I hope it's a great and blessed one!

Hi Everyone,

I hope you're doing well.  Borders has a summer reading program where you can earn a free book.  See details here. 

Happy birthday to Cathy today and to Kelly tomorrow!

And happy mother's day to you all!

Just a reminder--hope we see you there.

Noe Valley Nursery School is having a kid party fundraiser with food, games, and silent auction from 4 to 7pm on Sat. Mar. 20 at the Noe Valley Ministry on Sanchez St. at 23rd. order tickets online at www.noevalleynurseryschool.com tickets at door 5.00 for children 15.00 for adults 8.00 for bottomless glass beer or wine Hope to see you there!

Hope it's a great one on International Women's Day.

Anyone want to join me?

 

Daly City Cinemark XD 1:50

Hi ladies,

Thought I would share my news with you all and introduce my newest little magic man, Rémi Liam Schwander, born Feb 13.

Miss all of you and sure missed that gravy train! In anticipation, I made my own though and stocked my freezer the month prior with home made soups, risotto, lasagne, mousaka, chili, etc. Has been helpful.

Wow the birth experience here blew doors off my experiences wtih Kaiser in SF. I found it so interesting the natural approach taken here and the team of midwives (sage femme in french which translates to "wise woman" - lovely title in my opinion) was amazing.

The birthing rooms were all equipted with jacuzzi bathtubs for water births, ropes from the ceiling for gripping and hanging on, stools, birthing balls, floor pads, and a bean bag chair which ended up being my device of choice and I gave birth right there in the bean bag chair, the midwife just set up shop at my feet and when he was close to delivery, they dimmed the lights and I had the most beautiful natural birth. Immediately afterwards I was given a homeopathic thing for shock and pain.

Afterwards in the morning the nurse brought a huge carafe of Weleda mothers milk tea, which was brought every morning to me during my 5 day stay. Along with two (glass!? not plastic) 2 litre bottles of swiss mineral water, which they made sure I was actually drinking to prevent dehydration and promote milk. Also gave me fennel oil to help bring in my milk. Sage tea compresses for sore nipples. And the topper was when the milk did come and I was all engorged, they put cold compresses on my breasts that were full of.... CHEESE! (only in switzerland!) No joke! It smelled like I was wrapped in cheese cake and made me so hungry! ha ha, But it worked wonders and stayed cool for hours. Amazing! I commented on the glass bottles of mineral water because I was never given anything in plastic. Even in the birthing room when I asked for water I was brought a GLASS of water. To me seems you wouldn't want the risk of broken glass in a birthing room. Woman having contractions on tile floor with a glass in her hand? Whatever, they otherwise took great care of me and my baby.

After care for the mom is great too. You can have a sage femme come follow up with you at your home and insurance pays for it. I have my third visit with her today. They are really focused on the mom too, which I found lacking with my first two births. She taught me some amazing post partum exercises that were very yoga like for internal organ recovery. I will incorporate these into my women only yoga classes when I start teaching again.

Anyway, just thought all of my mommie friends in SF would be interested to hear the swiss approach. I know all of this is available in birthing ceters in California too, but this was at the local hospital, not a specialty birth center, which I found quite surprising. Oh and the food was excellent to boot! At a hospital !

Miss you all, wish you could meet littel Rémi in person. Maybe my next visit to SF.

Love Deirdre

Bummer, I don't have permission to post pics on this blog. Oh well.

Hope you are having a wonderful day! Happy Birthday!

Hope it's a great one