asher's birth story at progressive pioneer

My friend Amy has been posting natural birth stories on her blog during her pregnancy. Today you'll find the story of Asher's birth. I'm really grateful for how well Asher's birth went, but I am SO SO SO excited to be giving birth this time outside of the hospital. I am really looking forward to being home where I'll be able to stay in my groove more easily and won't have strangers bugging me. Just gotta get this girl head down!

And a quick note on my breastfeeding project... I've set up a blog to display the photos. I'm just waiting to hear back from the moms I've photographed because I want to include a little quote from each of them about their thoughts on breastfeeding. Hopefully, I'll be able to share the photos I've done so far with everyone soon!

wedding photo booth

My friend Jason got married last weekend and I took Jared and Asher to the reception. They had this fun photo booth set up. We are lame photo booth posers I'm afraid though. I was trying to get Asher to look up the whole time and forgot to do anything fun. Oh well. 

The best part of the night was seeing Jason, who I grew up with in Ohio. He even took me on my first official date after I turned 16. We both went to BYU and were always great friends, but I think it had been about 5 years since we had seen each other. We had tearful reunion. It was so wonderful to see him. I am so happy for him and his new bride. I wish I had a taken a photo of us together, gosh darn it.

a little peak at my breastfeeding project

So I'm being a bad blogger again this week. I've been working on my breastfeeding photo project. I've taken photos of 7 moms/nurslings so far. I've started editing some photos and just wanted to give you a a little peak. I'm still not sure how exactly I'll be displaying these long term. I may set up a blog for starters. We'll see. I will of course let you all know. And I'm still taking volunteers! I would especially love to photograph some younger babies. Send me an email at redbeanphoto AT gmail if you are interested!

This is my friend Rachel and her almost two year old Zoe nursing before nap time.
I love these tender moments we get to share with our little nurslings.

Also I need to come up with a name for this project. I could just keep calling it the Breastfeeding Photo Project. Or I was thinking something that includes "Breastfeeding is Normal" since that is what I really want to portray. Any thoughts or ideas? I really need a name before I can set up a website or blog.

train of thought

I've been a lazy blogger this week. Somehow this week has flown by and all the posts I meant to write have not been written. Things have been busy around here the past few days and they won't be lessening up until Sunday. Thank goodness for Sundays, right? I need a nap.

At the moment I am sitting on the front porch with the laptop while Asher excitedly transports dirt from the planter to various other spots in the front yard and porch. He thinks this is great fun. I'm grateful Spring seems to be here to stay and we have a string of 70+ degree days ahead of us.

On the agenda today is some serious grocery shopping, a primary activity, and my second breastfeeding project photo shoot. I did the first yesterday and have several more scheduled in the next week. I'll of course keep you posted about how I will be displaying the photos.

I have two recipes I need to post on here. Maybe I'll get to one of them later today. I also have a few children's books that have become new favorites around here I want to share. I will try get to that next week. If not, I will eventually.

That's it for now. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

cute kid

Jared took this the other day while they were playing peek-a-boo.
Such a great shot of his little face peeking through.

Asher stole Grace's glasses and put them on.
He thought it was great and was telling me all about it.

I just hope he doesn't inherit his dad's horrible eyesight and has many, many years more of living glasses free. Even if he does look adorable in them.

Easter 2010

This is was the first Easter we've spent with all the kids. It was also the first Easter that Asher was old enough to actually enjoy getting a basket. I had fun going to Michael's and picking out baskets and goodies for everyone. We also got each of the kids a few books and my mom sent chocolate bunnies and stuffed animals. I'd say they got off pretty well. These pictures are of the kids after finding their baskets. I forgot to take pictures of the egg hunt. Oops.

As a side note... I really didn't want to buy lots of candy. For Asher I put goldfish and craisins in the eggs he found. Then for the big kids I had several eggs that just had varying amounts of dimes, quarters, or dollars. And yes there were some with candy, but not tons. Just Peanut M&Ms and jelly beans.

Because it was Conference weekend, we just hung out at home. Here are couple cute pics of the kids watching President Monson speak.

28 weeks--3rd Trimester!

I entered the third trimester this week--let the countdown begin! I'm feeling really good although I must admit the past couple days I've begun to feel the beginnings of how this belly is going to start restricting my mobility. And the heartburn has started too, gosh darn it. I hate heartburn. But otherwise all is well in pregnancy land. I've also started having a few practice waves (Braxton Hicks) a day. Nothing to concern me at this point. They are hardly noticeable and give me a chance to practice my relaxation. Baby Miriam is as active as ever. She is currently breech but I have no doubts she'll get herself turned head down in the next few weeks. I've been encouraging her by doing lots of cat/cow and child's pose. I really do love being pregnant, but I'm also getting really excited to meet this little girl of ours--although not until she's at least 37 weeks! I don't need all the drama that Asher provided us by trying to come early.

Breastfeeding Photo Project: Call for Nursing Moms

1905 photograph taken by Gertrude Käsebier of Beatrice Baxter Ruyl
From the Historic Photos & Prints of Breastfeeding Facebook Page

With all this breastfeeding talk happening on the internets this week, a little idea has popped into my mind and it won't go away.

I want to do a breastfeeding photo project. This may have been done before but that's ok, because obviously we still aren't seeing enough breastfeeding in our culture. So here's my plan...

I need breastfeeding moms willing to be photographed. Your child can be any age. I want to photograph you nursing in your own environment or a place you would typically nurse. That could be your home, the park, the mall, etc.

I want these photos to be beautiful and accurate portrayals of breastfeeding. If you use a cover, great. If you don't, great. I'm not looking for anything in particular other than moms giving their children the best nature has to offer.

I live in Salt Lake City and am willing to travel about an hour in any direction to do these photo shoots. In exchange for your time, I will give you one high resolution digital file of your choice from the shoot. Additional digital files and prints will be available for purchase.

I don't know yet how far this project will go or what the end result will be. I'll take it one shoot at a time and see what happens. I also have no time limit on this, but seeing as how I'm due to have a baby in less than 3 months, I would like to do as many shoots as I can before then.

So if you are a breastfeeding mom or you know a breastfeeding mom willing to be photographed for my little project, please email me at redbeanphoto AT gmail DOT com.

And feel free to spread the word!

Thanks!

breastfeeding in the news

CNN is reporting on a new study that says if more moms breastfed for the first 6 months of life it would save nearly 1,000 lives and billions of dollars each year.

"The United States incurs $13 billion in excess costs annually and suffers 911 preventable deaths per year because our breastfeeding rates fall far below medical recommendations," the report said.

Those are some pretty staggering statistics. 13 billion!

TheFeministBreeder has a fantastic post on the topic that I urge you to go read. I couldn't say it any better.

In other news, a Minnesota mom was kicked out of a restaurant for breastfeeding her baby in plain view. This happened in a state where the law clearly says that women have the right to breastfeed anywhere. The police were actually called to the restaurant when the parents protested being asked to leave.

This is so outrageous! I can't believe that not only did the restaurant not uphold the law, the police didn't either!

We need to get over our aversion to seeing breasts being used to feed babies. That is what they are for! I applaud this woman for feeling comfortable enough to breastfeed in public. So many women don't because we just don't see it enough. I have breastfed Asher in restaurants and other public places plenty of times. I have always tried to be fairly discreet about it. But at the same time, I don't think we should have to feel like we HAVE to cover up while we feed our babies. We are doing the most natural thing in the world--giving our babies nourishment. That should be celebrated--not seen as too shameful to do around other people.

Coming back to the first news article, I think if more women saw other women breastfeeding, it would be easier for them to also breastfeed and do it longer. We need a serious culture shift in this regard.

***Please read the comments. There are some very interesting things brought up and I've responded to some of them.

[image source]

baby girl has a name

Miriam Dawn

Miriam has been on the top of the list for some time now. We started out slowly using it a couple weeks ago to see how it felt. It feels right. I think it is a beautiful name. Dawn is for my mom. We always knew that would be the middle name. I love being able to call my baby more than just "Baby". It really does help us all feel more connected to her.