Sweet little baby hats.

So I've been crocheting up a storm of baby hats and little flowers lately. I gave the green one above to a sweet babe born this week. I've made them in all little sizes down to preemie size. I'm planning to send them to this organization.....Rosi's Cozies.

I am a Midwife

I've got the Braid.......

 .....and the Skirt.

I also have the equipment.

I have worked, studied and sat for a national exam and have been accredited with the Certified Professional Midwife credential, issued by NARM, the North American Registry for Midwives. NARM is accredited by the National Commission for Certifying Agencies. This agency, NCAA, is the exact same agency that accredits many healthcare credentials, including the Certified Nurse-Midwife.

*I've assisted over 750 families to have their babies at home....

....and can practice legally in Wisconsin.....

....which is 34 miles...less then 50 mins..... from my home.

Unfortunatly, this is what Illinois does to my most valuable equipment.

For more information on how we can untie the hands of Illinois CPM's please see the following links:

 

Illinois Midwives Medicaid Proposal (this has been rejected by the Illinois government)

 

The Big Push for Midwives.

 

Coalition for Illinois Midwifery
 

CPM Licensing Trends 2012

Midwifery Licensure and Discipline

Program in Washington State:

Economic Costs and Benefits

*All home births that have been attended by me have been as assisitant to a MD or CNM.

Beautiful!

Mother Blessing and Henna painting.

Yesterday my friend, Trish, invited me to a Mother Blessing Ceremony to paint/henna mama bellies. I only did one belly...... others wanted their arms or hands painted. Here are a few pics:) Oh, and my friend, Barb, taught everyone to do some belly dancing.

Fun Times!!

Home Sweet Home Birth

Fresh from God....

I will never be able to thank God enough for my work. He has blessed me so overwhelmingly and I am grateful.

Another Happy Ending..... and Begining:)

Strong, powerful mama and baby surrounded by the birth team: Christina, Jessica and me. What an awesome triumph for this new mother.

Welcome Kara Joy!!!

My very good friend, Kristen, has delivered her 6th baby! As usual, she did it in less then 2 hours. She gets started and there's no stopping that locomotive! Over the last several months I've had the honor of renewing my friendship with Kristen during prenatal visits. It has been wonderful! I would usually visit her around 11a and would end up staying for lunch and a crochet lesson (my newest crafty passion...thanks, Kristen!)...oh and eventually we'd get around to the prenatal visit;)

11 years ago, I was blessed to attend Kristen with her first baby, Hope. Since then, Heather was born, Grace was adopted, Courtney arrived, Caleb (the prince;) made his appearance, and then sweet Kelsey. Here are all of the them in a photo from Christmas.

Kristen wasn't officially due until February 7th, so when she called me at 915p, the evening of the 26th, I (of course) was fast asleep. At first I was a bit confused about why she might be calling (she usually delivers late), but then I snapped awake, threw on my scrubs and was out the door in less then 6 minutes!! No stopping for coffee or gas for that matter, I raced down to her house which is about 60 minutes from me (I got there in 45;) Knowing I didn't have a lot of time, I got Christina on the way as well. We walked into the house and less then 10 minutes later at exactly 1015p, baby Kara Joy was born! Kristen did a wonderful job! I'm so proud of her. Most people will say how lucky she is to have her babes so fast, but when they come so fast like that, it is quite overwhelming...its very hard to get a grip. Kristen handled the labor beautifully.

Here she is!!!

Shortly after Kara Joy was born, she started sucking her thumb. Adorable!!!!

Here she is being weighed. She's just a peanut! She weighed in at 5lbs 14 oz.

What a wonderful birth my friend had. I'm so happy for her and her husband,Jim (who is still trying to wrap his brain around being the father of 7 children!!!)

One more thing I want to add. Kristen came back into my life at the perfect time. I had been struggling mightly with some personal issues and altho I was taking these issues to the Lord, He knew I needed someone else to help me with my walk. That person was Kristen. Over the last few months we have emailed back and forth several times a week. She would point out some things I needed to look at in the bible and she also gave me huge encouragement to take everthing to God.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Kristen! You amaze me in so many ways.

Here are some words that Kristen honored me with:

I love little Kara Joy so much!  She will always remind me that the Lord brought joy into my life through a special friend Karen.  Thank you for jumping into a friendship with me and for your endless kindness (like all the home prenatal visits), patience (reading all my e-mails and listening to all my thoughts and feelings), understanding (even sharing your own struggles), encouragement (through your own comforting words and the Bible), and hope (life is better with a friend like you to talk to)  you've given me over these months.  You know what I just realized...this is one reason the Lord gave me another girl.  Everyone around me is having a boy...but I needed this baby girl...and to name her this name from the Lord (Pure Joy from the Lord) to remember all HE has done for me.  Thank you for letting HIM use you in my life...and I pray for a continued friendship.

Oh Kristen!!! I too pray for our continued friendship!! You have made me one blessed, honored and happy midwife. Thank you!!

Babies on Bellies.

I had some fun with some pregnant mama bellies this past week. Big thanks to the 2 ladies that let me practice on them:)
I used non-toxic markers for these 2 mamas but have since picked up some henna.

The 3 year old wanted a baby on her belly too, so daddy drew that one on:)

 This was my second attempt....not to bad!

I'd like to give away the next 3 belly drawings to whoever asks for them:)

Purple Baby Scale

For Sale: gender-neutral baby weighing scale.

$12.00 + 3.00 shipping =$15.00

Soup and my friend Stephanie and bread.

This is my new friend and co-worker, Stephanie. She has joined Christina's practice, Genesis Family Midwifery, as a midwife and we'll be catching babies and teaching child birth classes together. Here she is at a birth we were at yesterday weighing the baby using the new scale I made for her.

Stephanie and her husband recently moved to Elgin. They're about a mile from me, so Steph and I have been driving to births together when we can. We've also been getting together to craft, plan our classes and lunch together. On Tuesday, she had made some butternut squash soup which was so yummy! I was quite inspired, so today I made some acorn/butternut squash soup myself.

I topped it with a bit of greek yogurt. WOW! It is so good! I have a loaf of bread baking right now and when its done, I shall have myself another bowl with some homemade bread.

hhhhmmm....I'm quite the homemaker today:)

Here's the recipe for the soup which I kinda made up as I went along:)

Cut one acorn squash and one butternut squash in half. Sprinkle with Pumpkin Pie spice(which is just a mixture of cinnamon,ginger and nutmeg). Bake face down on a tray for about 40 mins at 375. Bake til soft. When cool, scoop out squash and blend in blender or food processor with:

1/8 c brown sugar

1 c plain yogurt or sour cream (I used 1/2 c of both)

4c chicken broth

Heat and serve.

So good....and good for you! and pretty!

Thanks for the inspiration, Steph:) Looking forward to a long and wonderful friendship with you!

(1 hour later)

The bread is ready! The house smell magnificent!

Baby Weighing Scale

For Sale:

Baby weighing scale for midwives.

 $12.00 + $3.00 shipping= $15.00.

What a bargain!

Measures approximately 23in X 40in.
Can be made in any color or print. Just ask!

Check out my new friend Emily's blog. She just wrote a wonderful piece on these baby scales! Thanks, Emily!!

 

Another happy ending.....:)

Genisis Family Midwifery.

....another happy ending :)

Me and my boss ;)

My CPM (midwifery) application

I know ya'll have been wondering what I've been up to the last week or so seeing as I have no sewing machine......well, here it is.  I've been working on my CPM application almost non-stop for the last 5 days. This morning as I was shuffling thru the stack I realized I need a better method of organizing the papers so I could see what needed to be done. I am very easily distracted...as we all know ;) I would start looking for one paper and end up working on something else so it seemed each part of the application would only get partially done. I would then go back to it and have to spend a few minutes figuring out what was needed. You get the idea, right? So, in order to see everything, I lined in all up on the stairs....Brilliant! Each stack has its own category. After doing this, I felt like I could see the light at the end of the tunnel.....and as my mom likes to say, it isn't an oncoming train;) Tuesday I was ready to throw in the towel and say forget it...its too much work. But I didn't.... I'm carrying on. I know I'll be so glad when I have my CPM in my back pocket. Here's a pic to give you an idea of how much paper I have been filling out. Have a great day! I plan to.....meeting my friend Jennifer for lunch at the Patio....YAY!!!!

....it actually was perfect timing for my machine to go on the fritz otherwise I would have put this off even longer and it needs to be in the mail by March 1.

Beautiful

How awesome is this pic!? This is Michelle, one of our clients at Genesis Family Midwifery.

 Baby Isabelle in and then Baby Isabelle out!

Photos were taken by the amazing Maggie Cuprisin. Maggie, you rock! And Michelle and Isabelle.....georgeous!