Home Hypnobirth Number Two - Featuring Mr. Chubby Cheeks Ryan

This was baby number 3 for me. I took the Marie Mongan hypnobirthing classes before I had my first. He was born in the hospital using nitrous oxide for pain relief. It wasn't a bad birth by any means but I did have many moments of fear, mainly of the unknown, that caused things to be more painful than I think they could have been. I also followed medical staffs advice when it came time to push, instead of listening to my own body.

Baby number 2 was born at home with a midwife after reviewing my hypnobirthing materials; it was an amazing experience.

So, here we were with number 3. I didn't re-read the hypnobirthing book this time but I did listen to my affirmation and rainbow relaxation tracks nearly every night from about 15 weeks on. I also drank 3 cups of red raspberry leaf tea a day, by the end of the pregnancy. I exercised throughout most of the pregnancy and saw a chiropractor for the last month and a half. I felt great, best pregnancy so far.

I was feeling confident and excited about this babies birth.

We were set up for another homebirth with the same midwife as last time.

I had the fairy lights up in the bathroom and around the bed. I had my affirmation cards printed and hung up. A little "Birth, Nailed It" onesie hanging in the bathroom. Newborn pictures of my first two babies in view and the new babies tiny little cowboy boots on the windowsill; all to give me motivation if any tough moments hit.

I had been nesting for a solid two months and every cupboard and drawer had now been re-organised (according to the Marie Kondo method) and every baby supply I may possibly need was in place. I had newborn and 0-3 month clothes for both genders washed and ready to go in a tiny dresser. I even had the perfect first pair of pj's set out for each gender. I was ready!!!!

Fast forward to a week past my due date. Everyone was pretty anxious about when this baby was going to come, everyone but the birthing team that is, we were all just patiently waiting.

I work out with a group of ladies at the local church in town. Since the time change (4 1/2 weeks prior) my kids hadn't been getting up early enough for us to go, and to be honest I wasn't super interested in working out anymore anyway.

Well, this particular day they got up early enough that we could go for part of the time. Dillon (my 4 year old) had been asking to "go to the church to play" nearly every day. So we went down and just hung out.

My friend asked me if I wanted to go hang out at her house while Dillon was at preschool. I knew the only thing waiting for me at home was a dirty kitchen, so in an effort to avoid that, my 2 yr old (Hayley) and I headed over there. We sat and chatted, mostly about babies and pregnancy.

At 10.45 am I had a contraction and thought, yep, that was different, there was definitely some downward pressure with that one. At 11.15 am it was about time to pick the kids up from preschool. I had had about two more contractions by then. I said to my friend, "I think I should probably call Sam (my husband) and maybe my midwife too. Do you think you would be able to keep Hayley and pick Dillon up from preschool and keep them for a while?" I told her I would let her know how things were going.

So I called Sam from her house and told him he might need to come home. He's a cowboy and was scheduled to be gathering cows pretty far from home that day in a place that had spotty cell service. Luckily the plan had changed that morning and he was actually very close to home.

As I got in the car and drove off I had another contraction and another on the 10 minute drive home.

When I got home I called my midwife (Casandra) and told her I thought she better head our way as I'd had about 4 contractions in the past 1/2 hour. It was now 11.35 am. We live in a very remote area and she was on the road by noon, at the beginning of her 4 hour journey.

Sam called again to see if he should come home, I said he should.

I started busying myself getting the bed prepped for delivery but contractions were coming fast now, and intensifying, ranging from 2 to 4 minutes apart. I felt like the excitement of getting ready was intensifying them. No-one was there yet, I didn't want to have the baby alone, so I thought I better lie down to try to slow things down.

Cassandra also sent me a text saying to lie down and see if that changed them.

It did change them, but only in the fact that it made them painful, I could feel they weren't causing progress of my cervix. They just hurt instead! I breathed through them and waited for Sam.

He came home, checked in with me and said his plan was to clean up the kitchen and take a shower and would that work? I said yeah as I was handling the contractions and trying to hold off as long as I could so that Casandra would make it.

A while later I thought, yes I can handle this but it sucks, when I would stand and let my body do what it was supposed to the contractions didn't hurt. But Casandra wasn't there and Sam wasn't ready yet.

Tub, I thought, they say the tub can stall out your labor if you get in too soon, perfect! Sam ran it and I got in, I didn't have a contractions for 10 minutes and thought, great, it's working.

Casandra texted to see how it was going. We told her we'd tried to slow them down by lying down but they were still coming every 4 minutes or less and that I'd just got in the tub to see if that helped. The text was at 1.40 pm.

Pretty soon contractions ramped back up to every 2 to 4 minutes. The tub wasn't working.

I wasn't very interested in trying to hold them off anymore. So I pretty much asked Sam if he was okay with us having the baby alone and very soon?! He said he thought he was okay with that and what other option did we really have?!

He called his cousin (Rocky) who was set to assist the midwife at the birth. My last baby was born at night and I think we all fully expected this one to be too. Rocky was working and asked Sam if he wanted her to come home, he said "err, I'm not sure" she said "well, put it this way, how comfortable are you delivering your own baby?" He said "pretty comfortable I think" she said "okay, well call me if you need me, I can come home if you want me to"

Sam busied himself getting the bed ready and familiarising himself with the birth supplies.

I had been considering birthing in the water but didn't love the idea of being in there with all my own bodily fluids. I needed to go to the bathroom so I wanted to get out to do it.

The idea in my head was that I would do that and my water would break on the toilet too, like it did with Hayley. That would be a convenient way to contain mess. Then I would leisurely move to the bed Sam had prepped and have the baby there.

Ok, here we go... Sam helped me out and on to the toilet, pausing to work through two contractions on the way. I sat and did my business and then my water broke with a contraction. Perfect, I thought, now for the stroll to the bed.

The next contraction came and with it the babies head to the point of crowning. This is almost exactly how my last birth went and Sam was terrified I was going to have the baby on the toilet. I saw the same look in his eye this time too. This one was faster and the thought crossed my mind also, so I basically leaned off to one side with only one leg on the toilet, and was raised up on my other tippy toe, holding myself down there so there was no chance of the baby sliding out in to the toilet.

Last time I made it off the toilet and onto the floor on my hands and knees next to it and had the baby there. This was my new plan.

I remembered how hard that transition was and how it took a few contractions to get it done and two people to assist me. I knew I didn't have time for two contractions, so I basically bailed off the toilet onto the floor in one big effort.

Okay, time to have a baby. About two more contractions and the head was born. I felt the neck and the cord was loosely around it. I said "Sam, the cords around it's neck" he said "I know" I said "can you get it?" He was trying but my body pushed the baby out at the same time.

Sam said "it's a boy" the baby took one breath right away but didn't follow with another, if I kind of pushed on his chest he would take one breath but not continue on his own.

Sam asked how I was as I have a history of postpartum hemorrhage. I said "the babies not breathing right, I need the nose sucker" Sam had it out but not out of the packet. He had put plastic gloves on in his official role as baby deliverer, but now they were hindering him getting the bulb syringe out of the package. He finally tore them off and got into the packet. I suctioned his mouth and nose and Sam called Rocky.

She told us to stimulate his feet and kind of rough him up a little. We got him breathing well and both breathed a sigh of relief. He was still pretty purple, Rocky asked us to send her a quick video, we did and she said he looked great.

Sam and I suddenly thought we should see what time it was. As close as we could figure he arrived at 2.20 pm.

Now on to me, with my two previous births I had postpartum hemorrhages, the placenta needed to be pulled from the birth canal and I needed Pitocin to stop the bleeding. We had Pitocin on hand this time but I also had plans on how to try to prevent the hemorrhage in the first place.

I brought baby boy to my chest skin to skin and got into a squatting position leaned up against the bath. Hoping the skin to skin would bring on a contraction to birth the placenta and that gravity would help it along. It worked perfectly and I delivered the placenta within a couple of minutes of moving. I was so pleased.

We put the placenta in a bowl still attached to baby and moved to the bed so he could explore nursing. He latched on brilliantly and we settled in to wait for the midwife who was about an hour and a half away. The oxytocin from the nursing worked just as it should and meant my uterus continued to clamp down to keep bleeding to a minimum.

We monitored my bleeding and made a consultation call to Casandra. She said everything sounded normal, so we continued to quietly wait for her arrival. All three of us in disbelief about what just happened.

I snapped a quick picture and sent it to my friend Laura who was watching our two older kids. That was at 2.55 pm. Laura said she'll never forget thinking, I wonder if she is really in labor, and then receiving a picture of the baby. I know I was shocked too. I never imagined when I left her house that I would have a baby in my arms within 3 hours!!

Casandra arrived, obviously could see that all was well and we spent quite a while recounting the whole experience.

She checked me out down there, there were no tears or grazes and she said it didn't even look like I had just had a baby!

I settled back down to watch the cord cutting and newborn exam. We used a neat little rubber band for the cord instead of the nasty bulky plastic clip. Casandra checked him out and he pretty much slept through the whole thing!

Sam and I guessed he was going to be 8 lbs even. They put him in the sling and Sam lifted him. They said 8 and 3/4!! I was in shock, I said, "you mean, as in 8 lbs 12 oz?!" My first was my biggest at 7 lb 11 oz and my little girl was only 6 lb 11 oz, I couldn't believe how much bigger this boy was.

He continued to sleep and I got up to take a shower, which felt amazing! It had been a very hands on birth for me and I was covered in blood, pretty much from head to toe, with a little meconium smashed in between my toes for added measure!

Sam and Casandra cleaned up the bed and the bathroom while I showered. I put my glamorous postpartum panties and PJ's on and went back to a nice clean bed to snuggle with our new baby boy.

Sam and I had struggled to agree on a boy name, we were team green. So we had decided to go with the one I liked if Sam hadn't come up with another one we agreed on before the baby was born.

I knew he didn't like the name and it wasn't sitting great with me to make him use it. I told him we had till the next morning to come up with something. Being team green we had been calling the baby "it" for nine months and I was anxious to finally give him a name.

The next morning I was browsing a homebirth Facebook group and was feeling a little envious of people that had documented their births with a photographer. There was a post with a huge amount of birth pictures and I started looking through them. In there was a shot of the dad's feet; complete with painted toenails. The dad, Ryan, already had a little girl. It struck me that Sam's only little girl already had total control over him and will definitely one day paint his toenails. So the name of Ryan hit me emotionally and I wanted it for our boy. I googled it and saw that part of the meaning of the name was "noteworthy" and "significant". I certainly think his birth was noteworthy and significant. Sam and I talked about it and we actually agreed. So Ryan Gilbert Matheson it was.

There were so many little things that made it all work out so perfectly... That I decided to go to church to see everyone and Laura invited me over so I had the opportunity for her to watch my kids. That Sam's work plans changed that very morning so he was close enough to come home in time to set everything up. Finally that we had Rocky to consult with while Casandra was in the cell phone dead zone portion of her journey.

This was birth number three, homebirth number two and I have been so lucky to have had progressively wonderful births.

Our family is now complete and the only sad thing about that is I won't get to deliver another baby. Although with a labor that lasted 3 hours and 35 minutes from first contraction to delivery I would likely be birthing alone and I wouldn't want the experience without my wonderful husband present.

Sam said he had secretly hoped the midwife wouldn't make it so it was just him and me. Careful what you wish for babe!

Mission accomplished, Matheson family complete!

The Home Hypnobirth of Hayley

Hi everyone, this is very long, has a lot of probably unnecessary details and personal information, but there you go, that’s kind of how I roll!

This was my second baby. My first was born in a hospital using nitrous oxide for pain relief. I tried to use hypnobirthing for his delivery but often lost focus and faith in my body and my baby’s ability to birth comfortably. It wasn’t a bad experience but I did push for an hour and 20 minutes on my back with a nurse coaching me through forced pushing.

My goal with this birth was to avoid any pain relief whatsoever and to trust my body to know what to do and to follow its lead; especially when it came time to push.

We live in an isolated rural area with very limited facilities. The hospital has a protocol they follow very closely, mandatory IV and fluids and basically deliver how the doctor tells you to. They have two OB’s available but you are unable to choose which one attends your birth. I was not interested in fighting doctors and protocol during delivery and I didn’t much care for the one OB I did meet.

I was overwhelmed as I tried to search for an alternative place to have our baby that would be on board with our wishes; let alone understand the insurance and cost implications. The closest possible options were 3 1/2hours away!

I considered home birth and contacted midwives in Las Vegas (200 miles away) to see if they would attend, but none would. I considered taking my toddler to live in a hotel room in Vegas with me in June for a couple of weeks before the birth and have my mother fly over from England to help me, in which case I would call Sam (my husband) when I went into labor and just hope that he would make the 3 and a ½ hour drive and still get there in time! I considered many flawed and impossible options and finally resigned myself to the thought of having the baby in the local hospital and to enlist my polite, mild mannered husband to fight tooth and nail for my wishes throughout labor and delivery. I was very unconfident and quite depressed about the whole thing.

Then one nasty winter day a friend of mine dropped by unannounced to chat. My house and I were a mess, but I am so unbelievably thankful she came by. Our conversation came around to children and unbeknown to both of us we were both pregnant with due dates just 3 weeks apart.

I asked her where she was planning to have her baby. She said she has her babies at home with a midwife, I immediately asked for the midwife’s details! It was a little risky as the midwife team had a 4 hour drive to get to us, but they were willing to attend and the alternative for me was just miserable.

Yay, now I was once again excited about the birth of my baby. Sorry for the big long intro! Now to the good stuff…

I reviewed my hypnobirthing materials and religiously listened to the birth affirmations track and rainbow relaxation track each night as I fell asleep from about 14 weeks onwards.

At 30 weeks I started drinking 1 cup a day of red raspberry leaf tea, increasing to 3 cups a day by the time I delivered. I exercised four times a week through the whole pregnancy and felt great. I was still even attending calf brandings and castrating calves on my due date (I delivered the following day).

I nested like crazy for months, bought items for my birth kit from Amazon about daily and organized and re-organized my birth kit many, many times!

Birth Kit. Including a TENS machine that was never taken out of the box!

 

I had been having a lot of Braxton Hicks in the 4 weeks or so before delivery. I woke at 6am on the day of her birth and felt some slight cramping across my back along with the Braxton Hicks, this was a little different so I started timing them. They ranged from 8 minutes to 30 minutes apart over the space of three hours. I called Casandra (one of my midwives) to let her know and we went back and forth as to whether she should start her 4 hour drive. At 11am she decided to head our way. At about the same time the contractions slowed to 25 minutes apart, then 35, then 45 then down to one an hour. I was second guessing myself and feeling guilty and pressured because the midwife was coming. Sam, Dillon (our 2yr old) and I went to lunch with a group of friends and then I came home and showered before the midwife’s arrival, still only contracting about once every hour.

She arrived at 4pm and did a basic prenatal, blood pressure, fundal measurement etc. We discussed me taking castor oil that evening to get things going so she wouldn’t have to go back home without delivering a baby. I said I’d rather not take it that night and we agreed to revisit the possibility in the morning if things were not progressing.

She told me to take a nap while I could and she’d come back at 8.30pm to do some massage with essential oils and some other natural things to get labor going.

Sam and I took an hour long nap and got up at 5pm. Contractions started again and progressed inconsistently over the next 3 hours, some were 8 minutes apart, but some were only 25 minutes apart.

Casandra arrived back at 8.30pm and did a cervical check at 8.45pm. I was 4cm dilated which she said was pretty good, especially since my contractions were not at all consistent.

She did a gentle membrane sweep when she checked me and then she started applying some oils to my feet to get labor going. I had to get up and breath through contractions three times while she was applying the oils. She stopped and said she didn’t think it was necessary as things seemed to be progressing just fine on its own.

Sam called his cousin Rocky who had agreed to assist Casandra in attending our baby’s birth. He told her I was 4cm dilated and she said ok, I’ll have my phone on, just call me when you want me to come over.

I had to really concentrate on my breath and relax and envision my cervix opening with each contraction now, but I was coping with them just fine and they felt like intense pressure instead of being at all painful.

I started to really sweat and feel a little nauseous with each one. Which I thought was weird at the time because these were the sensations I felt during transition with my son. I didn’t possibly think I could be in transition yet! With the very next contraction I felt and saw my belly bear down and start trying to push my baby out. I told Casandra it felt like I needed to push on that last contraction. She said, “Well try not to, I doubt you are ready yet” I have since figured I had 7 contractions from the time she checked me at 4cm to this point. The next contraction I knew I had to poop and as I sat on the toilet and pooped my body pushed at the same time and my water broke. The time was 9.30pm. So I went from 4cm to fully dilated in 45 minutes and just 8 contractions.

This is the one and only time I panicked and felt pain during the birth. I failed to trust my body to know what to do and follow its lead, which was one of the main hypnobirthing affirmations I was planning to follow. My previous doctor had told me that pushing before full dilation could cause you to tear your cervix and that that was a big deal and hard to fix, apparently I had held on to this fear and let it in in the moment. I panicked that I might be doing just that!

I was still on the toilet at this point and still pushing with each contraction as I couldn’t stop it, but I was tense now and those couple of contractions were pretty uncomfortable. The midwife was able to check me, I asked if my cervix was out of the way and she said it was. Ok, I thought, I can get back on track now. I was still sitting on the toilet and pushing with each contraction and it took a couple more for me to regain my composure and relax. Casandra asked if I wanted to just do this right there. I thought, heck no, I don’t want to have my baby on the toilet, but I was not able to speak yet. Sam later told me that when she asked me that he thought “please don’t have our baby on the toilet” in the moment he didn’t say a word! ;)

We had planned on me having her in the bath, but there wasn’t time now!! I also had fairy lights up all around the bedroom and the bathroom with printed out birth affirmations and newborn pictures of my toddler. I never looked at any of it once!!

Affirmations - I am focused on a smooth, easy birth. Each surge of my body brings my baby closer to me. I trust my body to know what to do and I follow it's lead.

Affirmations - Each surge of my body brings my baby closer to me. I trust my body to know what to do and I follow it's lead.

She Believed She Could So She Did

Newborn pictures of Dillon and Hayley's cowgirl boots.

She asked if I wanted to move to the bed. I managed to squeak out “hands and knees” and with her and Sam’s help I literally flopped off the toilet on to my hands and knees next to it.

They were scrambling to get some floor coverings down and get towels for my hands and knees to make me comfortable, but I didn’t care, I was back with it now and knew everything was going to be ok and comfortable again. I asked them to take my pants off as they were still around my knees!

Sam called Rocky and told her she better come now. She arrived to the view of my backside with a baby very close to crowning. I knew she was there but wasn’t able to acknowledge her presence until after I had delivered.

With each contraction I could feel my baby gently descending and then retreating but making progress every time. I got to the point of crowning and Casandra told me to try to keep her head there, with a little holding push from me, the rest my body was doing on its own, I kept her there and she progressed out with each contraction after that. I felt down there and they said “can you feel that, that’s your baby’s head.” To me, it didn’t feel like a baby’s head, but I thought, I guess they can see it and know what they are talking about! She came out with her hand by her face just like her brother had. With Dillon the doctor pulled his arm out and I tore a little internally. With Hayley they didn’t interfere and I didn’t tear.

I delivered her head and they checked her neck for the cord which wasn’t a problem so I continued to push her out, she was already crying before she was all the way out. I gave one little conscious push at the end as Casandra said one more and she would be completely out.

They passed her through my legs and I could see her under me and I was holding her slippery little body. The cord was extremely short and I couldn’t bring her up to me; so as soon as it stopped pulsating Sam cut it. He took her while I birthed the placenta.

I wasn’t having any contractions anymore so the placenta wasn’t coming. After a while Casandra pulled on it gently to see if it was just sitting in my birth canal, which it was. It came out complete and I moved to the bed so I could get some skin to skin time with my beautiful girl and let her start to explore nursing.

With my first baby also my uterus did not contract on its own and I needed Pitocin to cause contractions and stop the bleeding. After using some natural tinctures the bleeding was still going so we decided to use Pitocin again, like last time this didn’t really cause me any discomfort and the bleeding stopped.

Hayley was extremely alert and very content. She took to nursing very quickly. We got to spend a lot of great time together, unlike in the hospital, there was no one hurrying us to have her weighed and eye ointment etc. administered. We were just able to hang out with Sam by our side.

Casandra and Rocky checked me for tears. There was one little spot that they both at the same moment described as a “skid mark” which made me laugh. I also had a hematoma inside about an inch long, but nothing that needed any stitches or further treatment.

I guessed she would weigh exactly 7lbs and Hayley weighed in just under at 6lb 14oz.

Our son Dillon is a total mini me of Sam and I’ve been joking throughout this pregnancy that I’m going to be upset if I don’t get my mini me. Well, she has a full head of dark hair and so far people say she looks like me; especially when she is making pouty or angry faces! ;)

Thanks to my midwives Casandra and Hannah, my husband Sam and my cousin-in-law Rocky for their awesome support and scrambling efforts as no-one expected things to go so fast.

I am so in love with my baby girl and my homebirth, it was amazing. I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Right after birth.

Hayley Margaret Matheson, 6lbs 14oz

Three and a half months of my life in a mere 1035 words!! ;)

So dad was making fun of the fact that I have named all of my blogs such and such morning, and joked that my next one will be named Idaho morning! Idaho? I hear you say, but you’re in Florida. Well we were in Florida, and due to be there until the middle of May. Yes, that was the plan, but in the ever changing world of Sam and Jess, that is no longer the case.

Due to a sequence of random events we have abandoned this plan and changed it entirely.

The background… As non students at the time we had to leave the Parelli centre for a month between our Fast Track course (which went very well by the way and resulted in final scores for Sam and I of 80 and 82% respectively!) and our Externship; the Parelli’s very kindly offered us a place at a close by property to keep our horses and park our trailer. The current tenants of said property have a questionable reputation and we decided not to stay there.

We asked Jennifer and Martin Black if they may be able to provide horse and trailer housing, they told us to come on over in their nonchalant way. This resulted in us having the opportunity to be involved in a two week long colt starting clinic, which was extremely educational. Sam is now a pretty talented bronc rider after a bit of a rough start! This opportunity rolled into a week long horsemanship clinic and now into a chance to go to their place in Idaho and then on to the Alvord Ranch in Oregon which runs around 3000 head of momma cows!

Sam left Florida to help take their horses to Idaho, I was left behind as Scoot was leased out at the Parelli ranch and wouldn’t be available for pick up until four days later, and consequently I had to drive across the United States with three horses in tow alone. Not the funnest prospect. One gets used to travelling with a fully qualified mechanic, not to mention tall, strong, good looking cowboy.

Day one of the trip resulted in a broken window grill on Mouse’s stall of the horse trailer, a broken rear window in the truck due to my superior lack of driving skills. When turning I jack knifed the trailer, not necessarily a problem, but it turns into one when you then back up just a little bit and smash the window of the truck with the nose of the trailer. Whoops!!

Upon arriving at the horse facility where I was planning to stay I found it all locked up with no one around. I managed to find an open gate into an arena and some stock pens behind that. So I snuck the horses in and put them in a dark corner pen where they couldn’t easily be seen. Ok, so now I just have to tape the window of the truck up, hope no one steals our shit and go to bed, right? Wrong!!

Now Sam’s horse is acting colicky (sick) he hasn’t drunk any water all day and been in the trailer for 12 hours, the problem is he wouldn’t drink then either because the water in Jackson, Mississippi is so nasty even the horses won’t drink it!

Anyway, so after taping the truck window, I walked Sam’s horse around for 20 minute sessions, made a few calls around to find an emergency number for a local vet, took a little one hour nap then got up again to check on him at 1am. Got to bed around 2 still not really sure his horse was doing well enough not to be monitored. Got up at 5am, luckily Sam’s horse was still alive, and got ready to leave as I wanted to get out of the facility before any nosey, money collecting, rule enforcing, members of staff showed up.

Not a great start to the trip. The rest didn’t go too badly, met up with Sam and the rest of the crew in Lund, they left 5 days before me but took a bit of a leisurely approach to the trip, unlike me who put in 12 hour driving days every day.

Martin, who did not travel with the crew, wasn’t a fan of the leisurely approach and as a result we left Lund at 4.30am the next day in order to get to Bruneau to get started on projects the same day.

Bruneau, the final destination of this particular trip is very close to the Snake River in Idaho, very beautiful area; this is home for about 8 weeks before we head to Oregon to go play at being cowboys.

The time has passed quickly with lots of projects to keep us busy, mainly fence building; we are now self professed experts. I can even advise you on how not to attempt to snap your body in half while lifting an extremely heavy rail road tie (keeper). If you were to wish to entertain your partner however, you may want to ask me to show you the correct technique on how to achieve near spine breakage; apparently it is a very entertaining thing to watch!! Why do I love him again? Oh yeah, because he’s pretty.

So we are just tying up a few loose ends here and then we will head to Oregon to rope and ride all day!! J

We will be there for a month and then we will head back to Colorado to the Parelli ranch to complete our 12 week Extern course, which our performance in our Fast Track course qualified us to attend.

The end of our Externship will mark over a year of living in an extremely small trailer, living the horsemanship education dream. The horses and Sam and I have benefited greatly so far, the same cannot be said of our bank accounts and I cannot be sure they will ever forgive us!!

What’s in store after the Externship? Who knows, certainly not Sam and I.

Disclaimer: I realise the above text may be grammatically incorrect in places, I apologise to the educated among you, but you’ll get over it!! J

Up Before the Crack of Dawn

So, I promised I was going to keep up on my blog for my father's benefit, and it seems I am writing one of these every month. Seeing as January is almost over I guess I'd better get on with it!!

My day started this morning with a 3.55 am, yes I said am, alarm going off. I know some of you were not aware that I could get up at 3.55 am, (I used to be one of them!) but apparently I can!
Lelah and I fed over 100 horses in 2 hours and then I resisted the urge to go back to bed and went to work in the office instead.

We have over 100 students coming in to participate in the 1 and 2 star instructor courses starting Monday morning at 8am!! All week we have been making name tags and folders and name tags for the folders and .... The printer has been going non stop, I am amazed it hasn't gone up in smoke. I have carpel tunnel from repeated punches of the stapler and paper cuts numbering in the thousands! Well maybe that's a slight exaggeration; reality is I don't have any, but that is simply because of my paper handling prowess!! We have killed I don't know how many trees in the printing of the necessary handouts, and it aint over yet! The trees sacrifice won't be in vain however when we produce many, many new Parelli Professional's to go out into the big wide world to teach. I mean that literally, we have people coming from all over the world, France, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, Australia, even a few Brits are gracing us with their royal presence!!

Two weeks after the instructor course arrives is the beginning of FT1 that's highly secretive Parelli code for Fast Track number 1 for the year!! This is the one which Sam and I will be participating in, it begins on February 14th and runs for four whole weeks. By the time it comes around, Sam and I will have been at the Parelli ranches for over 5 and a half months, a long time to go without very much horse time or instruction. Our Parelli journey is truly about to begin.

I have been making good progress with my horse recently; only now he is sick, with a pretty nasty cough and runny nose, I haven't done anything with him for over a week and I feel a little bit like we are losing ground!! I hope he improves quickly and is completely over it well before FT1 begins, so that we have some time to tune up a little, so as not to embarass (the computer doesn't like that spelling, but I disagree and argue that is exactly how you spell embarass?!) ourselves. I think we are ready and will be fine, just a scary prospect, we start with theory and practical testing on day one of the course!!

Scoot and I are in this months DVD distributed to all Parelli members, titled Performance Summit Highlights, we are in there doing our mounted shooting demonstration!! I am trying to get some free copies to distribute to y'all so I'll keep you posted!

Pat Parelli and some of his mastery students, as well as Sam and I recently went to a ranch roping clinic held by Martin Black, Martin is a very talented man trying to spread the way of traditional ranch roping. Unfortunately both of our horses were sick and so was Sam, so our participation was limited. We learned a lot though and it was really great to see Pat in a learning environment, I think he picked up a lot of new techniques and information. Sam grew up in the same town as Martin's wife Jennifer, he is good friends with her brother, Jennifer invited us over there and it was a lot of fun getting to know them a little bit.

Sam has a real interest in this type of roping and the more I am around it, so do I. We plan to take a little time away from the Parelli ranch at the beginning of April. Sam has a commercial drivers license and Martin and Jennifer have asked us to help them drive their horses from here in Florida to their place in Idaho, it will be a four day trip probably, and mostly driving, but will be a good chance to take a little break. It may also help to develop a valuable contact with Martin and Jennifer to advance our skill and learning in other areas, and provide a real purpose to our horsemanship. Exciting!!

I am very excited to be an auntie, Nathan and Charlotte have had the most beautiful baby girl in the world, (until I have one that is!!) named Mia Gilbert, she was born on January 15 and they are both obviously instantly in love. I got the opportunity to speak to Nathan for about 25 minutes a few days after Mia was born and he gave me the whole story. I am pretty sure that Charlotte is his hero!

Well, that's about all I got really! I've been awake too long to concern myself with editing so, you get it in the raw I'm afraid!

Enjoy.

Love to you all.
Jessica

Frosty Florida Morning

So, my father actually called me yesterday, those of you who know him are aware of how big a deal that is, and during our conversation he requested that I continue with this blog. Mainly so he can continue to be updated on what I am doing without having to go to the effort (not to mention the expense) of ringing me! Just joking father, I know you love me really.

So, this cold Christmas Eve morning there is frost on the ground and fog in the air, everyone told us it was warm in Florida in the wintertime, everyone lied!!

We have been having some really cold mornings, getting down to -9 degrees C one morning. Florida is not really designed for such temperatures; as a result the water pipes that are buried at a tropical heat rated depth of just three or four feet, simply freeze and break. So the view from my window has mainly been trucks of various shapes and sizes containing various different individuals, all having one common factor, long lengths of white PVC pipe trailing from the back as the maintenance crews went about their business.

We had our Christmas party here at the ranch on Wednesday night, there are about 40 people left here right now, so things are relatively quiet when you consider we had 70 short term students, and about 60 long term students here about a month ago.

The party started kind of slow, but we had a white elephant gift exchange where everyone brings a gift and is then given a number. You choose a gift in order of number, but you have the choice of opening a new gift or of stealing any one of those which has previously been opened. Each item could only be stolen a total of three times, after which it was frozen and unavailable. So obviously the higher number you get, the greater number of choices you have. Out of about 37, Sam and I were 34 and 35. The high ticket items were of course the usual; coffee, chocolate and alcohol, all of which were stolen the maximum number of times. An item you might not predict as popular was a gong, yes, a gong. Both barn leaders were very keen on having it for their areas to call in students, I think the students weren't as keen and made sure their leaders were unsuccessful in it's acquisition. Hilary picked a gift early on in the proceedings which was some pretty sexy lingerie, Ryan immediately grabbed her hand, pretended to head for the door saying "well, good night everyone" unfortunately for them, and perhaps a little cruelly on my part, when it came to my turn I stole the items; well you know, you gotta do what you gotta do, the only person I have to answer to anyway is Sam, and he was totally ok with my decision. ;)

After the excitement of the white elephant exchange people started a steady drift towards the door, not Sam and I though, it being one of very few social outings for us, (plus it was free) we were in no hurry to leave. We were standing near the pool table when Pat Parelli came over and retrieved a "Reflex Bag" from the corner; a free standing punch bag on a spring loaded pole which moves any which direction when you hit it. He started punching it and explaining he used it everyday for a workout and then had Sam try it, couching him through it. Then it was my turn, and he said "she should be good at this because she's a shooter" that was kind of like, the "just don't miss" comment he gave me before my demo at the Performance Summit, the pressure was on, but I'm glad to say I showed the guys up with my accuracy, it was fun. So, I got a lesson from Pat Parelli, master horseman, it was a boxing lesson not a horsemanship lesson, but still!

We have a set of Core Values here at Parelli, they are:

1. Put the Relationship First
2. Be the Best Me I Can Be
3. Get it Done With A Little Fun
4. Exceed Expectations
5. Embrace Never-Ending Self Improvement
6. Do More With Less
7. Be Humble
8. Truth, Transparency and Trust
9. Keep It Natural

We have been using one core value a week as the theme of the week, last week was "get it done with a little fun" which of course incorporated the Christmas Party, but there was also participation in sweatpants Wednesday, as well as the auditions manager bringing in candy to motivate her team who were assessing horsemanship auditions. The office took on a festive appearance with team members wearing Christmas hats and the posted Admin Schedule even incorporated a little Christmas clipart. Next week is "exceed expectations" week, so we'll see what people come up with!

We also have an award passed on every week among our peers, it is called the "holding the tail" award and has questionable origins, some of us are not convinced it is a compliment! Since I usually refer people to Pete to tell the story but he is not currently available I guess I have to tell it myself!!....

The holding the tail award is kind of the equivalent of the best supporting actor award. ie. "Listen, I'm f***ing this goat, your just holding the tail" you may be able to see why some of us do not see this award as being that prestigious. Regardless, the week before last I was given the award by my good friend Hanna Walton, who was here from England for a 12 week externship and leased my horses, Scoot, for 5 weeks. I then passed it on to an extern named Richard who was on the admin rotation here in the office with me. Despite his having said, and I quote "this office sucks the life and soul out of a man" he actually did a very good job here. This week he was on the facility rotation and worked mainly with Sam, so Sam got to take home the "holding the tail award". Stay tuned for who will get it next week!!.....

I hope you all have a fabulous Christmas, I am feeling very homesick this Christmas season and miss you all very much!

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night. xxxx

Florida Morning

So as I sit in my new office in Florida, quite a few things have changed from Colorado. For one, my view has dramatically lessened, going from a nice 90 degree mountain view to a disappointing 38 degree, give or take, of a slight incline. Of that 38, at least 18 degrees are taken up by rather ugly buildings and a concrete wall, leaving me with only 20 degrees of potential people and horse watching, two things which are essential  in order to survive day upon day of 8 hour office days.
Another change is my new found fear of bugs, but I'm not talking about your average piddly little spider. I am talking about palm sized black and beige hairy spiders who actually visibly blink at you, and the red, heavily armoured creatures, resembling giant ants, who create giant webs in wooded areas and make you squeal like a baby as you flick them off your shoulder in terror, while trying to free yourself from their sticky web. Not that this has happened to me of course, I have just heard stories.
Another new thing here is my change in personal appearance, I have gone from an average looking women in here late twenties, to a hideous red, pink, white and lumpy individual who can be found in the corner rocking back and forth mumbling, "make it stop, make it stop" I am of course referring to the unbearable swelling, itchiness that is numerous mosquito bites on my arms, shoulders, face and neck. The mosquito's seem to be aware of where I am at all times. I made a joke yesterday about being inside the lodge for dinner and a swarm of mosquito's gathering outside quietly chanting "she can't stay in there forever" to each other, my audience laughed, I am convinced it is truth.
The Florida campus is an interesting piece of property which apparently once used to be a zoo, in fact the "giraffe house" is still in place, along with a number of other ugly breeze (cinder) block buildings with grey metal roofs, for some reason the buildings make me think of concentration camps!!
There are tall trees dripping with Spanish moss and a lot of student think the place looks like Jurassic park (with the mosquito's being my version of the carnivorous dinosaurs).
The whole state of Florida is just basically washed up from the ocean, so there is sand everywhere, sand with a weak grass covering, the sand gets everywhere and is almost black in colour, so you get really dirty really quick around here and all your belongings soon turn black.
The campus is very spread out, it takes us 15 to 20 minutes to walk from our trailer to the lodge and office, since we got here we have been using our truck to get back and forth, but that's bad for the truck and also expensive, so I am not looking forward to the twice daily mosquito run as we leave in the dark and return in the dark, prime mosquito time. We are looking into getting some bikes, so perhaps I will be able to outrun them?!
I am not enjoying the humidity at all, and it isn't even bad this time of year, I am predicting that it will not be much fun to be here at the end of spring next year.
Well, that was all very negative wasn't it, Sam and I are trying to keep open minds, but so far we both much prefer Colorado and wish we were still there.

Colorado Morning

Well, it is a gorgeous fall morning in Colorado, the geese are noisily migrating, the horses are "hairing up" for the coming winter, and I see the emergence of a few winter-type jackets on peoples backs.

Sam is on his way to Kentucky, or as our Swiss facilities manager pronounces it Ken-too-key, to drop horses off at the World Equestrian Games and then the Florida campus, which will soon be our new home. I am excited to hear reports as we have not been there yet.

I have been assigned as the customer care co-ordinator here at the Colorado campus and will also be fulfilling the role in Florida too, so although the idea of sitting in an office all day long is not the greatest, there are benefits.
1. A fantastic 90 degree view of the Rocky Mountain Range
2. Fabulous people and horse watching to be seen all day long
3. I can spy on my ponies to make sure they are behaving themselves
4. I have regular hours of 8am to 5pm and weekends off, so I get to spend time with my horses
Sam on the other hand is working in horse development, which involves very long hours and very few days off, subsequently he is finding it difficult to find time to develop his horse.

You do get to see a lot of wildlife here, there are squirrels and chipmunks in grain buckets that'll let you pet them, there are bears in trees that won't. There are little mice that share the supply cupboard in the office with the pens and label maker.

Things are really winding down here in Colorado, we have a four week "Fast Track" course going on right now with 49 students atending, they will leave on Friday. We have faculty and long term students leaving for Kentucky and Florida in a steady stream; by the time we leave on the 7th of October this place will pretty much be a ghost town!

The "Fast Track" course which Sam and I are signed up for here next year looks a little tough, and has inspired us to work on certain things with our horses. Mainly, not using the reins, a very foreign concept for anyone who has ever been riding traditionally. We are trying to teach our horses to go exactly where we want them to, at the speed and in the direction we want them to just using our body language and focus, this will ultimately lead to bridleless riding, a little ways off just yet, but we'll get there.

We had a "Performance Summit" here a week ago, an event designed to show how Parelli training methods can be applied across the board from competition to demonstrations and circus type shows. I was lucky enough to be chosen to do a mounted shooting demonstration in front of about 700 people, so my first introduction to Pat was, "I want you to do a shooting demonstration, and whatever you do, don't miss" so a nice little no pressure intro! Anyway, it went well, I did not miss and I got lots of "wow" type comments from both attendees and staff/students, as well as a couple of requests for lessons! So I am now known as the girl with the guns, so no-one will mess with me, a good reputation to have picked up in the first week we were here I think.

That's about all I'll bore you with for now,
Love to you all,
Jess