AWESOME! They are highly trained, experienced, and licensed. They did the same exams that my OB would do at his office, just in a smaller office without the high tech machines and monitors used at the OB's. I really liked talking to a midwife about my prenatal care and the laid back atmosphere at their office.

I prepared for labor and delivery using Hypnobirthing (relaxation and breathing techniques) because at the birthing center I used, they don't even offer drugs for pain. Before I got pregnant, I didn't think I would ever use Hypnobirting, but the more I read about it, the more it made sense and worked for me.

When labor started I felt confident and prepared to give birth with the help of my midwives. The kids and I were driving home from dropping off my brother and sister at the Airport and I started to get those all too familiar Braxton Hicks contractions. As I drove home through traffic, the contractions became stronger and stronger and STONGER. By the time Garrit and I got to the birth center a few hours later, I was already dilated to a six. After about an hour of hanging out in the tub at the birth center, I was complete and ready to push.

I'm not going to lie, even with all my Hypnobirth training, and even in the comfort of the birthing tub in my little birth suite, giving birth naturally was no picnic. The last half hour of labor was INTENSE. My whole body was tingling, I couldn't feel my fingers or toes and there were times that I thought I was either going to die or PUSH THAT BABY OUT!!! I prayed and prayed and prayed through each contraction that I wouldn't die. I prayed for God's help and for strength to make it through and I know that God really did help me. In the end I DID IT! After my midwife broke my water, I pushed the baby out in five minutes (literally) and I can't describe what I felt when it was all over. I felt awesome. Like I had conquered the world. There is nothing like natural childbirth. It is amazing.

Here's a video of me and O like a second after I had him. (Don't worry, it's G rated... you won't see anything shocking... except some bloody water and runny mascara...)

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

You can see I'm totally in shock when it's all over. Funny.

It was quite the ride.

A lot of people have asked me if I would ever go natural again. I have to say that I honestly don't know. I think it would depend on the situation... like how old I was, and if I was in good shape physically and emotionally (oh yeah, and if I had an extra two grand to spend on an epidural). But I do have to say that I would never, ever attempt to give birth naturally in the hospital or with an OB. My midwives were awesome and I loved being able to move around and get in the tub during contractions. I think it would have been ten times harder if I was strapped to a hospital bed. Yuck.

So, there you have it. I recovered from the birth in about a week (another benefit of natural birth) and didn't use anything for pain except some ibuprofen.

Now we're back to real life and we're all doing great. (Besides the usual lack of sleep and piles and piles and piles and piles of dirty laundry.)

The End.

...

I have nothing to complain about. Life is good.

But for some reason when I think about blogging all I want to do is complain.

I just want to write about how tired I am. And how I hate being pregnant. And how motherhood stinks. And how my husband watches way too much football. And we never talk to each other anymore. And how my house is never clean. And how my kids are so stinking expensive. And how they suck the life out of me. And Drew is an impossible child who STILL doesn't sleep through the night (He's four). And Lily is SUCH a whiner.

But if I wrote all of that, you might read it and worry and think I'm unhappy... when really everything is just fine.

We're good.

I guess this is just how I get when I'm pregnant.

So, anyway, I probably won't be blogging again until April, after the baby is born and I get that rush of good just-had-my-baby hormones.

And them maybe I'll update you on life for the past 9 months.

See you then.

XOXO