Belly To Baby

Gratitude

sarah — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 01:46:05 +0000

As some of you know I have been training for my first 1/2 Marathon over the past couple of months. This run is a Fundraiser for Leukemia and Lymphoma research!
The run has been huge motivation for me to get back into shape and I feel so blessed to be part of such an incredible
cause (with incredible people)! My inspiration for this run is my cousin Dallas who was diagnosed with Non Hodgkins Lymphoma 2 years ago this month. Dallas is a fit young man with a lovely lady and two beautiful children. We were all taken by surprise when he was diagnosed the day after his sister Quinn was married. Our family has been supporting Dallas from afar as he has undergone his treatments in Ontario. It was quite the battle for Dallas and it continues to be. We are happy to say that at this time he is in remission and we hope and pray everyday that he stays this way!
On my first 15km run approximately 2 weeks ago (longest run of my life so far!) I had lot’s of time to think… As my body began to ache in different areas (some were previous injuries, some were new aches and pains) I thought of all that I am grateful for…and I have so many things to be grateful for…
I was fighting the pavement to finish my 15 km but I know many people are out there right now fighting for their lives… people that range from infants – children – teenagers – young adults – adults – seniors… Leukemia and Lymphoma does not distinguish itself between young and old. I’m sure those of you that are reading this know of at least one person that has been affected by this life threatening cancer. And this is why I run… this is why I get out of bed early in the morning to train, sometimes running back to back within 12 hrs just to get my training in for the week. I am a RN and work 12 hr. shifts so I need to be creative with fitting my training in.
Back to why I am grateful… I am grateful for my legs, that I physically have the ability to run, that my legs are strong and are getting stronger; I am grateful that my cousin Dallas is in remission and that his children are healthy; I am grateful that our children are healthy, that my husband is healthy; my parents and in-law’s are healthy; that I have a great dog to run with; I am grateful for my friend Mirjana that is running with me for this cause; I am grateful for my job; I am grateful for my husbands support, how he encourages me to run, how he watches the kids when I am running and cheers me on with my fundraising efforts (also grateful for his healthy cooking and fABULOUS meals that I come home to often after a long run); I am grateful for a roof over my head, sunshine, healthy food, my brother, his girlfriend (his girlfriends son); I am thankful for a loving God that cares for us; I am thankful for new runners, water and sharkies; I am thankful for newborn babies and excited expectant parents; I am thankful for flowers, trees and nature. I could go on and on…
What are you thankful for?
If you would like to donate to the “Cause” please click on this link! Thanking you in advance… Sarah xoxo
FYI Any donations over $20 generates a tax receipt!

http://tinyurl.com/kickingcancersbutt

Who’s got your back?

sarah — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 17:00:04 +0000

Funny how social media works and how wise words are passed around the internet everyday. Here is a nugget that I found a few months ago… it continues to stick with me and I just wanted to share it with you!
“I’ve got your back”
These are the words that entrepreneurs, painters, artists, statesmen, customer service pioneers and writers need to hear.
Not true. They don’t need to hear them, they need to feel them.
No artist needs a fair weather friend, an employee or customer or partner who waits to do the calculus before deciding if they’re going to be there for them.
No, if you want her to go all in, if you want her to take the risk and brave the fear, then it sure helps if you’re there too, no matter what. There’s a cost to that, a pain and risk that comes from that sort of trust. After all, it might not work. Failure (or worse! embarrassment) might ensue. That’s precisely why it’s worth so much. Because it’s difficult and scarce.
Later, when it’s all good and it’s all working, your offer of support means very little. The artist never forgets the few who came through when it really mattered.
Who’s got your back? More important, whose back do you have? – author unknown

Time… compliments of Thelma Box

sarah — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 16:04:28 +0000

In November of 1997 I attended a life changing seminar called Choices. It is facilitated by an incredibly insightful and brave woman, Thelma Box. In a recent email from Thelma I read the following and wanted to share it with you. I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I did!
“Lost time is never found… What are you spending your time on today? Wish your life’s minutes had a rollover plan? Will you choose to use your minutes wisely? It seems that nothing goes quicker than time…and the older I get, the quicker it goes! But the real question isn’t how many minutes we have, but how we use them.

I’ve learned that watches and clocks may someday stand still… but the time that they measure? It never will! 960 Minutes. According to my calculations and my current schedule, that’s how many minutes, approximately, averaged, that I spend awake out of the 1,440 minutes contained within each “day.” Therefore, I strongly consider each of them to be MY minutes and they belong to no one but me. I, alone, have the choice where and with whom I choose to share my minutes and what situations or emotions are (or aren’t) worthy of utilizing these precious commodities. When applicable, I find myself repeating the phrase: “Choose how you use.” Just as you ask yourself before making a purchase, “Is this really worth my money?” ask yourself before engaging in negativity or criticism, “Is this really worth my minutes?” Before you start worrying about something that may never materialize, ask yourself, “Is it worthy of my minutes?” Today, we watch how we would spend 960 dollars more carefully than how we would spend the same amount of minutes, our daily ration of time, though the latter is far more precious to behold and should be budgeted with the utmost attention to detail. Instead, often we’ll spend our 960 minutes as though they were recyclable or in endless supply. When you lay your head down tonight and preview in your mind how you spent your allotted 960 minutes, which words will best describe the answer? Did you share your minutes with contentment, laughter and joy or did you choose to share too much of this finite resource today with anger, resentfulness and aggravation? “Choose how you use…choose how you use.” I say use your minutes wisely; don’t let others dictate how you spend them. This is not to say you should quit your job today, but just remember than your minutes are completely non-refundable; you can’t buy more, you can’t borrow someone else’s and you can’t get them back once they are gone. If only the rules stated that when we reach 90 years of age, we could simply write a letter to the “Life Customer Service Department” stating, “In 2008, I spend 10,950 minutes filled with aggravation and frustration. Since the customer is always right, I am officially requesting those misspent minutes be added back to my life’s account. I will await your confirmation. Thank you.”

I’ve often thought about the cell-phone company commercials where they say their calling plan is better than the competitor’s plan because their minutes “roll over.” Wouldn’t it be wonderful if life worked that way; if we could only use the minutes of the day we’d like and let the others roll over into the next day, week or month? But we all know that life’s “calling plan” doesn’t offer rollover minutes and our only option is to use them or lose them. Life has its moments and unfortunately, there are times when sadness and despair are inescapable. However, 30 minutes per day spend in avoidable discontent equates to more than one week per year from your life; seven days, which could have instead been lived…enjoyed…relished and celebrated. It’s YOUR choice.”

Letting go…

sarah — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 19:25:55 +0000

On a recent trip to Disneyland with our family I had an interesting thought about roller coasters and birthing a baby.

Odd, you may think? But read on to see what I discovered…

This was not only our kids first trip to Disneyland but mine as well. I’ve grown up hearing of the amazing rides that Disney has to offer and decided to give Space Mountain a try. Little Pepper (our four year old) just made the height requirement so we were able to go on the ride as a family. Chris and I had been taking turns sitting with the girls and it was my turn to sit with our youngest. Wow! What a ride! Blackness, twists, turns, speed, intensity, discomfort, I stumbled off the ride feeling somewhat unwell.

After the ride, Chloe, our seven year old was grinning from ear to ear. She came up to me and asked “So, what did you think of that mom? Wasn’t it FUN!?!” My face said it all…

During the ride, I was a little tense as I held on for dear life and the life of our four year old because I was concerned that she was going to fall out. She did have to stretch her neck and stand really tall to meet the height requirement…(Ironically, Pepper says that Space Mountain was her favourite ride at Disneyland).

Her response “Let’s go on Big Thunder Mountain and I’ll teach you how to ride roller coasters!”

As many of your know, being a mom requires putting your fears and discomforts aside for the sake of your children. I decided to go and Chloe was my roller coaster partner.

As we slowly ascended uphill, Chloe explained to me to sit back and put my arms in the air. ”Keep them up there mom, let go and feel the wind… when we go down, make sure you scream with me… it’s going to be so much FUN!”

I followed her instructions and when we zoomed downhill I kept saying to myself “Just let go… completely let go…” As we twisted and turned, went up and down, I felt happy, free and was surprised that I was seriously enjoying the ride. As we made our final ascent I had a thought… this is kind of like labour… we encourage women to let go and ride the contraction, I had to do this every 2-3 minutes when I was in labour. When you are tense and holding on for dear life, it can be a miserable experience or in the case of labour even more painful. But when you let go, there is an element of surprise and freedom… who knows, you might even enjoy it…

In labour there is a letting go of fear, tension, pain, anxiety, thinking, reacting… and the list goes on. Just as seasoned roller coaster riders scream with delight, the letting go of sound can be a great release. When a woman is in labour if she is making sound, we generally encourage her to go with that sound, making the sound low and deep. Letting go…

Of course at any point during labour if a woman needs some assistance with the pain she is experiencing there are always options for her. These come in the form of hands on relief from her support people or sometimes medications.

I am proud to say that I now LOVE roller coasters, in fact we went on Big Thunder Mountain three times that day!

The following day, Chris, Chloe and I went on “Screaming California”. Wow! That was exciting, I have to admit at one point during the ride I had the thought “Ok, I would really like to get off right now, I have had enough” This thought was prior to knowing that we still were going to go upside down… and than I reminded myself to “L E T G O…” I heard my little girls voice in my head “L E T G O…”

At the end of the ride, Chloe said to me “So did we go upside down?”, “Yes” I said. ”Didn’t you notice the part where we felt a little light?” “I don’t know mom, I just stared at my feet for the whole ride, I thought I felt a bit of air under my bum at one point though…”

I love my “LETTING GO” teacher… I absolutely love her! xoxo

Rocky Point

sarah — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 20:01:56 +0000

With the onset of the New Year, I have made a view changes to my day to day living… For the past 7.5 years, my life has been all about the kids, my husband, the house, my business, and work. When I went to the Dr. a few months back questioning if I was depressed and should take some “happy pills”, his response was “You are a typical woman in your thirties with multiple responsibilities… mortgage, husband, children, work, etc… what you need is a hobby! Something for you! Try this and if it doesn’t work than we can talk about it further” As many of you know Molly (our doodle) joined our family this past August. I have taken her on as my “hobby”, Chris (my husband) now teases me and often asks “how is your hobby, Sarah?”.

Molly and I are now taking our advanced obedience training through The Rusty Dog Training Co. I say “we” because obedience training is just as much about people training as it is about training the dog. Through this training I am seeing some parallels to parenting as well. Interesting how this all crosses over… Don’t worry I haven’t started treating my children like dogs! It’s the calm, assertive energy and the minimal talking that are key.

Another “hobby” I have begun this year is running. Currently I am in a running clinic at the Runners Den in Port Moody (runnersden.ca) The clinic is fantastic! My weekly homework includes two additional run/walks in between the weekly clinic runs. I am taking my hobby “Molly” with me on these training sessions and I am really enjoying the combination of exercising, being outside and teaching Molly to heel consistently and refrain from pulling when she sees other dogs or people.

I entitled this blog post “Rocky Point” as this is where I am training the most. Rocky Point trail has served me well over the years… I first went on this trail back in 2003 when our oldest was just a baby. I was part of a group of women that would meet at Rocky Point 2 x a week with our babies in their strollers and we would walk briskly around the inlet to the other side (some of the moms even ran, I however walked). There we would sit down on the grass or picnic tables and breastfeed, change diapers, drink water, have a snack, converse and than return back.

Over the years this trail has become a family favourite for walking, bike riding and scooter riding. A few years were spent with spontaneous play dates with my good friend Tracy Lamerton and her eldest and than our youngest kids once they entered our lives. As I do I my run/walk interval’s I revisit many memories down this path, most of them are of the kids when they were younger, exploring the wildflowers, eagles, puddles and sunshine. Most of them are of the times spent with Tracy and her kids… Tracy and her sweet family has since moved away to the interior and is greatly missed by our family. We now see them at least once a year and the only hint of passing time is the growth of all the kids. Nothing like watching your kids and your friends/ families to remind you that you too are aging… lol!

On my last training session with my dog, Molly I looked down at her and thought “thank you”, you are a great companion and it is wonderful to be out on this path creating new memories… and “thank you” Rocky Point, you have served and continue to serve me well… I’ve got a long way to go to reach my goal of a 1/2 marathon in June but I’m determined to make it happen!

New Years Eve 2011

sarah — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 07:50:53 +0000

It’s a New Year, fresh beginning…

Beginning a new year has taken on a completely different spin for me this year. I have decided to start blogging about my life as a mother, as a RN/Doula, as a Second Attendant, as a Childbirth Educator, as a Labour and Delivery RN and being a woman in our ever changing society. This quest to discover social media and blogging has brought me down a path of completely restructuring my website, making it fresh and blogging friendly. A lovely preschool mom and social media expert cadijordan has begun to tutor me on blogging, twittering and the vast world of social media.

I love to tell stories… so you just may encounter a few of those on here… I imagine most of my stories will be around birthing women and my children, as that is where I spend most of my time. My children provided me with daily entertainment!

Working as a RN there are always available shifts that you can be called in to work. Stat holidays are always a hit due to double time pay. This year we are celebrating New Years with another family, we are going to Mount Seymour www.mountseymour.com to go tubing and ring in the New Year as a family at 9:00 pm. I have received two calls from our staffing office about picking up a night shift tonight (New Years Eve). Life is always a fine balance between work and home life. After my second call I offered to work from 11pm – 7 am and staffing said “yes”!

I wish you all a prosperous and blessed year in 2011!