Tonight I attended my first book club meeting. But this isn't any ordinary book club. This is the "I want to get pregnant" book club. :) Last spring I was invited as a special guest to the book club, since I was largely pregnant with my second child, and I was a doula. So I went, and spoke, and discovered that of the 5 regular members, I already knew 2 of them. We had a great time that night. I've run into the ladies a number of times over the summer, and I basically invited myself to join the book club cause well, I want to be pregnant again soon. And they welcomed me with open arms.
Tonight's meeting was supposed to focus on the first trimester in honor of one of the book club members who is now 9 weeks pregnant. So we talked about her first big OB appointment, her first ultrasound, prenatal testing, and all that fun stuff. The book they are reading and using as a guide is
Body, Soul, and Baby: A Doctor's Guide to the Complete Pregnancy Experience, From Preconception to Postpartum by Traci Gaudet and Paula Spencer. My feelings for the book (I've only read one section so far) are mediocre. The author is obviously uninformed about midwifery (she claimed there was no certifying body for lay midwives, which completes ignores NARM and all CPMs in the US), either that or she choose to omit information so as to steer readers to choose an OB. Plus, she claims when things go wrong in birth, that it happens very quickly, and that is exactly the opposite I've heard from most midwives. Perhaps the difference is that midwives are actually THERE and paying attention to their laboring patients.... But anyway... I don't especially like the book, but I do appreciate that the authors encourage a lot of self-checking about emotions, physical feelings, etc. It encourages quite a bit more self-care than the standard OB books I've seen.
ANYWAY! The entire reason I started this post was so I could share pictures of the cakes I made for tonight. One was for this book club meeting, and the other was for the monthly potluck at my midwife's house, which was also tonight. The cakes were a huge hit at both events. :)
The larger one is a two-layer orange-scented chocolate cake with buttercream icing and filling, covered in marshmallow-almond fondant. The babies are made of the fondant as well and are 100% edible (and 100% yummy). The smaller cake is a two-layer also, with the same icing, filling, and fondant. One layer is the same orange-scented chocolate cake, and the other layer is vanilla-almond cake. Both were delicious.
This little cake is homemade vanilla-almond cake with chocolate mousse frosting and chocolate ganache icing. 
And this was for Ava's birthday. These are fondant creatures I made. 
And here is the cake. It was one layer of chocolate cake and one layer of vanilla almond cake with a layer of strawberry mousse in the middle. It then has regular buttercream icing with fondant creatures and letters. 
And this was for Ava's birthday. These are fondant creatures I made. 
And here is the cake. It was one layer of chocolate cake and one layer of vanilla almond cake with a layer of strawberry mousse in the middle. It then has regular buttercream icing with fondant creatures and letters. 
