Happy Mama Booty.

Monday morning I'll be doing a meet-up interview with a pediatrician. Described by a neighbor friend after yesterday's La Leche League meeting as "a vibrant red-headed earth mama" who has three uncircumcised sons, all of whom have benefitted from extended breast feeding, this sage sounds right up this Mama's alley; we'll be hopeful of a good fit for our little family.

As we plan to co-sleep, cloth diaper, breastfeed, and generally adhere to natural family life a la attachment parenting principles in the old tribe way, I'm looking for health care providers from whom we can glean information and make smart choices, and with whom we won't feel as though we must defend said choices. Dr. Red seems to fall into that category, and while her offices are not in our part of town, they aren't far away and she also has privleges at what is the best learning and children's hospital in town: Vanderbilt, which is also where Ziggy will be born.

Should all go well in our interview Monday morning, I'll have yet another item to strike off my ever evolving list and we can rest assured that Ziggy, who could easily be born full-term as soon as FIVE WEEKS AWAY, will have his very own doc to come do a well-baby visit at birth, or, in the case of complication, have someone on board for consultation that we'll already know.

We gratefully feel in good hands with our midwives practice as well, my Mister and me. At yesterday's visit we met another of the midwives and learned that a solid eight pounds have been shed from my pregnancy weight gain, all due to loss of fluid, resulting from dietary adjustments to my already healthy diet: cutting out all sugar inlcuding honey, greatly limiting fruits and exchanging refined products for whole foods and whole grains. (See the Chehini Pie recipe below for an example of good eating!)

My feet, hands and face, which have for months been afflicted with ever more swelling, are at last looking and feeling more close to normal. Last week I was even able to get my running shoes on and tied for the first time in a month! My Beloved Mister and I took a long amble through Shelby Bottoms here in our neighborhood with Bert, loving the time spent in nature soaking up some sun, picking blackberries, walking and visiting with no interruption. Afterward, I swam at the Y while my Mister worked on other projects at home and in the evening we dined out at our favorite catfish joint on the river down Highway 12 outside of town.

My energy level is consistently better, as is my quality of sleep. Though I do miss my ice cream, sour dough bread and large daily fruit intake, it is as I once heard someone say on NPR's much lamented Tavis Smiley show: "Nothing tastes as good as health feels." Amen!

And that grouchiness of last week, partly completely unfair on my part-- I'd told my Mister that during my visit in East Tennessee, he could feast on hot chicken & ice cream while re-watching Soprano episodes, yet upon arriving home to find he'd done just that, and neglected housekeeping basics, I was irritated!-- has been replaced with my usual contentment, good humor and reasonable expectations for self and spouse.

That old axiom about nobody being happy if Mama isn't happy? True, that.