It has been a really crazy busy weekend with lots of conferences, But Sunday ended up being my day. A friend from our local natural parenting group, Nichole Hirsch Kuechle, has done pretty well for herself. I remember years ago when she had the idea to start a magazine. Knowing how difficult the publishing industry is I didn’t expect too much but wished her the best. Now her magazine My Healthy Beginning has grown to be national.

This weekend Kuechle and her mag were hosting the “MN Baby Expo” at the Minneapolis Convention Center. I haven’t gone to baby type events since maybe my 2nd pregnancy. When you are pregnant with your 4th, pregnancy and babies kind of get to be old hat and it is really easy to forget that there literally is something magically happening in my body. It was great seeing all those mums with new babies all decked out the way 1st babies tend to be and the pregnant soon to be moms walking around wide eyed. It brought me back a bit and brought me down to earth.

I met Emily Sisco a midwife at the Morning Star Birth Center in Menomonie. We chated about birth and moms and healthy living, eating and thinking.

Then I met the people from Jenny’s Light and it really brought me down to earth fast. Jenny’s Light is an organization working to raise awareness about postpartum depression. Jenny was a young, professional mom who suffered silently through this all too common problem until it drove her to take her life and that of her new son. Since hearing the story I have been like, “wow. moms don’t have support these days.” We live away from our families or maybe even have strained relations with them. We don’t know how to ask for help and maybe don’t even know when we need it. Often times we don’t feel we have we have time to develop the deep interpersonal relationships that could could prevent and heal the problem.
 
I had a similar problem after Avril was born. I felt lost and alone. My husband was working hard to make ends meet, sometimes up to 60 hours a week. There were times I didn’t know what I would do. Luckily me parents lived close by and I spent nearly every evening at their house. It helped just to have some company. Rarely do I get all fired up to volunteer with an organization but last night I went to the Jenny’s Light website and signed up. 

But I don’t want to end on a sad note, actually it is all about life, and living and loving and surviving and lest you think yesterday was all about me here’s some of my favorite pics of the kids.

Mavis the big girl.

Spanky. . .

Avril’s ride.

Two’s top pick.