About Me
The Short Version
I am 24 years old (born April 1983)
I am the oldest of seven children
I married Dave in May 2003
I am a mother to Kathryn (May 2005), Danielle (May 2006), expecting another girl in December 2007
I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (aka Mormon)
I'm currently living in Hillsboro, Oregon
I practice Attachment Parenting, Gentle Discipline, and I'm working on more natural living.
The Long Version
I was born in Santa Clara, CA. My parents moved to Hillsboro, Oregon when I was six. I left home to attend BYU after I graduated from Glencoe High in 2001. I met Dave while working on campus that fall. We started dating December 2001, were engaged in February 2002 and after a super-long engagement (by Mormon standards) we got married in the Portland, Oregon Temple in May 2003.
I found out I was pregnant in early January 2004... then miscarried in February at only 9 weeks. Losing that baby was really hard, but it gave me a chance to finish school before our first daughter was born in May 2005. I got my bachelors of science in Marriage, Family & Human Development and walked at graduation in April 2005... 8 months pregnant. :)
I chose to have a natural childbirth with HypnoBirthing. After a 13 hour labor, I succeded in my quest for a drug-free hospital birth at one of the worst hospitals in the nation for natural childbirth. (Utah Valley Regional Medical Center) I felt that breastfeeding went pretty well (after the initial 2-3 weeks), but Kathryn took a pacifier wonderfully, and didn't seem to be hungry more than every four hours. At her four month check-up she had only gained 2 ounces since her two month check-up and the doctor was pretty concerned. At that same visit we discovered that I was pregnant again, and the doctor explained to me that my milk supply could not keep up with a nursling and a growing fetus. After several weeks of failed attempts to get Kathryn to gain weight, and after many days of tears... I finally succumbed and weaned.
Six months later I had decided that when my milk came in after the second baby, I wanted to re-establish a nursing relationship with Kathryn. Unfortunately, I had no idea how to go about that. When I mentioned my desires to another mom at a playgroup, I was invited to my first La Leche League meeting. At that meeting, someone suggested reading Attachment Parenting by Katie Granju. That was the first time I realized that there were actually people who still slept with their babies, and responded to their cries, and carried their babies everywhere. I was completely enthralled with the messages in the book. I had always hated putting my daughter in her crib, I never wanted to put her down, and when she cried I always wanted to hold her. But now someone was telling me all those things were okay, normal, and good parenting.
That book opened my eyes to a new idea of motherhood. I began to trust myself, my children and my instincts much more. I trusted my body to deliver our second daughter, Danielle, using the HypnoBabies method (again, drug-free, in the same hospital) in May 2006. I trusted myself to sleep with her in the hospital even when the nurses told me it was dangerous. I trusted my daughter to let me know when she needed to nurse, and I responded. I trusted that I wasn't spoiling my children by holding them. And I trusted that my first daughter would be okay even though I hadn't nursed her as long as I had wanted to.
Kathryn never did resume nursing... she just prefered her bottle by then. She did take some expressed breastmilk in a bottle for a few weeks, but pumping became difficult while trying to keep up with a toddler and a newborn, and I gave up pumping after about 6 weeks.
I joined an AP playgroup and a homeschool group in Provo, UT, and made some wonderful friends. Thanks to them I made even more progress towards natural living. We now co-sleep, baby-wear (more recently toddler-wear), breastfeed (Danielle is still going strong at 14 months... even while I'm pregnant), don't vaccinate (though we had made that choice before Kathryn was born), won't circumsise if we are ever blessed with a boy, cloth diaper, practice gentle discipline, and would like to have a homebirth with our next baby.
Just a month ago, Dave finally finished classes at BYU. He will officially graduate with a bachelors of science in Computer Science in August. The day he took his last final exam, we loaded up a moving truck and started our long drive to Oregon. For the moment, we are living with my parents in Hillsboro. Dave has an internship with Intel that will last through the end of the year... then we'll have to see what comes up. Ideally, we would like to stay in Hillsboro, and really settle down here.
I am currently pregnant. Our third daughter is expected sometime during the second half of December. If we know we'll have a job in January, we will move into an apartment the beginning of December and have a homebirth. If we don't know, we'll stay with my parents and birth at a waterbirth center nearby.
If you're still here... thanks :) If you couldn't already tell... I like to talk/type... especially about my family and myself. For those who made it this far... here's a pic of me. This picture was taken 4 years ago... soon after my wedding. I chopped my hair off two years ago, but I don't have a good portrait of me since then.
This picture is my family during Christmas break last year. I'm on the far right holding Danielle. Dave (DH) is sitting next to me holding Kathryn. My parents are front and center and my brother-in-law Mike is sitting on the far left. The rest are my siblings. :)
Enjoy!!
Emily
I am 24 years old (born April 1983)
I am the oldest of seven children
I married Dave in May 2003
I am a mother to Kathryn (May 2005), Danielle (May 2006), expecting another girl in December 2007
I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (aka Mormon)
I'm currently living in Hillsboro, Oregon
I practice Attachment Parenting, Gentle Discipline, and I'm working on more natural living.
The Long Version
I was born in Santa Clara, CA. My parents moved to Hillsboro, Oregon when I was six. I left home to attend BYU after I graduated from Glencoe High in 2001. I met Dave while working on campus that fall. We started dating December 2001, were engaged in February 2002 and after a super-long engagement (by Mormon standards) we got married in the Portland, Oregon Temple in May 2003.
I found out I was pregnant in early January 2004... then miscarried in February at only 9 weeks. Losing that baby was really hard, but it gave me a chance to finish school before our first daughter was born in May 2005. I got my bachelors of science in Marriage, Family & Human Development and walked at graduation in April 2005... 8 months pregnant. :)
I chose to have a natural childbirth with HypnoBirthing. After a 13 hour labor, I succeded in my quest for a drug-free hospital birth at one of the worst hospitals in the nation for natural childbirth. (Utah Valley Regional Medical Center) I felt that breastfeeding went pretty well (after the initial 2-3 weeks), but Kathryn took a pacifier wonderfully, and didn't seem to be hungry more than every four hours. At her four month check-up she had only gained 2 ounces since her two month check-up and the doctor was pretty concerned. At that same visit we discovered that I was pregnant again, and the doctor explained to me that my milk supply could not keep up with a nursling and a growing fetus. After several weeks of failed attempts to get Kathryn to gain weight, and after many days of tears... I finally succumbed and weaned.
Six months later I had decided that when my milk came in after the second baby, I wanted to re-establish a nursing relationship with Kathryn. Unfortunately, I had no idea how to go about that. When I mentioned my desires to another mom at a playgroup, I was invited to my first La Leche League meeting. At that meeting, someone suggested reading Attachment Parenting by Katie Granju. That was the first time I realized that there were actually people who still slept with their babies, and responded to their cries, and carried their babies everywhere. I was completely enthralled with the messages in the book. I had always hated putting my daughter in her crib, I never wanted to put her down, and when she cried I always wanted to hold her. But now someone was telling me all those things were okay, normal, and good parenting.
That book opened my eyes to a new idea of motherhood. I began to trust myself, my children and my instincts much more. I trusted my body to deliver our second daughter, Danielle, using the HypnoBabies method (again, drug-free, in the same hospital) in May 2006. I trusted myself to sleep with her in the hospital even when the nurses told me it was dangerous. I trusted my daughter to let me know when she needed to nurse, and I responded. I trusted that I wasn't spoiling my children by holding them. And I trusted that my first daughter would be okay even though I hadn't nursed her as long as I had wanted to.
Kathryn never did resume nursing... she just prefered her bottle by then. She did take some expressed breastmilk in a bottle for a few weeks, but pumping became difficult while trying to keep up with a toddler and a newborn, and I gave up pumping after about 6 weeks.
I joined an AP playgroup and a homeschool group in Provo, UT, and made some wonderful friends. Thanks to them I made even more progress towards natural living. We now co-sleep, baby-wear (more recently toddler-wear), breastfeed (Danielle is still going strong at 14 months... even while I'm pregnant), don't vaccinate (though we had made that choice before Kathryn was born), won't circumsise if we are ever blessed with a boy, cloth diaper, practice gentle discipline, and would like to have a homebirth with our next baby.
Just a month ago, Dave finally finished classes at BYU. He will officially graduate with a bachelors of science in Computer Science in August. The day he took his last final exam, we loaded up a moving truck and started our long drive to Oregon. For the moment, we are living with my parents in Hillsboro. Dave has an internship with Intel that will last through the end of the year... then we'll have to see what comes up. Ideally, we would like to stay in Hillsboro, and really settle down here.
I am currently pregnant. Our third daughter is expected sometime during the second half of December. If we know we'll have a job in January, we will move into an apartment the beginning of December and have a homebirth. If we don't know, we'll stay with my parents and birth at a waterbirth center nearby.
If you're still here... thanks :) If you couldn't already tell... I like to talk/type... especially about my family and myself. For those who made it this far... here's a pic of me. This picture was taken 4 years ago... soon after my wedding. I chopped my hair off two years ago, but I don't have a good portrait of me since then.
This picture is my family during Christmas break last year. I'm on the far right holding Danielle. Dave (DH) is sitting next to me holding Kathryn. My parents are front and center and my brother-in-law Mike is sitting on the far left. The rest are my siblings. :)
Enjoy!!
Emily
Comments
Very nice blog. Keep us posted once you finish your website. :)
Jonathan.