super natural home winner

lunablue, you are the winner of the book "super natural home" by beth greer. :) congrats! please email me at whitneycanales@gmail.com as soon as you can.

choices in homebirth, from birthing balls to playlists

river's homebirth was a beautiful event, and i really couldn't have asked for a better birth experience. however, even though he came two days after his due date, i was expecting him to wait longer, so we were a bit unprepared. there are a few little things i would have done differently. not big things, but just little things i will keep in mind for next time.

have a playlist ready
there was a certain songs i wanted played during river's birth, but moaning dave.. barnes... the.. the one...about ... crossing the river... isn't so easy when you're between contractions and can't really form coherent sentences and are exhausted and can barely lift your head and just want to sleep. forever. having a couple playlists prepared ahead of time is a great idea. too bad i didn't do it. next go round, i plan on having at least two: a calm, soothing playlist, and an energetic, soulful playlist. you never know what you're going to want in the midst of labor!

stock the fridge and pantry
it's a fact: having a baby is one of the hardest things a person will do, and laboring women need food and drink for energy and hydration. with homebirth, you have that option. you can eat when you are in early labor, you can eat when you're pushing, and any time in between. this is one thing about homebirth that i love! however, we barely had a thing in the fridge when my first contraction hit. since my labor was very fast, i slipped into labor land pretty quick and had a hard time telling my friend samantha what we still needed. i can't remember what foods i suggested she pick up, but my friend grace brought strawberries (among other things) and i don't recall a time when strawberries were more delicious. they were just what i needed. because my labor was so quick the first time, the next time may be even quicker (which freaks me out. just a little.) i definitely need to have a variety of different foods already stocked in the fridge, and you better believe fresh strawberries will be one of them.

let in the light
the entire time i birthed, the curtains were drawn. we had a big window in the living room, but it was facing the balcony of another apartment and i wasn't too keen on letting our neighbors have a full view of the birth. i love natural light, and i think having sunlight spilling into the room would have been nice if the set-up of the house had been different. just something i want to keep in mind for next time. but i don't know. because like i said, you never know until you're there. i thought i would love laboring in the shower, but when i tried it, i hated it!

a birthing ball
having gone through labor now, i can see how helpful a birthing ball might have been. many laboring women like to rock back and forth with their contractions to loosen up their muscles, which i did on my knees for three hours. my knees were literally red for days! a birthing ball may have helped with the rocking motion and given me more of a flowing feeling.

comfy clothes
i knew that i wanted to wear a sports bra during my labor for the sake of modest shareable photos, but i didn't think any further than that. once my water broke, my trusty yoga pants were soaked with amniotic fluid and i knew my size small sophee shorts no longer fit my size large pregnant ass. i didn't want to walk around in the buff, nor did i want to slip into a pair of jeans to labor in (what am i talking about? there's no slipping into anything when you're pregnant). i ended up wearing a huge t-shirt and some panties. what i wish i'd had was a tank top and a pair of shorts. [making a mental note]

you never know how you're going to birth until you're there. some women want soft light and candles and hot steamy showers. but for me, the smell of a scented candle made me want to puke and i didn't even make it inside the shower because the steam made me feel like i was suffocating. however, here are a few wonderful things i wouldn't have changed about the birth...

the birthing tub
i don't know how i would have pushed without being submerged in the warm water. it helped so much with the pain of the contractions, and i assume it helped with the burning sensation as the baby was crowning. i (almost) want to experience a land birth next time, just to compare the two, but the water was so comforting i don't even know if i want to risk it! having a waterbirth also meant a very easy clean up.

video taping
when i was pregnant, i wasn't really sure if i wanted to video tape the birth. i mean, hello, this kid is coming out my wazoo and i don't even know if i wanted to see it. sure, i loved watching other people's homebirth videos. i didn't think it was creepy, but maybe i didn't want the whole thing on camera. we charged the video camera anyway, and samantha ended up taping the birth. i think we have over an hour of footage, including the labor and after, when river was being weighed and as we were all just hanging out and enjoying some fresh baby. i am so glad we have video, because when i watched the video a few days after his birth, i cried more than the moment he was born into my arms! to this day, even though i've seen the video dozens of times, i still tear up and kiss his little curly 18-month-old head. not only do we have the video for ourselves, but it has been viewed over 200,000 times on youtube, and i am so proud to be able to share it and spread the word about drug-free birth at home. i am so grateful that very moment was caught on film.

straws
straws, you say? yes, straws. actually, it's a part of my midwife's birthing supplies list! and they most certainly came in handy. when you're deep into labor, you don't really have much strength for anything. not even holding a cup up to your mouth. someone else holding a cup up to your lips would be awkward and messy. so straws are the answer. someone else can hold the cup, and juice won't dribble all over your bump.

support
when planning my homebirth, i knew i wanted john and my midwife present (obviously). i reallyreally wanted my mom to be there, and my little sister as well (she wants to be an obstetrician), but it didn't turn out so, because they live in pittsburgh. so instead, i decided to have a friend present to have another female figure in the room, and i asked my friend samantha to be there because she had witnessed many homebirths before and was planning to have one of her own in a few months. i knew during my pregnancy that there would be an assistant midwife, and i wondered if i would feel comfortable laboring in front of someone i didn't know. john's mom asked to attend the birth, but i tried as kindly as i could to say no.

well, turns out the A/C guy could have stuck around and i could have cared less. though it hadn't been planned, along with sam, grace and their aunt beate attended the birth as well, and i don't know what i would have done without them. beate was amazing emotional support and she helped me stay calm and trust the process of labor, in the middle of the pain and the unknown. at one point, even two of grace and sam's cousins were in the room, and i hardly noticed. i just continued my labor as i had been (lost of really loud moaning and some crying, too), and later on i was surprised that other people being at the birth hadn't made me embarrassed or any more nervous. in fact, i loved having the whole "birth team" there by my side as my son was born, because it was such a joyous time and it was amazing to share it with everyone in the room! next time, it would be fine with me if more people were to witness the birth, including john's mom. and i would still love for my mom and my little sister to attend... maybe all three of my sisters, if they wished... ;)

photo by beate buescher

what choices did you make, or plan on making, for your birth? would you change anything the next time (if there is going to be a next time :)?

*closed* 3 easy ways to go green & a giveaway!

with the awareness of the impact our every day choices have on the planet and our future generations comes the overwhelming path to "going green" -- especially if you've been bombarded by all the seemingly unpreventable ways we've been putting toxins into our bodies. the best way to go about this lifestyle change is to make small steps to living a more sustaible, toxin-free life. 

3 easy ways to start go green

1. choose reusable 

every time we throw something away -- whether it be a diaper or an egg carton or the packaging from a new toy -- we are able to forget about it and never think about it again. but the truth is that it will be sitting in a landfill for hundreds of years. even things we consider to be biodegradable will sit in a landfill for years, without oxygen and water to help the process along. and when non-biodegradable items do finally break down, the chemicals will still linger in our air and waterways. besides the fact that people all around the world are creating billions of pounds of trash every year and we have no idea what we're going to do with it all (huh, that's a bummer), we also have to keep in mind the oil and energy and non-renuable sources used to create the product in the first place. while the average american family in the real world isn't going to always have the means of living the most environmentally friendly life, one of the easiest things you can possibly do is choose reusable over disposable. my big reusable item is, of course, cloth diapers. i have become so used to using cloth diapers that i feel twinges of guilt whenever i toss a disposable diaper in the trash. if we used disposables on an everyday basis, i would feel like i were using plastic cups, plates, and utensils every day. but i'm not just talking about cloth diapers, i'm talking replacing paper towels, tissues, napkins, sponges, disposable dusting cloths, coffee cups, and plastic bags with reusable alternatives. microfiber cloths are great for dusting. for cleaning and doing the dishes, i use terrycloth rags, a different color for each job (so i'm not mixing my bathroom rags with my kitchen rags). and if you're already cloth diapering, using cloth wipes is an easy switch. 

2. go green by bringing plants indoors

gone are the days of pretty solid wood furniture, unless you want to pay a steep price. most everything these days in made out of particle board, which is totally disappointing, not to mention kind of gross. particle board contains formaldehyde, a natural substance that is used in the manufacturing process, but can have negative long-term effects. you know that new furniture smell? that's not a good smell. shortly after river was born john and i purchased a cute ikea coffee table, but we could smell the particle board literally for months afterward -- i'd say probably six months later we could still smell it every time we came into the apartment. what's crazy is most furniture takes five to ten years to completely outgas, long after we can smell it. and again, not every average american family living in reality land can afford an ultra-expensive air purifier, which would be your best way of dealing with outgassing. luckily, there is a much cheaper, prettier option -- plants. we all know plants absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen. but they also absorb all sorts of nasty chemicals that can be in the air, such as formaldehyde. plants are natural air purifiers. good news, huh?

3. buy second hand

think again back to our disturbing landfill issues -- everything we use will most likely end up in some landfill, some where, or be added to that giant plastic island in the ocean. i read once that if everyone on earth lived like the average american lives, we would need 6.6 earths to sustain us. so i took this cheesy quiz, thinking i was totally going to rock and it would tell me that if every one lived like me we would only need one earth, but instead it told me we'd need four. damn. this quiz really convicted me of something. who am i to use more than what's mine? who am i to live so lavishly (and yes, i would say that if we'd need four worlds to sustain whitneykingdom, that's pretty lavish) that i am using that much of the earth's natural resources? it redefined carbon footprint for me, and it even struck me on a spiritual level -- god has given us this beautiful earth to take care of and we are abusing its resources, taking more than what is "ours." like good old ghandi said, "there is enough to everyone's need, but not everyone's greed." isn't that the truth. but we don't have to live like this. if i wanted to, i could change my consumer habits to only buy used items (outside of food, of course),  items that one person has already used. items that will just end up in the landfill someday, so why not get the most out of them, instead of buying a completely new item that will join it in the landfill someday? and it really wouldn't kill me. if anything, i'd get into the habit and then set a good pace for my children, and then maybe my children's children. it's a very american point of view to think we deserve this and that. but the reality is that we have so much stuff. too much stuff.

one of the best books i've read about sustainable, natural living is super natural home by beth greer. i lurve it so much, i'm going to give someone a brand-new copy of it. :D greer packs this easy-to-read book full of eye-opening facts and helpful tips. there's information about practically everything, from what food ingredients to avoid, to what flooring is the greenest choice, to the (un)regulation of our cosmetics. i thoroughly enjoyed this book and thought it to be a gem for those interested in living an earth-friendly, healthier life. it is one of my favorite books on green living so far! for this giveaway, you have five ways to enter, but the last option can give you many entries, if you choose.

1. being a follower of leaves of my tree gets you one entry. (and yes, it counts if you're already a follower -- thanks!)


2. "liking" our facebook page gets you another entry. big changes to our company are coming, so stay tuned!


3. sharing this giveaway on your blog gets you two entries. leave a link, please!


4. becoming a follower of our twitter gets you one entry. please leave your twitter name.


5. for every social media site on which you share this giveaway, you get one entry. the possibilities are endless -- message boards, facebook, twitter. one entry per share!


remember, leave a separate comment for each entry, so it will count! this giveaway is open to US residents. please leave your email address in the comments if you wish to be contacted that way. the giveaway will close thursday, february 10th, whenever i get the chance to write *closed* in the title. as long as you see it open, you still have the chance to enter. good luck!


neither beth greer nor rodale books are affiliated with or sponsors of leaves of my tree.