Pregnancy

I wrote a post on Thursday, telling of my plan to watch the highly recommended television show, "In The Womb: Multiples" by National Geographic. And I did watch it. And loved it. This show was amazing. With their 4D scans, GCI, and facts about multiples this show was riveting. I fell asleep before I watched the whole thing, but it is airing again tonight and I'm planning on watching the whole thing. The next day, which was yesterday, I talked to three different friends and raved about the show. The majority of what I was amazed with were the theories that the show shared about conjoined twins. According to the program, there are two theories about conjoined twins. One theory is that the egg splits… [more]

Tonight on the National Geographic channel is a new documentary that explores the facts and mysteries of multiples: twins; triplets; and quadruplets. To find out your specific listing you can check the site with thislink. I have a coworker who has 9 month old fraternal twin boys. I have a dear friend who is very pregnant with twins and is being induced tomorrow. I also have a brother and sister that are twins and are 18. At different times today they both were telling me about this documentary that they had seen on the 14, which was last Sunday. I was bummed that I had missed it. Upon coming home I thought that I would look into it a bit more and see… [more]

One of my best girlfriends bought me a subscription to Child magazine for Christmas. My subscription started last month and even before I was through with the first issue, I was so excited about the magazine. Mostly because of the beautiful photography, but also because of the ideas that I got for this blog. In the first issue, this advertisement caught my eye. It is from ConfirmClearly and it is a refillable pregnancy test. From their website: The only test with money-saving refills! Be sure to save your reader for future use! You can reuse your Confirm Clearly reader over and over again by buying refills. Confirm Clearly Refills greatly reduce the cost per test – the starter test is approximately 22%… [more]

From www.lifescrip.com I've been searching for fertility related news bytes. There are many subjects that are important for women's health, yet, I'm unsure how directly related they are to having a baby. The following byte is related to delivery, so I think that I'm safe with that! For all of you that are pregnant at this time and planning your birth plan, as per Coley's posts last week, this may be of interest to you! Now, this really seems like common sense. I would think that gravity would have something to do with the pain relief, but then, I wonder why the timeframe for both types of deliveries was so similar? The kneeling births were longer compared to the traditional position, only by a few minutes… [more]

I am on pins and needles and have been ever since I found out that a friend of mine is pregnant for the first time after years of infertility and infertility treatments. In fact, when I found out about the pregnancy from another friend, I told her, "I'm going to be worried until the baby gets here." I am always asking for updates, and tentative to actually think about the reality of it. I am so happy. I am so worried. I went back over to www.beliefnet.com and found the following prayers that I can adjust to use for praying for my friend. At least now my worries will have some action to them. Prayer for an Expectant Mother Father, we thank… [more]

My friend J.E. sent this to me today. Get out the tissues as you'll be needing them. As per her note, please be sure to watch the video link at the end of the article. I had heard this story before on Dateline or something like that. Isn't it just incredible! This is just a great story, make sure to watch the video at the end, get the tissues out! "Strongest Dad in the World," by Rick Reilly of Sports Illustrated: "I try to be a good father. Give my kids mulligans. Work nights to pay for their text messaging. Take them to swimsuit shoots. "But compared with Dick Hoyt, I stink. "Eighty-five times he's pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2… [more]

Still wading through my found New York Times that was buried in a tote in my kitchen, I read the oddest article while on the treadmill. Titled,"And Next to the Bearded Lady, Premature Babies" by Michael Brick. What?!! It seems that from 1903 to the 1940, Dr. Martin A. Couney used preemies as a freak attraction in incubators, just like the other participants like the bearded lady and such. Here is the intro: The babies were lined up under heaters and they breathed filtered air. Few of them weighed more than three pounds. They shared the Boardwalk there on Coney Island with Violetta the Armless Legless Wonder, Princess WeeWee, Ajax the Sword-Swallower and all the rest. From 1903 until the early 1940's, premature infants in incubators were part… [more]

Three years ago yesterday, I was in the hospital, having my daughter after 26 hours of labor and a c-section. Just thinking back to that day makes me exhausted. Coming down to delivery felt like I was nearing the end of the longest infertility/pregnancy/labor marathon that anyone could have ever dreamed up in their sick minds. While I was on the operating table, some of the anesthesia dripped into my lungs, making me not able to feel myself breathing. It was the oddest sensation. Before I said anything to the doctor, through my mind I was thinking that I was dying. I was thinking that this was it, there would be no more of me after this surgery. The panic that I expected… [more]

I am remembering today the first time that I came in contact with an actual female that had been pregnant and close to my age. I was in 8th grade and although I want to say that it was in Health class, I really think that it was in Home Ec class. These moms were invited to talk to us students about teen pregnancy. I don't remember any of the lessons leading up to the discussion. I do remember what one of them told us. The girl was petite and very pretty. She came into class with a group of others and a teacher from the alternative school where they were offered child care for their baby. Towards the end of the class time we… [more]

Shiatsu and Labor Induction I just finished reading the above article in Massage Magazine. They are reporting about a study done in England in 2000. The subjects attended a hospital consultant clinic appointment at 40 weeks gestation and were taught the massage techniques by a midwife who had completed a six-day shiatsu course. The control group consisted of 76 women who attended similar clinics but were not taught the shiatsu techniques. Three shiatsu points were taught to the experimental group: Gall Bladder 21 (GB-21), Large Intestine 4 (LI-4) and Spleen 6 (S-6). All points were held with thumb pressure until the woman experienced a reaction. Once a reaction was felt, the woman was instructed to work the point deeply and firmly for as long… [more]