Being Sara

In the past year several friends of ours have produced children. Starting last July, kids seemed to be popping out all around our circle of friends and family. The latest edition was born at the end of May, and with her birth, I started to wonder about how frequently c-sections are used these days.

Counting myself, I personally know six women who have given birth in the past year. I realize that this is a very small sample, and it is in no way random. However, out of the six women who gave birth, only two did it naturally. Everyone else had a c-section. The reasons for c-sections were all different, and only two women went to the same hospital - some were north of me, some south, one in Pittsburgh, PA and one in Nebraska (both the out of state babies were born by c-section).

Although my personal experience can’t be extrapolated to the rest of the world, it seems like 4 c-sections in my small circle of friends is a pretty high anomaly. I’m curious about any other mothers who read this blog, and what their birthing experiences were like - and those of their friends in recent years.

In google searching this topic, I uncovered an interesting blog post from Health Mongers. The statistics they list show that c-sections in the US reached a record high of 29.1% in 2004, though they don’t say what that number increased from. Their theories about the reasons for more c-sections are interesting, though I’m not sure that I agree with them, I guess I’ll have to do more of my own research. It’s an interesting topic though.

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I’m sure that I don’t say often enough how lucky Xander and I are to have Zach in our lives. Father’s Day happens to be one of the times when we are reminded to acknowledge all of the father figures in our lives. One day a year just doesn’t seem like enough sometimes though. Zach is an amazing father. After a long day of work, he comes home with a smile on his face and kinds words for his son. Though I know all he wants to do is unwind in front of his computer sipping a beer, he plays with Xander and helps me get started on our evening chores (dinner, bath, bed for Xander, along with laundry, dishes, and general cleaning up for us). Xander makes it well known that he loves his father - every time Zach walks into Xander’s line of sight, the boy lights up, gets a huge smile on his face, waves his arms and babbles excitedly. This reaction never fails to remind me how much Xander loves his father. One of my favorite father-son scenes in our house is brushing Xander’s teeth. Zach does this every morning, and every morning Xander hates it. Zach patiently explains that it does not matter if Xander doesn’t want to have his teeth brushed, it’s not up for discussion, it has to be done. Xander doesn’t agree with this, and every morning they go through this little dance of disagreement. It’s very cute to watch. I am confident that as Xander grows, Zach will continue to be a wonderful role model and support and ultimately, I don’t think I could have found a better man to be the father to my children. I’m so grateful for the men in my life, and now seems like a perfect opportunity to reflect on that. I hope that all of your fathers and husbands enjoy their day and get a big thank you from you for all that they do!

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I’ve gotten a little behind in blogging these past few weeks. For regular readers, I apologize. There are two factors in my tardiness. First, I’m out of new pictures. Several months ago while Zach and I were on vacation in Las Vegas, we lost our camera. We immediately replaced the camera, and although this new camera likes to take pictures, it hates to give them up, and we’ve been having a heck of a time getting pictures off the camera, hence no new pictures.

The much larger distraction however, is the fact that my job has been cut back to 1/2 time. If I were independently wealthy, this would be great. Unfortunately, Zach and I rely on our combined salaries to keep our world afloat. So, my spare time has been spent searching for ways to make up the lost income, or find a new job. This hasn’t left me much free time to blog unfortunately. So, if anyone out there has any suggestions on how to make money on the side (I’m not really in to waitressing, etc.) then please let me know! And, I promise to try to squeeze some blogging time in soon too

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