Grae Mosaic

Hi Everyone,

I’m not sure how long this post will end up being but I wanted to talk about the placenta and the plans that I have for mine.

First, I want to say that the placenta is an extraordinary organ! It is the only organ that you create and then expel when it’s purpose has been met and this happens every time a woman has a child which is honestly rather mind blowing. It is an organ that is so multifaceted as well. It acts as baby’s lungs supplying oxygen, kidneys filtering out waste and gastrointestinal and immune system by supplying nutrients and antibodies just to name a few things. Did you know that the baby’s and mothers blood both pass through the placenta and never mix? It’s really just such a super, kind of magical organ.

Now, with that said, We want to utilize this organ and all that it has to offer as much as we can. I plan to ingest it but the only way I can stomach doing this is if we encapsulate it. This means that after I deliver the placenta, we will wrap it up and put it on ice or in the fridge until the doula that I have transforming it can pick it up. She will then go through a process of drying it out and putting it into little pill capsules. From there I will take the pills at a pace and dosage recommended by her. I want to do this because the placenta has so many more benefits than people realize. Ingesting it helps with milk supply, nutrients and hormones to balance you back out after having the baby. Like with anything else, this doesn’t always work the same for everyone, for some it has the opposite affects. I am aware of this and can only hope that I am part of the 98% that experiences the positives, if not I will simply just stop taking them.

Something else that we are doing with the placenta is making a print with it. Before it gets dried out to be encapsulated, the blood from the cord will be used as ink and the placenta will be placed in it and then arranged on a nice sheet of paper thus creating the print. We will also have the cord dried into some shape and will somehow attach that to the print and then frame it all together as one piece. I am really excited that we will get to have this memento and that we will be able to add this priceless piece to our art collection. It will mean so much to both of us and will really just be such a beautiful reminder of the life that it helped create!

Have you done this or know anyone who has? I would love to chat more about it if you have questions or if you have experiences that you would like to share.

With love,

Tiffany

Howdy Friends,

Today I am 31 weeks and 3 days along, that means that I am only 60 days from my due date! I am so excited to meet this little one but also so nervous. The closer I get the more these two emotions seem to spin around each other, it’s really crazy!

Anyways, these past few weeks have been pretty low key for the most part. Still battling heart burn, feels like its always here. I am also starting to experience not being able to sleep through the night. I will just wake up and be awake for a few hours, sometimes I can go back to sleep sometimes I can’t. The baby appears to be the most active throughout the night so maybe that has something to do with it, I don’t know.

About a week and a half ago we had an appointment that went well. It was short but informative. The midwife said that everything was measuring on track and seemed really good. I also got my TDAP shot at that time. We have another appointment next week so that will be fun. I feel like they are starting to become really frequent the closer we get to baby’s birthday.

Last week we also had one of our group appointments. I must say, I really look forward to having them and enjoy the topics that are covered and the conversations that we have. This last one was about labor and what to look out for. We all did this exercise that I thought was interesting. They said that the most ethical way they could try and even show what contractions were kind of like would be with ice (this was mainly for the men but we all participated). We had to hold a chunk of ice in our hand for 1 minute, rest for 1 minute and use the same hand to hold ice again for 1 minute. Adam said it “burned” and I found it to make my arm tense. The problem was I could only feel it in my arm and that made me feel a huge disconnect from what I feel like contractions will be like. Either way, I thought the exercise was really interesting and sort of fun. And though it isn’t the same as a contraction, I think it was still helpful and will be something that I want to practice beforehand even if just to practice where to take my mind come go time.

I have also started to drink a cup of Red Raspberry Leaf tea everyday. They say that it is supposed to help your uterus and make labor shorter. We will see of course, either way it’s delicious!

That’s the latest update I have for all of you. Let me know if you think I am carrying high, low or in the middle. I am curious and can never tell, they all look pretty much the same to me.

With love,

Tiffany

Hey Everyone,

If you know Adam and I you know that we try and live as organically and environmentally friendly as we can. We don’t like waste if it can be avoided and we try and avoid plastic as much as possible as well as various other things. That being said, we aren’t perfect and definitely have a ton of room for improvement. We have decided that we can both improve as well as teach our children from the beginning just by doing a few simple things.

One thing that we plan to do is use cloth diapers. It’s funny because when we tell people that we plan to do this, they look at us like we are insane, saying things like “Oh, taking it old school huh?”or “Eww, how will that work?”. Let me start by saying that cloth diapering is not what it was 50 or even 20 years ago. Do you still have the option for a diapering service, flats and safety pins? Yes, but you also have a lot of other options like all-in-ones, hybrids and pocket diapers. These days cloth diapers look like regular diapers just more colorful with snaps or velcro and depending on they type you pick, can be a bit bulky. There are also several accessories that you can get to make the whole process easier such as a sprayer and diaper liners. I feel like nothing about cloth diapering these days is old school other than the fact that they are cloth.

Because of the fact that cloth diapers aren’t what they used to be, that means they also aren’t as gross as they may have been in the past. Diaper liners make it so you can easily pick up anything in the diaper and flush it all down the toilet, including the liner, and sprayers allow you to spray the diapers contents into the toilet, how easy is that! I also think that it is important to note that if the baby is solely breastfed then the poop is water soluble so can just be thrown into the washer still in the diaper, though I am not sure I will go this route. You want to wash the lot of dirty diapers every 2-3 days and even though one wash cycle will do, it is ideal to do 2 wash cycles. I have done hours upon hours of research on this and think that even though it may seem time consuming and a lot of work, like anything else it will become routine. We will of coarse have to try different types and brands to see what will work best with our little one but in the end I think this will be the best choice for us.

As a side note I want to admit that we are not 100% against disposable diapers. We looked into disposables as well and found some great eco friendly and organic ones that we plan to use in the first month after the baby arrives. Newborns are often too small for the standard cloth diapers and we do not want to invest in newborn cloth diapers if we will not be using them long. We are aware that newborn poop, or meconium, is pretty gross and I have heard can be harder to deal with. We also agreed that if we are camping or are going on a trip that won’t allow for us to do laundry then disposables are the best bet so we want to use the most eco friendly option we can find for those situations.

Another thing that we are going to do is use glass bottles. I am planning to breast feed but when we do use bottles we will use glass. People have expressed their concerns about them being too heavy for the baby to hold on their own or them breaking if they fall or get thrown on the ground. They are heavier than plastic, sure, but they will be able to hold them just fine at a certain point, and many have silicone grips that double as handles and protection against breaking. They are made of durable glass so breaking isn’t likely, though it isn’t impossible, we are willing to deal with that when the time comes.

Though there are many other things that we can do, and are doing, we feel that these choices are a pretty good start. We know that everyone is different but for us this is the way to go. If you are doing anything with your baby that is environmentally friendly or have any ideas, feel free to throw them our way. Also let us know if you have any questions, we would be more than happy to give you some answers!

With love,

Tiffany

Hey guys!

We have gotten a lot of questions about why we chose a birthing center instead of a traditional hospital so I’m going to describe the birthing center a little bit and why we chose it.

When we found out I was pregnant we didn’t know what birthing centers were really. We had a few visions of what our ideal delivery would look like but we hadn’t done research yet and didn’t have a solid plan on where we would end up or what was right for us. I went in knowing that I wanted an unmediated birth and a communicative experience if possible but not much else.

I started to research hospitals and called around to a lot of them. It was hard because at this time Covid was just kicking into high gear, the phones were crazy busy so getting through was hard and all tours of all places were out of the question. It was really pretty frightening to think about having a baby at a time when hospitals were filled over capacity with sick people and what that meant for the baby and I. The information that I did find about the hospitals in my area wasn’t bad, we have some of the best hospitals in California, but it just didn’t feel right to me. They are all very pro intervention, even when unnecessary, they didn’t seem very personal, had very strict guidelines for things (some good, some bad) and were just all around kind of robotic feeling. I was starting to get sad because I couldn’t find one that seemed right for us. I was questioning if my standards and expectations were too high or unrealistic. Then, I came across the San Francisco Birth Center (SFBC).

The San Francisco Birth Center popped up in my search and I honestly didn’t know exactly what to expect from it. The first thing I noticed about the website was that it was inviting and had an online tour so I could see what they offered easily. I called and asked for a consultation, via zoom of course, and chatted with one of the midwives for about an hour asking questions and learning about how it worked. We LOVED it and when the call ended Adam and I both knew this was where we wanted to have our baby. It felt so perfect and right for us.

It is a private birthing center, so it is not connected to a hospital. There are no doctors on site, though they do share the block with UCSF hospital, it is run solely by midwives and student midwives. Communication is something that is extremely important to them. They want you to meet with all of the midwives at some point so that they all know you and you know all of them, any of them could deliver my baby depending on who is on call that day so I like that they do this. They take the time to talk with us, answer all of our questions, and get to know exactly what we want from our whole experience. They check on the baby of course, but they take a very non invasive approach and communicate a ton. I have had 2 ultrasounds, the dating one and the anatomy scan and that is all that I will have. They keep track of baby by keeping track of me, my blood pressure, how I am feeling, what I am eating, etc... They don’t have medication on site which I love because that means that my plan to go unmedicated is more likely. They have their rooms set up like bedrooms with private bathrooms, giant tubs and many other things that may help make a laboring mother more comfortable. They encourage you to roam around, eat, use any and all of the resources that they have available to you for a comfortable birthing experience.

Now, I do want to point out that I understand anything can happen and that most births do not go completely as planned. I know that I might be put in a situation where I need medication and that is okay! The birth center has procedures in place to transfer me in labor should something happen. It is extremely safe and they are with me through the entire experience. I personally feel safer at the birth center than I think I would at a hospital in many regards and that’s a big part of why we are going there.

A few other things that we love about SFBC is that they have one-on-one appointments but they also have group appointments. This means that we periodically meet with other parents expecting in November and have long in depth discussions about our pregnancies and what to expect. This community aspect is really nice and I find it to be pretty important as well. Also, with Covid happening, partners aren’t allowed at any appointments in a hospital at all. At SFBC they encourage Adam to come to all of my in person and virtual appointments and care about his needs and wants as much as they care about mine. They take extra precautions and we have to wear masks, social distance, check our temperatures, etc... but they realize the importance of a partners support for both baby and mother to thrive. Granted, this is a possibility because unlike hospitals, who deal with all types of patients, they are only dealing with expectant mothers. Lastly, I will note, that I like the idea of laboring at home and coming in when I am close to delivery. If all goes well I will be released 4-6 hours after delivering and they will come to my home 3 times in the first week to check on the baby and help with breastfeeding and anything else I may have questions about. This means that my baby will never leave my room and will be able to breastfeed within the first hour of being born which is so important to me.

Overall, SFBC is right for us in every way. I like the traditional “hippie” approach that is very natural all around. We have gotten a lot of comments on our decision to go this route but it doesn’t bother us because we know it is what is best for us. If you have questions about it please feel free to reach out to us, we would love to answer them.

With love,

Tiffany

Hello, hello!

Welcome to the second trimester, the “golden period”. This is supposed to be the best chunk of pregnancy, the part where you glow and feel great! For me, I don’t know that I glowed, but I did feel good most of it and didn’t have too many issues, yay!

So, in my update on the first trimester you probably saw that I had major food aversions. Well, this lasted until week 15 or 16. Around this time I was able to expand my menu but it was still trial and error. It was actually a long process to be able to incorporate most foods back into my daily diet. I was struggling in the beginning because I was never hungry, my stomach shrunk in the months before and making myself eat was semi difficult but I did it anyways and can now eat normally. I have cut A LOT of foods out that aren’t recommended or aren’t healthy (like coffee, I miss coffee so much) but I am so happy to be able to be back to normal.

Something else that has been around since the beginning is restless leg syndrome. I drink a TON on water, go on walks and started taking magnesium. All of these things have helped it to be less irritating and it doesn’t happen every night, but it does happen still.

On Mother’s Day, when I was 15 weeks, we announced our wonderful news publicly. Everyone’s kind words and support since finding out has been amazing! I haven’t really updated social media because A) I’m not really on it that often anymore, and B) We aren’t going anywhere or doing anything since I am still out of work and Covid is still very much a thing. Remembering to take random bumpdates and progress pictures is hard when I’m just at home.

We did do our 20 week anatomy scan this trimester which was amazing! Because it was the anatomy scan and required more high-tech equiptment than the birth center has, we had to go to UCSF to get it done. This was fine but it also meant that Adam was not able to come in, I was able to FaceTime him through the whole thing though which was really nice. I was terrified that the ultrasound tech would accidentally tell us baby’s gender but she was awesome and kept it to herself. I found out that I have an anterior placenta which means that the placenta acts as a cushion between the front of my belly and the baby so the kicks are lighter or softer than they would be if it was a posterior placenta. She said that everything looked perfect and right on track which was so nice to hear. Plus just getting a small glimpse at our baby was so...amazing, I can’t even describe it!

The rest of this trimester has been lovely! My nails are strong, my hair is looking pretty healthy and I have been very slowly starting to show. Most days there are absolutely no symptoms and everything feels normal other than the fact that I can feel kicks every day which I absolutely love! As I am writing this I am currently 27 weeks and 1 day pregnant so it is my last week in this glorious trimester. I can tell that my stomach will start to grow much more rapidly now and baby’s arrival is quickly approaching which makes me both extremely excited and also a little anxious/nervous. I’m not nervous about delivering but I am pretty nervous about having this tiny, precious, being be completely and solely reliant on me and all that that entails.

(From here on out, updates will be more often and likely less dense, haha.)

With love,

Tiffany

Hey everyone!

Let’s start from the very beginning with the first trimester shall we, I’ll smoosh it all in to catch you up. At the beginning of the year we decided that we wanted to grow our small family from two to three. In February, it happened! I knew I was pregnant a few days before I took a pregnancy test, my body was starting to change and I just had a feeling. On the 23rd I took a test and a very faint pink line appeared. First reaction...we didn’t know if it was real. I took another test the next day, it was darker and we knew. We were so excited and kind of surprised by how fast it happened. A week later we had a doctor appointment to confirm.

Fast forward a week, BAM...Covid-19. I was furloughed from work and honestly didn’t think it would last as long as it has. With everything that was going on I felt terrified and a whole lot less prepared to be a parent than I had felt a few weeks prior. At this point I was in my 6th week, we still hadn’t told anybody that we were expecting and other than a few small things I wasn’t showing any pregnancy symptoms.

Around my 7th week is when it truly hit, the gloriousness that was my first trimester. Now I must say, in most ways I was very lucky because I really didn’t have it nearly as bad as a lot of people. I was exhausted, even though I wasn’t exerting that much energy, I felt like I ran a marathon and worked overtime doing manual labor in the hot sun all day. I have never been that tired and slept more, who knew naps were so good! I was also getting restless legs pretty bad. But the worst thing about trimester uno was my food aversions. “You’ll have cravings” they said...I wish! I had food aversions to EVERYTHING! I wasn’t getting morning sickness in the sense that I would throw up all the time randomly, I just literally could not eat anything. I would try and it was a toss up if it would stay down or come back up. I lost 30 pounds in my first trimester because I couldn’t eat. Something would sound good for a few minutes and poor Adam would go get it and come home just for me to not be able to eat it. Applesauce, popsicles, chopped veggies, and some fruits were about the only things I could eat with the exception of San Diego Mexican cuisine (which I couldn’t get unless I was there, which was only once, but I ate it the whole time we were there and it stayed down!).

We drove down to San Diego when I was 9 weeks for the weekend so we could finally tell our parents. I was having a hard time not having anybody to talk to about it but didn’t want to spill the beans over the phone. The funniest part is that everyone knew that we were going to start trying for kids and Adam and I aren’t spring chickens but we were so anxious and nervous to tell everyone. The reactions that we got were great though!

The Monday after we told our parents the news, I had my first appointment at the San Francisco Birth Center where we got our first peek inside my uterus and saw that tiny heart beating away. It was beautiful!

The last few weeks of trimester one were pretty uneventful. All of the symptoms that I listed above were still in full swing. We started to kind of tell close friends and family but didn’t make any public announcements about it until the 2nd trimester. Covid continued, I was still out of work and we were both extremely excited and also trying to re-plan/prepare given the current circumstances.

With love,

Tiffany

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