Thursday, December 22, 2011

Perfect Christmas Madness

I wish that one year I will have Christmas all wrapped up. A craft ready each day for the children to do, Cards sent out, decorations up, presents made, brought, and wrapped, meals sorted, a clean house on top of all that and a partridge in a pear tree!

It seems like I fail at many of those things on my list, this year, and in fact most years. But I still live in hope that I will make the perfect Christmas happen. I wonder if anyone else suffers from that pressure, to have the perfect Christmas, buy the perfect present that .... is going to love, to make the perfect meal, to be the perfect host.

I must admit that I'm not perfect at anything.... so why is there still this idea in my head that I can be perfect at all those things. Instead I think I need to resolve myself to the fact that I am not perfect nor will I ever be (this side of heaven). So why not then create my own new ideas of Christmas. Let it be a fun time together doing things when we can, while we can. One day my children will be all grown up and I may not get to see them for Christmas. So stop worrying about making everything prefect and just enjoying being together while they are with me.

I Pray that you too have a blessed Christmas, and don't get pulled into this idea of the perfect Christmas and enjoy being together with your family, and friends, spending time, sharing a meal and playing together. Merry Christmas!

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

The Little things.



My how the little things can change the day or how you feel about it. Today was a busy day cleaning up after our adventures with the vomit bucket. While my husband did a great job of looking after everyone, he didn't manage to catch all the vomit. So with 5 people in the house vomiting you can imagine we had lots of washing of sick towels, bedding, vomit buckets, to do. So on the scale of things I like doing with my day, this is going to be full of things that are not my favorites.

Needless to say my emotions were a bit on the gloomy side. However after a short stint in the garden, a quick water, and look, I felt so optimistic again. Seeing the new life, new fruit growing that is going to soon be feeding my family and keeping us busy, preserving and processing, more work, but enjoyable work. I felt hope that is too will so pass. The washing will get finished, as long as we keep washing.

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

More Children!


Yes more children! I would love to have more children! I get asked a lot if we are done yet or will we keep going? My simple answer is Yes! My long answer is I'm loving this sooooo much, why would I want to stop. When I cuddle my baby, kiss him, feed him, spend time with him, I am so in love. Plus the more I have the better I'm getting at it. As I go along I learn more about myself and about loving, caring and bonding with my babies. The joy that they bring into my life is astounding! Yes there are times when you are sleep deprived and weary, we all have those hours, days, weeks, sometimes months, but the joy and delight they bring is so worth any of that.

There are longer answers to this question. However my simple answer is, why would I want to give this up, I'm just getting good at it. :)

Monday, December 19, 2011

One sick, all Sick

One of the more challenging things about having a bigger than normal family is when you are sick. If one get something, everyone gets it mostly. This weekend has been one of those weekends for us. We had Christmas early due to some of the family being in the country. So we had Christmas lunch at my husbands Grandmothers house, which is about an hours drive from our house. On the way home one of our daughters vomited. Now this was the same night as the carols by candle light that we like to attend. So we pulled Ervy the van over, and cleaned up some of the mess. Thinking that her vomiting may have been caused by the long drive home after eating too much food we decided to take her home and put her in the bath a long with her little brother who was asleep in the back. The other children were really excited about going to Carols so talked me into taking them along on my own. So we went, put our rug down near some friends and enjoyed sing and waving our candles. As the night progressed Elijah announced to me that he wasn't feeling very well. We had had a long full day and Carols where nearing the end, so I suggested that he lay down on the rug. He was happy to do that for a while. However his friends were there and enjoying the fun of dancing over near the corner of the stage. So he joined in.... Well then it began.... He started vomiting.... right there in front of everyone.... Oh gosh the embarrassment....But slightly funny at the same time. Another child had come up to him amd stood there watching him vomit..."Your vomiting!" Really? The minds of children can be so funny at times, vocalising the obvious.

So that was the end of Carols, I packed the rest of the children up and took them home. While it was the end of the carols it was not the end of the vomiting! I phoned my husband on the way home and told him to get the bath running for Elijah to get in, and explained the situation. Mean while he is wetting himself on the other end of the phone about it all. Not so sure he would have been laugh if the situation was reversed. So after getting home and cleaning everyone up, we prepared for the long night.

My Marvellous husband was the king of catching vomits. That night we have 5 of our 6 children vomiting, and I was as well. At one point Isaac and I were sharing a vomit bucket. And trying to get a 2 year old to vomit into a bucket is a feat in itself. He would start crying then do a small vomit, while you were cleaning that one up, he would walk off and start vomiting somewhere else.

If we didn't laugh we would have cried!

Thankfully the worst of it is over with, and now we are on recovery and clean up. I think we have a few clean towels in the house. But tomorrow hopefully we are feeling up to a good clean out.

Faith


Sophie (our first) pregnancy and birth was quiet a drama, and filled me with quiet a lot of fear about birth. A little while before we got married someone shared with me about some of the abortive effects that the pill can have, so before starting our married life we discussed it and talked about how we didn't want to abort any of our babies even unintentionally, so didn't want to go that route when it came to birth control. So we decided to leave it to God and let be what would be.

So 4 months after Sophie's birth we were expecting again. That news was both really exciting and scary at the same time. We know from the start that we wanted a big family, or at lest have the option for a large family, so have a c-section with the first baby wasn't really going with our plans, and I definitely didn't want to have a second one with this baby. Hence having Doctors tell us that we could only have one or two more children.

Again I had bad morning sickness, and a baby to look after. However because Sophie was still only 4-6 months during the worst of it, she was still in that stage of sleeping lots and I was able to sleep with her. We made to the second trimester and the sickness eased quiet a bit, and I was finally about to enjoy that stage of being pregnant and having a lovely baby that I adored. The pregnancy went fairly smoothly and at my first anti natal doctors appointment I talked with the doctor about what happened during the last labour and how I wanted to try and have a vaginal birth with this baby, and I was very blessed with a Doctor that didn't see any problem with that, in fact they gave me the option to choose to have another c-section but didn't see any reason why I shouldn't be allowed to try. As the pregnancy went on I again deleveloped Gestational Diabetes, and was able to treat that with diet and exercise again. We had our 20 weeks scan and were very pleased to see we were infact having a ....Baby... and it was a girl.

As the pregnancy went along, I had it in my mind that I was determined to have this baby naturally but was getting increasingly fearful that it would end the same way that Sophie's birth had. Those questions about whether I was even able to give birth?, can my body do this?, Do I even deserve to have the achievement of giving birth? So many questions and so many fears, and during all that time the option was still very open for me to choose to have a c-section.

So with Fear at the door knocking the only solution was Faith... Faith overcomes fear. I remember going to our home group at the time and sharing that I was really scared about what was to come... and the group prayed for me that I would feel peace about it all, and one of the group gave be a word from the Lord. He sang it to me..."Fear Not!, for I am with you, Fear Not! Fear Not! for I am with You, Fear Not! Says the Lord!" Those who have been christian for a while might know this song.

While the hospital was happy for me to try for a natural delivery of this baby they did have a heap of rules.

I was advised to come in as soon as labour started.
I needed to be monitored for the whole labour, that ment being on the bed with monitors attached. Which ment I wasn't allowed in the bath, which really helped with pain in the first labour.
I need to give birth within 12 hours of labour establishing.
If I hadn't gone into labour on my own by ten days over then it would be an automatic c-section.

So there were a few things to overcome, as well as my mental state of half believing that I wasn't worthy of being about to deliever naturally.

My due date was 2 days after Sophie's birthday. Not wanting to take any chances I planned Sophie's first birthday two weeks early. Ben was quiet sick that day, and spent a fair bit of it vomiting in the bushes. Besides that Sophie had a great first birthday party, with friends and family.


Well wouldn't you know, the next day I went into Labour. Ben was still recovering from the yesterdays vomiting adventures. This time it didn't start with contractions, my waters started to leak. At first I thought I was wetting myself, it was horrible I was crying because I couldn't control bladder, as time went on I realised that I wasn't peeing myself, I didn't even need to go to the toilet. So I told Ben, who of course freaked out, as men do sometimes. We dicided since contractions hadn't started that I would put a pad on and go out and have some dinner, as we might be in for a long night. While eating out, I could feel more Leaking happening, so I went to the toilet and checked, this time I had a show. We phoned Ben mother to make arrangements for Sophie to be looked after, and we rang someone to take us into the hospital.

When we arrived they were really busy. Our hospital has about 5 birthing rooms, that night 11 babies were born. Having started Labour with contractions with Sophie, waters leaking was definitly a much nicer way for labour to start this time round, as I was easied into it. Due to the hospital being so busy that night, the midwives quickly Checked me out and made sure I was in fact leaking fluid and by that time light contractions had established. After that the rush of birthing mothers started.
Due to the fact that I was only in the beginning stages of birthing and there were more pressing cases, the doctors didn't see us at that point. So I asked the midwives if I could hop in the bath (Knowing that I wasn't allowed too) being that no doctor had told them I couldn't the midwife cheekily let me in. It was great! releaved the pain and was so relaxing. Four hours later the Doctors discovered I was in the bath, and ordered the midwives to get me out. So Thankfully I go some the time in there. By the time I got out and monitors were on I had dilated to around 5 cms, which was amazing news for me, because I stopped dilating at 3 cms with Sophie for about 10 hours, to be 5 already was a great relief mentally for me. Once on the bed things got harder, I was given the gas to help me through, and an cannula was put in, just in case I went for another c-sections, which is what they totally expected. That night they were training staff, and had student midwives and doctors on, they hadn't bothered to ask me if they could attend my birth because they fully expected me to go up stairs for a c-section later that night. As it turns out everyone that had a student on them that night did end up having a c-section.

On an interesting side note, After reading Ina May Gaskins book, it made total sense to me, why I struggled so much to dilate in my first birth. I'm one of those people that hate going number 2 in public toilets, in case the person in the next stale can hear, or I'm taking too long. So why on earth would I be able to birth with people I don't know all looking at that area of my body in bright lights. In Sophie's birth the lights were never lowered and I went through 3 midwives, so Ben was the only there that was with me from start to finish.

Anyway back to the story...At around 11pm that night my midwife came in and asked me if I wanted an epidural as the doctor was going home for the night and that it would take a while before they would be able to get someone else to come and do it. After speaking to my midwife and her checking how far along I was, 7cm but she could stretch me another 1cm, she said no, you can do this, your nearly there. Having her beleieve in me was Amazing! and JUST what I needed.

I should also say that Ben was awesome during all this time, even though he was still sick from the day before, rubbing bits that hurt to help with pain releif and playing music, that he had prepared ahead of time. Praying and singing, and joking with me, communicating with the staff on my behalf, He really was my rock. The Lord was awesome during this time as well. All my fear was gone, and I could feel His presence with me. I also understood more of what He went through for us, when dying on the cross. There was only one way out and that was through it. But for an awesome cause, Us! and Her, my baby.

A couple of hours on and it was time to push.... it was at this time that I realised what I missed with Sophie's birth... the feelings of pushing... During her birth I had an epidural and while there was a sensation there I couldn't really feel all that well, and had no idea how hard I had to push. So it took some pushing to get baby out. I would push and she would move down, and as soon as I stop she would go back in... So after some practise at it, I finally got her down enough for Ben to see her head. When He said he could see her, that really helped me know I was getting somewhere and nearing the end, and it was On! I wasn't going to stop pushing til this baby was out.

As after pushing for about an hour our baby was born. She of course was gorgeous. I had a small rip that need stitching up. Before baby was born we had choosen a name for our baby, she was going to be call, Charlotte Victoria-Iris. While I was being stitched up by the doctor Ben was holding our baby girl and started Calling her Charlotte, as soon as he did I knew it wasn't right for our little girl. Her name was Faith... I had to have Faith to overcome my fears in birth, and God was very Faithful in helping bring her into the world.

Ben agreed and there she was Faith Charlotte. An adorable new member of our family. We both needed time to heal, and she spent some time in ICU being monitered for the any effects of the Gestation Diabetes and Jaundise. We got feeding up and running fairly quickly and got home from Hospital 7 days later on Sophie's actual Birthday. What a surprise for her, and an extra special birthday present.

(The Living Bible) What is faith? It is the confident assurance that something we want is going to happen. It is the certainty that what we hope for is waiting for us, even though we cannot see it up ahead

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Sophie


Sophie, Our very first blessing! She truly is! She has made my life amazing, given my life new meaning.

When we first found out that we were pregnant it was an amazing. We were standing there looking at the test and then at each other in disbelief, and bubbling excitement that there was a precious baby growing inside of me, and "Wow! my body can do this". The Excitement continued but the feeling of wellness didn't. I began feeling very sick, very quickly. I began vomiting pretty much everything I ate and drank. Funny thing is with your first pregnancy you really don't know what to expect or what is normal. So it wasn't until I was in hospital and about 10kgs lighter that I found out that vomiting as much as I was, wasn't normal! So I ended up with dehydrated and a kidney infection. By that time I was 20 weeks and we had had our scan and everything with baby was normal, and even though I wanted too, I wasn't able to find out the babies gender. So because of the kidney infection, the doctors ordered a Kidney scan, and the nurse knew that I would like to find out the babies gender so suggested that while I was there that I could ask the ultra Sounds performer to check for me. So what do you know, she said yes, and we found that we were expecting a lovely little "girl". I was so very excited! I think it really helped me knowing the gender, as I had been sooo sick for sooo long, and no one but Ben really knew what I was going through. I think everyone I mentioned it too thought I was building up my symptoms, saying they were more than they were. They didn't take me seriously. So while feeling really sick, I also felt really alone, I've never been really close to my family, and my husbands family were not very happy at all that we were expecting. So depression was a big thing, and Ben was really worried that he would come home and there would be no more me. I can't say I didn't think about it several times. But finding out that we were have a little girl, really personalised the pregnancy for me, all of a sudden She was a real baby and we had a name for her, and I could shop for pink things and have real dreams about what she might be like and look like and so on. I know this sounds silly for some people reading this. But I was in a very different place them than I am now, and had many challenges. So the Pregnancy continued and I was diagnosed with Gestational Diabetes, which was another emotional hurdle for me, but also caused some more challenges for the pregnancy. Finger prick testing 4 times a day, watching everything I ate and drank, and reporting to doctors almost weekly and all the time struggling to hold anything down. The vomit had settled some, but there was really a day that I didn't vomit, and my gag reflex had total gone silly, if I coughed or sneezed, even laughing too hard sent me running for the bathroom. Needless to say by the end of the pregnancy I was well and truly over it all!

Time to Deliver!
During the last few weeks I had a few false starts, the doctors had told me to go to the hospital as soon as labour started so I could be monitored. so went in thinking things had started only to find that they hadn't. Again first baby not really sure what to expect. So the night that is did start. I had gone to bed at around 9.30ish Sleep for a few hours and then got up about 12ish to go to them toilet. While on the toilet I started cramping, after experiencing a few cramps I woke Ben, to tell him that I think this is it. Now my husband doesn't drive, so to get to the hospital we need someone else to take us. SO we got dressed, Ben filled up my hot water bottle which had a teddy bear outer cover, so Ben was able to hold it's arms while rubbing my back with it. After about an hour I was sure that this was it and it wasn't going to stop, I said to him that we need to call Rob, a friend that lived down the street that had offered to take us in when the time came. Well little did we know that Rob was deaf in one ear, and that night was sleeping on the other. Ben rang about twenty times and got no answer. Oh Gosh! what are we going to do! We hadn't lined up anyone else to pick us up. Anyway we finally called Ben's Aunt who had worked as a midwife and in the special care nursery at the hospital. She happy came and got us and took us in at 1.30am poor lady.

When we got in I was checked out and discovered to be 1 cm. Oh my gosh only 1! I think this is going to be a every long and painful night!. So the Midwife suggested that I have a bath to help with the pain and also gave me panadol and sleeping tablets, while in the bath! She instructed Ben to make sure I didn't drown. I found the bath to be amazing and helped me soooo much with pain. During the next couple of hours while I was in the bath, I was chatting away to the midwife in between contractions, we discovered that she had been working at the hospital that I was born at and she remembered my mother. Because my own birth was one to remember. I was an 11 pound baby, and got stuck coming out the birth canal, so the staff had to push me back in and hold me there while rushing us to theatre to preform an emergency C-section, at the same time my mother couldn't help but push and tore the uterus from the wall lining and I was drowning in blood. SO they got me out and thankfully here I am today. Needless to say that the story of my own birth made me a little more than anxious about my own delivery.

Any how, after several hours of labouring in the bath, it wasn't having the same effect as it had before and the midwife suggested getting out and checking how far along I was and maybe trying the gas and Air. So I agreed with that. After being checked it was discovered that is now 3 cm along. So I gave the gas and air a go, and it helped for a good time. By the time 8am can, new doctors and midwives had come on duty and I was checked again, I was still only 3 cms. What! By this time I had been labouring for about 8 hours. So the doctors recommended that I have an epidural done. After being awake all night and feeding exhausted I was very ready to say yes! So that was done. Finally some relief, and off to sleep. I think I sleep for a little while. The epidural worked for a little while, and then stopped working on my left hand side. So wasn't completely in the right spot.

Around 5pm in the afternoon I was checked again and finally I had dilated to 7cms, Yay! I was getting somewhere! And But 9pm I was fully dilated and told it's time to push. I was feeling very much like I needed to poop! The midwife told me to go with that feeling and the pushing began. However because of the epidural I couldn't actually feel my bottom half that well, and was struggling with getting my mind around the whole pushing thing. So after about 30 mins of trying to push, the doctor where monitoring my babies heart beat and she wasn't coping very well with this. It was decided that in the best interest of the baby it was time to get this baby out. First they would try the ventouse and if that didn't work they would go ahead and preform an emergancy c-section. Ben and I agreed. So we were rushed up to theatre on the way we discussed how the epidural was not working fulling and that when we got there they would pull it out and put in a spinal block. However when we got there they decided to try filling up the epidural, which worked at that point, so they decided to go with that. The Ventouse was positioned on our babies head and the doctor began to pull and I was instructed to push. But she wasn't moving. SO at 11.30 pm the 30th of November a c-section was performed. However half way through the procedure that epidural stopped working on my left side again, and I started to feel this incredible burning sensation. Oh my gosh, that is them cutting me!

I began to scream with the pain. The Anesthetist that I had was Asian, and I really struggled to understand clearly what he was saying to me because of his thick accent. He placed a gas mask over my face, and they also filling the epidural again. Mean while I thought he was saying to me that I needed to stay awake and not go to sleep, But the gas that he was giving me was making me go to sleep, so I was crying looking at my husband thinking...."this is it, I'm not going to make it! Please look after my baby" Ben also thought that was I was going to die. Thankfully after a short time another nurse came to help him and she was able to explain that it was ok for me to fall asleep. Relief that calmed me so much. Sophie was Delivered and I was closed up. While in the womb she had become very stressed, as was her mother, and she swallowed meconium and also breathed some in. So she was suctioned and taken to neonatal intensive care. I was given pain killers and taken to a private room to recover.

The recovering was not fun at all. Anyone that has had a c-section will know what I'm talking about when I say that. As every movement you make hurts. However all the pregnancy symptoms I had were gone. Ben was quiet shocked when he came to visit, as the depression, vomiting and lethargy(apart from the pain killing drug kind)were all gone. He thought they had done something to me, He didn't understand how good it felt not being sick.

Sophie was being looked after by the NICU, and I didn't actually get to see her at all until about 24 hours later. Ben was able to walk up and see her anytime he wanted but I was stuck in a bed and couldn't go up there. The nurse had said to me that they would take a photo of her for me, but the ward was very busy and it wasn't until about ten hours after her birth that I got to see her for the first time via a photo. Finally I was well enough to be able to get into a wheel chair and be driven up to see her. SO gosh the feeling were difficult. She was connected to lots of different things, iv antibiotics and as well as other monitors. She wasn't well enough at that point to feed, so they helped me express and syringe that into her mouth. Thank fully she was able to come off most of those things very quickly. It was 3 days after her birth that I got to hold her and try her at the breast, she and I finally got the hang of it and her feeding tube was removed and at 8 days old we were able to go home. Now 7 nearly 8 years on she is a Happy healthy girl. That had brightened my life and I think all those that she meets! I'm so proud of my lovely little blessings, and look forward to seeing what the Lord will do in her life.

Birth Stories

If you are like me, you would quite enjoying reading birth stories, and I have read many of other peoples births stories over the years. However I haven't ever gotten round to writing down my own journeys of delivering my lovely Blessings into this world and the experience of going through that 6 times now. So I have decided that it's to to write them down, Not only for myself but also for my children and a bit of record about how they made it earth side. Hope you enjoy reading them, and will take one at a time.

Thursday, September 22, 2011

My Testimony to Christ

Hi, I've been a christian since I was 20, so 11 years now. I was not born into a Christian Home, but my parent did attend the salvation Army church most Sundays, Until my one of my older brothers pasted away when I was 6, and they blamed God, so my father refused to go to church from then on, and shortly after we moved State. So we were the family that only really went to church for Christening's that weddings, that sort of thing. But I was always drawn to what the pastor or preacher had to say, I loved it so much I would often go and sit in the very front seat. I had several times when I began to explore Christianity but the timing was not right. It wasn't until I was at University Study performing arts that the timing was right. I was in second year of my studies when a friend and I decided to have a day trip back home, which was a bit over a 2 hour drive each way. So we visited her family and then my family, and then she asked if we could go to church on the way back home. I had no problem with that, I was still intrigued by God and Church. SO we went and God so clearly spoke to me during that the time there, I was in love. So I would drive back to that church every couple of weeks and attend the service. It hadn't even crossed my mind that there might be a church close by that I could attend every week, at that point. So finally after many months I did finally attend a church in my area. However there wasn't really anyone to join me on that journey. The friend that introduced me to church was on rocky road in regards to her relationship with Christ, and really struggled with me loving Him. So not having anyone to be my spiritual parents and guide me in the way to go, I was a sitting duck for the Enemy and was easily lead astray. So interestingly enough the person that lead me to Christ was also the person that lead me to drugs. And after some short time of trying to live in both worlds, I soon stopped going to church. But God being God that was not the end of the story... I remember very clearly sitting in my car driving along this country road, thinking to myself, "I've got it sorted, I'll just live my life the way that I want to, smoking, drinking and so on... and then just before I die I will say, God forgive me for all my sins and I will shoot on in to heaven" Well just at that very moment the back of my car came out from under me, and I was given a choice, to fall down the cliff, or turn the wheel hard and run into the hill. It never even entered my mind to say "Lord, forgive my sins" at that point in time. While my car rolled three times and was a mess, written off, I only had minor injuries. I could have died, and it's a wonder I was able to get out of the car. I knew from that point on there was no messing around with God. He was in control and had protected me from serious harm, and I am eternally grateful for the lesson He taught me that day. Because of Him, I went on to start a Christian Theatre company, directing plays, which lead me to meeting my husband of now 9 years and we currently have 6 lovely little blessings to raise in the ways of the Lord.
Praise God, I'm so over joyed that He Loves Me!

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Tantrums


I wouldn't be one of those parents that you would probably call a peaceful parent. I don't think peace at all costs is worth it. Instead I like the peace of knowing that when I take all my children to the supermarket on shopping day, that they are most like not going to throw a tantrum, swear, touch things they shouldn't, etc. We are loving parents who love our children dearly and in that want them to have the advantages of know how to behaviour if different social situations. I recently answer a comment of a page about how to deal with Tantrums. Which got me thinking, it's not something we deal with much because we have tried to teach the children how we expect them to behave in different situations, like the supermarket. Now we still deal with the attitude problems of being asked to do something and them not wanting to do it~ something we are currently combating, and I should say that none of my children have what would be called "behavioural issues" or "medical issues". SO I'm not asking something of them that they can't do. But here is my response to dealing with Tantrums.

I think it depends on the reason for the behaviour, if it is happening because there is a communication problem, ie they can't explain what they want, or your not understanding, that is very different that one because you have said no to something. The first we do is re communicate what they are saying, You are asking for a ...., no we are about to have lunch, so we are not having that." SO that they know I have heard them, understand what they are asking, and communicate why we are or are not doing that. If they are asking for something ie chocolate while we are out at the shop, and I have said no, then they where to throw themselves on the floor screaming or what ever (rarely happens for us) I would simple pick them up, put the in the trolley, and say when you have settled down we will talk about, but the rule for us is that is behaviour is never rewarded with what the child wants. For us the biggest thing is "Training" in that I mean if you want your children to behave a certain way in a certain situation, when practise before hand, play shops, play doctors waiting room, play whatever it is, waiting until your in the situation is a bit late. We normally will practise it at home, talk through what we are going to do and what is expected of them in the car, then go a head and do it. I also distract the children with singing often. Yes I'm the crazy lady with the 5 children walking through the super market sing, "row, row, row the boat" We try and do things like shopping in the morning after everyone is feed and fresh, make the trip as much fun as we can, but their are times when you can't, you have to just deal with what happens, but I have found the more you spend time doing things like practice the less likely you are to get behaviours you don't want.

We don't believe that you should punish a child for doing something that you have failed to teach them about, ie the first time the draw on the wall. Well no Mummy hasn't told you that we don't draw on walls, So then that would be a training opportunity, and explain why we don't, making sure they know that is not something we want them doing. However if they do it again, we then will discipline the child. Depending on the behaviour, depends of the disciple used.

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Teachable Opportunities!




Look for teachable opportunities, you never know how you may help someone else

I remember a time when I only had two children, and was having a play date at the park with a close friend, while we where chatting one of her friends came to say hi, and mentioned she was pregnant. So I asks a few questions to be included in the conversation, like, when are you due?, how are you feeling?, and are you going to find out the sex?. the other questions where fine, but the last one changed the conversation. She said "oh no we don't do ultra sounds!" I was really surprised as at that point I had never met anyone who had a problem with U/S. But instead of seeing this an opportunity to share with me about why they choose not to, she went on whole different manner of "I'm a better Mother than you, because of the choices I make".

Only now after having 5 children, with number 6 on the way, have I really developed my beliefs about birth and pregnancy and can stand on them. However I do wonder how much soon that journey would/could have progressed had that Lady seen it as a teachable opportunity.