Maya’s Story
 
 
 Salli Gonzalez, LM, CPM
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May 30, 2008
 
Today after school we told the kids mom's havin' a baby. They were ecstatic at the unexpected news. We all were.
About an hour earlier Beth and I were in the parking lot at HEB. We couldn’t wait to take the test at home so she did it there in the bath room and brought it to the car to ripen. We saw the blue line and realized we’d have to go back in and get the directions out of the trash to find out what it meant.
As I looked at the directions she told me I’d have to take her to 31 Flavors if she was pregnant.
I said “What flavor would you like?”
July 28, 2008
 
We spent the summer in Montana getting used to the idea of another member of the family after so many years of thinking we were complete. We had two big dogs, two little dogs, two snakes, two cars, and two kids.
 
The baby seemed like a third wheel, but a little more theoretical than real. So we started talking “theoretically” about a fourth.
This is the experience with our third child- written by Dad, Matt Deserly. All views expressed are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the views of Salli.
June 1, 2008
 
Elizabeth had been working long and hard to get her body conditioned so we thought we should get one more pic before the big belly days ahead.
 
At the time she was worried for her new puppy. “How will I be able to handle a new baby when I just got this one?” I know all about my girl’s mama instincts so I wasn’t too worried.
August 18, 2008
 
So we stopped to see her parents in Colorado on the way home. She is definitely showing by this point except I promised her to talk about her pregnancy when around strangers. “She’s not fat folks, there’s a baby in there!”
 
After all the trouble she had taking off the weight I was worried about how she would handle this gain. She was really great about it and embraced each new pound lovingly.
 
At this point we started talking about how this baby was getting out. The first two we had in hospitals but those were not happy stories to tell. The doctor sucked our daughter out by her head after inducing 30 hours earlier. I think he was in a hurry to get back to his patients at his office. It was a horrible experience for Elizabeth and I’m guessing probably for Winnie too.
 
Lucas was born in about five hours. We used a midwife this time and it was a better experience but still we didn’t feel that it was right somehow. For one Elizabeth hates needles and hospitals love them. She had pain meds but you couldn’t tell by watching the video. On both of these births she was mostly stationary, delivered on her back, had pain meds, she tore open and then they took our babies away and made them cry. Elizabeth was left itching and groggy with withdrawals.
“No Drugs?!”   11-9-08
I think I suggested Salli. Elizabeth’s first question was can she give the drugs. We met with Salli and she was very empowering. We talked about hospital versus home, natural versus drugged, and how if she could take the initial pain her body would know exactly what to do and release all the best natural drugs at exactly the right time. By the time we left Elizabeth was pumped up and ready to go primal.
 
I don’t think Salli ever told us what to do even once. She has a subtle way of telling you your choices in a way that you pick what will be right for you. Even when we’d decided to go natural we’d planned on using The Birthing Center. Almost under her breath she suggested that we could do it at home.
 
“You mean at our home?!”  Weird.
October 18, 2008
 
I got a picture of Elizabeth and her sisters at their cousin’s wedding. Lilly (center) found out she was
pregnant about a month before us. I think a couple of them had baby fever and would have liked to join the club so I made them all go prego for this pic.
 
Elizabeth and Lilly had a good time (as much as one can) being pregnant together.
November 3, 2008
 
By November I was in pretty hot water for not agreeing to any names. I take naming seriously. If I had it my way I’d wait to see a little personality then start thinking about names. I wasn’t going to get my way.
 
Today Elizabeth brought me a list of names she got off the internet. It was names of girls who had a sister named Winona. There was more than one that didn’t sound awful but one was like a perfect note.
 
Maya.
October 9, 2008
 
I didn’t even want to find out the sex until she was born but that wasn’t up to me. We saw today it’s a girl. Not for lack of boy parts but for clearly exhibiting her girl ones.
 
With that cleared up Elizabeth was aching to name her. “Sky” was number one on her list and last on mine. I wasn’t that helpful in her quest to name this kid. I pretty much just vetoed princess names.
November 23, 2008
 
Lilly (Beth’s sister) had her shower today. With Lilly just a few weeks ahead of us we couldn’t help but think of “Maya” all the time. It was getting more real but still I couldn’t envision us with a newborn.
 
November 27, 2008
 
Elizabeth is still super active. She hosted Thanksgiving and still has a smile on her face.
 
She eats healthy and takes her vitamins. Salli always gives us the best vitamins and lots of information.
December 5, 2008
 
A recent ultrasound pushed the due date back from January 29 to February 7. We assumed they were mistaken but any way you look at it we are well into the third trimester.
More about Maya