"Have I now become your enemy
by telling you the truth?"
Galatians 4:16

Archive of ‘Parenting Pregnancy’

Christianity at Work - In Jail

Pro-Life Apostle Still Saving Babies Behind Bars
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/sep/08092516.html

“Talking to Show the Truth leader Rosemary Connell from prison on Sunday, Gibbons noted that a piece of pro-life literature sent to her in a letter saved a baby’s life. ‘Linda said women will often sit down with her as she opens her mail,” Connell told LifeSiteNews.com. ‘A woman watching her one day last week saw the pamphlet and told Linda that she was pregnant and planning an abortion because ‘the CAS would take the child anyway’.'”

“Connell concluded, ‘Linda talked to her and gave her the pamphlet. The next morning she told Linda that she had changed her mind and is letting the baby live.’”

Bristol and Levi: Parents-in-Training (Pictures)

Isn’t this an AWESOME photo?? A teenage boy doesn’t just do this unless he REALLY cares.


Bristol Palin’s Boyfriend Levi kissing Baby Trig (in Bristol’s arms)


Little Piper with her soon-to-be Brother-in-law and her Big Sister


Bristol happily holding Baby Brother During Sarah Palin’s Speech

I see Bristol and Levi as a young couple in love. They had been planning to get married anyway, and just because they (wrongly) jumped the gun and are now expecting, that does not mean this is a CRISIS pregnancy. How do we know how they felt about the baby? I never did understand how pregnancy is a shock to people (unless they don’t know where babies come from), although I realize people sometimes DO feel “shocked”. Maybe Bristol and Levi were worried at first, especially before sharing the news, but then became happy because their families were supportive, and they have a good excuse to be together. These days, even marriage before twenty-five is frowned upon.

The pro-abortion left is bewildered because the Christian right is not outraged. They cry, “Hypocrites”, but they just do not understand. They do not understand forgiveness. They do not understand love. They do not see new life as a blessing. And they do not see children as gifts from God.

I am reminded of these verses:

“Then said Jesus, ‘Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.’” Luke 23:34

“This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live.” Deuteronomy 30:19

“He shall gently lead those that are with young.” Isaiah 40:11

For many more Sarah Palin Family Pictures, click here and scroll down.

http://parentingfreedom.com/category/politics-sarah-palin/

Photos found at Yahoo and Google.

Sarah Palin: Mother and First Female Vice President (Pictures, Children, Parenting)

(Scroll down for 40+ pictures of Sarah and Family)

My grandmother was conceived in 1920, the same year that national women’s suffrage finally came to America. My grandmother, living in New York, is now 87 years old, and at last, after all these years, a woman will be elected Vice President of the United States. Governor Sarah Palin is not just any woman. Governor Palin is a woman with Christian, conservative family values and principles. She brings hope and enthusiasm to this election with her strength, character, and courage.

Sarah Palin is obviously one very intelligent lady. She became mayor and then governor and cleaned up her state and even her own party while maintaining a very high approval rate.

She has respect for all life - born and unborn.

I love that Sarah embraces her role as a mother and does not hide her children or view them as inconveniences. I am very impressed with her belief in mother/child togetherness. She takes her children to work, breastfeeds, and wears her baby in a sling. It seems that Sarah’s husband plans to homeschool with distance education.

Strong, healthy women CAN have it all, but keep in mind, they are not necessarily DOING it all. Most women ARE working women whether in or outside the home. Some delegate the cooking, dishes, laundry, and cleaning to hired staff, and replace it with talking with people, paperwork, and giving speeches. Either way, a woman can still be a devoted wife and mother - as long as she stays connected to her children. It seems that Sarah Palin has the energy, strength, and courage to be a wonderful vice-president, while at the same time, she will continue to be a great mother to her children.

Gov. Mom
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/01/AR2008090102998.html?nav=rss_politics

“Palin has carefully portrayed herself throughout her career as someone committed to both family and profession — and tough enough to handle both. She made a show of dismissing the chef at the governor’s mansion saying she wanted to do her own cooking, and that the kids were old enough to make their own sandwiches. And no one can recall her ever having a full-time babysitter.

(I understand that before this time, she did have a nanny when her oldest children were little.)

‘You walk into her office and Piper is sitting there, the baby is in the crib — that’s just the way it is. This is how she lives her life. Someone who was in a meeting with her recently said she was discreetly nursing Trig,’ said Palin’s biographer Kaylene Johnson.”


Sarah and Piper in the Office


Baby Trig with Mommy and Daddy

“From interviews with those closest to Palin emerges a description of a hectic lifestyle, but one in which the hominess and rural community of Alaska have enabled her to have her kids around her while she works and have offered a deep bench of family and friends for child-care support. She has shown up to meetings and news conferences carrying Trig in a baby pouch.


Sarah Working with Baby in Sling


Happy Baby / Happy Mother


On the Job with Trig in a Baby Carrier


Sarah Babywearing

“She and her husband kept their family house in the small town of Wasilla, where her parents, three siblings and closest friends live. Most of the year, she is able to commute back and forth from Anchorage daily, except when the legislature is in session in Juneau. Todd Palin is currently on leave from his job as an oil field worker, making it possible for him to be a full-time dad, said two friends. Sarah Palin’s mother said in an interview Sunday that Palin’s two youngest girls, Willow and Piper, attended school in Juneau for the second semester last year when the legislature was in session to be near their mother. The baby was also with Palin. 


Sarah Holding Trig At Work


Sarah Palin Working with Baby Trig

 “Even in the story of Trig’s birth, Palin paints herself as feisty and fearless. She told the local media that she noticed her amniotic fluid was leaking right before she gave a speech in Texas last April. After her keynote address to the National Governors Association, and obtaining the consent of her doctor, Palin boarded an eight-hour flight to Anchorage. She never told the airline she was in labor. She and her husband drove 45 minutes to her hometown medical center; the baby was born seven hours later.”

I like the fact that she didn’t treat pregnancy as an illness. I think it was awesome that she gave a speech after her water broke. I thought I was pretty smart in shaving my legs, labouring at home for the first 24 hours of a 26-hour labour, and going for a walk around the hospital just before giving birth. But, obviously, I am no Sarah Palin.  :-)


Sarah Palin Giving a Speech During Her Pregnancy


Sarah Palin Expecting


Sarah, Pregnant with Trig

I also think it is awesome that Sarah Palin had another baby at 44 years of age.

Sarah Palin chose life for her son even though 90% of prenatally diagnosed babies with Down Syndrome are killed before birth in the United States.

“The McCain campaign said it could not confirm that Palin was still breastfeeding Trig, but the governor said as much in a interview with People magazine on Friday. “What I’ve had to do . . . is, in the middle of the night, put down the BlackBerrys and pick up the breast pump,” she worked into an answer to a question about whether she was a morning person.”

“Palin kept her pregnancy secret for seven months, stunning even her staff with the announcement. She pointedly said at the time she would not miss work. ‘I had Piper on a Monday, and I was back to work on a Tuesday. I even brought her to work with me,’ she said, referring to the birth of her daughter.”

Again, this demonstrates great strength. Sarah has wisely chosen the kind of work that enables her to have her children with her. There are so many photos of Sarah and her daughter on the job.


Working with Mom


Daughter Piper with her Mom (on the job)


Staying Close to Mom


Working with Mom Can Be a Lot of FUN!


Working with Middle Daughter Willow


Piper Having More Fun Working with Mother


Piper working with Mom


Sarah and Piper Palin


On the Job with Mom


Piper Helping Mom at Work


Piper Working with Mom Sarah


Piper and Sarah Palin


Sarah and Daughter Piper


In Mother’s Arms When Sarah is Speaking


Working Mom


Working without Neglecting Her Child


Sarah and Daughter Piper at Work


More Fun at Work


Family Working Together


Sarah Palin Taking Care of her Child

John McCain & Sarah Palin on Shattering the Glass Ceiling
http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20222685,00.html

“Sarah Palin, in ruby red peep-toe platform heels that showed off a pink French-style pedicure, first ducked into a holding room to change the diaper of her just-up-from-a-nap 4 1/2-month-old son, Trig.”


Sarah Palin with Baby and Future President and First Lady

SARAH PALIN: “Morning person. Yup. We don’t sleep much. Too much to do. What I’ve had to do, though, is in the middle of the night, put down the BlackBerries and pick up the breast pump. Do a couple of things different and still get it all done.”


Sarah Palin with Baby and Blackberry

“As a new mom, how are you going to juggle all this?”

SARAH PALIN: “I am thankful to be married to a man who loves being a dad as much as I love being a mom, so he is my strength. And practically speaking, we have a great network of help with lots of grandparents and aunties and uncles all around us. We have a lot of help.”

“So will your husband be on leave now indefinitely to be Mr. Mom?”

SARAH PALIN: “I would say so, yes.”

Her husband is a capable full-time dad. As vice-president, she will also have a huge staff. And she will be able to continue having her children with her.


Todd Palin and Baby Son


Sarah Palin with husband Todd holding Baby Trig


On the Job with Sarah
Todd Palin holding Daughter Piper


On the Job with Sarah
Todd Palin holding Daughter Piper


Older Photo of Palin Family
Todd Palin Holding Piper

“Mr. Palin, you have this tiny baby with special needs. Do you worry that people may wonder if she’ll be giving short shrift to her family?”

TODD PALIN: “She’s heard that her whole life – the challenges of being a female and mother in the work force. I remember the first time she ran for mayor one of her fellow council members told her you can’t run because you’ve got three negatives: Track, Bristol and Willow. Those are the three kids we had at the time. So when you tell her that kind of stuff, she just gets fired up. We’re an Alaska family that adapts.”


Supportive Family
Sarah’s Oldest Daughter Bristol Holding Baby Brother Trig

The daughter who is pregnant is seventeen years old. My grandmother married at seventeen, and my mother married at sixteen, and I had my first date with my husband at fourteen. I think Sarah’s oldest daughter will love being married and having a baby. I think she will also love being the daughter of the first female vice-president. The young man Bristol plans to marry was homeschooled. Sarah said, “We’re proud of Bristol’s decision to have her baby and even prouder to become grandparents. . . . Bristol and the young man she will marry are going to realize very quickly the difficulties of raising a child, which is why they will have the love and support of our entire family.”


Sarah’s Middle Daughter Willow Holding Baby Brother Trig


Sarah’s Youngest Daughter Piper Holding Baby Brother Trig

CINDY MCCAIN: “I disagree with anyone who would say she can’t do both. Any woman who’s been in a situation where they are working and have children know that you give 300 percent; no one will be slighted in any of this, least of all her baby. She has a lot of energy, she’s a woman with great drive and great vision.”

“Mrs. McCain, do you even remember the last time he changed a diaper?”

CINDY MCCAIN: “No. And I’m not sure he does.”

JOHN MCCAIN: “Heh-heh. I remember. There’s some experiences you never forget.”


Todd and Sarah Palin
(Note Baby in Sarah’s Arms)
John and Cindy McCain


MCCAIN/PALIN 2008

For many more Sarah Palin Family Pictures, click here and scroll down.

http://parentingfreedom.com/category/politics-sarah-palin/

Pictures courtesy of Yahoo and Google.

Baby Survives Miscarriage

Premature baby ‘comes back to life’
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull&cid=1218710394816

“When she gave birth after going into premature labor at the hospital, the doctor on the scene pronounced it dead and it was taken to the morgue.”

“The father, Ali Majdub, told Channel 2 that his wife realized the child was alive after asking to see her dead daughter one last time.”

“‘When we unwrapped the baby to see her, she realized it was moving. I began screaming and ran with it toward the doctors,’ he said.”

“She was then rushed to the neonatal intensive care unit,
where doctors are fighting for her life.”

Update:
‘Stillborn’ Baby Found Alive in Morgue Fridge Dies
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,405961,00.html

Home Yard Birth

Calif. mom gives birth on front lawn by herself
http://www.star-telegram.com/467/story/832292.html

Pregnant Skeleton

If “a woman has the right to do what she wants with her own body”, then what’s up with a second skeleton nestled in her womb? Two bodies, two sets of unique DNA and fingerprints.

EXPECTANT MOTHER
Name: Unknown
Age: 18-25

“This mother-to-be died sometime between 1700 and 1850 with what is thought to be her first child still in the womb - the slender size of her hips suggests that she had not given birth before.”

“She was only 22 weeks into her pregnancy at the time of her death, so she probably succumbed to an infection rather than complications relating to childbirth.”

“The skeleton of her foetus is one of the youngest ever found in British archaeology and has been recovered with each of its minuscule bones intact, though the skull, which does not fuse until a child reaches toddler age, is in pieces.”

Found here:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1039417/Dead-men-tell-tales-Skeletons-reveal-secrets-owners-tormented-lives.html

Unborn Babies in Action

Shake it Baby! Arms, Legs, and Movement
http://www.yourdevelopingbaby.com/sampleChapters/7.htm

Baby Shower Gifts

My sister-in-law is expecting her long-awaited first child. I don’t know what choices she will end up making, but I did my best in trying to influence her toward attachment parenting. ;-)

Here are the books and things we gave her as soon as we found out she was expecting.

I also gave her a printed book-form version of all my parenting essays and collection of parenting Scripture verses. (See header or sidebar.)

And a pink baby outfit and a blue baby outfit.

Here are the presents my mother, grandmother, and I gave her at her baby shower the other night. I am hoping she will choose babywearing over using a stroller, so I wanted her to have a couple choices:

Zolowear Sling (Blue Paisley) (with DVD)

Ergo Baby Carrier (in Black with Camel) (with DVD)

Ergo Backpack (Diaper Bag) (Black)

Ergo Front Pack (Black)

Ergo Infant Insert (Camel)

And probably most of all, I am hoping she will choose to listen to her baby, instead of letting her baby cry it out. We gave her this brilliant DVD that helps to educate mothers about understanding their babies’ communication skills.

Dunstan Baby Language DVD

Cell Phones and Pregnancy

Cell Phone Use During Pregnancy Can Seriously Damage Your Baby
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/06/03/cell-phone-use-during-pregnancy-can-seriously-damage-your-baby.aspx?source=nl

I wonder if it is the phone that is the problem, or if it is the stress of the actual conversation or lifestyle.

Unborn Babies Feel Pain

The Unborn’s Silent Suffering
http://www.zenit.org/article-22688?l=english  

“The uterus is a protected, but not an isolated, environment and touch is the first sense that the fetus develops. By week 10 of pregnancy an unborn child can be observed bringing hands to its head, opening and closing the mouth, and swallowing.”

“As well, recent experiments show that newborns have functional memory, development of which began in the period before birth. The authors note that, in fact, newborns remember tastes and odors perceived in the uterus and these perceptions might have an influence on future preferences. Sounds, also, are heard by the unborn, including the mother’s voice. Newborns have even been shown to recognize music that the mother listened to during pregnancy.”

“There is evidence, they observe, that acute or chronic pain, or even prolonged stress, can be dangerous for the fetus, especially if it happens during a critical period of brain development. Possible negative effects range from a lower pain threshold to an increase in age-related memory impairments.”

“Based on experiments with primates, the article hypothesizes that fetal pain can even impair the functioning of the body’s immune system, with long-term implications for infections and autoimmune diseases.”

“Regarding stress, the authors cite a study on a group of mothers who suffered stress and compared them to a control group. The babies of the stressed mothers were characterized by a lower birth weight, smaller head circumference and a lower gestational age at birth when compared with the babies of the control group.”

“Maternal stress is very much related to the development of the fetus.”

“A better knowledge about prenatal conditions and the development of the fetus will bring with it a perception of fetal life as something precious, resulting in greater respect for the developing embryo and the woman bearing it, she argues.”

“The article started by citing the experience of Kanwaljeet Anand, who while a medical resident in a British hospital saw the significant harm caused to premature babies when they were operated on without anesthetic. At the time, 25 years ago, doctors thought the nervous systems of the babies were too underdeveloped to sense pain.”

“Through trials, Anand clearly showed this was not at all the case and that once the babies received anesthesia the mortality rate dropped from 25% to 10%. Pain relief for premature babies soon came to be standard, the article said.”

“The New York Times article acknowledged that the question of whether the fetus does feel pain has obvious implications for the abortion debate. In fact, medical evidence is showing they do feel pain, and as time goes by researchers are pushing back more and more their estimation of the age at which the fetus is affected by pain. “

“Admitting that a fetus does feel pain, however, is difficult for abortion advocates, as it is just one more bit of evidence proving how wrong they are about denying the unborn a chance to live.”

Morning Sickness

Pregnant? Say Good-bye to Morning Sickness With Ginger
http://www.mercola.com/2005/apr/23/morning_sickness.htm