Milk

Lev loved milk. When we lived in Costa Rica, the dairy was right down the road. We would bring our empty container and they would fill it up with creamy, fresh milk. When we got back to the States the milk was a bit disappointing, thin and bland. Then we discovered whole, non-homegenized milk. Lev liked that better. Then we moved up to raw and grass-fed. Now we were getting somewhere! That was his favorite, it tasted "real". I miss buying him milk.

thoughts of Lev this last weekend...from Cindy

> Dear Tony and Rebecca,

> I wanted to share something with you.
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> ethan and i had our first session with a hypnobirth therapist (who will also be our doula, we decided to have one) on saturday. I don't know if you've heard of them but hypnotherapists are people that help you get into a calm framework about labor and delivery so that you are more in control of the situation and can visualize the next steps of labor so you're not scared and hopefully won't tense up and slow labor down.
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> she was having me do some excercises on visualizing the contractions (or what she called "waves") and she asked me if I had ever swam in the ocean. She wanted me to think about how the waves come and how to anticipate how they grow and get stronger and how you'll either let them pass or go underneath them. I told her until a year and a half ago i had been so incredibly afraid of the ocean that ethan couldn't get me in water that came up past my knees and I NEVER had gone under a wave or swam through one in my entire life. But that our friend's 14-year old son, Lev taught me how to not be afraid of the waves. i told her how he stayed focused for hours on helping me "master" this fear until it literally became fun for me.
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> she was so thrilled that i had an experience to use in my labor that would help me. as happy as she was i couldn't swallow away the lump in my throat that came so quickly thinking about how powerful that time in costa rica really was. I didn't know then that I would pull strength from that time in a moment like we're about to have in bringing this baby into the world. I'm humbled by it in every way.
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> i want you both to know how truly amazing of a young man i think Lev was. i will use that strength i now have while i'm laboring and i will visualize swimming under those waves with each contraction, and ethan will support me by reminding me of when we all did this together in the ocean with Lev... and this baby will come into a world full of a lot of love.
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> ~Cynthia
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