The Husband's feelings on a homebirth

I've been reading up on this a lot. Not nearly as much as Cait, of course, but still a fair amount. And I've gone from trusting Cait to make the right decision to believing for myself that for a low-risk pregnancy like Cait, a homebirth is a great option, perhaps even a better option, depending on the disposition of the mother. I think for Cait it is perfect. Of course it all comes down to what is best for the mother. There are women out there who need the sterile and controlled environment of the hospital to feel safe and secure. And there are plenty of great OBGYNs out there who will help them to have a great birth. But all things being equal, I would avoid a hospital. The most compelling argument for a home birth is:

There's nothing wrong with a pregnant woman.

Doctors are used to working with people with something wrong with them and for a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Doctors are trained to diagnose illness and disease and get rid of it, neither of which accompany a majority of births. Doctors are there to deal with emergencies or serious problems, for normal births a well-trained midwife is the way to go, in my opinion. No matter how liberal a hospital is, they are going to have guidelines about how long a woman can labor, when to induce and when to go for a c-section. And for a hospital concerned about lawsuits, like every hospital is, those standards are going to be enforced way more strictly than is necessary. There are vested interests in taking the control of the pregnancy away from the woman, where it belongs. A birth should be an empowering, miraculous experience, and hospitals tend to get in the way of that. There are plenty of exceptions of course, but I believe every effort should be made to take the control out of the hands of the doctors and put it in the hands of a woman, with a trusty and experienced midwife at her side.

I won't go on too much longer, because Cait has written plenty about this, but I'm sure one or two people out there are wondering how I feel about things.

Here's a funny video to sum up:

Health care equality and snipers... dun dun dun

I think health care is a human right. I think our system is lousy and unsustainable. Not to mention unfair. So when I got an invitation to attend a rally calling for health care for all, of course we went.

This picture cracks me up. Tim is mocking Edward. Sorry Lee, but that position is awkwardly sexual. Who normally poses like that?




There were some motivational speakers:





Then on the way home, we saw this:




Snipers just chilling on the roof of the White House. They were having an event on the White House lawn. I thought it was pretty cool...

Republicans with their family values.

And on Father's Day at that!

Why my family owes Barack Obama

If Barack Obama came to our house, we should probably all give him a hug. First because he's a good guy and second because he's helping my dad stay in work. To explain:

So I've been worried for a while about my dad losing his job for a while. Not for any reason in particular. There were certainly no specific signs to indicate that this would happen apart from the general economic downturn and a vague idea that Browning Arms had slowly been losing work over the past few years, even though I wasn't at all sure of the latter idea. I know that Browning definitely has its niche in the gun market. Especially in Argentina, where all the police officers used (and as far as I know use) Browning pistols. Luckily I have been more than reassured by stories such as this and this. I don't know a whole lot about the stock market, but with my limited knowledge, I could not find any information on Browning Stock. I have a pretty good hunch, however that it is doing well, at least compared to most stocks out there. Arms sales are definitely not recession proof, but they might be recession-during-a-democratic-presidency proof.

So thanks, President Obama, for inspiring fear in the hearts of many gun owners and keeping my dad in a job.

PS I'm sorry if this article hurts anyone if my dad does end up losing his job. Trust me, I'll feel bad. I would knock on wood if I were superstitious. Good thing I'm not.

PSS I am for gun control, generally, but I'm more for having my dad having a job (within reason, of course [if the government started up a policy of selling Browning guns to terrorists in the United States I would favor gun control over my dads job; also I want gun control to be implemented within reason and pragmatically]). Just thought I would clear that up.

Happy Father's-to-be Day to you.

Dear Tim,

Remember the ultrasound when you found out you were having a son? I was still in shock and you were glowing in pride and joy like I've never seen before. I'm glad we're having a boy, for many reasons, but most of all because you are so excited to have one. It's going to be a fun journey, and I can't wait.

Not to mention you are really great with kids and such already, so I can only imagine what a stellar dad you are going to be. Teaching Primary has been quite an adventure, but the little boys in our class adore you and it's so funny watching you interact with them. I can't wait to watch you hold and talk to our son. I know it'll be my favorite sight in a few months... and I'm really looking forward to waking up next to you and our little baby every morning (and throughout the night as well).

I love that you are already reading up on baby birthing and preparing yourself to be a huge support to me. You are quite an impressive guy! You probably know more about birth now than most women. Which in my opinion, totally rocks. Thanks for always listening to me, and sharing your knowledge of different subjects with me too. I'm really proud of you for involving yourself in this process like you are.

Tim, most of all, I'm lucky to have you in my life and by my side, and look forward to the coming years of parenting and raising a family with you. It's going to be SO COOL.

Love you!!

Cait

PS. Hope you enjoyed your present. Due to previous outrage about my mother's day gift, I won't discuss it on the blog :)

Night out on the town

Dear World,

We've had a lot of trouble getting out to see stuff lately, mainly we're just tired, with my work and Cait's internship and pregnancy and us walking around a bunch. But last night we went out to Alexandria to hang out with my sister Devany and her love interest. I wont talk about him on our blog, because she hasn't talked about him on hers and I will permit no spying on our blog for information on others. Anyway, it was a pretty cool part of the area. Look at Caitlin strutting her stuff.


We walked around a bunch, cooled our feet in a pool, and Cait decided to take a stroll there too.


And she also decided to use the fountain as a symbol of her fertility.


We debated on where we would go to eat for a while, but finally decided on a sea food place that had a bit of line out front while all the restaurants around had some empty seats, because it had to be good. Here's me and my sister outside of it.


And here's my lovely wife and I outside of it. Looks like Devany even got the restaurants sign in the picture. I guess it was called the fish market. Nice work Devany.


Looking at the picture now, it wasn't a very flattering one of Cait. At least as unflattering as a picture of such a beautiful woman could be. Sorry Cait. We ate a lot of shrimp and hush puppies. The hush puppies needed honey butter, which they didn't have, but everything else was good.

We stopped and got some taffy, which we've been enjoying. Here's what's left:


And here's a picture of the Masonic Temple we want to visit some day, all artistic like. It was a nice looking building:


A nice train ride home together finished off a very lovely night.

Love,

Tim and Cait

If you're wondering why I post so much....

... it's because I'm working on a computer basically all day, and when I think of things, I can blog about them on the spot. It's easy that way.

First off: I hope Theodore likes Breyer's mint chocolate chip ice cream because that's all I've been eating recently. The heartburn started kicking in a few days ago, and if it continues, I will continue to eat MCC ice cream until it's gone. Maybe I'll actually put a few pounds on this tiny little thing. Even though it's fattening, it's all-natural and DELICIOUS. Oh my, it's delicious. I think I'll have another bowl.



I just found an old to-do list on my iGoogle. Here's how it goes:

1. PL SC 328 homework
2. Return library books
3. Finish coding WomanStats country reports
4. Pregnancy test
5. Aerobics homework

What a strange time in my life that must have been. I hate that I was so busy I needed to put taking a pregnancy test on my to-do list. Like I would forgot or something?

This just happened

A full-out protesting rally march walked down the street in front of my apartment. It was for Iran, protesting the recent elections. There were signs like "A Selection not an Election" and "End the Coup." I wanted to run down and see what it was all about, but I was not dressed and got a pretty good view from the window anyways. I love living on Pennsylvania Avenue. I think I'm going to walk down to the White House to see more. There is something about protests that I just love.




And I had a sweet video to upload, but it's been working for over 30 minutes to no avail... so we'll skip that for now.

Products I can't live without

I deleted my last post because it was kind of mean, and I felt guilty thinking mean things about people that are always nice to me (it was about stupid questions people ask during our briefing sessions, in case you are wondering).

So, now I'm going to blog about nice things.

Kayla blogged a few weeks ago about products she can't live without.

Here's my list of "products I can't live without"

1. Burt's Bees lip balm



This stuff is heaven. I used to be a cherry chapstick addict, but this stuff is yummier and more natural. I can handle the slightly higher price tag because it makes my lips feel all tingly and minty.

I was also very happy to find out recently that Burt's Bees baby wash smells absolutely heavenly. I don't want to use Johnson's because of the chemicals, but I was sad because it smells so much like a baby. I was pleasantly surprised to find the Burt's Bees smelled better, without the parabens.

2. Tom's toothpaste



I'm sure most people can't live without their toothpaste, but I'm especially attached to mine. I switched over sometime last year, and will never go back. The spearmint is my favorite. It's delicious and makes my mouth feel super clean.

3. Nalgene



I'm not sure what constitutes a "product" but I sure do love my Nalgene. I drink A LOT of water. It's all I drink in fact, barring the occasional cup of OJ or Simply Limeade. I just really like water. And it's nice to have a nice container for said water, without buying disposable bottles. This is a cool one with a flip-top that I currently own since I left my pink breast cancer awareness one at Meghan McGrath's Chicago birthday party last semester. The only downside to this Nalgene is the flip-top has a tendency to come unflipped in my giant purse-bag. Resulting in a drenched and subsequently broken cellular device in my case.

3. And I'll have to ditto Kayla on the last item, and since we don't have many male readers (to my knowledge), and I've already blogged about episiotomies and leaking breasts so if they keep returning I'm guessing they are OK reading about feminine-y things, I'm perfectly not embarrassed to put in an image and a review even.



Let me tell you about the Diva Cup: it's remarkably clean, comfortable, convenient, cost-effective, and environmentally-friendly. Think of all those thousands of pads and tampons you throw out every month. What a waste! We live in such a disposable world, but there are a few things we all can do to make sure we don't end up in Wall-E's world. And cost-effective too if you get over the initial investment: I paid about $25 for mine, but have not bought other such products in almost three years. When my hippie friend Kinley initially told me about it, I thought it was kind of gross and a little awkward. But now I share the knowledge with everyone, because seriously, it's awesome and so not gross. Your vagina will thank you.

Daily Sexism

In our dinner group the other day here at the Barlow Center an educated intern was heard to say, after some disparaging comments from the group (none of them from me, I don't waste my time talking bad about people who've never heard of me) about Bill Clinton, "If I was married to Hillary Clinton, I would turn gay too." An awkward silence ensued and somebody said "That sounds like something Tim would say." I'm not really sure why they thought that, probably because I'm a fan of non sequiturs to make awkward silences, but I try not to malign anyone with them. So, in response, I said, "Actually, I try to stay away from sexism." The guy was a little upset, and said it wasn't sexist, and because I didn't want to cause a scene I ended the conversation there. But I will use our little personal soap box to explain why it was a sexist comment.

What sexism basically comes down to is treating the two sexes differently in ways that have nothing to do with their fundamental differences. Saying that being married to Hillary Clinton would be enough to turn a guy gay is sexist because one'd never say that about a guy. "Barrack Obama is just so intimidating and scary. If I were married to him I would become a lesbian too." Saying that a certain type of woman would turn her husband gay means that only a certain type of women is sexually attractive enough to allow her husband to remain straight. And that's sexism at its core. Thoughts?