teaching your child to read

www.starfall.com

My daughter and I love this site. It's a great tool for teaching reading, whether your child is just starting to recognize letters and learn letter sounds, or is already reading on his own. The site is so well put-together and caters to all reading levels. The best part about it, it's free!

Baby Slings

While I was pregnant, I read a lot and researched on the net. I came upon the idea of attachment parenting, books by Dr. Sears (highly-recommended), and the idea of baby-wearing.

My sister Carla with Skye in the Nojo sling

I ended up ordering a Nojo brand baby sling through my sister in New York and carried her around in that, from birth until before she turned 1. One drawback of U.S.-made slings though is that the material they use is thick which is not always appropriate for the Philippines' tropical climate. I only used mine when we were in the mall or in well-airconditioned places.

I don't think there were any places selling them in Metro Manila yet at the time. Nowadays though, I believe baby slings are starting to gain popularity locally, as I see more and more moms (and daddies even!) 'wearing' their babies at the mall, whether in a sling or in a pouch. I believe there are some enterprising moms who have begun to manufacture and distribute baby slings locally.

If you're interested in giving baby-wearing a try, you can check out this baby sling site. They have a baby-sling sale till the end of August so now would be a great time to try. Happy baby-wearing to you and baby!

--Leah, MM, Philippines

Skye's birth story

Here's my daughter's birth story...just to get the ball rolling. It's quite long so consider yourself warned : ) Hope to hear yours!

I felt like I had been pregnant forever. My u/s due date was Feb. 7 and from the beginning of my pregnancy, I was expecting I would have my baby early. I was swimming regularly and I was working till my 40^th week, so I was sure all that activity would bring on labor earlier. I thought maybe by the last week of January…that the baby and I would have the same birthday…Jan. 29th. Well, my birthday came and went—no baby. My due date based on LMP (last menstrual period) was Feb. 14. I was thinking ‘ok, maybe I was going to have a Valentine’s baby.’ Still nothing.

At my next check up with my doctor, she said if I still hadn’t gone into labor by Friday, Feb. 21^st, she would induce me Saturday, the 22^nd. Well, I really wanted to go naturally and have a homebirth, so I didn’t get the induction. Instead, I let the doctor strip my membranes that Saturday. When I got home from my check up, I was already having regular but painless contractions 5-7 minutes apart. By nighttime, it was already 3-5 minutes apart, still no pain. I called my midwife though, just to let her know what was happening. She wasn’t too happy that I had my membranes stripped. She said it could cause premature rupture of the amniotic sac.

True enough, a little after midnight, as I was laying in bed, I felt a contraction and then something popped inside. Water started gushing out and the bed was getting soaked. I called my mom to call my midwife. The midwives got to the house about 45 minutes later. My contractions were now coming every 3 minutes, getting painful but bearable. This went on till morning. By around 11:00 a.m., my contractions had gotten closer to 2 minutes apart and much more painful. The midwives started filling up the birthing pool with warm water. When it was full, they let me get in. I was having a contraction just as I stepped into the pool. As soon as I got into the water though, the contraction seemed to disappear. Wow, I thought this was going to be easy then.

The warm water really felt so good. I was deep into the active phase of my labor now though, and the contractions were much, much more painful. The water was helping a lot I’m sure, but those contractions were something else. I’ve never felt pain like that in my whole life! At some point, it was so painful I had to throw up. The midwife said that was a sign that I was already in transition. I think I threw up again one more time after that. They were asking me if I felt the urge to push. I didn’t yet. But they put the birthing stool in the pool anyway for me to sit on when I started pushing. Sometime between 1:30 and 2:00 p.m., I started pushing. The contractions were now so powerful and even MORE painful. I was in agony. I was already wanting to go to the hospital, but in my mind I knew that I also wanted to have my baby at home.

I pushed in the water for about 30 minutes. The baby wasn’t coming down, so the midwives had me get out of the pool and try pushing her out on the bed on my side. I pushed and pushed so hard for another hour, I think. I pushed in ALL the birthing positions possible…on my side, on all fours, squatting, semi-squatting, on the birthing stool, but the baby was coming down too slowly. The contractions were already so strong and painful that I was in tears. The neighbors must have heard my cries every time I pushed. I had family and friends who were in the living room and I felt like I must have been putting them in panic with the sounds I was making.

By this time, I had been pushing so hard and so long that I popped an artery ‘down there’ and started bleeding. When this happened, my midwife decided I had to be transported to the hospital already. She said it was risky because I could lose a lot of blood and also develop a hematoma (?). They got me dressed and ready to go, but every time I stood up, I would get a strong urge to push and end up squatting and pushing. I told them I didn’t think I could make it to the hospital without pushing her out. I really thought I could push her out already because the urge to push was coming on so strong and so often. It felt like I couldn’t even control my body anymore. It was pushing the baby out whether I liked it or not. The midwives were able to somehow control my bleeding so they said it was okay to stay at home and try pushing again. So I did, this time really giving it everything I had. I wanted my baby out.

I pushed and pushed with all my might for another 45 minutes, but for some reason I couldn’t understand, my baby wasn’t coming down. The midwives said she was coming down, but very slowly. I found it so hard to believe them that she was even coming down at all. I was crying in frustration. I wanted to hold my baby so much already but I couldn’t push her out. I think by this time, my midwife felt I had been pushing long enough and that we had given it a good try but should transfer to the hospital already. She told me that she was proud of me and that I had worked so hard. They called my doctor and informed her that I was being brought in and somehow, they were able to get me into the car. One of the midwives went with me, ready just in case I had the baby in the car.

At the hospital, I was brought straight into the delivery room. Waiting for the doctor to get there was sheer torture because the nurses and residents wouldn’t let me push. They had me lying on my side with my legs together. Like I said, by this time, my body was pushing on its own. I shook violently every time a contraction came on. Finally, about 30 minutes later, my doctor arrived. She asked me if I wanted to keep pushing without anesthesia. I told her I was in so much pain and no longer had the energy to push. I had already been pushing for hours at this point. In my mind, I was resigned already that I was going to have my baby by c-section.

My doctor said though that if I was willing to take the anesthesia, I wouldn’t feel the pain of the contraction, and she thought I would still be able to bear down and have the baby normally. I agreed, and they gave me a spinal block which made me numb from the waist down. I wasn’t able to feel the contractions anymore, so they would tell me when to push. Every time I would push, there was this male orderly who would ‘help’ me by leaning over and putting his weight on my belly and ‘pushing’ the baby out also with his arms. He helped me push like this about 4 or 5 times and finally, my baby was out!

I was crying again…but this time tears of joy. I’ve never been so happy in my whole life. I finally saw her, and she was so beautiful. I didn’t get to hold her though. They whisked her off to clean her up and suction her and everything. I thought they would let her latch on to me, but the nurse only touched her lips to my nipple for maybe a second, then they took her away to the nursery. She had been born with the umbilical cord coiled three times around her neck, and it was only later that I’d found out they were a bit concerned because her initial apgar score was only a 6. Thank God it later went up to a 10.

Because of the stressful labor and birth though, she went into respiratory distress after birth and was in NICU for 4 days. They did a battery of tests on her to rule out pneumonia and any infections. She was in an isolette and had an IV and was on oxygen. They finally let her come home on the 27^th of February.

That was 3 years and 4 months ago. Having Skye was the most difficult and painful thing I’ve ever experienced in my whole life and yet…it is also the most wonderful and the most amazing. This beautiful, beautiful child is worth all the blood, sweat, and tears that I shed. God couldn’t have given me a more precious gift.

-Leah, MM, Philippines

Mommy Project!

This is my 'baby' that's been long overdue. I actually started conceptualizing this blog last March, but what with juggling my work at Gymboree, events management, a little bit of performing and of course my daughter Skye, I haven't been able to touch it since then. Hopefully, I can get it going with a few posts. I'm going to get contributions from my mommy circle of friends around the world. Maybe a feature on birth stories would be an apt topic for the birth of this new blog. Watch out for the PinoyMoms blog!