Your Local School Board

The local school board publishes a calendar full of lots of usefull info about the schools, and of course, multicultural awareness.  For example, for the month of May, here is the list of important days:

Wesak
International Day of Families
International Day Against Homophobia
World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development
Victoria Day
Declaration of the Bab
National Missing Children's Day
Ascension of Baha u Ilah
Asion Heritage Month
South Asian Heritage Month
Speech Language Hearing Month

Mmmm.   See any familiar North American "holiday" missing for May?

Absorbant Minds

(How can I change the background colour of the typing area?  Not what shows once it's posted, but right now, the background is dark grey and I can't see the cursor).

Back at Christmas Meg was having a lot of trouble with getting to sleep.  Most nights she stayed up on the couch with me, while I watched TV.  I chose shows that were okay to watch while she was there, but hopefully, not too engaging....like Dr. Oz.  What 5 year is going to watch, and absorb, Dr. Oz at 11:30pm?

Meg.  That's who. 

Last night I was cleaning her toilet with some cheap  children's shampoo.  She asked why I was using that shampoo.  I said cause it was cheap and not a good shampoo.  She says "Yeah, Dr. Oz says not to use watery type shampoo, you need to use creamy shampoos".

She can remember THAT, but not to not stand on the arm of the couch?!

Jason McCoy Concert

I don't remember listening to any particular type of music while growing up, we listened to just about anything it seemed. In high school, I was a strange mix of hippyness, rocker, 80s stuff, but no country. I had a good friend who did listen to/sing country and people teased him and called him "Dwight (Yoakum)" and "Randy (Travis)" and I never really understood who they were referring to. Later on, I started to date him, in June 1991, in the early days of "New Country" and I was in for some major eye opening...and ear opening, LOL. New Country was cool! The singers were hot! The jeans were tight! When we broke up in 1995, I kept listening to country, as well as popular music.

I don't know when I first heard of Jason McCoy. Surely I had heard of him before "The Road Hammers" (2005). Looking at his album/song list, his first was in 1989, before I knew about country. The first songs on the list that I recognize are from 1994-1995 (so why did he have a mullet?!) but I wasn't a big fan back then (I'll admit I wasn't; there was something holding me back...the mullet, the too slick sound combined with the mullet and forced styling?  Something just didn't jive with me.) The first song I really liked was "Still", from 2003. What a difference in those 9 years!

When I heard that he was having a "concert" here in Whitby, at a small dinner theater, I jumped at getting tickets. I had no idea what the show would be like...then I started watching his "Monday Minute" videos on YouTube and got more and more excited. It's a concert, but interactive. I still didn't know exactly what it'd be like until it started. We walked into the theater and to our table....FRONT ROW, off to the right. We later learned that it holds only 150 people for shows like this. Wow. The show is unlike a regular concert, and I suspect the small theater makes an impact too, much easier for audience interaction. We really loved the slide show of personal photos of his (and his wife's) youth. He's a great example of how you never know how someone will turn out during those awkward teen years, LOL. I wish I had gotten a photo of one of those screen shots, LOL. He started out singing along while his early videos played on the screen. It was awesome to see the contrast between the confident, handsome man on stage, and the young guy in the videos. I had guessed he was around my age, but watching those videos made me wonder when he had gotten his start, so I found him on Wikipedia and was stunned to see that while he was indeed my age, he was MUCH older than I thought in the early videos...around 25-27!
It just goes to show what an impact facial hair and dentistry can make! LOL (I'll admit I have a thing for country singers with facial hair....Tim McGraw and Gary Allan....oh my! Perhaps that's why I don't really remember Jason's early songs?).

Some parts of the show were interactive with video of other people. Here he is with Johnny Reid in the background. Now, you know he's not there live, and that Jason has done this "routine" at all the other concerts, but his personality REALLY shines and it sounds fresh and not contrived/routine at all. Jason is really funny! Not in a "Have you heard the one about...." but with a true love of life, ability to see life as funny, a quick wit, etc. Now, I will say, I was a little surprised at the number of seniors at the show, and perhaps some of the jokes about Charlie Sheen and Lindsay Lohan went over their heads, but everything else was funny. It was great to see him interact with the audience.

Here's a short clip of Duelling Banjos (despite that he's not playing a banjo):

It was a fabulous show. I would have loved to hear even more music, but getting to "know" him a little bit more was also REALLY, REALLY cool. Not to mention just getting out with Rob for the night, LOL. If you get the chance, check out his YouTube channel and watch some of his Monday Minutes! Even better, go to a show! I can't guarantee that it'd be the same in a large theater, but music is music and it will still be great!

Editing

Why is it, no matter how many times I hit enter to get a blank line, between paragraphs, none ever show up?!

No Need to Get Cranky

So, I actually got a comment on my last post. I can't get "copy and paste" to work, but you can go back to the last post and read it yourself. I've got it in a window so I can comment along... "Yu know those ebil monitors you and your ilk go on about--they would have detected a problem". Not necessarily. My last two births were monitor-free, so, Mother X, you can't assume she would have had a monitor on. Having an "ebil" (LOL, I think she means 'evil') monitor on probably did save my son's life, so to say I think they are 'ebil' just shows that you're here to troll and create controversy, because obviously you haven't read my birth stories! LOL. So, no feathers ruffled here (and gah, "ebil" is used more than once, and who is "your ilk"?). Monitors can be a very useful tool, but they are also over-used and studies have shown that they have probably led to more c-sections than were necessary due to poor readings and impatient doctors. If the labour is progressing normally, there is no reason to use a monitor continuously, and intermittent use doesn't always co-incide with when there is trouble happening. So, Mother X, to assume that being in a hospital would have prevented the death, shows that you have blinders on. Babies DO die in the hospital. "...people like you who refuse to see the benefit of medicine..." Oh, get real, LOL. Once again, her ignorance is showing. I have open files at 3 different medical doctors currently--cardiologist, endocrinologist, and family doctor. I used to have an OB/GYN and an internist before we moved. To say that I don't see the benefit of medicine would imply that I should have "let" my father die after his heart attack, or that I should ignore my hypertension, or that I should just suffer the consequences of Hashimotos Disease rather than seek MEDICAL attention. LOL. The woman wasn't having a home birth because she valued the "story" of her birth more than the health of her baby. She had a homebirth because for most of the world, it is the safe, normal, natural way to give birth. She had no indications that there would be trouble. Some women are willing to trust birth and accept any risks because they know the chances are so remote that there will be a problem. Other women won't accept even the slightest risk and feel that a hospital is the best choice (although it should always be noted that a hospital is NOT fail-safe). No woman should be insulted, belittled, or interrogated because of whichever choice she makes. Especially not a woman who has just suffered a loss like this. And, for what it's worth, I didn't SAY that Dr. Amy said that the mother had turned the birth/death into a spiritual event, I said that the mother had said that and Dr Amy interpreted it (to suit herself). So, my final comment still holds true. How is Dr Amy's post going to help the mother deal with her grief? How does it even further her "birth is a medical crisis" ideology? It's not about home birth vs hospital birth, Mother X totally missed that. The woman could have had (and many do) the EXACT same feelings about her son's death, no matter WHERE THE BABY WAS BORN.

Shouldn't Have Gone There....

In the natural birth blog community, there is a woman known as Dr. Amy. She trolls around, looking for home birth blogs especially, so she can 'make an example' of anyone who has the slightest trouble at a home birth. She is (was?) an OB, with 4 kids, but her head so is so far stuck up the medical model of birth that she has lost sight of what a normal birth is. I see reference to her on many blogs I visit, but I have refrained from actually checking her out myself. Until today. Argh. I wish I hadn't gone there. People like her are not interested in changing their opinion to one based on acredited, substantiated research. No matter what research you show her, no matter what your own personal experience was, none of that matters if it differs from her views. Sad. Her post I read today irked me: skepticalob.blogspot.com and scroll down to March 24 2011 (I don't want to directly link there case I don't want to get embroiled in anything). This post is about a woman (not a theoretical woman, but an actual, live, grieving woman) who had a homebirth and the baby died due to his arm pinching off the umbilical cord during birth, long enough to cause lack of oxygen. The mother feels that her baby's birth was not in vain--his 'job' was to faciliate her spiritual growth (interpretation by Dr Amy). Dr Amy called her selfish and immature and goes on to lambast the mother for making a choice to homebirth. I don't know anything about the cause of death, however, I do know that in a hospital, monitors are not always used, and if they were, they are usually removed during pushing (unless something was detected). I don't know how someone in the hospital could have seen inside the mother's womb to know that the umbilical cord was pinched. Dr. Amy does not provide any info on how to diagnosis this, prevent, or 'treat' this condition that is NOT limited to homebirth locations. All she does is pile her brand of dog manure onto the mother. Depsite Dr Amy's belief that women are planning their homebirths so they can star in their own 'show', I do believe that women want the best for their birth. When something bad does happen, they need to reconcile that in their OWN minds, and piling Dr Amy crap on top does not help anyone. How is that mother going to feel now? Better? Umm, no. (I still can't get spellcheck to work)

Strange Things in the Land of Oz

The kids are still not feeling well, so I'm downstairs again to watch my soap....I'd much rather record it and watch it later without commercials. Instead of channel surfing during commercials, I'm cleaning, LOL, and blogging.

One show I can't stand to watch "live" (and it's on at a bad time anyway), is Dr. Oz. Now, I do quite like him and what he's doing for health awareness, even alternative health practices. However, after what he just showed, and said, I'm not too sure anymore.

On March 11, he did a segment about incredible 911 calls. The first one really was incredible (a woman who got the call for a lung transplant, but when she got on the highway, there was a traffic jam and she risked running out of portable oxygen and the short window of time to get there). The second call irked me SO much though. And because it's a fairly routine occurance, the misimformation that was given is much more of an issue than if it had been an odd incident. What was the 911 call about?

A woman giving birth in a car. In one way, I think that's great--minimal interventions! However, the 911 operator told the dad to take his shoelace and tie off the umbilical cord (to prevent transference of the mom's blood to the baby). Gah! Gross! If that wasn't bad enough, Dr. Oz's response was unbelievable. He actually said that doing that probably saved the baby's life. What? The baby was already crying! If anything, he put their lives AT RISK!

A few points...it's becoming more common now to let the cord stop pulsing before clamping it. This allows baby to get ALL the blood possible from mommy. It's a GOOD thing. There are people who actually leave the cord attached to the placenta until after the cord naturally detaches from baby. They keep the placenta wrapped up and elevated above baby for a day or so. This is called a lotus birth. Same call it hooey, but whatever, as long as it's kept clean, it's probably not harmful.

What IS harmful is the use of a potentially dirty, grimey, floor dusting string to sever the intimate connection between baby and momma. Picture this...shoelace has invisible germs, it's cinched tight around the cord, perhaps breaking the membrane and coming in contact with blood. Where's that blood going and what is hitching a ride? Ewwwwww.

For a great read about this topic, check out the ever imformative Navel Gazing Midwife. Also check out the Unnecesarian for a post, and read the comments and then read the follow up post. Apparently it's pretty difficult to change the official protocal, they won't take info from experts that are not in the academy of 911 dispatchers. Dumb. So, if you know someone who is a 911 dispatcher and would be sympathetic to this cause, let them know their advice is outdated and unsafe and give them the links so they can pass on real info to their academy.

I'm just so surprised at Dr Oz's reaction to this, how wonderful it was, a great idea. Did he not check it out at all? Did he not even think about it for a few seconds?

(I can't seem to get spellcheck to work....hope it's all okay!)