I would much rather be teaching art now than making a birth plan!

   I am 32 weeks pregnant today! At my last midwife's visit I was asked about my Birth Plan. Well, since I have been through this routine 3 times before I never thought that I needed it. Since none of my previous births went as I envisioned I would rather just "wing it". With Funky Monkey, I had envisioned a peaceful birth, surrounded by people I love, in a privacy of my own hospital room, with the whole thing lasting no more than few hours from start to finish. Well, was I wrong. The labor lasted over 30 hours, I spent 2.5 hours pushing, ended up with whole bunch of interventions, and there were more people looking at my nether regions than I care to discuss (they must have had about 15 different students coming and going, and all of them wanted to see how everything was with me).

   With Girly Monkey, I was expecting the return of last birth experience, except at home. I was very scared going into it and little hesitant about having a home birth. I imagined giving birth in the pool with very little pain at all (after all, last time I was drugged up so I hardly knew what real labor felt like). The truth was that my water broke on it's own in the middle of the night at 4 days past my due date and my whole labor lasted 9 hours. Contractions started soon after my water broke and they intensified quickly. I did spend some time in a pool, but when I went to use the washroom I was too much in pain to get back. I started giving up at some point and even tried to bribe the midwives to give me drugs. I was very scared of not knowing what came next. I ended up pushing for a while on the toilet and then shuffling over to the couch where it took over an hour to push my little girl out. It was not at all like I planned.
   My last birth was even further from my Birth Plan. This time I thought that Little Monkey would take the same amount as Girly Monkey to show up, that I will probably deliver on couch again, and that it will take about an hour of pushing. Nope, I was wrong again! My water broke at 12:30 in the afternoon, and contractions started right after. This time I wasn't scared of labor so my fears didn't hinder me. The labor lasted only 4.5 hours and I was ready to push. This time I was able to get into my birth pool and deliver in water. Unfortunately, Little Monkey got stuck and he ended up being pulled in a hurry. I only pushed few times but I later found out that it was shoulder dystocia and that it was an emergency situation. He entered this world very bruised and swollen.
   After 3 very different births you can see why I am hesitant to have a Birth Plan. When my midwife asked me about the Birth Plan I just said that I wanted to not expect anything and go with the flow. I told her that my births were all so very different and that I would rather not plan anything except for the fact that we will have a home birth. She was a little shocked by that and said that I should have one just in case we have to transfer to a hospital. She mentioned that hospitals like to have a birth plan so they know what mamas-to-be wishes are. OK, I can see that, but that still doesn't mean that it's easy. For me once I make a plan I want to stick to it, and how can you stick to something that you have no control over?
   I did have few things that were on my list. I told my midwife that I didn't want any interventions unless they were necessary (by necessary, I mean life saving for me or my baby). I want to have a natural, unmedicated birth without continuous fetal heart monitoring, drugs, episiotimies, or IV's. I want to have my baby with me right after delivery, delay clamping of the cord  and breastfeed right away. I don't want eye-ointment for the baby (since it's to prevent eye infection in baby whose mom might have STD, and I don't), but I consent to vitamin K shot, and newborn screening. I also reminded my midwife that I tend to "bleed a lot" or hemorrhage after delivering my babies so I will require 2 shots of oxytocin and active management of placenta delivery. But beyond that I really don't want to make any plans. If this baby will come faster than Little Monkey then there will  be no time to fill the pool. If I feel like I need something, then I will decide on it then. Right now I would not like to think about all the labor wishes since it makes it seem more real, and with all the Braxton Hicks contractions I have been getting I am really worried that I will deliver early. I am not ready yet!
   So instead of thinking about Birth Plans I would much rather teach art to my kiddos. We have been looking at Georgia O'Keeffe for 4 weeks now and our last picture was called Sun Water Maine and it was a wonderful melange of colored lines representing ocean waves. This painting was recently sold for 2.2 million dollars, yet it's simplicity speaks to how beautiful it really is. So I got the idea to use Georgia's style for our painting study. Here is a simple instructions if you want to follow it:

Georgia O'Keeffe art instruction

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Materials Needed:
a photograph of a landscape with lots of layers (feel free to use my photos just please link it to here)
water color paper
water color pencils
water,
small and medium paintbrush.

Instructions:
Step 1
Find a photo with lots of contrasting layers. Here is an example of my photograph that we used:

or you can use one of these:

Step 2
Use a pencil and mark all the layers. Copy these marks onto your water color paper.

Step 3
Using your water color pencils color in the different layers of your picture. Keep in mind that most layers will have combination of many different colors layered on top of each other. Don't be afraid to use more than one color per layer.

Step 4
Once your picture is filled in and all the layers have distinctive coloring it's time to paint with water. Using small brush for thin layers and medium brush for thicker layers slowly paint over the water pencils with wet brush until all the layers in the picture have been painted over. Let it dry and sign your name.

Monkeys loved this activity. Here is the results of their efforts.