Jen, Karen was my midwife for SIX of my children. 6. You are welcome to your opinion as is everyone else and I suppose that is the operative word...opinion. Everyone has one. Everyone will. Only a few people know the facts. I don't even know the facts except that I know Karen. And I know she did everything humanly possible to save that baby. Period.

Were you there? Do you know the FACTS about what happened or are you just reading the articles and going by heresay? Have you spoken to Karen? Have you heard her side? How about the mother of this precious baby? All you people so quick to judge and persecute Karen w/out knowing the FACTS or knowing HER just make me sick. :glare: And with that, I will excuse myself from this thread as it is making my already crappy Mother's Day weekend 100x worse. :auto:

That's exactly it. Dad yelling at the kids to "be nice to Mom" and the kids looking at him like, "Why? This is how we always treat her!". :glare: Dd14 has been working on something for me and so I will have to pretend to be excited about tomorrow for her sake. Honestly? I would just like to sleep in, drink my coffee w/out having to get up and fix breakfast for somebody else, referee a fight or change an almost 3yo's diaper. No breakfast in bed, no gifts, no bells or whistles.

why I hate Mother's Day. :glare: It's the one day a year when dh tells the kids "today is Mother's Day. You need to be nice to Mom today". So, today, dh has spent half the day putting in a new A/C window unit...only to have a part break as he is putting the front cover on. :glare: So, now dh is not in a real patient mood. The kids are not being "nice" and dh, wanting them to be nice b/c it is Mother's Day weekend, is not being so patient with them. I've spent the morning sweeping and mopping floors, doing dishes, fighting with a washing machine that keeps giving me the bleeping F/H error message (we have ants in our plumbing somewhere and they are probably clogging up the works somewhere) and fighting kids who are saying, "I'm bored"...in other words "entertain me". So I gave them chores. :D And they weren't too happy and let me know. So now they are grounded. And tomorrow isn't going to be about me...2 of my kids have birthdays next week and want to go to my Mom's to celebrate. I feel like just screaming..."If you can't be respectful and pleasant to me every other blasted day of the year, please don't do me any favors and do it just b/c it is Mother's Day!" :glare: Sorry to vent...I've just had it. I'm sick of reading about Karen and how she is this horrible person and shouldn't be practicing and yadda, yadda, yadda and I'm sick of kids who have to be TOLD or guilted in to being nice to me just b/c somebody instituted some random day to celebrate Mother's. Okay, rant over. Thanks for listening. For those of you having nice weekends and doing special stuff for Mother's Day....I do sincerely hope it is a great day for you.

Cool! THanks, Texasmama! I love your set-up. My laundry room is also my office/schoolroom and it would sure be nice to have shelves and a place to hang clothes.

Oh TexasMama...pics please? :D I've yet to tame the monster. I just made friends with it. :lol:

I guess I missed the post about Karen waiting to call b/c she knew she was not licensed and that might have put her at risk. Ummm....NO WAY NO HOW! 2 of my births with her were transports (my choice, no emergency)...one to a MD hospital where she is not legal to practice with only a CPM license. She NEVER once put herself first before my health of that of my baby. Karen is a very self-sacrificing human being. It angers me to no end that some people would think she would risk a baby or mother's life just to cover her own rear.

Here is what bugs me: "Carr ALLOWED the baby's head to remain in the birth canal". I'm sorry. She ALLOWED? If I know Karen, and I do, she was working feverishly and doing everything humanly possible to get that baby out safely (without breaking it's neck or otherwise maiming it). That comment leads one to believe she was sitting there forcibly holding the baby's head inside the birth canal. Please. :glare:

:grouphug: I'm sorry. Thanks for sharing it with us so we can celebrate her birthday with you. :grouphug:

I don't know if she made mistakes or not, to answer a pp's question. I wasn't there! Being a human being and fallible, I'm SURE there were mistakes made. What it boils down to is this: This mother WANTED a homebirth...desperately. Why? I don't know. Karen has safely delivered 40-50 breech babies. I'd say that qualifies her to do it. Should she have been practicing in VA w/out a license. No. But out of the goodness of her heart, and not so much the good sense in her head, she decided to help this woman have the homebirth she wanted when nobody else would help her. Karen did not kill this baby. Period. Tragically, this baby died. Some babies do. At home, in hospitals, in birth centers, etc. A pp said the sentence is laughable. Yes, it is. It is laughable b/c she SHOULDN'T HAVE HAD TO PLEA TO ANYTHING BUT PRACTICING W/OUT A LICENSE! :angry:

Praise God! Get some sleep. I plan to do the same now that I know you are ok. :grouphug:

Can't sleep for worrying so I am praying instead. Please update when you can. :grouphug:

Carrie, long story. When Karen arrived, I was in the tub and the water was, um, "dirty" from um...well...you know what happens when you are pushing. :tongue_smilie: She thought it was meconium. That, coupled with the bleeding and not getting a good read on baby's heartrate b/c I was in the water, was cause for concern and she had dh call 911. In the time it took for them to get there, she was able to get a strong heartbeat and my son was already on his way out. EMS stuck around to make sure baby was ok...and he was. No reason for transport. I wasn't there in Alexandria that night and so I don't know all the facts. I am going to speak to Karen tomorrow and now that it is all over I'm hoping to hear it all from her.

Ugh..again! OK...now I understand. Geesh..must get to bed!

Carrie, I must have posted as you were...I'm so sorry if you lost a child in similar circumstances. :grouphug: My post was not in response to yours.

Hindsight is always 20/20. I KNOW Karen and she simply does NOT mess around if a baby or mother is in danger. Baby's head was stuck for 20 min in birth canal...so what if she called 911 after a minute, 2 minutes? What could untrained EMS workers do that she couldn't? They are NOT trained in childbirth! We had called an abmo during my last delivery b/c I was bleeding during labor and Karen was concerned. They got there as I was pushing and looked utterly and completely clueless as to what to do. One of them looked at Karen and asked, "You got this?" and she rolled her eyes and said. "yes". They stuck around "just in case", chatting in my living room. Anyway, as for trying to revive baby for 13 min. before calling 911...Karen's main focus was that baby. Why isn't anyone questioning why the FATHER of the child didn't call 911? It makes my stomach turn that Karen had to plead guilty to these charges, but she did it to save those parents more grief and pain having to go through a long trial, etc. Wow...I'm sorry. I didn't mean to go on like that. Karen is like family to me and I can't stand hearing her name dragged through the mud.

Sediments in the screens...makes sense. I'll have dh check that out, after I google how to do it so I can tell him. :glare: Thanks!

Wow. Just wow. Beautiful. I'm not often speechless, but wow. I am now.

Praying! Please update when you can. I'm so worried...

We have a well. I have noticed our water pressure lately is not what it should be. First it was the bathroom sink. Then it was the kitchen sink. Now, my HE washer is giving me that stupid F/H error which means that the washer "thinks" there isn't enough water coming in. Too coincidental for all these things to be separate issues, kwim? My dh is no plumber and neither am I. Anybody know what could be causing this? Toilet seems to flush fine and the shower hasn't been causing problems either.

Oh Nakia! :grouphug: I am struggling with the same feelings lately. Please give yourself some grace. You are not a failure at all. Praying for you my friend.

JC, do you have a sling? I would try wearing baby. That way your hands are free, you can nurse on demand and baby gets all the cuddle time she needs right now. Teach older kids how to use sling, too. :D I saw on your FB that she was finally liking the swing. That's good. Keep trying with that. And as a pp said, make sure she gets full during each nursing session. :grouphug: This, too, shall pass....more quickly than you might want since Meg is your last.

Thanks everyone. I try to keep them separate for math and la. We do phonics lessons separately, in separate rooms. Ds8 is ahead of dd5 by one Singapore guide. He is in 1B while she is in 1A. I really don't think we are dealing w/ dyslexia but vision tracking...I don't know. He CAN read. He is just not fluent and has difficulty. He has improved and IS constantly improving. I'm not worried about him so much as I am just worried about the comparisions that he seems to be making btwn himself and dd5. Dh and I NEVER compare them and we always encourage ds8, praise his achievements and his efforts. I don't know what to do about the HOD guides. Ds8 hates doing ANYTHING with dd5...history, science, art, etc. We can't even read the same bedtime story anymore. It's crazy. Chris, I do like your idea of different read-alouds. Perhaps my dh can read one to ds8 and I can read with dd5.

Here is my dilemma. I have a very bright and advanced 5yo. She is reading well above her age level yet has had very little formal instruction. She's just always LOVED books, being read to, etc. Every now and again, we go through The Reading Lesson, but mostly we just read, read, read. Dd5 has a super-sharp memory and that aids in her reading ability. Read it once and she has committed it to memory. Math is much the same. She picked up a Singapore 1A workbook I was "saving" for her and did about a dozen lessons...on.her.own. Her handwriting is the only thing that is what I would consider "normal" for her age, kwim? Okay, so then I have my ds8 who is also very bright but struggles with the very things that come soooo easily for dd5. Reading is a chore. He tries so hard but he struggles. He can read a word fifty times and still have to sound it out every single time. Make sense? I don't think he has any vision tracking issues, but I'm not dismissing that. He is okay with math...it is easier for him than reading. Handwriting is getting better...much better...but is still a bit illegible and sloppy (typical boy, IMO). I was combining them both in HOD LHFHG this year but both complained that many of the activities were "babyish". And, ds8 hated (I mean really hated) doing schoolwork with his sister. He really resents her. My heart breaks for him b/c he tries soooo hard and really WANTS to read. I also don't want to hold dd5 back just b/c ds8 is "jealous". I was going to move them both into HOD Beyond asap b/c skill-wise, that is where they BOTH place. However, I'm really feeling like I need to separate them. Does any of this make sense? How can I make this work? Combine yet separate? How can I boost ds8's confidence w/out holding dd5 back AND keep them in the same HOD guide? If you have read this far, thank you. I'm really struggling with this. FWIW...I would really like to continue using HOD with them. Thanks. :D

Aww...you just have such a tender heart...you are not a wimp! The real-life challenges and tragedies that have befallen many of our beloved Hive members and/or their families have kept me up many a night. :grouphug: And if it helps, you can pretend we are all cartoon/fictional characters. I'd like to be Wonder Woman. Only way I can get everything done that I need to get done. :D