The decision

I decided to go with Dr. Cummings rather than the midwives. I had my first appointment this morning at 6:30 am. It was waaaaay better to be the first patient. I will do that every time from now on. No 1.5+ hour waits and no kids since Matt was able to stay with them.

I liked him even more today than I did at the consultation, so that's good. At 10 weeks I'm 129 lbs., up 4.5 lbs. from when I got pregnant. I've been exercising regularly and eating fairly normally (I do have a little more snack after dinner than normal since I'm starving by 8:30), so I don't want to really dwell on numbers if I can help it.

It took him two tries to find the heart beat since he miscalculated where my uterus was. That was a little nerve wracking for a few minutes. I'll have a sono in 2 weeks just to make sure everything is progressing normally. He mentioned that my uterus was measuring a little bigger than 10 weeks, and said something about, "wouldn't it be fun if it were twins?" but he didn't really think there were twins in there.

Baby 3 Belly @10 weeks

I love to do the baby belly progression and since I'm showing much earlier this time around, I thought I'd start the pics earlier as well. Here I am at 10 weeks. Dean took these pictures for me.

And since the camera was out, the boys wanted me to take some pictures of them as well. Dean wanted one of him showing his muscles, and so I tried to get one of Walt flexing as well, though he didn't quite get the concept. =)

And here is Walter "cheesing" as Dean likes to say.

The relationship of Grace and Works

I gave a talk today in church on the relationship of grace and works. I had been working on it the last two weeks, then on Friday I was told there was a mix up and they wouldn't need me this week. Then last night at 10 I got a call from our Bishop asking if I could still give my talk because one of the other talks fell through. I was glad I had 3/4 of the talk written! I finished it up this morning before church. I absolutely love speaking in church because it gives so much more meaning and direction to my scripture study. It's also nice preparing something for adult "consumption" since I've been in the nursery so long. It was definitely the talk I've had the most people request I email to them.  I've tried to copy and paste word docs to blogger and it always gets messed up, so I turned it into a google doc that you can read if you want to click here.

ramblings about weighing my options

Today I got to do a consultation with the "famous" vbac (vaginal birth after cesarean) doctor, Dr. Frederick Cummings.  When I asked my doctor if she would consider a trial of labor for a vba2c (after 2 c-sections), she said she wouldn't and that she didn't know anyone who would do such a procedure. I thought that sounded like baloney, so I started checking around with a midwife friend and she directed me to the ICAN group of northern Texas. It's a yahoo group forum for women who have had c-sections and want to avoid it if possible for future births. Cummings is far and away the most recommended OB for vbacs, especially after multiple cesareans. He has a really high success rate. Most of the others who don't use him use midwives in home or at birthing centers. 

A couple of weeks ago I had the chance to do a consultation with some midwives out of Sherman.  I LOVED their birth center/house. AWESOME. I wish I had done that with Dean. I bet I wouldn't have had to have a c-section since they're not so quick to jumpy on that. The doctor I was doing a vag birth with Dean sounded panicked and screamed for the nurses to call my doctor to come in the very first time Dean's vitals dropped. I had to beg to even give it a second shot before they carted me off to the OR. Both the midwives and Dr. Cummings said it's not abnormal for vitals to drop and that they probably did a c-section prematurely. The biggest drawback to the ladies in Sherman is that they're not certified nurse midwives.

I did a repeat c-section with Walter out of fear. Matt felt like it was too risky, and my doctor, while she would do a c-section after 1, was not really that "excited" about it since I couldn't be induced, blah, blah, blah. The recovery for me was just not a happy one. I know it's hard adjusting to two, but it was doubly hard not being able to pick up Dean for 6 weeks, especially since he wasn't even 2 years old yet and was still in his crib!  I felt like a crazy woman - seriously, I yelled A LOT and cried A LOT those first 6 months.

Anyway, the midwives said they'd be willing to try a vba2c with me. Dr. Cummings also said he is more than happy to do a trial of labor with me as well. On the one hand, I felt more comfortable with the women at the birthing center. It had the right feel to it. It wasn't cold and uninviting like a hospital. It was really, really nice.  On the other hand, if something were to go wrong, I'd be transported to a hospital in Sherman to do a c-section there with whatever doctor is on-call.  With Dr. Cummings, I could do a trial of labor (he strongly suggests having a duola) and he said the likelihood of having a c-section is small, though he could do it himself if he were doing my vbac and something went wrong.The worst thing about my visit with Dr. C today was waiting 1.5 hours to see the doctor with 2 boys along for the wait. His office was very hospital like (he's in a medical building in the Presby Hospital in Denton). And to be honest, I've grown very accustom to having women doctors. I don't think it would be a big deal to have a male doc., but it's definitely different.

Between the two choices I have now, I think I'd choose Dr. Cummings. But, as I have been doing more searching today, there are other birthing centers closer to me. The one in Allen has all certified nurse midwives who have delivered in hospitals, at home, and in the center. Now if they'll consider a trial of labor I may just go with them! I wish this were easier...

Summer hair cuts

I've been taking the boys to private swimming lessons all week and we're making progress. Dean's progress has been very, very, painstakingly slow because of all of his fears regarding water in his face/ears/hair/floating on his belly/etc. Walter has taken right to the water and his favorite thing to do is jump off the side (without me even holding him) and come back up on his own. I've been directing him toward the wall when he comes up. We need to work on the concept of kicking his feet to propel himself, but he's a natural in the water. Anyway, our good friend Margaret is the absolute perfect teacher for Dean. She noticed that his long hair was making his water fears even worse because it would send a waterfall down his face if he got wet, so giving them summer hair cuts was our homework for the night.

My cup overfloweth

I've been having lots, and lots of positive feelings, so I need to get them down here.

Last Friday we had such a fantastic day. Dean seriously didn't ask to get on the computer or TV once until I started making dinner!  We had a fun morning at the splash pad/park, and after I put Walt down for his nap, Dean and I worked on creating him a robot costume. "Mom, thank you sooo much for making this awesome robot outfit."   That night at bedtime, he had it on again, and couldn't figure out how to fold his arms. He said, "Mom, robots don't fold their arms or bow their heads. They just kneel." =)

 When Walter woke up, he wanted in on the robot action, but not so much on the picture action unless he was the one taking the picture.

Yesterday we had such a fun fourth of July. In the morning we went to our Bishop's house for a bike parade, BBQ and pool party. Dean was so excited for the bike parade. He decorated his bike with stickers. When I asked if he wanted any ribbons, he said, "No, that would make it a girl's bike."  I'm pretty sure he was the fastest 3 year old out there!

That night we let the boys stay up late (I let Walt nap until 4:15!!!) so they could experience fireworks. We purchased a small amount and found the perfect legal place to set them off. We've set fireworks off 2 or 3 other times, but each time we've just ended up on the side of the road on what we hoped was county land. This year we scouted a couple days in advance and found a neighborhood on county land that had the roads and cul-de-sacs built out, but there were no houses for a couple of miles.  It was perfect except for the wind. It made the sparklers hard, but everything else worked just fine.  I nearly had a heart attack watching the boys with the sparklers, especially when Dean went straight for the grass multiple times. I was glad when those were done! Here's a pic. of Matt reading them a bed time story before we left since it would be so late when we got home.

Here are a few videos I took while out.

Untitled from Celia Brasfield on Vimeo.


Untitled from Celia Brasfield on Vimeo.



Walter has been speaking in sentences. Many are still fairly broken and pieced together, but he also has a lot of complete sentences. My favorite right now is, "'Ere are you going, mom?" His voice inflections make it priceless.

We started swimming lessons today with an awesome lady in our ward. Dean has this out of control fear of getting water in his face, so I think that will be our biggest hurdle. She's the perfect teacher for him, though.