One more check box filled

Hooray, hooray, I finally submitted my packet to be approved for my birth doula certification. I say yay, finally, because I finished the work portion in August, but it's taken me this long to gather all the needed paperwork and letters, and write essays, self-assessments and such. Holy cow, they are thorough.

In case you are wondering, being a doula is not a licensed profession--which means there are no requirements that have to be met in order to practice. There are lots of lay doulas out there (meaning uncertified, sometimes trained, sometimes not, etc)-those doulas who choose to certify do it for a number of reasons--mainly because it gives a doula more credibility in the community (and because you can charge more). The certification process is not difficult, but time consuming. I was hoping to submit in September, but just had a heck of a time tying up all my loose ends (getting pregnant can really throw a wrench in the works).

But hooray, it's done, Troy can stop bugging me, I don't have to work during the holidays, and I just contracted with a lovely couple due in a couple months, so all is peachy in the world of doula-ing. I took the kids to a member meeting for my doula orginization (PALS Doula), and while trying to explain to Garrett that we were meeting with several other doulas (ladies who help other ladiea have babies) he spewed off a volley of inquiries, "Am I going to help a baby be born?" "Will we get to see the babies?" "Are we going to be there all day and all night and all day?" and my personal favorite, when asked if he remembered what a doula was, "Is that like when you swing your hips inside a big circle?" When I relayed that to one of the senior doulas, she cracked up--coining the pharse ,"doula hoops." Which actually isn't a bad idea-I've contemplated bringing hoops to births to help show a mother how to rotate her pelvis to nudge the baby into descending. I smell a marketing plan.......

In unrelated news, today my children got to video-conference with their great-grandmother and grea-aunt in Arkansas, whom they haven't seen for two years. When they moved away, my grandma told me, "I'm just afraid I'll never get to see you again." Best Buy should do a commercial about us. Right about now I'm loving technology.