Sunday, July 1, 2012

Three : To be or Not to be?

This is a topic I think about literally every day.


Should we have a third baby?  For me, three seems like a great number. Ideally, it feels balanced and nice. Realistically, it sounds chaotic and insane!


me with my first baby, Noah.


I love babies. I love birthing babies, holding babies, breastfeeding babies, smooching babies. Smelling their little fuzzy sweet heads. I adore them. Ahem.


I also dislike rocking babies until my arms feel like they are about to fall off, I dislike feeling so sleep deprived that I put my phone in fridge and look for my coffee in the bathroom. I dislike not having gone out with hubby for a real date in... well, a very long time. I dislike gaining weight and feeling like I have the flu for 9 months.


But, if it were up to me, independent of money and hardships that come along with having kids, I would have a third.


Bryan votes an emphatic YES on this topic, btw.


But, I'm concerned. I'm concerned about money. I'm actually amazed when we are at the end of the month and still have housing and food. We are blessed and always have what we need. I pretty much refuse to put my children in daycare....sooo another 4+ years without a second income could pose a problem. And then there's the issue of school..we would love for them to go to a private school and that costs money.


I'm concerned that a third child would upset this awesome balance we have as a family of four. I LOVE my two little bugs and they are such a great friends. And we have a double stroller....where would the 3rd baby go? We'd need a new car, new apartment/house...a tummy tuck.....


If we were to go for it, I would rather do it soon and get the diapers and sleep deprivation over in one shot. Also I love the spacing of my first two (26 months apart). AND it would be awesome to have a brother or sister for the both of them to adore. A little Campbell tribe sounds appealing.


How did you know you were done? How did you know if you wanted to add another bundle to your family?

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Whew!

Where have I been?!

Seriously...how do I recap almost a full year? I'm a terrible blogger. It's true. Also an incredibly busy mother of two, WIC peer breastfeeding counselor, childbirth educator and doula... WOOT! Yup. I'm a doula. It's pretty amazing! I took a CAPPA childbirth ed and doula training last fall and have been on a roll ever since. Birthing women rock. After a birth, I'm on a high for days. Really, truly an awesome experience and I'm so privileged to be a part of it.

So, what's new? ...Nope, I'm not pregnant. (at least...I think I'm not). .. now that I've said that, I should probably take a test. ... jk. Really, I'm not. This summer is going to be fantastic. I'm going to be finally sending in all my certification paperwork instead of slacking on it like I have been and reading a gazillion more books on birth than I already have. Also will be searching for a great, comfy place to teach classes in ..(everywhere I look is either saturated with other birth educators - darn hippie Vermont- or is mad expensive). Hoping to UP my rates in the fall because...really, $500 for a doula's services really isn't enough... I know you are probably thinking, WHAT?!

$500 for a doula to come to my birth? How is that not enough? Well..... the first 250 goes to prenatal/back up. Rachel and I split it. So we get paid about $12 an hour for prenatal appts and $50 for being on call 24 hours a day. The second $250 goes to whoever attends the birth. Considering an average birth is anywhere from 10-20 hrs and then add on about 3 hours postnatally... you are making minimum wage to decent pay for the birth. BUT then factor in childcare, gas costs, parking costs, time away from home and.... you aren't doing so hot. SO hopefully, we can raise our rates a little bit and make some sort of living.

Fortunately, I LOVE doing this work and would do it for free if I could.

The kiddos are AMAZING. I'm convinced that I have the smartest, sweetest, most adorable children in the world. For anyone that follows my facebook page, you've been kept pretty current. If daily photos aren't enough, I'm not sure how I can please you.

Anywho...I'm going to actually go now because my attention span is about as long as goldfish's now that my life is crazy busy. I've got way too much on my plate and I'm not sure this blog will see me for quite some time again..it might turn into a dumping ground for all my photos of the babies and facebook might see some major editing.

Should I take a poll? Should I resurrect this blog?

xoxo

Saturday, January 7, 2012