Episiotomies, VBACs, and doulas oh my!  That is what I am saying after reading this book.  It was written very much as a text book rather than a light read, but I learned a ton.  I am happy I read this after reading "Your Best Birth". 

The Bradley Method simply means husband coached childbirth.  This means that your husband is your main coach, and go to person, he is right there with you every step of the way during labor and he knows what is going on and knows how to rub your back, pray for you, and when to talk and when not to talk.  This isn't where the husband stands in the waiting room tapping his toe anxious to pass out cigars to all his friends and family with news that his baby has arrived.  In this situation the doctor/nurse/midwife is viewed more as a safety net if something goes wrong.  Birth is a beautiful part life...it is an emergence not an emergency.

With all that being said, I am going to look for a newer book on the Bradley Method of Childbirth, because this one was last revised in 1996 and in many ways it is really dated.  It had a ton of great information, but some of the stuff about a pregnant womans diet seemed a little off to me.  It was also kind of hard to get past the pictures of hippies giving birth.   

Brady and I are confident that when we do have babies we will use the Bradley Method.  There are others out there...most common is Lamaze, which uses planned breathing techniques are relaxation during childbirth.  There is Hyponobirthing, which uses self-hypnosis for pain management.  All I know is that Brady is the one person  who can calm me down during a freak out moment so the Bradley Method seems like the perfect fit. 

For more information on the Bradley Method you can click here to go to their website.  Also you can click on the picture of the book to buy it for yourself from Amazon. 

And little side note...I am doing horrible at my blogging twice a week New Years Resolution!  I will try to be better, and please help me stay accountable to this!

For the month of January I wanted to learn more about marriage and being a Godly wife.  For those of you who don't remember, one of my 2012 resolutions was to research one topic a month...you can read that blog post by clicking here.                                             

A couple days ago I finished reading "Love & Respect" by Dr. Emerson Eggerichs.  I enjoyed this book, but didn't completely love Emerson's writing style.  If I had to you tell what I thought about this book in one word it would be overrated.  This is a book that tons of Christian couples have read and recommended, and I have even been told by multiple couples that it was this book that was the curriculum for their pre-marital counseling. 

The whole book is centered on Ephesians 5:33 where Paul writes "Each one of you must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband".  The book talks about how women have a huge desire to feel loved by their husbands, and men desire respect from their wives.  The book goes even further to say that husbands should give their wives "unconditional love" and wives should give their husbands "unconditional respect". 

Unconditional love...we have heard the term, read the term, and seen the term a million times in books, ads, and chick flicks.  But unconditional respect...sounds weird.  Isn't respect something that we have to earn?  Emerson says no.  I agree and disagree.

I agree that many women are too overbearing, bossy, and disrespectful to their husbands.  But if my husband was some low-life, wife-beating, cheating jackwagon then he ain't getting no respect from me!  Good thing Brady is amazing and nearly perfect =)

The words unconditional respect sound like an oxymoron to me...but maybe I am wrong, and it just sounds weird because this isn't ever a term we hear in society.  But right there in Ephesians 5:33 God clearly states that a wife must respect her husband. Period.  That's it.  It doesn't say respect your husband only when he deserves it.  If God says it then it has to be right...so I have a lot of work to do in this "must respect my husband areana".  Good thing the only person I must respect is Brady...and my elders...is that in the Bible? 

Sometimes...okay pretty much all the time...it can be difficult being a respectful wife in America.  We see TV shows that completely disrespect men as fathers and husbands...think Homer Simpson.  And there are many men who aren't fulfilling their roles as spiritual leaders in their homes, instead they go to the office and work 40, 50, 60+ hour work weeks and then come home and don't connect at all with their wife or kids.  Women only fuel this fire because we live in a country of overbearing feminists who have their own money, have their own job, their own friends, and their own life.  God calls us to be united as one in marriage.  This means one bank account, one house, one bed, one heart, and one sex partner. 

God never makes mistakes, His ways are never wrong. In fact, His ways are always perfect.  So join Brady and I as we strive to have a marriage that makes God smile every day. 

Back to the book though...I liked it, didn't love it.  I would check it out from the library but not buy it...but if you do want to buy it, then just click on the picture of the book above and it will take you to amazon where you can purchase it new or used.

I have started reading Mark and Grace Driscoll's new book "Real Marriage," so expect a review of that in a few days.  And at the end of the month I will recap all I have learned about marriage!

Thanks for reading and sorry I kinda jumped around!

"The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven" by Kevin and Alex Malarkey was a fascinating book.  I love to read, but it often takes me a couple of weeks to read a book.  I literally could not put this book down and I read it in two days.     

The story begins when a father and son get in a terrible car accident.  Alex, the son suffers an internal decapitation (meaning his head was only attached to his body by his spinal cord and skin) and ends up in a coma for two months.  During these two months God worked many miracles in Alex's life, both physically and spiritually.

This book speaks about many of the medical miracles that occurred...but also about heaven, angels, spiritual warfare, God, Jesus, and even Satan.  This book is an easy read, and will pull you in from the first sentence all the way to the last.  I highly recommend this book to anyone with or without children and to anyone who is or isn't a believer. 

You can click on the picture above to purchase the book from Amazon.