April is C-Section awareness month.  

Each year when it rolls around I am reminded that I was blessed to have 2 little farm boys in my life.

Those boys very well that might not be here if it wasn't for the fact,

 that God gave someone the ability to perform this life saving operation.  

I'm not here to debate your stance on a woman's birth choice....to each their own.

But really folks (ladies, especially) there is no need for the mommy shaming!!  Having a baby is having a baby no matter which way the baby leaves your body!

As I read the various articles & the following comments posted around the web,

it reminds me of the comment made after the birth of our first son by a female family member 

(who has never been pregnant or given birth in any manner)...

because I didn't have him "naturally" then I didn't really give birth....

umm ok...sorry but what???  

I don't remember you being at the hospital through my labor...

honestly I'm pretty sure you didn't even come visit us at the hospital.

So where do you get telling me how I should have delivered my child???

An emergency c-section was best for him...it literally saved his life!  

His cord was tied in a true knot so with each contraction and each push I was cutting off his supply line.  No one can convince me that my husband and I made the wrong choice...

I'm not a medical doctor and even though my husband has delivered literally 100's of babies (calves, people) in his life time...he isn't either.  When our doctor said this was what was safest for me and the baby...we believe him and trusted him...where we scared?  Yes!  Where there lots of silence prayers?  YES!  But we knew that God's plan was far greater than ours.  

Fast forward 5 years...we were facing the birth of our 2nd son.  We knew far in advance that a c-section was a possibly.  I on the other hand was determined to have a VBAC.  Let's just say...God's plan and mine rarely collide.  You can read more about how that turned out here.  

Now we are just 10 weeks and 2 days away from meeting our little girl.  We are going into this knowing we a c-section is on the horizon (unless this farm girl decides to arrive on her own, weighing in less than her brothers).  

Am I nervous?  Well if there is a pregnant lady out there who isn't nervous about her impending delivery (whichever method it may be) who isn't...I'd like to meet her.  So yes I'm nervous.

Yes some parts of me still long to labor and deliver "naturally." But I'm also at peace with the decision we have made.  I pray about it regularly and I know that whatever the "birth plan" is that God is in control and His Will shall be done.  

So to all the mommas out there, no matter how or where you deliver....you are doing a great job!  God has entrusted you with growing a life and hopefully you look to Him for guidance in all aspects of pregnancy, delivery and motherhood.

May God bless you & keep you!

Caci

Tomorrow marks the end of the "official" summer season for many.  For us down here it seems like summer just showed up last week.  We have had an unseasonably cool summer with lots of rain.  Which is good for many but is a double edged sword for farmers.  

Our church celebrates homecoming the 1st Sunday of September each year and this year was no different.  Today brought friends and families home to our church to worship and fellowship together.  I hate that our family had to miss the fellowship time as our oldest has caught a stomach bug.  He spilled his cookies twice before service started (once in the church parking lot) so William took him to his parents and the baby & I went to service.  I had to teach children's church today otherwise we probably all would have headed out and not gotten to see anyone. 

As I look back over this summer season smiles come to my face, tears to my eyes and joy & sorrow to my heart.  

We began summer by heading south to Florida to attend my nephew's high school graduation.  

We were able to spend some much needed time with my sister and her family plus take the boys to the ocean.  

  It has been a whirlwind 8 weeks.  I went back to work part time at about 5 weeks.  

  I have had to adjust to having 2 boys instead of just one. 

 We have started up our busy time not only on the farm

 (planting, cutting silage, working cows and calves, etc) 

but also life in general has been more busy.

  Baseball (or T-ball in our case) has begun, Vacation Bible School planning is in full swing, along with planning for our Miss York County Livestock pageant and our fall livestock show.  

On top of it all this baby experience has been very different from Wyatt's for a variety of reasons but the number one reason is because Waylon is EBF or exclusively breastfed.  I tried breastfeeding Wyatt however it only lasted about 6 weeks and even that was a struggle.  Wyatt was supplemented prior to leaving the hospital, but that's not what hurt and ultimately ended our breastfeeding.  This time around I was determined to make breastfeeding work, not only because it's a healthy option and considered the best option but also because I'm cheap and breastmilk is free.  

There are many days (especially in the evening) that I feel like one of our milk cows.  

I am either pumping

 or nursing for 4+ hours each day, 7 days a week. 

 I secretly sometime envy the cows because they only milk approximately 15 minutes a day, their food is delivered to them, it doesn't matter if they leak milk everywhere, and no one cares if they spend the majority of their day napping in the sun. 

 But then again they don't get many options life and they can't shop, search Pinterest or share a million baby photos on Facebook ...so a cow's life isn't that great, but it's pretty comfy.   

If you are a breastfeeding mom you know there are some pains associated with nursing that you don't expect.  There is also a learning curve for both you and the baby that no one ever seems to tell you about.  Since I live with a lactation consultant of sorts I assumed he could address many of my questions.  Boy was I wrong!  Just because all mammals give milk doesn't mean we all do it the same way!  

  

This week has been a hard one for the livestock industry.  

Earlier in the week HSUS released an animal abuse video reportedly taken on a swine farm out West.  

The video is very graphic and disturbing.

After much thought and reading other blogs I decided I would cover this as well.  

First let me say we do NOT condone this type of behavior from anyone in the livestock industry and firmly believe that they should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.    You can view the video here if you would like.  

Like all industries we have bad apples and agriculture works diligently to get rid of them.  I am appalled by the behavior in this video and the person who videoed it!  How do you allow that to happen and not speak up?  If you are honestly trying to protect the animals you speak up... you don't let it continue and you definitely don't sit on the video for months prior to releasing it.  

So how do we ensure that we are caring for our livestock on our family farm?

The first thing is we have a discussion with all new employees on how we expect our livestock to be treated and the consequences for not treating livestock properly.  We also have implemented low stress handling techniques that are required to be used.   My husband and I have been working to create an on farm livestock handling guide that would be given to all employees including family members.  

We provide food, clean water, and shelter for all of our livestock.  At least one person visually checks on all the dairy heifers, dry cows  sheep and horses daily.  Beef cattle are checked in a rotation (2-3 times/week) as we are a family farm and don't have the man power to check every single cow each day (cows are scattered in pastures from one side of the county to another).  The milk cows are given a once over twice a day by at least 2 people many times its 3 or 4.  And last but not least are our dairy calves...they are checked on when we feed them twice a day.  In addition to all of our daily inspections our vet also comes out once each month to go through the dairy herd with us.  This helps get an extra set of eyes on the cows, heifers, and calves.  We go to great lengths to ensure the health and productivity of all of our livestock.

To show you the lengths we go to on our family farm look at the pictures and descriptions below...