40 Weeks

No captions necessary really.

Last check-up... hopefully?

I will officially be at 40 weeks gestation tomorrow... my baby, that is, not me... I was born over 27 years ago! Ha...... Ha ha!

(Don't worry, you're not the only one who just rolled your eyes... I did too.)

I saw my midwife today and she did the first internal exam I've had this pregnancy. Apparently I'm dilated to 1 cm only, which doesn't seem like much but she said how much I've dilated to date doesn't necessarily indicate how soon I'll go into labour. It "could" still happen at any time. She did book an ultrasound for next week just in case I start to go overdue, in which case they will check to see if the placenta is still healthy and do a non-stress test to see how my lil' guy is holding up in there. I'm hoping I won't have to go to that appointment, but if I don't end up going into labour between now and then I may as well just enjoy this time Luke and I have together alone before our lives change forever!

If I go overdue beyond a week and a half they start to look into potentially getting me set up for a medical induction at the hospital. I would REALLY like to avoid this, as I feel that one intervention like that will lead to another, and I don't want to end up doing the whole epidural/pain medication thing. I know it won't be the end of the world if I have to, but I would just like to avoid that scenario if possible.



PS - how come nobody told me the internal exam FRIGGING KILLS LIKE THE DICKENS? This may be an overshare but I was NOT anticipating how freaking uncomfortable it would be! Holy moly! I was sort of wanting a stretch and sweep but now I'm glad she didn't do it, because, GEEZ, I am still hurting from the simple internal exam alone.

I might need a little wine when labour gets going... yes, that sounds divine to me!

A little Before and After

Amazing what a big difference a year and a bit can make....

August 1, 2009

December 1, 2010 (at 39 Weeks)

While I'm posting pictures, I may as well make this a photo post!



Luke and I at work making gingerbread men a few days ago (not gluten free... sorry Mandie... but you'll notice we wore the aprons you made??!)

I was delighted to get a package in the mail today from my Aunt Sandra and Uncle Al in Vancouver ... they sent some adorable onesies, a hat with ears (how did you know I can't resist any hats with ears??) and a Taggies book. I was particularly excited about the Taggies book because I had just heard of them recently and actually went in search of one at Chapter's a couple weeks ago. I didn't look hard enough to find one but I'm told they are for sale there.

Taggies books are made with the idea that babies tend to love the tags on toys and books more than the items themselves, so each page of the cloth book has little tags sewn on for baby to chew while "reading"... how cute is that?

Thanks Robertsons!

Here is a glimpse of ______'s completed nursery. It's hard to get a full shot of the whole room but this is the best I could do. Everything is set and now we're just waiting for baby to arrive :)

Christmas... and Ina May - My freakin' Hero

I had a dream a couple nights ago that one of my blog readers confronted me, telling me I update way too often, and that my entries are way too long! So I've been feeling a little self-conscious about posting as much as I have... therefore, I took a break for a few days.

When it comes to blogging, what can I say? When I'm home all day there's not much else to do! I get excited to share things! :)

Lately I've also been taking a break from thinking too much about the baby getting here. I found I was stressing myself out a little by constantly thinking about what it will be like when we bring the baby home and what will be stressful and the potential problems that might come up.

Instead, I've been getting into the Christmas spirit - listening non-stop to one of the classic Christmas channels on iTunes, very festive. Luke and I made gingerbread men the other night, and I've been eating a LOT of clementines and candy canes! I wanted to get a tree this past weekend but Luke thinks it'll dry out before Christmas gets here, so I think we'll go get our tree this coming weekend. We switched our fall wreath on our front door to our cranberry red Christmas wreath, and we strung garland around the banister going up the stairs. I love how just a few decorations can change how the house feels. Our next order of business is to buy some poinsettias for the coffee table and dining room table. Exciting!

I haven't been shutting the idea of childbirth out completely though. I've been reading the incredible book "Spiritual Midwifery" by Ina May Gaskin whenever I sit down to relax (which is ... pretty much constantly).

My friend Claire recommended it to me when we got together a few weeks ago and I was expressing my fears about labour/birth to her (she has a background in midwifery). She did warn me that it is written by a midwife who worked (and still works) on a hippie commune called "The Farm" in Tennessee, so the birth stories in the book are a little far out, but as I got into reading the various stories I felt myself begin to calm down and feel actual peace about labour.

All the women who give birth in the stories have natural, drug-free home births, and the way they cope with the intensity of labour is to focus on how our bodies are designed for this process, and to view it as a positive experience, not a painful one. For example, they never say 'contractions'... they call them 'rushes'. They focus on seeing them as highly intense rushes of energy working to get your baby out. They teach you how to not think of labour as painful but as intense and extremely high-energy. They also recommend a lot of creative coping techniques to help you "stay on top of each rush" when it feels painful.

A lot of the women in the book talk about "getting high" during labour, meaning, having an incredible emotional rush of "consciousness" in such an intense situation... and they talk a lot about being "telepathic" with the midwives or their partners or whoever else is in the room, so if you're not used to that kind of talk it can be a little weird at first! For the most part I found it calming, and it was a huge relief to finally hear people talking about labour and delivery in a positive light.

Ina May Gaskin has been revolutionary in changing the North American perspective of child birth from being considered a medical emergency to something our bodies are designed to do with very few interventions required.






Check out the incredible statistics from The Farm's 2028 births: (From 1970-2000)

Pretty amazing considering a good portion of those births were breech babies, VBACs and babies with other complications usually requiring C-section almost everywhere else.

Not many other hospitals or birthing centres in North America will deliver statistics like this, and I'm perfectly content to go with the flow for my own labour and delivery at the hospital, but it is calming to know what our bodies are capable of. I'm told that when I'm in labour and reaching transition (the most intense part before you start pushing) I may feel like I won't be able to continue or even that I'm dying (!!!) ... so I'm hoping to remember some of the encouraging things I've read in Spiritual Midwifery to help carry me through!

If you're curious, here are some links to info about Ina May Gaskin and The Farm:

Wikipedia article about Ina May

The Farm Midwives

Ina May's official website

38 Weeks... Didn't know I could get any bigger!

Apparently I can... and I will continue to! Unless baby __________ decides to just chill out in there and avoid putting on any more poundage between now and birth. Doubtful.

So I am 38 weeks pregnant as of yesterday. I am still enjoying the pregnancy and I'm not in a huge rush for _______ to get here. I'm sure I'll get more antsy as time goes by, but for now I'm content to relax and enjoy the anticipation of his birth. And all this time to myself, of course.

My Braxton-Hicks continue, especially later in the evening and all through the night. I'll wake up and attempt to roll over but it has gotten REALLY difficult to accomplish this! Poor Luke... he is such a light sleeper, and even with earplugs any slight movement will wake him up. Actually at this point "any slight movement" is more likely similar to a whale thrashing around for 5 minutes on our Queen-sized bed than anything else. So, every time I attempt to roll over, there he is, wide awake. Maybe this is a good time to campaign for a memory foam mattress...!? I think so!

Today one of my midwives came to my house for my weekly check-up. LOVE that aspect of midwifery care! Now she knows how to get to my house when the big day comes. I am so happy I chose a midwife simply for the reason that when my contractions start, rather than hem and haw and try and decide whether to go to the hospital or not, I just page her and she comes to my house to check me. Then she'll let me know whether it's time to go to the hospital or not. SO much less stress on us! I know it's hard for me to make decisions when I'm distracted or stressed out, so this decision being handed to someone else in the comfort of my own home is a huge weight off my shoulders.

According to my midwife, my baby's weight is likely around 8 lbs right now. He has been really consistent in terms of growth week to week. His heartbeat is steady and strong, and he is very active. At my last visit he was head down but face up, which isn't a problem necessarily, but it is more ideal if the baby is head down/face down. (See illustration)

Normal position - The baby rotates slightly and comes out face down:

Apparently when delivering the head comes out much more easily if the baby is facing down (facing my spine) because then the largest part of his head doesn't need to clear the birth canal.

As of today he has spun halfway around again so he is closer to being in the most ideal position, which is great (see the 2nd illustration above). He might keep spinning until I'm in active labour so his current position could change again but I'm not worried. Most babies get into the right position during active labour anyway and end up coming out face down.

Anyway, enough illustrations of naked women and talk of birth canals!

I've been loving blogging lately. It's so much easier to do when I have free time! Before when I was working it was more of a guilt thing - I felt obliged to blog in order to please people (or attempt to please them I guess), but now I feel like I'm blogging for me and I find JOY in it.

The only issue is that I have a whole list of other blogs I follow and I get really impatient when those people don't update as often as I do! As if other people are allowed to have more of a life than me....!!!??? Geez, people. You're not ALLOWED to be busy. You must keep up with me in my blogging frequency with equal zest. No excuses.

:)

A Lady of Leisure

I am happy to report that it is Monday morning, and I am NOT hard at work ... I am at home enjoying christmas music and sipping coffee. Unless you consider that hard work...? It IS rather difficult... not knowing what to do today... sigh. :)

I DO know this won't last long. Our little guy will be here before I know it. I am enjoying the freedom while I can though! This morning I dropped Luke off at work (poor guy), got my free McDonald's coffee, bought a couple more diaper covers from a cute little store in Waterloo and now I'm at home planning out the rest of my day.

I suppose there are things that need to be done at some point... I could do a deep clean of both our bathrooms and throw in a load of laundry... hmmmm.... we'll see. Also I have some thank you cards to write. And christmas decorations to put up! I may get to all that later!

For now I'm having a great, relaxing morning. Aaaahhhhh.

Some fun stuff

I would have to say the most fun (and unnecessary) shopping I've done for baby Allen has been... the accessories. My poor, poor child. He will be receiving many of them. Probably often, and for the rest of his life. Whether he wants 'em or not.

Check out the shoes and the wicked shades I'll be putting on him as soon as he's out of the womb:

Super cute Baby Raybans... I wouldn't have known they existed, but I work at an optometry clinic and there is a whole catelog of 'em. Best discovery ever! Can't wait to prop them on his face (they're a little big).

Looooove these shoes. Thanks Auntie Robyn and Uncle Greg!

Many more adorable shoes, most of them shower gifts. Thanks to Baby Allen's various aunties for knowing how much I love baby shoes!

Can't freakin' wait!!!

PS - I sure hope he's actually a boy and not a girl... because I have absolutely NOTHING girlie purchased.

It's finally here...

... my last day of work! In a few short hours I will be embarking to work one last time before my maternity leave begins.

I thought I would feel more excited, but instead I've been more focused on the next stage of my life - giving birth to and then taking care of a baby! Go figure...?

Anyway, I'm definitely happy to be finished work as I've been feeling more uncomfortable as the days go by, but lately I've been working through a lot of fears about how much my life is about to change.

It really is pretty scary. Most of my pregnancy I've been far enough away from my due date that I've been free to just feel excitement about the baby coming our way. Now that my due date looms closer and closer reality is sinking in. The unknowns of labour and giving birth along with the upcoming lack of sleep and unknowns in caring for an infant have been on my mind.

I'm always giving advice to myself because I tend to overanalyse and overthink everything, and fortunately I seem to have a rational part of my brain that calms the other spazzy part down - and the advice I've been giving myself is:

1) Baby steps (thank you Bill Murray) - one day at a time, one contraction at a time, one feeding at a time, one diaper change at a time, one night at a time, one situation at a time.

2) The most important thing is to try and RELAX.

3) Ask for help when I need it.

4) Learn to let go - of the often insensitive unsolicited advice, of little mistakes I make or others make, of trying to be perfect.

Ahhhhhhhh... deep breath.

Preggers knows how to party

LOVE this picture. Want it for the baby's room. Not enough wall space left! :(

The preparations continue...

After tomorrow I will have only ONE WEEK OF WORK TO GO! I am pretty darn thrilled about this. It's not that I feel awful being at work, but I am finding that my "patients patience" (ha!) wears thin very quickly, especially in the afternoons. I just don't have the mental energy to be perky and nice all day anymore.

I also feel pretty tired physically now at the end of a shift even if I've only worked for half a day. I work as a receptionist but I have to get up and walk around quite often, and lugging my body around has become more and more exhausting.

I will definitely miss my coworkers. It feels surreal that I'll be done so soon and I won't be with these people all day, every day anymore! I think I might feel a little lonely for awhile. But then when the baby comes I'm sure I won't bother to think about work anymore :)

Luke and I finished up some more baby shopping this past week. It was a relief to finally own a bed-side bassinet for the baby as he will be sleeping in our room for the first few months. We also bought a breast pump (TMI?!), a footstool for the nursing chair, a snowsuit to bring our little guy home in, a sweet baby wrap to carry him around in, a baby monitor and ..... CLOTH DIAPERS.

That brings me to my next subject... we have decided we will attempt cloth diapering. We had firmly decided we were going to use disposable diapers because we felt it would be challenging enough with a new baby at home to attempt to do something so time consuming. In our last prenatal class, our instructor went through all the diapering options, and we ended up learning a lot that we didn't know. We found out that it takes 300 years (I think? Or maybe 100? Anyway, it was a lot of years) for one disposable diaper to decompose, and that disposable diapers are full of chemicals less than healthy to be right next to your baby's delicate skin. The most compelling point (sadly) was how much money we'll end up saving if we go with cloth diapering. I don't have exact numbers right now but it was pretty eyebrow-raising, and Luke and I looked at each other in the middle of class and it sort of just seemed to click to us at the same time that we want to try this.

We have decided to go with a local diaper service, as even this is a cheaper option than buying disposable diapers all the time. We will be going with Bear Bottoms, and the cost is $20 a week. Every week they come pick up the bag of dirty diapers and drop off a fresh bag of clean ones. All you have to do is whip the dirty diaper off your baby and stick the diaper in the pail you rent when you sign up. The diapers go in a bag at the end of the week and all you do is stick it on your front porch for pickup - no yucky washing by hand required.

We have to buy our own diaper covers to use with the service's diapers, and we have chosen Thirsties:




How cute are they? Cloth diapering has come a long way from the bulky diapers my mom used! It also feels good to be doing something beneficial for the environment and for our baby.

Anyway, dinner is on and like the pregnant woman I am I NEED TO EAT.

Lest we forget

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Taking Care of Baby

I may have posted these awhile ago (can't remember) but Luke and I thought of them again just a few minutes ago and I HAD to post them again! Definitely some important tips on caring for your baby... I dare you to not laugh.