Pictures from our recent trip to NorCal

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VBAC

So lately I’ve been thinking of how I want to deliver my next child….no, no, no. Don’t worry. I’m not pregnant and I don’t plan on being that way for at least a couple of years. Anyhow, I would like to be given the opportunity to have a vaginal birth. Having a C-section was not in my plans initially. I felt as if I was not even given the opportunity to try. I mean, after all, I was only allowed to push for like 10 minutes before the decision was made for me.  I have already thought it out. I will only have a C-section under medically necessary conditions OR if my baby does not come after two full weeks being overdue. I definitely do not want to be induced again. After all, that wasn’t all that successful now was it?

For those of you who don’t know, VBAC stands for Vaginal Birth After Cesaraean. Many hospitals have VBAC bans and many doctors will refuse to deliver a baby VBAC. After much of my research, the risks of VBAC are virtually identical to the risks of a repeat Cesearean.  There is a slight chance of uterine rupture, but that depends on many factors. Also, induction more than doubles that risk.

I did some research. There are 14 hospitals in Riverside County. Only 1 has a VBAC rate equal to or higher than the national average and that is Kaiser. Community and Parkview have VBAC rates of less than 2%. Out of 47 hospitals in Orange and San Bernardino county, only 9 have VBAC rates equal to or higher than the national average. Besides Kaiser, they are mostly big name hospitals like UCI Medical Center, Loma Linda, and St. Jude. It looks like I’ll either have to change doctors and hospitals or change insurances if I want to have a VBAC. I at least want the opportunity to experience childbirth the way it was meant to be experienced. Then I won’t feel so bad if I do have to end up having a C-section.

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Triangle Complex Fire - Southern California Fires

Southern California is on fire again and this time it sure hits close to home. The fire known as the Triangle Complex Fire started at the Green River area along the 91 Freeway heading towards Anaheim. It quickly made it’s way to darn near where my husband works so needless to say this fire is very important for us to be watching.

It doesn’t look like the fire is going to let up any time soon but it has also all but skipped completely over my husbands office. He decided to take a drive out to his work today since the freeway was open again. He took several pictures around the area he works and has since posted them on a marketing blog he writes on every now and then.

Photos of the Triangle Complex Fire

Last night we were helping some friends move and just watching the fire from a distance at night is rather impressive. According to the Orange County Fire Authority website at the time I am writing this there is a zero percent containment on this fire after burning now for roughly 29 hours.

Our prayers and thoughts go out to anyone who may be in the path of this fire or have already been devastated.

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Life is Busy!!!

So life has been really busy lately with my new kindergarten position. I’ve been so busy trying to keep things together at home, work, and with the baby that I haven’t had much time to blog lately. Well, this weekend was a 4 day  weekend, so I’ve finally found some time to catch up and put some new pictures up. We recently went up to Tahoe because we found out that John’s grandma was in the hospital with an infection and that her cancer has moved up into brain. Our visit was nice, but incredibly busy. The baby was not all that cooperative the second night. He woke up 5 times that night. But we woke up to snow. Not very much, but it was there. It sure was cold. We got a lot of visiting in. It was the first time we had been up there in 6 months.

Halloween was fun. JJ dressed up as a lion and boy was he cute. He didn’t really care for the hat all that much, but I just left it loose and he was okay with it. We had some friends come over from church. They have a 4 and 5 year old and just found out their new little addition will be a girl. JJ’s new little playmate will be born in March.

Being a teacher is HARD work! I’ve been subbing and or student teaching for the past 5 years, but I tell you my notions about what a teacher does during the day were so wrong! I thought for sure as a half day kindergarten teacher I would have plenty of time during the day to get things done. NOT the case. I stay from about 7:30 to 3:30 or 3:45 each day and until about 4:30-5:30 on Fridays. I’ve gone to a few trainings already, administered math and language arts benchmark assessments and will be doing report cards and parent teacher conferences in the next 2 weeks. All of this within my first month of being there! That’s why I’ve been so overwhelmed. I can’t wait til Thanksgiving break and after things should be back to normal.

As for the baby, he has now tried oatmeal, bananas, carrots, and sweet potatoes. He likes all of them for the most part, but won’t eat carrots mixed with cereal. He keeps his mouth wide open during feedings. Just like his mommy and daddy, he loves to eat! Also, he had his 6 month appointment a couple of weeks ago. He was 15 lbs 14 oz and 26 1/4 inches. What a big boy!

Anyhow, here’s some pictures of our recent adventures. Enjoy!

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More Milestones

So JJ is amazing us more and more every day. Yesterday John was in the bedroom and I was in the kitchen. JJ was laying on the floor. A couple minutes later when I went to go check on him, he had his hands holding on to the top of the exersaucer and he was standing on his tip-toes! I can’t believe he pulled himself up to a standing position. So I thought it might just be an isolated incident that wouldn’t happen again for a while. Well that wasn’t the case. Today he did the same thing on the couch. He wants to get up and go! Another thing he did today that I’ve never seen him do was when he was laying down, he put himself into a sitting position–an unsupported sitting position at that! I have myself an overachiever. I’ll try and put some videos up of my little guy doing all these new amazing things on my MySpace. I think it’s funny. He’s way ahead of schedule on his gross motor skills, but sheesh, can’t he catch up with the other kids his age on sleeping patterns? What I wouldn’t give for him to sleep through the night again. I guess he’s just got too much stuff to do so he doesn’t want to sleep.

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