Happy 2006!!
With a new year comes a new chance to become better person, a better parent, a better friend, etc. I look at this new born year with hopes and dreams like any other wishy-washy person. It's full of possibilities and happiness. You just have to make it what you want it to be.
So, without furter ado, I list my resolutions for this year.
1.) Mommyhood.
I vow to be a more laid-back mommy. A more hands-on mommy. Who cares if the laundry goes a day without being done or the floor isn't mopped every other day? The clutter can wait. My daughter is growing and changing and learning every day. I want to be a part of that. I can scrub and clean later when she finds me less entertaining ... which will happen all too soon.
2.) Education, part one:
I am in school for nursing, but I had a week or so last month where I wondered if I was indeed pursuing the proper career. Bella had a stomach bug and it was so hard for me to take care of her. I have a queasy stomach myself, and was content playing clean-up ... you know, tossing the vomit laundry into the washer, mopping the floor with Clorox, spraying things down with Lysol, etc. But the real test was simply holding my daughter knowing that she could at any moment vomit on me. Andy did the majority of the holding of the child, thank God. But it made me wonder that if I had that much trouble holding my own child, could I really help a complete stranger who was ill?
Then I remembered -- I have no desire to work E.R. or recovery. My goal is working in an OB/GYN office or in labor and delivery. Another possibility is that of scrub nursing.
I realized that I worried about becoming a mother at all back in 2003 and I have learned to be not only a mother, but a MOMMY. It will take time, but I will gather the strenght that I need to attain my dream.
3. Education, part two:
After reading a bunch of crap in several places lately on "natural childbirth" I have decided that I am going to learn everything that I can to help pregnant women and to get the TRUTH out there to them.
I talked with my OB/GYN for a LONG time last week on some of the trash that I'd heard and read and she and I had a good laugh about a lot of it. Epidurals, IV pain medication, hospitilization, herbal medications during pregnancy, etc. When we hit the topics of the role that doulas play, she said that she didn't like having them in the delivery room with her patients at all. She said that they tend to get in the way. They have absolutely NO medical training but they like to dole out medical advice like they're the doctor. She said they are supposed to be servants to the mother, not a doctor but they sometimes forget that.
A RN friend even mentioned a case a few years ago where some doula in the midwest was sued for medical malpractice when a herbal cold medication that she told her "client" to take caused the woman to go into premature labor and her child to die. This woman had absolutely NO right to suggest medications to the pregnant mom but did it anyway to prevent the client from taking proper medications from the pharmacy (which the woman's OB/GYN prescribed) because "they might cause birth defects."
Natural childbirth was a topic, too, that we discussed. A TRUE natural childbirth is one with no medical interventions. It takes place in the home or in the fields. If you tear, you tear. If you bleed out, you bleed out. If your baby goes into distress, too bad. There are no men present, either, because men were not privy to the birthing process at all. Having your husband at the birth is a relatively new thing, as even in the early 1980's the only men allowed in a delivery room were doctors.
If a doctor suggeted that someone having an amputation do it without pain medication we'd all think that the doctor was crazy and the practice barbaric. But it's not barbaric for a woman to have to endure labor without pain medication? Why does getting an epidural make a labor "abnormal" to these "naturalist nazis"? (Dr. E's term, not mine.) Medical intervention makes labor much safer and the mortality rate of both mother and child has drastically dropped since birth was taken out of the home (and sometimes untrained hands) and placed in a sterile environment with medical professionals who have years and years of training ... not to mention the best interests of the patients at heart.
In my opinion, medical professionals aren't on some assinine "naturalistic" crusade. They are there first and foremost for the patient, not a movement.
I am not against natural rememdies, or semi-natural childbirth (let's face it, you can't have a fully natural childbith in a hospital. Or even at home if there are men present). What I am against is all of the misinformation out there ... the scaring of women against things like epidurals or even medical doctors in the name of a movement.
4. Health.
A new year brings a return to not only my vegetarian diet, but a return to exercise. I don't want to be the fat mommy that the kids tease other kids about. I want to athletic enough to keep up with my child, and that includes things like ice skating, soccer, and cheerleading. I want my husband to still find me attractive 10 years into our marriage. I want to feel good when I go out to the grocery store for milk.
5. Faith.
A renewed vow to uphold my Catholic faith is in my top 5. That include apologetics, weekly mass, and time each night for the rosary. Attacks to the faith are coming at us from all directions. (When I say us, I mean the faithful in the church that Christ founded.) We Catholics must stand up to attacks from non-Christians and Protestants alike. We must stand up for what is right no matter what ridicule we must endure.
6. Journal.
I've read that keeping a journal is good for your soul, too. I hope to write in this journal at least once a week. It's supposed to reduce stress. We'll see ... ha, ha, ha.
7. Fun.
Yes, fun is an important part of life. Who wants to be grouchy all of the time? Honestly. We all have to have our little "sinful pleasures." I adore a good book and a hot bath and taking 30 minutes each night for myself it important. I adore the Harry Potter series, and am re-reading it again for the umpteenth hundred time. I eagerly await book seven and the fifth movie, both of which should be out in 2007, so this year means a lot of re-reading, re-watching the movies that are already out (Goble of Fire should be on DVD by the spring), and hypothesising about what will happen in the final novel.
With that, I must go. My beloved toddler is throwing a hissy fit and it's mommy to the rescue.
Peace and love to everyone out there!!
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