5 Ways to make it through the Holiday Season

Christmas time is my favorite time of year even though I don’t bake all that well, I’m not an awesome cook, my decorating skills are limited… 

I grew up in a family, that celebrated Christmas with the decorations & food galore. Holiday parties around the clock, even my Uncle came dressed up as Santa on Christmas Eve to let us open one present early. My mother always hid all the presents in a box by the door ( as if she were mailing it to a friend) and I had no idea until I was a teenager! Ha, she was good. 

We always had a manger that was quite big and we covered the baby with a blanket until Christmas morning. Every year we had a different advent calendar with a small scripture, gift or surprise.  

My favorite part of Christmas, when I lived up North was the snow.  My goodness, do I love snow. Now living in the South, it's quite different without it.  No mittens with dried ice on them and having to hang them by the fireplace to drip dry. No hot chocolate after hours of sledding and making igloo's.

However, what I have for Christmas is family & friends! Time with those I love is the most important thing to me about Christmas.  If it wasn't for my family, children and grandchildren, I don't know what I would do!!!

Taking on too much, expecting too much, or putting pressure on yourself will make for a very stressed holiday.

Jesus is the reason for the season. Let's not lose sight of that!

Here are 5 simple ways to make it through the holiday season.

1. Prepare, Prepare, Prepare ahead of time. Don't wait until the last minute to do your shopping. I like to start early, so I don't I find myself in a tizzy!  I even wrap the presents and put under the tree. First of all it makes my heart happy that I have something to give and Secondly, it's done early!

2. Enlist Help. I am horrible at putting the tree up and especially those lights, oh dear those lights...  I always ask someone to help me with the Tree! If you need someone to help you shop, ask! Someone likes shopping, even if you don't.

3. Pray. Find what works for you, an advent calendar, a prayer book or just put some instrumental music on and start with thanking the Lord for all He has done in your life. Prayer will get you through any situation with Grace abounding.

4. Relax. Take some time just for you. After all the decorations are up, I love to turn off all the lights except the tree lights and sit and just breathe. Maybe meditate on some words of encouragement, maybe listen to music. But just relax my body. What a better time then at Christmas time.

5. Enjoy. Enjoy your family & friends, if you can. If you have loved ones that live far away, use Facetime or Marco Polo. The technology today can help you stay in touch! 
  
  If you can, make extra time to spend together going to the movies, baking cookies. 

Now that you have all your busy work done, you can enjoy time with friends and loved ones!

Home Birth vs. Hospital Birth

Over the past few days I have been having a conversation with some young women about the choices in having babies, so I decided to share my story.

I had my first child 25 years ago. It was my first and I really didn't know the options out there; plus it was 25 years ago... EVERYTHING is different now!

HOSPITAL BIRTH
I decided to have the baby in the hospital. I took the suggested Lamaze class and I ended up having an epidural. At that time the epidurals were different, as it did not work! It was quite a painful process, however it was my first birth and home births at that time were not very popular at all. We had quite a few complications with equipment, the epidural didn't work...Despite all the complications, I birthed my first beautiful baby girl! Her grandparents were sooooo excited!

HOME BIRTH

Three years later I was pregnant with my second child. I decided to check out my options. Home births were still not the popular choice, however, I found a midwife and she specialized in Bradley. I am not sure if you know the difference between Lamaze and Bradley, however there is a huge one! Lamaze taught me to focus on something other than my body. It taught me to distract myself as best I could with strange breathing techniques. Bradley on the other hand, required that I have a coach and practice 20 min. every single day until birth, along with attending a weekly class.

I can tell you that having this baby at home with Bradley was a beautiful experience, other than the fact that my daughter was flipped the wrong way and upside down and finally after we fixed that little problem, the cord was wrapped around her neck three times. The Bradley helped me to focus on my body, intentionally working with my body and the contractions. It forced me to trust my coach and midwife; when they asked me to begin to relax each and every muscle in my body. I listened and along with the practice was able to manage the pain. It worked so well that when I was told that I could not push for 45 min. I was able to manage that as well. 

My sweet baby came out not breathing and Momma began to pray. No one was concerned except momma of course! I asked the midwife to pinch her or do something!!!! She finally pinched her little foot and a cry released! It was the most joyous moment, a beautiful little girl! I then was taken to the bathtub with candles and the baby placed in my arms for a mommy & baby bath. Had I had this child in the hospital, they would given me an immediate caesarean.

The next child was born, again three years later with the same midwife. Absolutely no complications and the Bradley worked excellent. I even let the older child watch as the baby was born, even thought she can't remember. lol She was a beautiful little girl. 

Four years later, pregnant again, I decided to work with the same midwife. Things were going well. However I had to have a nurse come over once contractions started and administer an i.v. I can't recall the reason, but things went smoothly... until I found out the midwife was out of town! I quickly, because I did not have a plan B, called hospitals and found one that would even allow me to have a hospital midwife and the entire family in the birthing room the entire time. This time, and I believe it was due to the fact that over time my body had changed. I was not as physically, mentally strong as I was with the others. I decided to have an epidural. This time it worked. 

JUST FOR KICKS
On a side note, with the first three babies, I did not have an ultrasound to find out the sexes. Actually I did not have an ultra sound at all, due to the things I had heard about them. With the last child, I decided to have not one, but three. All three said that this little darling was another girl. Well, to surprise us all, it was not a girl! It was a boy!!! Even the doctor had tears in his eyes when the baby was born. I can remember, due to not preparing for a boy, when I first saw him, I thought "she" had a tumor. Come to find out it was a very swollen little boy area... Once we realized it was a boy the entire room screamed with delight! He was our little baby boy we all prayed for!

I am not an expert, but I do have experiential knowledge and my suggestions, is to listen to your own body and make a decision for yourself on what you want. Not what others want for you, but what you want and what you think you can handle. Lamaze did absolutely nothing for me. Bradley was a life-safer, as it really helped through the painful contractions. #lamaze #bradley #homebirth #contractions

I hope this helps you in some of your questions and choices during your special time of life - having babies!