Week 35

See the big picture

How your baby's growing:

Your baby doesn't have much room to maneuver now that he's over 18 inches long and tips the scales at 5 1/4 pounds (pick up a honeydew melon). Because it's so snug in your womb, he isn't likely to be doing somersaults anymore, but the number of times he kicks should remain about the same. His kidneys are fully developed now, and his liver can process some waste products. Most of his basic physical development is now complete — he'll spend the next few weeks putting on weight.

Natural Childbirth Class

Our class last nite was awesome. It was just us and the other couple "PP#1". Our teacher Sally, was amazing, she basically just let us ask questions almost the whole time. We also did some role playing for labor that was super helpfull. Mark learned alot about helpfull responses to my pain, and we talked alot about the different comfort measures that I would prefer. This class was definately the most helpfull of any of them. Sally made us feel really secure in that Dr. Michele and our midwife Kelly were the best in KC for the kind of birth we want, and that we had done a really good job of preparing. She was so excited that we had a great doula (Sarah), and that we had really taken advantage of all the resouces available to us. It's really what we needed to hear. The closer we get, the more freaked out and unsure we are, so it's nice to know we've got a professional support system who are completely 100% behind us and enthusiastic about our birth. We feel really lucky.

Dr. Appt. (7/18)

Everything is still looking totally normal! Kinda boring, but in a good way. :) Baby is really starting to grow big time. I've gained four pounds since last visit which was a twice what I was shooting for. gotta lay off the chocolate milk for awhile. :( sad.

Next visit: Aug. 1 @ 3:30

Childbirth Class ( Part 5)

I don't think anyone really wanted that last class to end. afterwards, most people milled about talking. We eventually took it out to the parking lot and I think we finally got out of there at 11pm, 90 minutes after the class ended. lol. My theory is that the end of the class symbolized another giant step closer to this awesome yet terrifying upcoming life change. No one really seemed in a big hurry to move on. well, except for the couple we nicknamed "the crabby people." Even the Chinese couple stayed around to talk about cloth diapers with me. And it ended up that we talked the most to "Pretty People #1" and "Pretty People #2" who ended up being not nearly as snobby as we thought they'd be. :D We'll even see PP#1 again at our natural childbirth class on tues. nite, they ended up having the same doctor as us.

Overall, that class was pretty awesome. Some of the books I had read, sort of put me off hospital sponsored childbirth classes, saying that they just wanted to teach you how to be a good patient, more than to educate you on your options. But either we got a totally kick-ass hospital, or teacher. Probably both I'm thinking. It made me feel way more comfortable with our choice of going with a hospital even though we're shooting for a natural birth. I guess there are HUGE differences in what kind of birth experience you get depending on your doctor and hospital. You'd think it would be pretty universal at this point, but surprisingly it's far from it. So if you have a specific vision of what you want your experience to be, it pays to shop around, BIG TIME.

One of the most important things I learned was that most doctor's will SAY that they are okay with natural birth but then end up jumping in as soon as they can with the interventions. And of course in the end, everyone can say "thank god for the doctor and modern technology, our baby might not have survived." People forget though that an Obstetrician is a surgeon. they aren't trained for normal birth, to sit around and wait for something to happen, they are trained for emergency situations in which they get to MAKE things happen...to medically manage the birth. And once the interventions start, they lead to other interventions, and then more, and then "poof" you just had a c-section which was entirely preventable.

I have total faith that between our OB and our midwife, and the fairly progressive policies at Olathe Medical Center, we won't have a "medically managed" birth unless it is 100% ABSOLUTELY necessary. And in an emergency situation, we welcome all that modern technology has to offer. That's why we're doing this in a hospital for the first time. But you can bet the farm that we're going to ask "why" first.

Speechable

These are so cool! Speechable

Week 34

See the big picture

How your baby's growing:

Your baby now weighs about 4 3/4 pounds (like your average cantaloupe) and is almost 18 inches long. Her fat layers — which will help regulate her body temperature once she's born — are filling her out, making her rounder. Her skin is also smoother than ever. Her central nervous system is maturing and her lungs are continuing to mature as well. If you've been nervous about preterm labor, you'll be happy to know that babies born between 34 and 37 weeks who have no other health problems generally do fine. They may need a short stay in the neonatal nursery and may have a few short-term health issues, but in the long run, they usually do as well as full-term babies.

Everyday @ Our House

DON'T PANIC!

Had my first Braxton-Hicks (practice) contractions this morning. I think. It lasted a little over an hour on and off and then just went away, so I'm assuming that's what that was. It wasn't too bad, just made me super nervous since I didn't really know what the heck was going on.

I probably shouldn't have read my pregnancy message boards over the weekend either, because 3 people in our Sept. Expecting Group on iVillage have already had their babies and that's making me nervous. One girl lost a bunch of her amniotic fluid and is in the hospital while they try to keep her baby in till 35 weeks. Yikes. :(

Anyways, I felt like I had all this time left, and I do, if all goes well...but there's that part of me that is sort of running around and freaking out and she's not really helping. Truthfully it's all getting close to overwhelming and I'm feeling pretty vulnerable and scared. Not just because of the birth, or the pain, or any of that...but also because of what all of it means and how this changes who we are.

This whole experience is seriously blowing my mind.

Orgasmic Birth

Doula Sarah sent me home with a few more books and a dvd last week. We got around to watching the dvd "Orgasmic Birth" last nite, and I have to admit, I was a little freaked out.

There were only two women that really made me cringe with embarrassment, and all the information they presented made perfect sense, so overall it was a good documentary. I understand the concept and all so I'm not discounting any of it... but it still makes me feel sort of yucky. lol.

Here, read all about it yourself: Orgasmic Birth (beware of loud moaning on the preview, it starts automatically)

Anyway, we also got a couple of books to add to our list.

Calm Birth w/ cd
The Breastfeeding Book
The Birth Partner

Week 33

See the big picture

How your baby's growing:

This week your baby weighs a little over 4 pounds (heft a pineapple) and has passed the 17-inch mark. He's rapidly losing that wrinkled, alien look and his skeleton is hardening. The bones in his skull aren't fused together, which allows them to move and slightly overlap, thus making it easier for him to fit through the birth canal. (The pressure on the head during birth is so intense that many babies are born with a conehead-like appearance.) These bones don't entirely fuse until early adulthood, so they can grow as his brain and other tissue expands during infancy and childhood.

Making Plans

So we've been talking about how this whole birth thang is gonna go down. At the beginning I thought I wanted EVERYONE there, and that the whole thing should be videotaped. After alot of reading and some serious contemplation about my relaxation and pain relief techniques, I decided that it probably would be best if we had as much privacy as possible during labor and birth. If you picture me serenely laying in a hospital bed hooked up to an iv and chatting with guests, you FAIL. lol. :D

I will possibly be naked, mooing, hanging from the furniture and extremely hostile by the time we mosey over to the hospital, and I don't think you want any part of that. I don't plan on being a "good" laboring woman just so everyone else can be comfortable and we can have a big birthing tea party. NOT happening. Since I'm not opting for drugs of any kind, I'm going to have to be concentrating VERY hard on my relaxation and visualization. Not only is this going to make me want to punch in the face anyone who utters a peep, but I won't be confined to my bed...and therefore actually able to walk over and do the punching. lol. :D

But seriously, Cyndie is going to be in charge of guest relations and will have a list of family to call for labor/birth updates. I might end up giving her access to this blog and she can update here as well. And don't worry, we won't call anybody in the middle of the night unless it's big news. :)

After baby is born and I am ready, I'm sure we'll be glad to have a couple of visitors. And of course, when we get home, if you want to come over we'd love to see everyone. Especially if you bring us a casserole and some brownies. lol.

Anyway, it might seem kind of early for this kind of talk, but remember... 37 weeks is considered full term and I'm at about 32.

Here's some links for hospital information:

The Birth Place @ Olathe Medical Center

Olathe Medical Center Visitor Information

Childbirth Class (Part 4)

Last nite's class was super fun time! It seemed like all the guys were turbo-channeling their uncomfortableness with the situation into a mega Joke-Off. lol. we discussed more breathing techniques, toured the birthing suite (our second time), went over pushing positions, and talked about post-partem care.

Next week is Infant Care which we already have sat through in a stand alone class. But it'll be a nice refresher since that seems like it was eons ago. Then we are done with this class. We're going to add on a Natural Childbirth class that is being offered through our doctor's office. That will be like the 22nd I think.

anyhoo, i'm off for my fancy salon pedicure! I'm finally cashing in the gift certificate that cyndie gave me for christmas. excitement!

One high chair to rule them all...

I finally scored a wooden high chair on Craigslist! And it's better than the first! Our baby is going to totally reign supreme in this mofo right here!

Our cats LOVE sheet changing night!

Can you see Pete in the background? Ear flying and eyeball all aglow?

Soak up the healing powers of PURRRRRR...

Mark! You can't CUSS while I'm videotaping!!

After cat time, it's PETE TIME!

Dr. Appt. (7/7)

Had a good appt. on monday. the midwife said that my hemoglobin was the best she had ever seen! whoo hoo! apparently that means that baby is getting awesome oxygen from my blood. They seem to be perplexed that I keep passing sugar but yet my diabetes blood test came back with wayyy normal numbers. and for once in my life, I'm not having any weight issues! yay! it seems like pregnant women are getting yelled at by their doctors right and left for weight gain, but not me! still not up to where I was before first trimester. but baby needs to double in weight over the next two months so i expect to be expanding rapidly, very soon. kinda scary all of sudden since I feel VERY pregnant this week. I'm starting to really waddle around and it feels awful if I attempt to bend over. Bending over at all will soon become totally impossible. And i'm not sure if this baby just took up kung fu or what, but she is beating me silly from the inside. lol.

Next appt. 7/18@3:30

Childbirth Class (Part 3)

So this is where things got a little heavy. We talked about interventions in this week's class. Yuck. Me no likey. Yes, I've educated myself about ALL my options from all different viewpoints, not just the ones I prefer...but I still can rather not study in detail, over and over, the ones that freak me out. I've seen a cesarean birth before several times on Discovery Health like forever ago, but during the video in class I seriously had to turn my head which isn't like me. I just can't let myself get into a panic about things that might be out of my control. I'm trying to stay on a positive path of doing everything possible to help prevent unnecessary interventions.

I let my inner "hippy" out in class again this week by mentioning that isn't it funny that they can show these major surgeries on television, yet not a full on vaginal birth. God forbid our eyes behold a vagina doing what it was made to do!! One guy said he'd rather people see his wife's intestines than her vagina! whhhhaaaaaattttt????? you'd rather your wife be sliced open and her innards spilling out everywhere than for someone to see a baby coming out of her naturally? Okay, I'm now officially convinced that there is too much violence in the media and not enough total female nudity. Are you Freaking Serious?? what is WRONG with you people???? So I just had to respond that it definitely wouldn't be the vagina that he knew, it was going to look totally different during birth anyway. it's an organ that has two different purposes and I'm pretty sure mature adults can make the separation without much trouble.

I was saying "vagina" alot i guess, which seemed to make people squirm. *rolls eyes* Come on people, we're not 12 years old here. It's an actual medical term, not a cuss word! and for god's sake we're in a hospital in a childbirth class!! lol.

Week 32/ Month 8

See the big picture

How your baby's growing:

By now, your baby weighs 3.75 pounds (pick up a large jicama) and is about 16.7 inches long, taking up a lot of space in your uterus. You're gaining about a pound a week and roughly half of that goes right to your baby. In fact, she'll gain a third to half of her birth weight during the next 7 weeks as she fattens up for survival outside the womb. She now has toenails, fingernails, and real hair (or at least respectable peach fuzz). Her skin is becoming soft and smooth as she plumps up in preparation for birth.

Happy 4th!!!

We're (Mark is actually) cleaning out our gross basement today. FUN! Later we'll give our dog a sedative and try to help him not have a giant nervous breakdown when the fireworks start and it sounds like a war just broke out in the city.

Mark isn't a big fan of loud noises and stupid drunk people with guns and firecrackers, so this isn't his favorite holiday. lol. I myself like a good fireworks display but it's just too much of a pain to go find parking and deal with all the people. So we'll stay home, hug our dog and each other and celebrate our country's independence by playing Uno on the porch and eating ice cream.

Growl Tiger

Oh boy, I'm a crabby pregnant lady this week for sure. I've done alot of crying, some hysterical crazy laughing for no reason, and TONS of being a cranky mommy bear. If you talked to me at the beginning and thought I was snappy...oh nelly that was NOTHING! If you come around now...put your thick skin on! lol. I skipped La Leche League last nite I was so crabby. Basically, everything anyone does or says makes me mad. lol.

Honestly, probably no one I've talked to has really noticed except Mark. Poor poor Mark. I've done a good job of only really communicating through blog and email with most people. But oh boy I've been in Mr. Tooley's FACE this week. I'm sorry Mr. Tooley. *pat pat pat*

And no, i'm not physically miserable yet. I feel great actually. I finally feel like I've got a respectable pregnant belly going on and I looooove it. The heat isn't bothering me at all, and I doubt it will. What people forget when they make comments about how it's going to suck for me when it gets hot is....I'm already fat!! LOL. I'm miserable EVERY summer! This summer is going to be no different at all.

Well, I'm going to go take some anger out on my knitting now. Freaking never ending baby blanket!!

Tres Cosas

1. I've got two weeks of vacation! wheeeee! Not sure what I'm going to spend it doing...but I'm sure it'll be baby/nesting related somehow.

2. Friday is our ELEVEN year anniversary! Can you believe it? We met July 4th, 1997 and have been inseparable ever since! I'm still totally crazy about my Mark, and he's mega-bonkers for me. :D lol.

3. The wooden high chair guy from Craigslist totally flaked out on me on Sun. I'm pretty irritated about it. I WANT that high chair.