Hey, y'all! I'm hosting a Silpada party at my home soon, so if you want to order anything Silpada, let me know and we can get the order in with the party. :)

  Welcome to post #11 in the series of 25 Things You May Not Know About Me. Just in case you were wondering, no, I am not pregnant. That's not what this post is about. Instead, we'll be delving into why it is that, "Having had one baby in the hospital and one at home, it would take a huge medical issue to make me do it in the hospital again."

 Anyone who will listen to me talk about it has already heard my hard and fast reasons for not wanting labor to be heavy with intervention. That is a big part of why I choose to labor at home. I suppose, in theory, you can have a drug and intervention free labor in the hospital, but it is extremely rare and difficult to obtain. It often happens that the doctor in charge decides what he or she thinks should happen with a labor, and that's that. Clearly, the patient has the right to refuse any procedure, and you should absolutely be willing and ready to stand up for what you do or don't want. Who cares if they talk down to you or berate you for deciding not to have a procedure? Right? I agree with that in theory, but I feel very strongly that no woman should have the stress of having to argue and stand up for herself during labor. That's a surefire way to stress her out, which can slow labor down and cause a problem. Not my idea of a positive experience.

 My other line of thought is a little more controversial. I did a lot of research into labor and birth; I became a real believer in the fact that birth is a process that God put into place, and there is no reason to assume that something will go wrong. Once I came to the conclusion that I did not need pain relief to get through labor, and I did not need medical intervention to make labor happen or to make it successful, it came down to a question of, "Well, why would I go to the hospital anyway?" At that point, I realized that if I were to choose to birth in the hospital it would only be to have a safety net "just in case." For me (and only for me; in no way am I implying that this is how all homebirthers feel), I felt called to really just trust God with Lillian's birth. Did I really trust Him to bring us through the labor safely, or did I need to go to the hospital just in case He let us down? Now, obviously I realize that bad things can happen in labor. I believe firmly that God is bigger than that. I have heard firsthand some amazing stories of God faithfully caring for women in labor, though, in situations that would be considered emergent.
 Had something gone wrong in my labor with Lily, I know that I know that I know that my midwife/support person and my mom would have gone to God. This doesn't mean that, if we had needed it, we wouldn't have gone to the hospital; we would have. My point is that I expected God to take care of us.
 Now, in no way am I stating or implying that Christian women who choose to birth in the hospital lack faith; I'm saying that faith is what it came down to for me and me only. I firmly believe that I made the right decision, and I fully intend to birth the next baby at home, whenever he or she comes.

I hope you enjoyed this one! Tune in next time when we delve into an item that may make me look more than a little conceited: "Microsoft Word often find errors in what I write, and I leave the sentence alone because I know that I am right and Microsoft is wrong. I am that good." You'll enjoy it.

I went the entire month of May without blogging. I just can't believe I did that! Wow.

Now then. It's time for #9 on the list of 25 Things You May Not Know About Me. It is, "I get sucked into infomercials. I suppose it's because of the great acting."

Infomercials are absurd. It's an entire half hour to an hour of people selling something that, to be honest, if it were worth what they're charging for it, they could probably sell in the store without having to pay actors to push it.

Now, there are a couple different kinds of infomercials. The first is "The infomercial that won't admit that it is really just a half hour long commercial." My favorite example of this is an infomercial for The Magic Bullet.The impression we're supposed to get from the way this infomercial is set up is that this group of eight or so adults is all vacationing together in the same house, and they've all awakened at the same time. The stars of our show, who will be exhibiting all of the tricks of the appliance, are dressed and coiffed already, but everyone else is messy in their bathrobes. Our two heroes proceed to then make breakfast smoothies, omelets, milkshakes, alfredo, frozen drinks, and salsa at lightning speed right on the countertop.

What it is about this particular infomercial that bugs me is that the writers have gone so far as to attempt at weaving a plot withing the program. There's even a guy who drinks too much and can't stand vegetables (who, by the way, loves the fruit and veggie smoothie from the Magic Bullet).

But now I want one. And, lucky me, if I pay the hundred bucks they're asking for it, I can get a second one absolutely free.

The other kind of infomercial is the kind you're more likely to see. The vast majority of infomercial writers, I'm convinced, have too much self respect to pretend that they can work a plot around the product they're trying to sell, so they set it up like a sales pitch. I prefer this. I recently have seen an infomercial for a product called Wen. Wen is basically a haircare product that is supposed to make your hair amazing.

And, get this! It is one product that replaces five! Five products! It replaces shampoo, conditioner, deep conditioner, detangler, and leave-in conditioner.
What a deal at $29.95.

Seriously, if you're willing to wait out the transition period, you can get the same results for free by just not using shampoo for a while. (I haven't used shampoo since February. I figure I can bring that up now, since I'm done transitioning and have decided that this works for me.)

I should now mention that I have only ever bought one product from an infomercial, and that was Turbo Jam. I love it. I do. It is one exercise program that I can really get into and enjoy, and I'm glad I got it.

So, there you have it. I wish I could explain why it is that I get so pulled into infomercials, but I haven't the faintest idea.

Tune in next time when we discuss "I used to love my job. Now, not so much."