Tori's Blog
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Labor Pains and Lindsay Lohan
Monday, August 17th, 2009
I am finally back in the loop. What with vacation in a “non-tech” environment, changes at Harvard Common Press’s big blog server in the sky and my own personal computer upgrades, I have been away from the keyboard. Now back at 100%.
Which is more blog worthy? The fact that Lindsay Lohan’s new movie, Labor Pains is so bad that it went directly to Disney TV or that The Joy of Pregnancy is not only in the movie, but being visibly held by...
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Sadness
Saturday, July 25th, 2009
We are heading back to California tomorrow—we were planning on staying longer but some important things came up and we are going back quite a bit early. It has been very emotional for Alexander and I to be leaving and has reminded me again as to how we handle change and disappointment with our children. Our job as parents is frequently to help them deal with their own emotions of sadness, anger and disappointment, either large or small.But we are...
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A Loss That is More Than A Loss?
Monday, July 20th, 2009Last week two year old twin boys lost their mother. Maria del Carmen Bousada died of a tumor in her native country of Spain. The boys will never know or remember their mother. This isn’t a typical kind of tragic loss – the particular situation with this family is that Maria was 69 years old. She did not adopt the boys. She was the one of the oldest known women to give birth.
In 2006 she came to a well-respected California...
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Fox 17 Morning News Interview: Diet During Pregnancy
Monday, July 20th, 2009
Last week I was interviewed on the Fox 17 Morning News in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I’d like to take my next couple of blog posts to address the things we talked about. The newscaster and I initially discussed how diet and exercise should be approached during pregnancy. Check out these blogs for more discussions on healthy eating during pregnancy.I hear this question a lot and interestingly enough so long as you are eating within the nutrition pyramid you are in...
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Internet Connectivity
Monday, July 13th, 2009
Argh – I have been offline intermittently for the past 2 weeks. My family and I are in South Haven Michigan on Lake Michigan for several weeks. Until this summer we had only dial-up Internet, which was simply torture. Although we are on the lakefront and near a good size community, our immediate area is very rural. It takes 10 minutes off the main road onto a windy dirt road to get all the way out to us.In years past...
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Egg Donation For Stem Cell Research
Monday, July 6th, 2009
Last week every major newspaper reported that New York has become the first state to allow taxpayer-funded researchers to pay women for giving their eggs for embryonic stem cell research. In the recent governmental shift of supporting embryonic stem cell research this is a development welcomed by scientistists world-wide. However, it has received harsh criticism by opponents who fear that it will lead to the exploitation of poor women.
It is an interesting discussion. For years, women have been paid for...
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The Delicate Balance of Life and Death
Thursday, July 2nd, 2009
I don’t like talking about the sad and difficult aspects of birth. But these two stories struck me and made me want to again bring up the simple truth that the birth process is not inherently simple and safe and the balance of life and death is delicate. We have to be careful not to put more emphasis on the “experience” rather than the “outcome”. Although these situations are vastly different they both show the precarious nature of bringing life... -
Class Reunions
Monday, June 29th, 2009I have been away from here for a little over a week although it feels like even longer than that. The funny part is that I truly have been without an Internet connection for this entire time. That sure doesn’t happen often anymore. Either the WIFI signal was out or the dial-up wasn’t working or something or other. I have been traveling to the Midwest, specifically Ann Arbor, Michigan to attend one of my high school reunions (the number of...
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Happy Father’s Day
Sunday, June 21st, 2009
My dad is an incredibly awesome man. He is honest, straightforward, funny, really, really smart, lives with complete integrity and has always had a twinkle in his eye. He raised all girls (four of us) and has had the joy of having three grandsons. Today, I honor him and want to include some thoughts about dads that I have collected.“My dad taught me girl things and boy things, but mostly he taught me to believe in myself.” Elsa
“My father is...
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What Are “irregularly regular” Contractions?
Thursday, June 18th, 2009Yesterday, I attended a birth that had been pretty long for the mom. She had experienced a couple of days of mild, irregular and annoying (her words) contractions before labor really kicked in. What I was struck with was that she really had managed her labor by separating the “engine is warming up” portion of it (early labor) with the “engine is in full-gear” portion (active labor). She tried to be as normal about her day as she could even...
