I was able to be present at the most perfect delivery of my baby neice today.  My sister in law waited until she was 5 cm dialated before going to the hospital at 9:30 AM, they gave her an epidural at 6 cm and it was perfect, no pain at all, it was so good she needed pitocin to augment the labor but still no pain.  We laughed, told stories, and had a fantastically stress free experience.  The baby was delivered at 2:50 PM and there was still no pain, no ripping, and she delivered her face up. Both mom and baby were completely healthy, the baby was 3 weeks early and only 5 lb 4 oz. When the nurse asked my sister in law what the level of her pain was she replied she had no pain at all.

The parts that I find interesting about births are that everyone wants to be there to share in the excitement and see your baby right when it was born. The problem with that is that babies come out long before afterbirth.  When your parents want to walk into the room you have a baby in your arms but your crotch exposed to the world as they wait for the afterbirth to be delivered.  I remember with my sisters birth, everyone wanted to rush into the room when the baby came and that was the point when she was completely exposed in stirups as the Dr. sewed her up and delivered her afterbirth and cleaned her up.   So the parts of you that you wanted to keep private from your friends and family have now been shown in full bloody view.

Now even after your sewn up and cleaned up now you have the flocks of people waiting to see the baby and if you want to nurse the first thing the baby wants to do is nurse.  So you have to try to do something completely new and uncomfortable to you and people are pressuring you to let them come into the room.  Now the time when you need to be completely relaxed and bond with your baby you are not comfortable exposing your friends and family to your breasts, and the way the Nurses always disrobe you completely to have the baby up against your skin you are totally out in the open with no way to cover yourself up.

Maybe other people do not have an issue with this and think that this is a normal part of life to expose the parts of you that have never been exposed except in the most intimate of circumstances to your whole family and friends.  I think hospitals need to come up with a plan to make it so that new mothers have some privacy bonding time with their new children before visitors are allowed to enter, maybe 2 hours after giving birth. I know I requested it from my family after the birth of my daughter and I do not feel guilty about that decision at all, by the time my son was born I knew how to ask my friends and family to step outside without guilt but that was not something that came easy for my first.   Good luck with your birth experience. I hope you have a perfect delivery like my sister in law but maybe come up with a plan for after you give birth so you can bond with your baby and not completely expose yourself to your friends and family.

I was sitting at the Minnesota Zoo feeding my kids a snack in a crowded area, glancing around the crowd when I noticed a 4 year old girl fall into the water touch pool.  It is a pool about 3 feet deep that has low sides so children and adults can lean over the edge and touch the starfish, and sea anemones, clams and other safe, slow sea animals. She was with a daycare center group of about 50 kids for a field trip but the adults were not close enough to prevent her from falling in.  The little girl could clearly not swim as she did not try to right herself to stand up or get out of the pool. An adult chaperon jumped in to the water and rescued her very quickly and as a result from jumping into the pool the adult was wet up to her waist and the little girl was soaked.   Thankfully, both the little girl, the adult and the animals appeared to be alright.  After surveying her for damage they wrapped a towel around the girl and calmed her down. The group leaders then quickly moved the remaining children from this group to the dolphin tank area to go sit down away from the tide pool. Now that the other children in the group were completely controlled,  two of the teachers tended to the wet little girl. In the middle of this busy open public space the adult teachers stripped off all of the four year old’s clothing, took their time drying her off, and slowly put new clothes on her.  There was a bathroom less than 50 feet away, the remaining children were under control, so one adult could have easily left with the wet girl to go in the bathroom, to change her clothes, and maybe even use a hand dryer to help dry her hair.  But the daycare center teachers chose to expose this little girl, who was clearly uncomfortable with being naked, to hundreds of random strangers watching and walking by.

She was too old to be completely naked in public and she was clearly uncomfortable, she was trying to use her hands to cover her crotch.   If it was her mother instead of a daycare teacher I might have thought it was more acceptable. As a parent, when we leave our child with a daycare provider, we entrust them to protect and care for our children, this daycare teacher was clearly not protecting this child.  There is no way I would have gotten my 4 year old naked in that busy public area, and I would have freaked out if her daycare providers, whom I entrusted with her care, would have considered getting my child naked and exposing her to the public.  This situation made me think if I was upset that this four year old was naked, how old is too old to be naked in public?

Restrooms regularly have changing stations in the common area of the bathroom, thus making parents expose their children who are still in diapers to strangers walking by.  I remember one time I was changing my sons diaper and a woman stopped to talk to me and my son and wanted to watch as I changed his diaper.  I quickly covered his genitals with a clean diaper as I was wiping his butt because I did not want a stranger looking at his genitals.   Is it inappropriate to see children naked when they are in diapers? To me that is questionable.

I remember having the photo studio ask me if I wanted naked pictures of my 5 month old son and telling me that they are not allowed to take the naked shots after children are they are 12 months old.  I said, I am just fine with diapered pictures instead of naked.  Public photography standard says after 12 months it is too old to take naked pictures of your children. I say is 12 months too old to be naked in public?   To me this is still questionable.

I have a few friends who think it is cute to have their 2 year old’s running around naked in the house, because toddlers think it feels good to be naked.  I think this is OK in the house, but then I have one friend who liked to take pictures of her 2 year old son playing, while happy and naked.  That I start to have a problem with.  As a friend, I did not feel that I should be seeing her two year old child’s genitals, when she was sharing her pictures with me.  So if you don’t feel that you should be sharing these pictures, should you keep or take these pictures?  So is 2 years old too old to be naked in pictures?  Yes, I think so!

I heard a story about a woman who allowed her daughters to sleep completely naked on warm nights because she liked to sleep naked, so she thought her daughters would too.  She also thought that sleeping children were cute, so she chose to take multiple pictures, over the years of her completely naked, sleeping daughters.  So what you might say?  Her naked daughters were now 8 and 10 years old.  She ended up having child protection services called on her by the photo developers.  Fortunately, child protection convinced her that she should not continue these type of photos.   What 10 year old would want their naked picture taken?  Is 10 years old too old to be naked in public?  Yes, I know so!

Why do we have to worry about nudity?  Sexual predators and pedophiles may see this seemingly harmless nudity, and use it in disgusting ways, in turn victimizing our children. I have thought before that pedophiles or a child abductor would choose a location where they know there are children, the zoo would seem to be a perfect area, children everywhere, often running loose so they can explore and learn in a seemingly safe place. So these locations that we feel safe allowing our children to be naked, may be the most dangerous areas for our children to be exposed.

So is 10 years old too old to be naked in public?  Yes, definitely! Is 6  years old too old to be naked in public?  Yes, absolutely!  Is 4 years old too old to be naked in public?  Yes, absolutely!  Is 2 years old too old, in my opinion, yes, absolutely!  I will protect my children and do whatever I can to keep their private parts, private.

I had a problem with a solicitor this morning.  I was 8 AM, I was just making the kids breakfast and drinking my coffee, when someone ruined my peaceful morning, and started pounding on the front door.  He knocked and pounded and stood there for at least five minutes.  I refused to answer the door because I did not know him, and I have no soliciting signs on both of my doors.  Finally, after five minutes of waiting while he was waving at my kids through the window, he gave up, wrote something down on his clipboard and started to walk down my driveway.  I thought I cant let this guy just get away with being disrespectful and knock even with a no soliciting sign staring him in the face.  I opened up the side door as he was halfway down my driveway, I said “You really should be respectful and not knock on peoples doors that request no soliciting!”   He replied.  “Screw You!”  I then went off on him, I am sure I threw out a few F bombs and finally told him to get off my property before I called the police. As he walked away he was laughing at me, laughing!  Now I am livid.  This creepy sales guy is laughing at me and making me uncomfortable in my own home!  I watched him walk to my neighbors house, she is another stay at home mom with a minivan parked in the driveway, and he coaxed her out of the house and away from her children and talked to her. He completely skipped the old peoples houses, and only targeted the houses with signs of children.

I called the police non-emergency number and asked if there is anything I can do to protect my rights to not have some creepy guy pounding on my door for 5 minutes at 8 AM?  They informed me that all solicitors in our town are supposed to register themselves with the police department before they go door to door, I asked if this guy was registered to which she replied he was not.  I then was directed to leave a message for the Police Sargent asking for his input on my rights, which I happily did. At this point the guy left so I did not ask for police response.

I called and shared my solicitor experience with my sister who lives three blocks away, when I was on the phone with her the guy came back to my court to talk to my neighbor again.  This time I took down the make and model of his truck, license plate, and his physical description, and waited until he left to ask my neighbor if she had a business card.  My intention was to call the parent company, complain and then contact the BBB. Unfortunately this neighbor said he did not give her a card, and did not show her any of his materials, he just wanted to talk to her about his educational program he was selling.

My sister called me three hours later because this same guy who I described to her on the phone, just came by and was pounding on her door and bypassed her no soliciting sign. She had her daughter sleeping  in the house and to keep him from waking her baby, she opened the door and yelled at him to go away, and not to bother people who request no soliciting.  He then repeatedly asked my sister to come outside and talk to him or just to look at his map and give him some information about our town.  She replied, no go away.  She had a minivan in the driveway and a swingset in the backyard. She watched this guy walk down her street and completely avoid the two old people who live on both sides of her, with no hint of children in the house.  Now she also called the police.  Not only was he harassing me, he was also trying to coax people with children out of their houses.

Why was I so defensive?  I believe that your home is the one place you can be yourself and do not have to be polite to strangers.  You should never feel that people are scoping out your house and walking around looking into houses or at your belongings.  The time of day that solicitors usually happen to come is during the day time  and in the summertime when school children are home alone, elderly people are home, or women with young children are home alone.  Door to door sales people are targeting the vulnerable people in the world.   I believe these door to door solicitors are the people who cant get any other jobs and often are people that avoid jobs that may require background checks.  Every time one of them comes to my house, I envision them as a convicted sex offender or a thief who was just released from prison, and now they are knocking at my door when I am home alone with my kids.  The most precious time of my day is when my kids are quietly sleeping, the worst is when one of these sales predators bangs on my door during nap time.  I might go postal on a solicitor who wakes up my kids.

I have had some very strange experiences over the years with solicitors. I had one guy who saw the no soliciting sign on my front door, walked to my side door and pounded on that door because there was no sign.  I pretended I was nice got his business card then yelled at him with all of my might until he left.   The next day I put a sign up on the side door after calling that solicitors parent company and contacting the BBB. On another day a very frightening and large man walked into my backyard when I was swimming with my kids.  He was trying to pet my dog who was going nuts barking because he was trying to protect us, and this man was trying to pet him to calm him down.  He walked through my gate and into my secluded fenced in backyard!  I have never been in a more vulnerable feeling position,  swimming with two wet kids and a strange man inside of my fence.   That was the first time I realized I needed to do something about solicitors for my safety, and I will never swim again without my phone by my poolside.

Why do I need to feel unsafe in my own yard because of solicitors?   There is a no call list and I am on it!    Why is there not a no soliciting house to house list that I can put myself on to protect my family?

I should feel safe and secure in my house and not fear that one of these strangers pounding on my door is scoping out my house for a robbery or to abduct one of my children.  I will continue to call my police department whenever I get someone who bypasses my no soliciting sign. I truly believe door to door soliciting should be illegal!

Today I spoke with the police sargent who told me that he has been getting an unbeliveable amount of calls the last two weeks about solititors harassing people and he advised me that because there is no city ordinance there is nothing they can do to stop solicitors in our town. I quickly contacted my mayor and city council members asking them to enact a similar city ordinance as our neighboring towns so that we can monitor solicitors.  I have also asked everyone I know that lives in my town to contact their city council members as well.  Hopefully my passionate dislike for being harassed in my home will make a difference in my community.

I was just pondering how wonderful and fragile life is.  How amazing it is to be able to get pregnant, carry a baby and experience the joy of hearing a new baby cry and becoming a mom. Today I am trying to remember how wonderful my children are and how much I appreciate the fact that I have them.

I have a friend who spent five years and upwards of $50,000 trying to conceive a child. They tried every type of fertility treatment, tried every test, and read negative pregnancy test after negative pregnancy test.  When it took me 4 months to conceive my daughter and experienced the frustration of people asking me constantly if I was pregnant yet?  I thought about my friend and how frustrating it would have been to try to get pregnant for years instead of a few measly months.

I have a good friend who miscarried while I was pregnant with my second baby, she experienced the excitement of finding out she was pregnant, she got to see the baby on the ultrasound and was able to share her happiness with others, but it ended up that she miscarried right before her 2nd trimester.  I was so careful to never complain about feeling nauseated, pain or discomfort of my pregnancy, because I know she would have done anything to change places with me.

I am so grateful for having two healthy babies be delivered and listening to them cry for the first time!  I have a wonderful neighbor who has been so excited to have her first great grand child. Every time I saw her she has been sharing details about her grand daughters pregnancy, and showing me the little things she bought in anticipation of the babies arrival. Today she told me that the baby was delivered yesterday, and everyone was at the hospital excited to meet him.  Once the baby was delivered they noticed that he was not pinking up, they tried to intubate him but they were not able to get the tube down his throat because his throat was not developed.  He was born alive but only lived 10 minutes without air. They never got to hear their baby cry.

Think about how lucky you were to be a Mom, think about how different your life would have been if you would have not been able to have them.  From the amazing feat of one healthy sperm fertilizing one healthy egg, the cells dividing perfectly, the placenta attaching right, the fetus developing perfectly for 9 months, having a safe delivery, and hearing your healthy baby cry.  What a miracle!

I think the nastiest invention may be any diaper storage system with dirty diapers that are stored in your babies nursery or bedroom.  Would you sleep in your bathroom with the toilet filled with poop and pee?  If you say no, why would you keep a diaper storage unit in the room where your baby sleeps?

I believe dirty diapers belong where your dirty poop and pee goes, in the bathroom!!!

With my first child, I used a diaper storage unit and I hated walking into the bedroom and smelling any trace of baby waste.  The really nasty thing is having to change a stinky, death smelling container that has been jammed full of diapers for a week.

I recycle plastic grocery bags as garbage liners for diaper disposal. Where do I use these? In my bathroom of course!!!  After a diaper change, I place all wipes and dirty diapers in the garbage lined with plastic grocery bags.  This is my way of following the reduce/reuse/recycle that does not take any extra time or energy, in fact, it is easier than trying to figure out how to replace a diaper genie refill while holding your breath!

Not only is this free for me, it is eliminating an extra diaper storage bag in landfills.  When my baby has a stinky poo, or once a day, whatever comes first, I bring the grocery store bag, tied up with the stinky diapers from the garbage in the bathroom to the outside dumpster.  Thus, no smelly pee containers in my babies room, and no extra cost for me!     Don’t make your baby breathe their own pee while they sleep, reuse your plastic bags as bathroom diaper pail liners and make your life easier.