Baby Size: Still estimated around 3.5 pounds
Mama Size: For some reason am losing weight and inches. Up 22 pounds and a 37 inch waist. My doctor didn't seem concerned and I definitely feel the baby kicking every few hours.
Symptoms: Oh the fatigue. I actually came home early on Wednesday and promptly fell asleep. I am so grateful that I am still experiencing some great nights of sleep and am not taking that for granted. If my sleep quality starts to drop significantly near the end, I might start my leave a little early. I am pretty useless for higher level cognitive tasks once I get pregnancy-sleepy. Ha, at the risk of sounding like an annoying 'you-don't-know-what-this-feels-like' pregnant woman--pregnant sleepy is so different than regular sleepy! The latter I can power through while the former makes me a dangerous driver.
Other updates: We missed our childbirth class this week due to Peter being in San Francisco and my hell no reaction to when Peter asked me if I was going to sit through it without him. Plus that night's agenda was focused solely on birth plans and my birth plan is woefully underwhelming. Well that coupled with a doctor and a hospital that, according to the business of being born, is shockingly pro-natural, pro-doula, pro-parent choices and would make Ina Garten proud. My hospital insists on an hour of skin to skin contact, immediate latching, delay of any and all newborn tasks (including weight and eyedrops) until parents feel bonded. My ob won't cut the cord until it stops pulsing, encourages breastfeeding (mind over matter was her phrasing), and is willing to wait on inductions until around 42 weeks. I have in my drafted birth plan to keep the baby in the nursery as the default instead of in my room and I have to laugh at the irony that I will be going against the "norm" now. I almost think that any specifications on my part would be met with a "Silly girl, we do that for all our patients now". We went on our hospital tour today and was told that mothers are encouraged to walk around, labor on the birthing ball, or labor in the jacuzzi. Such a stark difference when you look back ten or twenty years.
The tour actually got me excited to go into labor if only for the view. Being in a high rise hospital room with huge windows that face the wasatch front makes me feel luckier than Beyonce.
Question of the week: When did you put your car seats in your cars? We're planning on visiting the local fire station to make sure we install the bases correctly. Waiting until 38 weeks or so seems reasonable to me but is that too early?
I'm so very envious. Rural areas are still behind cities like SLC. Our hospital will only allow us about 10-15 minutes of initial skin-to-skin contact, they force the cord cutting before the color has drained, and even "the most open-minded doctor" at our hospital says I "HAVE TO" do the final stage of pushing on my back--like an effing woman in the 1950s. I'm naturally an annoying type of patient who says, "Why?" to all of these norms. You'll never believe, but they honest-to-God say, "It's easier for us." Such a blessing to be birthing in a good hospital setting, I'm happy for you and Baby.
ReplyDeleteYour hospital and doctor sounds so wonderful that I want another baby so I can deliver there!
ReplyDeleteNot really, but if I have another baby (one day when I'm married...if that ever happens), I'd LOVE to deliver there! How nice! I agree with Janelle...everythign here is at the doctor's convenience! It's really frustrating! I barely got to keep Cori and didn't see Alli for the first 20 minutes. Her APGAR score was an 8 so she wasn't having difficulty...it made me mad because I wanted that bonding time! I'm so glad you are going to get it! It was different with Cori...they did let me nurse her for about an hour and that was so nice!
You have the most amazing hospital I have ever heard of! You lucky, lucky woman, you! I'm just happy to be having my baby at a hospital with great (and what should be standard everywhere) rooms for the moms (all private, spacious, fridge in every room, etc.). Seriously, your hospital sounds so cool!
ReplyDeleteI think your car seat plan sounds great. I'm putting E's in sometime this week (before her C-section next Wed at 39 weeks). I'm bad though, I've never had our seats checked. I do work pretty hard to read the instructions thoroughly (multiple times before and as I'm installing) and make sure they are installed very tightly (which usually involves me cramming myself onto/into the seat in order to create enough weight and pressure to get things strapped in very tightly. Not a fun process, especially when you're pregnant or post-partum!
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ReplyDeleteI meant to also say your plan for the car seat sounds good...I'd just make sure the fire department is certified to test them. Your area is starting to sound better and better, but unfortunately here, LOTS of the "car seat testing centers" aren't certified. (Maybe I'm using the wrong term.) They just have people who go out, wiggle it a little and the end. I didn't now until I did TONS of research that although my car seat was installed correctly, tight, etc, etc, etc, and the right angle and I was putting Cori in the right way, because my car is so small, the front seat touched the carseat. And my car seat and my make of my car are not compatible for that type of "bracing" and could actually be dangerous in a collision, etc. And the centers here (most of them) don't catch that. But it sounds like your area is ahead of the game. Can I move there???
ReplyDeleteOh, btw, I've been registering to win the HGTV Dream Home. HAHAH! It's in Utah. :)
Deleted that last one to correct typos. :)
Whoa, seriously, I'm in shock over your hospital's standard procedures! Orem Community is considered the most "natural"-friendly place down south and it doesn't even have half those policies. Happily, it did facilitate immediate skin-to-skin contact and breastfeeding really well. We took our car seat around 38 or 39 weeks I think -- we took it to the county health department, so that may be another option if your fire station isn't certified.
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