Baby Size: It starts getting much more fuzzy and guesstimating from here on out. But getting closer to 3 pounds?
Mama Size: I really don't understand pregnancy weight gain. Yesterday I hadn't gained any weight from the week before but today I'm up 1.5 pounds. In one day. Peter just laughs and tells me it can't be due to me eating a half bar of chocolate last night but I don't believe him. And what is up with my troll body wanting chocolate candy? We have those chocolate covered pomegranates in our theater room for guests and I was slowly savoring each one I ate last night. They usually make me gag! Anyways, total weight gain so far: 21.5 pounds. Waist size: 37.5 inches
Symptoms: Well I think she has changed positions and I think her head has dropped down. I feel soft movements under my ribs but more telling is that I haven't had heartburn ALL week! YES! Also I can usually sleep through the night without needing to go to the bathroom. Another huge win. I found some stretching exercises that help me sit through my work day and haven't gone home early all week. Wow, this is what the second trimester was supposed to feel like :)
And I'm nesting like craaaaazy. If it wasn't for the fact that working on the house for more than ~4 hours gives me pelvic pain, I'd be doing even more. As it is, I hear the voice chanting inside me to clean the fridge, organize my crafting room, wipe the baseboards, hang ALL the paintings!!!!!! Please tell me I'm not the only one who hears a nesting voice.......
Ok fine. Moving on.
Other updates: We bought the nursery dresser and will be assembling it this weekend. I am this close to pulling the trigger on some cloth diapers. I was going to buy these easy-peasy all-in-ones but I find myself drawn to prefolds and covers. Maybe because it seems more like what I do during times when I need, what, leakage protection? Ha. But it just makes so much sense to buy absorbent cloth that can double up and then to pin something waterproof over that. Plus I have a HE front load washer and I'm pretty sure for all-in-ones you want a top loader. Guess that will be my QOTW--how did you diaper your kid and why?
Anyways, other big update was that we went to our first birthing class this week. Oh. Boy. My doctor and doula (and random bloggers I read) recommended the hypnobirthing method so we signed up for a 4 week course at the hospital where I'll deliver. Peter and I are apparently too cynical for our own good so if you are considering hypnobirthing, you will probably have a totally different experience.
Anyways, we walk into a room with about 10 other couples and an instructor who EMBODIED the sweet, girlish, high pitched voice of Dolores Umbridge without the sadism and with an extra dose of enthusiasm. So that was....an affront to our ears but towards the end of the 3 hour class I actually was warming up to her. She is a head nurse at the hospital so it is likely we'll run into her again.
The bigger problem was a couple in the room who were pregnant with their third and according to them, had had the worst experience delivering their first two. I understand that bad doctors and nurses are more memorable and perhaps more common than you'd like, but after awhile, their complaints were just so annoying (also, if you hate hospitals so much, why are you delivering in one again? Try a birth center next time!!!!). And when they weren't complaining they were interjecting their own stories every chance they got. Peter and I were not impressed.
And then some of the instruction was just so left field. Example: Gentle births lead to gentle people. No they don't. Temperament is one of the most innate characteristics that a child brings to the table. Or: A medicated birth doesn't release the love hormone and what happens to a society where that love hormone doesn't get released?! What the.....seriously? Oxytocin gets released when you breastfeed, when you touch people, when you smell your baby. I mean, societies are not going to crumble if people miss out on one opportunity to feel that hormone.
Or the one I have the most trouble with: Hypnobirthing means no pain during labor. I'm not even going to dignify that one.
The reason we are going to finish the course is because I DO believe that their relaxation techniques can be helpful in any situation where one feels pain. I have listened to the cd before bedtime and every night, it is easier and easier to "slip away" so to speak. It is helpful for me to listen to someone else direct my thoughts, if that makes sense. When a voice (a real one this time!) is telling me to think of a rainbow, it's more effective than if I tell myself to think of one.
So yeah, I am not an ideal customer especially because I am not against medication and I am all for the drugs if these techniques and willpower are overpowered by sheer exhaustion or pain. But I am going to try! And that's good enough for me.
Question of the Week: Cloth diapers (see above). Also, do you think that 3 dozen prefolds and 4 covers will cut it?
We are similar sometimes. My biggest beef with Hypnobirthing is the idea that there is no pain. (Or discomfort, as they term it.) I think labor and childbirth have been, historically, abusive to both women and infants. But this whole notion that if you feel pain you are somehow failing at childbirth, or you are not doing it right, is equally as abusive. But, like you, I'm getting the CDs and I'm taking some hypno classes to prep and I think there are some wonderful techniques and ideas behind the philosophy. But so help me if someone tries to tell me I have failed at giving birth because the experience is painful and "discomfortable".
ReplyDeleteWhoa, apparently I feel strongly about that. ;)
I love that you are nesting, and making plans to diaper little Baby Tew's bottom! I'm sure diapers will not seem nearly as adorable in a few months as they do to me right now. ;)
Umm . . . I had to change my brother's cloth diapers back in the day, which made me swear off cloth for good, no matter how much progress has been made. Sorry, too traumatic for my 10-12 year old self!
ReplyDeleteI've heard so much good stuff about hypno, but I could not get into the book, and the one lady who offered it in NY seriously weirded me out, just over the phone. I think I would react to the class much as you have. I agree with the bones you pick about those claims. The other day someone told Ry that babies who are born C-section have more passive and weak personalities because they didn't have to struggle for life like those born vaginally. Citing my birth experience, Ryan asked him what a child would be like who struggled in labor for two days and then had a C. He was like, "Oooh, I don't know. That's a good one . . ." Um, give me a break!
Oh, and you look cute! And congrats on Peter's new job, I don't think I've said that yet!
First, I nested like a nutcase with every single pregnancy. A WEEK before having Luke, I was hanging curtains and pictures, putting high chairs and swings together, and cleaning like a freak of nature. If you only knew what it was like with Anna, moving into a new house. It was heaven, sheer heaven for a nesting mother. It gives me chills to think about it to this day.
ReplyDeleteSecond, I like the idea of being distracted enough to TOLERATE the pain. If it can keep you relaxed, then you might be able to go through the delivery with no pain meds, and that would be ideal (no hazy-feeling afterwards, no numb hiney for the next couple of hours, etc.). However, no pain? Yeah, sure...and I'm 2-ft. tall and blonde.
I don't know what Lori uses, but those diapers are-the-cutest-things-ever. I still use disposables because I'm far too busy/lazy/whatever to use the cloth diapers. Plus, I hate laundry with a passion, not to mention cleaning out puke/poop out of clothing makes me slightly violent.
We cloth-diapered, which you probably remember. If you search it on my blog you can read my description. I think 3 dozen pre-folds should be enough, but I don't think 4 covers would have been enough for Addison. She was a very explosive pooper, so maybe it would be for Baby Tew, but I definitely think we were going through more than 4 covers per day even though we didn't start with cloth until she was 6 weeks old. Newborn poop is just so runny, it gets around so much more than the later stage poop. Also, love your 29 week pic!! Some of the reasons you describe are the reasons I didn't connect with hypnobirthing, but I totally agree that you can train your body to relax to a great extent, so go for it!
ReplyDelete