Prenatal Sleep Routine

I'm 35 weeks pregnant with our third, and have finally started listening to my body and doing some much needed self care. The past few weeks I have gotten better sleep than in any of my other pregnancies. As a Doula I spend a lot of time answering pregnancy, labor and delivery questions and one that always pops up is how do I get more sleep in the last trimester... I have my standard answers, but realized I hardly do these, or I only do a couple of them when it's "really bad." So the past few weeks I decided I didn't have to tough it out, flop into bed in my exhausted state only to wake up a few hours later for the day, or be restless all night long! So get ready to get some great sleep with me--- well not with me, but you get the idea!

Tip #1: Start your bedtime wind down 30-60 minutes prior to actually hitting the hay! 

I'll admit this one is tricky for me, with two littles night time is kind of my alone time. It's my time to unwind, research, read, or hang with my man. Too many nights I spend trying to stay awake scrolling pinterest or watching netflix. The biggest way that I'm working on this is to be intentional with my time. Intentionally spending quality time with the hubs, or reading helps me to be in a more present and relaxed space. Putting a boundary on my time helps me to be intentional with my down time  so that it can really fill my cup and not just my time.

Tip #2: Set the scene
This seriously only takes 5 minutes but it goes a long way for me. This usually means lighting some candles, taking some meditative breaths, reading an encouraging verse. Whatever it is for you, it's not elaborate, but it helps shift your mind so that your brain knows its time to wind down. This is often when I make my red raspberry leaf tea in a pretty mug and just take a few minutes to let go of the day.

Tip #3: Epsom Salt Baths
You may not have time every night to do this, but it's a great way to detox and de-stress your body. Epsom salt is full of magnesium, and most of us are magnesium deficient. Magnesium helps us to manage stress better, relax, take away muscle tension, aches, pains, reduce swelling and a ton of other benefits. Just 20 minutes and your body is on it's way to healing itself! I love adding baking soda and essential oils for an added detox boost.

Tip #5: Yoga/Stretching
I do this every night without fail- and if I don't I'm really bummed because I'm up at 2am doing my yoga so that I can go back to sleep. In pregnancy our hips can get really tight carrying around amniotic fluid, placenta, baby and if you have other littles picking them up all day. This makes sleep really hard at the end of the day. A few hip openers, meditative breaths and some stillness can go a long way to connecting with your body, your baby and helping you get a good night sleep. I really like this one, it's only 10 minutes but always brings relief when I have hip and back pain.

Tip #6: Aromatherapy
As I continue my training in pregnancy aromatherapy one of my favorite ways to unwind is to diffuse a high quality oil to help my body unwind. Some of my favorites are lavender, balance, juniper berry, blue tansy, geranium just to name a few. Check out my essential oils page if you're interested in learning more, and always feel free to leave a comment or message me with any questions you have.

If you're doing these things and still struggling to sleep at night. Here are some other things you can try, and I'll be doing a follow up blog post on them so stay tuned...

1. Weekly chiropractic adjustments. 

Pregnancy is so hard on our hips and back, especially if we're lifting other little kiddos. Getting weekly adjustments (especially in the third trimester) will completely take away sciatica, and other hip pain that you may be having making your nights and legs restless. It is also a great way to get your baby in optimum position for birth. Weekly adjustments help you to avoid breech baby, posterior or transverse presentations.

2. Stay hydrated
Drinking about a gallon of water/herbal tea in the third trimester will help keep fluids in balance, reduce swelling, and help circulation, constipation and any other issues you may be having! Water, water, water and you'll notice a change!

3. Exercise
I know you're getting huge and it's hard to move around, but even a 20 minute walk can release some of the tension your body is holing. Walking helps clear your mind, brings focus and my favorite is that it reduces labor time--- a lot!!! So if you want a fast easy birth, get walking ladies!

I hope these help and bring some insight into some of the issues you may be experiencing. The home stretch can be a tough time even for those of us that are doing all of these self care steps, remember to be gentle with your expectations of yourself and let some things slide--- it's all going to be ok. So take some time to take care of you today and get the rest you need. Sweet dreams!

Connor's Birthday: A Home birth Story

The day before I went into labor was one of those magical days that you know you won't ever forget. Nate had a half day and so I spent the morning playing with Bree at the park and then we spent the afternoon at the beach. We played in the sand and waves, and as the sun was setting I decided it was the perfect time to do a prenatal yoga session. The beach has always been my favorite place to do yoga! As I ended my session, I prayed over our sweet baby and our home birth, a peace washed over me. I didn't think he was coming anytime soon, but I knew that when he did come God would be holding our family!

The next day was Friday, February 13th. It started out just as the weeks before, I was up at 3am with braxton hicks, I bounced on my birth ball and practiced labor techniques for the big day. Somewhere around 6am they stopped  and I fell asleep for an hour before everyone else got up- just like the many days before. Bree and I were eating breakfast and snuggling on the couch when I realized that I was leaking. I quickly changed clothes and knew that it could be my water, but didn't think so.I still had one more week till my due date and truly believed that baby T would arrive two weeks late! Two outfits later, I was on the phone calling hubby's work to let him know that my water had broken.The midwives told me to check in throughout the day, but that it could be a few days before labor really got going. One look at our house and I knew I had to get cracking! that's the thing about home births, you kind of have to have your house ready. I was sure that our little man was going to come late, and so I wasn't that motivated to clean. I messaged our Doula Jessica and  jumped into high gear to get the house clean. As I was cleaning contractions came and went, nothing regular or bothersome. Jessica arrived and graciously helped me clean up the pile of toys and dishes. I didn't want to be in labor for hours like I was with Bree, so we began all the natural remedies to get things moving! I made double strength red raspberry leaf tea, ate a big hearty meal, munched on dates and kept moving.  Around 2pm contractions were coming closer, stronger, and becoming regular!! My sister happened to be in town from college and so she came over to watch Bree. As weird as this sounds, my labor was joyous, and really fun. I was surrounded by people that loved and cared about me, and was getting to move freely in the comfort of my own home. I was having such a great time that I decided we should pop some popcorn and watch a funny movie. Well, we got the popcorn popped but no movie- by the time the popcorn was ready contractions were requiring more concentration. Still not sure what happened to that big bowl of popcorn, but I'm pretty sure Bree ate most of it!  I decided to labor in the shower for a bit while Jessica called the midwives to let them know contractions were 2 minutes apart.

The midwives arrived around 5pm (just 3hrs after contractions were regular). Although contractions were closer together my head was still clear, I was still laughing, and I knew that in order to birth this baby things had to get more serious. When they checked me I was only at a 4... this was disappointing, but about what I expected. I had to surrender and allow my body to get to work. They sent me for a walk to get things really going. One fun dynamic about living on camp is that your neighbors are your coworkers, community living at its finest!  Nate, Jessica and I went walking up our neighbors very steep driveway up and down, chatting with the neighbors, and walking some more! As we began walking around camp to keep things moving, most people were leaving work right about the time that I was out walking, and so I tried to carry on conversations and not let on that I was nearing transition phase. We had yet to tell most people on camp that we were having a home birth.  In between seeing people I would crouch down on the ground and breathe as Nate and Jessica did counter pressure and spoke birth affirmations over me. They worked seamlessly together! An hour of walking and I had to get back to the house. As I walked in we were all chatting and laughing, our midwife nearly sent me back out the door, as she said "You're still smiling" to which I responded "I need to go the bedroom."  I just wanted to stop smiling and talking- this was the point we had all waited for, things were getting real.

I went to our bathroom and sat on the toilet backwards, our little man was still posterior and so sitting on a toilet backwards can often help babies move into proper position during labor. I had just been studying how whales give birth, surrounded by many other whales, in a safe place. The laboring whale sings her baby out. I began to hum and sing low tone. Although it wasn't as pretty as a whale it did help keep my body calm and relaxed, while allowing me to get through each contraction. As Nate continued the counter pressure, Jessica spoke affirmations over me. "You're not alone." "Your body is strong and capable," I looked up at her and said" I think I'm in transition." She nodded in agreement and kept speaking birth affirmations over me. She said "Your not alone" more than once, this spoke deep to me, as labor became more intense, I knew I needed to let go- to rely on my birth team. The bathroom window was open and the most gentle breeze was blowing. The coolness of the air outside refreshed me with each wave of a contraction I grew stronger.

The hard work was about to begin. Birth time is such an odd thing, hours can pass that feel like minutes, and minutes can pass that feel like hours. I moved to the bed and the team let me lead the pushing. I didn't want to tear and so I began on all fours pushing slightly and breathing short staccato breaths. It was awesome! Not at all like Bree's birth, tied down and nurses and doctors counting for me to push. I was able to keep things at my pace. I had been pushing great for a bit, but was soon feeling stuck.Our midwife checked me and discovered that I had a cervical lip and that Connor had not one, but both his hands by his face. I felt like he was stuck, and he was! She allowed me to continue to try and push through it, but there wasn't any change in his position. She reached in and moved the cervical lip and pushed his hands down. While the pushing became easier, I was so tired at this point. What I thought was only a few minutes had been almost an hour and half of pushing. I flipped over on my back and looked my midwife in the eye. At this point I had decided that it was time to take a nap and just push Connor out after I had rested awhile. While I didn't say this out loud, I fully believed this was an option. Our midwife encouraged me to push, and all I said was "I'm so tired."  She told me that I had to push him out. I tried arguing with her, and when that didn't work I argued with Nate. "You have no idea what this feels like I said as I squeezed his hands." The midwife looked me in the eyes and said, "You need to push this baby out now." As I looked into her eyes, she gave me the courage I needed to give it all I had, one final push and he was out! It was amazing despite two nuchal hands and a cervical lip to push a baby out without an episiotomy, no tearing and no use of forceps or a vacuum.  8:30pm our Connor Reed arrived in the world!!! He was a gorgeous 7lb 5oz 19 in beauty! My son was here!

 That final push, brought quite the surprise, Connor's umbilical cord broke. The midwives jumped into action clamping his chord down. I began hemorrhaging heavily, and within seconds they gave me pitocin, and cytotec to manage the bleeding. I delivered the placenta and it was fully in tact and big!  His cord was a mere 12 inches long- incredibly short for an umbilical cord,and in most cases babies that have short cords can't be born vaginally.  Connor was safely in my arms minutes later and the two of us were resting. We knew that God had protected us and given us this birth. Six hours of  labor and a gorgeous, healthy baby boy!! Before the midwives left that night Connor had to nurse, and I had to eat a hearty meal. The two of us loved snuggling in bed eating and resting!

 I share the easy, and rough moments of our labor story to show that even Doula's need support, and that labor for every baby and every mom is unique. I am so thankful for the opportunity to birth Connor in the comfort of my own home, not tied down or strapped down by monitors. I loved that transition and pushing (while intense) were beautiful and special, and that labor wasn't as long or as intense as my 20 hour labor with Bree.  How grateful I am for the education that I have received, and for my incredible birth team! I am so thankful for our amazing midwives at Birth Roots and for my incredible Doula Jessica Tyak who knew exactly what I needed. My amazing sister who watched Bree and kept her occupied while we labored. And lastly to my amazing hubby who loved me and supported me fully throughout this pregnancy, labor and delivery. You are my best friend and life long partner and I am so thankful for the children that you have given me!!! Thank you for wanting to do a homebirth just as badly as I did, and encouraging us to look into it!  I couldn't have done it without this great birth team!

Our AMAZING Doula Jessica Tyak holding sweet baby Connor

He started these little smiles two days after birth and full on smiles 4 days after birth! 

The last four weeks have been a whirlwind of late night nursing sessions, learning the art of rest and adjusting to life with two kids! I can't write to more posts on postpartum care and continue updating you all on this next chapter!

Trying for a Different Kind of Birth

So you want to have a natural delivery, but you're not quite ready for a home birth or a birth center. This post is for all you mamas out there that are curious to try a natural birth, but aren't comfortable with being outside of the hospital. First off I believe that every woman has the right to decide where she feels most comfortable to deliver her baby, for some that may be at home, others at a birth center and for some of us a hospital seems like the best place. This post is for you, how do you have a natural delivery in a hospital setting? 

1. Get educated.

This is the most important step in the process. Finding a hospital and OB/or midwife that you are comfortable with is so important. Find out their csection stats, pitocin uses, episiotomy rates etc. this will help you gauge whether or not they are the right fit for you and your family. You also want to get educated on the actual labor process itself. Someone who wants to run a marathon has to train to get there, much like labor one must train and be educated. It is surprising how many women I have met that have had multiple babies and still don't know the difference between active labor and transition. This is going to be crucial for you to know where you are in the labor process if you are trying to go natural.

2. Get support

When I told family and friends that I wanted a natural delivery most people laughed or asked me why I wanted to go through all that pain. It can be really hard to find the support that you're looking for. In my case my husband was my biggest advocate and birth coach! I was so blessed by that. Having a spouse, family member or friend that can support you during your pregnancy and labor is so crucial to receiving the type of birth that you want. My husband literally coached me through my entire birth and when I thought I couldn't do it--- he believed in me. It not only made the process possible, but strengthened our marriage in a way that I can't describe!

3. Make a Birth Plan

In a lot of cases women walk into the labor and delivery floor without their birth plan in hand, leaving those big decisions to the doctors. If you state clearly what you want and don't want to happen you won't have to think about it in the middle of labor (trust me then is not the time.) Everything from episitomies, epidurals, pitocin etc should be listed. Include after birth plan as well, do you want skin to skin immediately? Breastfeeding support? These are crucial to helping the medical staff and you work well together. Transition isn't the time to be fighting hospital protocal- be clear and specific and you will be calmer.

4. Have Grace

Like most of life our birth plans don't go perfectly, when entering the hospital understand that things can go very differently, and have a back up plan in place, as well as, some grace for yourself if it doesn't all "turn out."

Steps to Having a Successful Natural Hospital Delivery

1. Get out of bed!

In a hospital setting it is really common for a woman to be on her back hooked up to monitors just waiting for baby to arrive. Labor is hard work on your baby, don't make it harder by lying on your back. Get up and move around. Use a yoga ball to bounce on during early labor, walk around, stretch, take a shower. But whatever you do try to stay out of bed as much as possible. In many hospitals monitoring becomes difficult this way, try and make a deal using your birth plan prior to arriving on D day explaining that you want to be monitored for only 20 minutes every hour. This is a great compromise and allows you the freedom to not stall labor.

2. Eat and drink

In many hospitals they don't want you eating and drinking in case of a c-section, however, if you clearly explain in your birth plan that you will be eating and drinking it goes a long way. You may have a little bit of an uphill battle in this one, but eating and drinking will keep your energy up so that labor will progress and you will need less interventions. Remember the less interventions the hospital does for you the better success you will have in delivery your baby naturally.

3. Laugh

Many women the minute they enter a hospital setting notice that their labor stalls, studies have shown that this is because a hospital is a stressful environment. So find ways to keep the mood light and fun. Be sure to do a tour of the hospital beforehand so that you know where to go etc. And find ways to have fun in the process. Women that laughed during labor had labors that were almost half the time of women that didn't. Laughter really is great medicine. When I was in labor I had my husband describing cheesy pizza to me, it was a great way to relax and laugh about his descriptions.

4. Mindset

Your mind is the most powerful place for ensuring you have the birth you want. You have to be very clear in a hospital environment what you want and be set on it. If you don't want and epidural or pitocin, being firm but nice is essential. The hospital is a place where nurses and doctors heal people from pain, sickness and ailments. Unfortunately pregnancy is treated as such. If  you walk into the hospital fully believing that you are not sick, but capable then the entire process will be different. Remember birthing at a hospital is only for convenience sake if something goes wrong, but if nothing is wrong then keep on doing what you're doing-- you can do it even if the staff don't believe you! When I gave birth to Bree the nurse and doctor actually shared with me that they had never seen a natural delivery. This shocked me.... and really needs to change! A doctor should always have to deliver a baby naturally in my opinion, but if you're like me and their first experience, show them what a woman's body is capable of. Show them that intervention is not always the answer!

If you'd like more information, doula services or just have some questions feel free to message me or comment below! 

Empowering Women Means Educating Women

No pregnant woman should be scared into making decisions and every pregnant woman should be educated and empowered to make healthy decisions for her and her family!

As new mom I have read hundreds of books, articles and studies on pregnancy, birth, natural baby care, and childhood. I have heard doctors opinions, midwife opinions, natural and non-natural paths- and most of them left me SCARED! I don't know about you but it seems that every time I read a pregnancy fact or birthing option, to vaccinate or not to vaccinate- in the end the child dies!! I have read information on all sides and believe that this is the best way to come to a good understanding of the options that are offered to new families.  Knowing what my options are as a parent not only makes me more confident, but it also makes me calm, thus giving that excess energy back to my family in a positive way! Scaring women doesn't empower them!

I have had many smart, beautiful women tell me that they would just rather not know all the scary stuff that can happen. They would rather trust whatever their doctor tells them to do. Unfortunately this is not as simple as it sounds, it would be awesome if there were completely trustworthy sources of information, but information is subjective. One must be very careful how and where they get information. I have found in talking with many women that there were parts of their birth that they look back on and wish they were better informed on the situation.


 One of the major confusions between these two camps is that the location that women choose to have their babies makes a huge difference on how the event is viewed. A family was in a car accident, badly injured and needing medical attention, they are sent to the hospital. A woman in early labor starting to have contractions has an OB that delivers at a specific hospital and off they go. Both cases go to the same location, but have very different needs. And while they are going to be on different floors, the mindset is usually the same. Pain is bad and needs medical attention. However, birth is such a different experience. It isn't like getting your arm cut off, or fighting for your life, like in a car accident.

TV shows, and mainstream media want to portray birth as this extremely scary and risky experience, one in which both mom and baby would die if it weren't for the hospital staff. In some cases this can be true, but in most healthy, low risk pregnancies this is just not the case.  No pregnant woman should be scared into making decisions and every pregnant woman should be educated and empowered to make healthy decisions for her and her family!

While I am thankful for medical staff, we definitely needed it with Bree, in most scenarios and cases, medical intervention is very unnecessary.  Too many women are uninformed and walking into the hospital trusting that they will make it a safe delivery. However, the stats show that the more medical interventions the less safe the birth. The only reason that it can be viewed as "safe" is that an OB is a trained surgeon, that's their specialty. It is my passion that we change this for the health of mom's, babies and families all across America! Most mom's want a safe, healthy delivery and that means that mom's should be empowered to be educated.

In my personal experience I was shocked to find out that the doctor, and nurse that were in our delivery room  had never seen a natural birth--- they literally had no idea what this would be like for me! What they did know is medication- the only option that was given to me. If I hadn't read about epidurals and side effects I would have no idea- the doctors and nurses never once informed me on what an epidural actually is.

Here are some great questions to ask if you are having a hospital birth... before 'it's time'

1. What is the c-section rate at that particular hospital? These stats are also online!

2. What is the c-section rate of your O.B/ what is the epidural rate as well?

3. Is there a birthing center? Labor/delivery floor? (the two are very different!)

4. How many natural births has your OB been present for?

5. What are the most common interventions given by that hospital/your OB?

6. Postpartum procedure: delayed cord cutting/immediate skin to skin/breastfeeding etc.

As I am in the process of my doula/birth education certification I am asking all you mamas out there to please tell me what infomation you were given at your birth, either with your OB or through a class. Did you take a class? Would you take a class? And what would you want to be covered if you were to go back in time. Feel free to comment below or message me on face book/ email! Thanks and lots of love to all you mamas out there!


 It is my passion to educate, empower, and strengthen women for the birth that they want- but in order for that to happen the mom must be informed! Join me on this journey of empowering women through education and tell me what your journey was/is.