DoulaMamaWolf

 Hi all!! So this is just a quick update to keep you all on the same page as far as my blogs/websites/Youtube/career goes, I've been changing around a lot of things and am waaaaaaay behind on keeping you all updated, so here it all is: Consolidating Blogs I have decided that 3 separate blogs was just too hard to maintain, I'd often think of posting and then realize I should update ___ blog first, so I would just never get around to posting at all. That doesn't work for me (or you guys)! So, Blogger has this nifty feature where you can export all existing posts and upload them to a different blog, so that's what I did. All blog posts from thenovicedoula.blogspot.ca and themarrieddoula.blogspot.ca have been moved to this blog, this means some posts will have broken links or may reference this blog as something different from where it was originally posted - please feel free to ask me to edit them if it really bothers you, or just scroll on past if the info i...

Of course, I have taken forever, yet again, to update!  As you can expect, lots has happened in the past several months, including.... Seeing Our Baby for the First Time... Again at 19 Weeks.... Finding Out She Is a She... Revealing Her Name... Practicing for Tandem Nursing... ... And Getting Married (at 30 Weeks Pregnant)!! I am now 31 weeks pregnant and gearing up for the birth of our little girl - a planned home water birth! I am almost prepared, supply-wise, and am getting ready to prepare emotionally for the beautiful marathon that is giving life. As I again approach this huge undertaking of love, I expect I'll have a lot of emotions that will relate to my doula journey, so I hope to update here more in the coming weeks. In the mean time, please enjoy my Youtube videos, including my Birth "Wishes": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvHeuROAta4 Also can be found on my Pregnant Doula blog: http://thepregnantdoula.blogspot.ca/2015/06/28-weeks-my-birth-plan.html And my rel...

Hello, and Welcome to the Novice Doula! This is post is going to be a bit different, as my plans are suddenly very different! It has been over a month since my last post, majorly because we were busy moving during November, and just as we were settling into our new home in early December - surprise! While we have been trying since May 2014, between irregular cycles due to still breastfeeding Roo and few "baby making times" during the move, we were really not expecting a positive test so soon. Life has a funny way of working things out when you least expected! With this sudden change of plans, I've decided to stay firmly in the "novice" stage of my doula journey - for now. I'll be taking this time to enjoy these last few months just my son & I at home, and also planning another great surprise... So many big changes this year for our family! My amazing, wonderful man dropped down on one knee the moment we heard our little love bug's heartbeat for the f...

~          ~          ~ My doula was available through text or email any time in my pregnancy or after his birth, but we didn't meet up again until he was about 3 weeks old. She offered to come to my home, to make it easier on me in those early postpartum days. She came in the evening, and she immediately fawned over how sweet he was, commending me for doing so well at nursing so far (he of course needed to eat immediately after her arrival). Then, she pulled a few small things from her bag... Gifts! I hadn't been expecting anything, but her thoughtfulness touched me deeply. She also then gave me the photos and videos she'd taken, letting me save them to my computer from her USB, and again told me how memorable  she had found my birth experience. She told me that I could look at the photos at any time, but she greatly encouraged moms to wait 6 months to a year before watching videos, so that your memories formed from the things you ...

Welcome back to The Novice Doula! I feel that my doula was a HUGE help & support for me in labour, as well as a guiding force for why I ultimately decided to become a doula myself. I wanted to share my experience with her, and what techniques she used that were extremely helpful for me - while I know every labouring mother is different, and I will need to learn many other skills, I want to remember how these things helped me, so I know what I want my labouring moms to feel when comforted by me. Last post, I shared my birth story - my favourite memory, the day my beautiful son was born. In that post I did mention some of the things my doula did for me, so please scroll down to read that post if you haven't already. Today I'll be going deeper into my doula's involvement, and how she affected my labour in the best way possible. I met my doula at 37 weeks pregnant, outside a little coffee shop, sitting outside on the shaded patio. Immediately I got a very professional but m...

Welcome back to The Novice Doula! Today I wanted to share my birth story, as I believe this was the moment I realized I loved birth - the intensity, the calm before the storm, the beauty, the mess, and the incredible love in the moment a mother sees her child for the first time.  This is my beautiful belly at about 37 weeks. I went 4 more weeks after this photo, to have my son at 41 weeks 1 day. For most of my pregnancy, I truly believed in letting a baby come when they were ready, and in the end I was grateful to have a support system that encouraged me to stick with this in my most vulnerable moments.  My original plan had been a beautiful, serene home waterbirth in my living room with a midwife team, but the end result was a beautiful, serene, perfect hospital birth due to moving and needing to find a new practitioner late in my pregnancy - I ended up finding a wonderful doctor that was completely on board with my natural birth plan, even when my certainty wavered and I sug...