You just delivered a beautiful, vernix covered little bundle of joy.  Your heart is on cloud 9 and the endorphins are delightful.  The last thing you are thinking about is watching the umbilical cord.  Hopefully, your birth team will already be in practice of letting the cord pulse to completion, but taking the time to watch it happen will help you understand just why it’s so important.

Revealing your baby's gender is a huge deal in today's social media society.  Between Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, and who knows what else, telling people the exciting news can be done pretty creatively.  Of course, incorporating our gender reveal kit (or a dressed up heartbeat animal!) is the best way to do the big reveal!

Here I sit, holding my 48 hour-new baby boy Ollie Jack.  I have been typing, deleting, and restarting this for hours now. The truth is, this birth experience was almost so indescribable, I could not find the words. I am still digesting, processing, and sorting it all in my head.  I’m actually hoping that by sharing it with you, I can wrap my mind around the entire event. As you know, we were planning a beautiful, peaceful homebirth for baby #4.  I have a few blogs lined up about the blessing way that was filled with women who love and support me, how we set up the birth environment to include music, inspirational birth décor, and even the smells I’d possibly want.  I have blogs about birth photography, labor relaxation practice, preparing the siblings to take part in a birth, cultural birth traditions including belly blessings, henna, and candle making.  I even have a blog about my midwife being my lifelong best friend, and how that changed my pregnancy and labor outlooks.

Sometimes we just have to laugh our way through this journey of motherhood. If we take ourselves too seriously, we may not come out alive.

Everyone is doing the best that they can. No mother is perfect, no side is greener, and no one has their shit together. If you truly do, then please don’t pretend to be my friend.

A baby's first trip around the sun is something to celebrate! There are so many amazing ideas out there - thank you Pinterest for putting them all together for us.