My Wishes For The Perfect Homebirth

We have the midwife coming to see us tomorrow to discus our planned homebirth, this has had me thinking and we have spent the last few nights discussing the "ideal" and thought I'd put it down in words now.  It will be interesting to see how it all compares to the actual event!

I will have my first twinges late afternoon with the BigD around.  This will give us time to put my Mum on standby at a reasonable hour - We plan to have my Mum there to be with D1 &D2 so The BigD can give me his undivided attention.  Things will progress fairly slowly giving us chance to put the little ones to bed with their usual routine.

When we reach the point we feel we need to call the midwife we will call my Mum first.  Based on my last homebith I went from 3cm to feeling the urge to push in 45 minutes so I would like to think that things will happen fairly quickly at this point.

When the midwife feels that things are starting to happen (AND providing they are happening smoothly AND I am showing very little outward signs of discomfort) we will wake D1 who is 4 so she can watch and welcome her little brother enter the world. People have very mixed opinions on children being present at the birth of siblings but she is very mature for her age and we have prepared her well with discussions, story books and home birth videos.

D1 welcoming D2 into the world.  She didn't witness the birth but was woken within the hour.

When the time comes to push I want to try and take it as slow as possible, to almost breath the baby out if you like. I have had two tears previously and the last time I wasn't stitched so I don't have much left to tear if you get my drift....

I would love to own the bragging rights to having birthed a child on 2 paracetamol BUT that isn't going to happen. I will be using gas & air. Based on previous experience biting down on that mouthpiece really does help and it can provide great focus.

I will have a natural 3rd stage - hopefully with more success than previously, when my body just didn't want to deliver the placenta. Providing the birth is smooth and trouble free then we will be declining the vitamin K injection but that is a decision we will make at the time and with the guidance of the midwife.

And finally.... The midwife and my Mum will have packed up and left before 2am and we will all climb into bed together!

Now lets see how it really happens...

Ernie The Elf Comes To Stay

Today Ernie the Elf has come to stay in the Mayhem household. He will be staying with us until Christmas and will report back to Farther Christmas on the children's behaviour.

He will be meeting D1 for the first time tonight after school and has brought with him a little note to introduce himself. Now he looks quite sweet and innocent with those BIG brown eyes but don't let appearances fool you, he has all kinds of mischief lined up. Tonight he will raid the Christmas treat box and D1 will find him, in the morning, on the living room floor, surrounded by the contents of a large tub of quality street! Naughty Elf. He has also told me that he thinks knickers make great Christmas tree decorations so there is another little adventure for him.

I would love it if you have any more ideas of things our naughty little house guest could get up to.

Homemade Toys - Picture Discs

I made this game/toy for my youngest daughter (D2) who is 19 months old and I must say I am so so pleased with the play value it has provided - even my 4 year (D1) old loves it.

Initially I made them just to give D2 a way of looking at photographs.  She absolutely loves sitting at the computer with me looking at pictures of people she recognises so I wanted to find a way that she could do this by herself.  Our efforts have 21 faces but can be as large or small as you like.

They were so simple to make - the trickiest bit will be finding enough jar lids (You could always mount your pics on cardboard but I feel the Jam jar lids make them really easy for little fingers to handle and should give a little more longevity too).

You will need:

• Photos of close friends and family
• Scissors
• A pen/pencil
• Glue (I found the only glue that would hold the pictures firmly in place was super glue)
• Jam jar lids or similar
• Something to cut round (I found a pastry cutter to be the perfect size)
• Half an hours peace and quiet to get the job done.

What to do:

• It really is as simple as cutting out the faces and glueing them in to the discs/lids.
• Leave plenty of time for the glue to dry.

Ways to play:

1. Just allow your child to explore them alone.
2. Look at them together and talk about each person.
3. Play sorting games for example:
• Who lives in our house? (The BigD's family all live in NZ so we do that too)
• men/women
• Adults/Children
• Hair colour
• Explore relationships - "Can you find Daddy's Mummy", etc...

If you dream up another way to play with them then I would love to hear it.  Please leave me a comment below or email with suggestions and I will add them here.

If you liked this post then you may also like to take a look at the "Busy Day" personalised story book we made.

Not suitable for really young children that are likely to put things into their mouths as the glue, I am almost certain, will be full of toxins!