Comments (6)

By Alyssa, September 28, 2009 11:56 am

I’m beyond excited.  After almost four years of wanting to become a Bradley instructor, I finally finished the certification this weekend!  I know, most of you are thinking, what’s a Bradley instructor?  The Bradley method started with Dr. Robert Bradley, a Denver doctor that wrote the book, “Husband-Coached Childbirth.” He began researching in the ’40s and became convinced that moms with husband coaches could birth babies without interventions.  I’ll admit, in the beginning I was skeptical.  Everything on T.V. when I was pregnant shouted epidural and I was certain, with the size of my football-playing husband, I would need one too.  I finally read the book and we decided to attend the classes.

After twelve weeks of Bradley classes, Ben and I went from preggo ignorance to educated bliss.  The classes hit aspects of pregnancy, nutrition, birth, and everything in between. We realized that God made my body to birth babies and that pregnancy and birth weren’t illnesses to be diagnosed, but natural processes. The best part of taking the classes was Ben’s transformation.  He went from a sideline participant to my full-time coach.  It was with his training and diligence that we successfully birthed a beautiful 9 pounder without any interventions or drugs in 2005 and later repeated the process for 8 pound 12 ounce baby boy number two in 2007.  Both births were amazing and indescribable, something I’ve found common when asking my friends about their drug-free births.

Think I’m crazy yet?  What’s crazy is the truth about epidurals.  Many of my friends that used this narcotic were disappointed by the side effects, nausea, headaches, still painful contractions, and numbness to name a few.  I also have friends that believe their epidural directly led to an unnecessary c-section.  Am I completely against epidurals?  No.  I am against the routine use of epidurals.  I think the routine use of any intervention in pregnancy is nonsense and leads to bigger problems, like unneeded surgery.  Did you know the c-section rate, not including elective c-sections, in the United States is over 30%?  That means if you go into a hospital to have a vaginal birth, you have one in three chances of leaving with a major abdominal surgery.  Yikes!

I toured a birth center in Denver as part of my certification and was astounded by their statistics.  All of the births at the center are unmedicated and only 4% of their births require a transfer to the hospital due to complications.  Wow… a less than 4% c-section rate compared to over 30% at the nearby hospital.  I have my opinions on the difference, but I think the only way this rate will decline is if families are educated.  I was so passionate about this in the military that I talked to all my soldiers about birth.  In 2006, I even served as a birth coach for one soldier and watched her and her husband beautifully welcome their baby girl into the world without drugs or interventions.

Regardless of pregnancy or birth decisions, I believe we should all be educated.  That’s why I became a Bradley instructor… to help families make informed decisions for their pregnancy and childbirth process.  Now I can’t wait to meet those future bellies, I mean students, and their babies!

***** UPDATE- I’m now an independent childbirth instructor.  Contact me to find out about my next class! *****

Comments (1)

By Alyssa, September 21, 2009 11:44 am

Every night growing up my parents would search my room.  Was it for candy?  A great big chocolate bar?  I do love chocolate, but they weren’t checking for a late night snack. They scoured my room before bed for books.  Growing up I hid books and a flashlight under my pillow, my mattress, in between the sheets, and under the bed.  I can’t tell you the number of times I heard, “Alyssa Marie, you will ruin your eyes reading in the dark like that!”  I remember my first Roald Dahl book and staying up all night to frantically finish “Gone with the Wind.” I love books!

I could write for days about the books I love, but decided to just list my favorite children’s books.  Some are old favorites and some I recently discovered going to the library with Bubba.  Please comment with your all-time favorite children’s book if I didn’t list it here.

MY FAVORITE CHILDREN’S BOOKS

Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson

Some Dogs Do by Jez Alborough

Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans

Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney

The Greedy Python by Eric Carle

And My Mean Old Mother Will Be Sorry, Blackboard Bear by Martha Alexander  (ALL the Blackboard Bear books are wonderful!)

The Day Jimmy’s Boa ate the Wash by Steven Kellogg

Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst

The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter

Pierre (A Cautionary Tale in Five Chapters and a Prologue) by Maurice Sendak

Bread and Jam for Frances by Russell Hoban

Miss Nelson is Missing by James Marshall

Stellaluna by Janell Cannon

The Monster at the End of This Book (starring lovable, furry old Grover) by Jon Stone

I Just Forgot by Mercer Mayer

The Goodnight Train by June Sobel

Happy Birthday, Moon by Frank Asch

The Crocodile Blues by Coleman Polhemus

Dandelion by Don Freeman

Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss

MY ALL-TIME FAVORITE!!  Amos, The Story of an Old Dog and His Couch by Howie Schneider

Now to call my parents for advice… I’ve caught Bubba reading past bedtime the last few nights!

Comments (6)

By Alyssa, September 17, 2009 5:13 pm

“So, wait, your husband is NOT in the military?”  Can’t tell you the number of times I’ve been asked this question.  I’ve always joked that there is enough Army in me for the two of us and wasn’t surprised to read recently that less than 6% of male military spouses are civilians. Most of the time, if a wife is in the military, her husband is also.  I haven’t been able to find Army specific statistics, but comparatively the Army has less females than the Navy and Air Force so I’m sure the civilian male spouse percentage is even lower.

Neither Hubby or I knew what we were facing when we jumped into the Army life a little over eight years ago.  Reality set in quickly when we moved into our first home, an on-post cinder block duplex in El Paso, Texas.  Hubby started to despise getting groceries as a quick stop for eggs meant some drill sergeant accosting him about his sideburn length. Or how about the time he was told by the gate guard he couldn’t drive on post unless he took out his earring (an offense for a soldier, not a spouse)?  That first year was tough on both of us, but especially tough on Hubby.  He was still trying to figure out being married to me (a full time job for those of you that know me), let alone being thrust into an unfamiliar environment.

We combated assumptions with humor.  One of my favorite things was to have him pick me up from work. Not sure why, but after announcing to other male soldiers in the unit that I was NOT married to a soldier, they immediately pictured my husband as a 5’5″ one hundred pound wisp of a man that straggled behind me with a sad puppy face. Imagine their surprise when my bronzed Hubby stepped out of our car, a 6’5″ two hundred and fifty pounder with Defensive Line written all over him.  I’m still laughing at their reaction!  Time went on and Hubby grew his buzz cut out and perfected a sole-patch under his lower lip in rebellion to Army standards.  These subtle changes dramatically reduced the “Hey TROOP!” or “SOLDIER, why you out of uniform?” comments he previously received living on post.

Both deployments, Hubby’s position became invaluable.  During my first deployment, he was a comfort to our Family Readiness Group, an organization dedicated to supporting families while their soldier is away.  As the only male in this spouse support group, he served as Mr. Fix-it and human-kiddo-jungle-gym at meetings. We were stationed in Colorado for my second tour and Hubby became a single dad with an eighteen month old. Where do I begin to express my gratitude for such a task?

We’ve traded roles recently as he heads off to work while I stay at home with our boys.  Thinking back to those first few years, it’s hard for me to now complain about Hubby’s work stuff left in a trail from the door when he comes home or the fact that he lets snooze go off five times before getting up. He never complained about anything during my active duty days, including my sleeping cot to cot with a bunch of dudes during field exercises or his required attendance as the only suit in a room of dress uniforms at military balls.  I know that I couldn’t have done the Army without him and he’s certainly left big shoes to fill.

Comments (2)

By Alyssa, September 14, 2009 2:24 pm

When I first considered leaving active duty to raise the boys, I received some surprising comments.  I was told full time motherhood wouldn’t fit my personality or that I would be so bored that I would regret the decision.  I’ve compiled this list over the last year in response to those opinions. These are reasons why toddlers can be harder than soldiers.

-Uniforms just make everything easier.  My soldiers never whined in the morning about how they HAD to wear their Spongebob shoes today or demanded a race car costume be worn over shorts and a t-shirt.  I have to also note that I have boys.  My friends with girls have ten times the stories and struggles.

-Physical training in the Army was one hour in the morning, one hour.  Bubba seems to think that physical training starts at 7:00 am and ends… well, I don’t think he would ever like it to end.  My current circuit training consists of forty toddler lifts (moving forty pound Bubba and twenty pound Zeke in and out of car seats) and at least two dozen sprints (Whoah! That is amazing that you can lift your little brother over your head).  I’m not even going into piggy back, airplane, “Mom, let’s see how long I can drag holding onto your leg” rides.

- How I long for Army powerpoint presentations. Throw a few slides together, hit the highlights during your brief, and maybe even add a laser pointer for style.  Easy.  It’s not so easy, however, trying to read an entire book in Grover’s voice.  Or how about getting called out by your three-year-old for skipping parts of a sixty-four page Dr. Suess book that he’s memorized?  Not easy.

- I remember how I complained about the random fire drills at Army schools in the middle of the night.  Had to get up once and then got to go back to bed.  After two babies and seasons of every hour nightly feedings, I scoff at fire drills.  Seriously, what was so hard about Army sleep deprivation?  They’ve got nothing on a newborn.

-Finally, I think the hardest part of being a mom with toddlers compared to my Army days is that if my soldiers ever told me no, which I can’t remember anyone doing, I could take their pay, sentence them to extra duties, even send them to jail.  My 3-year-old on the other hand, that little guy looks me square in the eye, arms crossed, perma-scowl, and demands he be heard.  Not no, but NO!  He could care less that I can shoot expert with my M16 rifle, knock out fifty push-ups, or program a PATRIOT missile.  He’s pretty sure if he says it just right, he’s in charge.

So am I bored?  BORED?  I’m sorry but I still have to laugh at that comment.  I wonder now if that person ever spent more than 20 minutes with a toddler.  I guess the bottom line is raising toddlers is tough.  Kudos to all moms that do.