38 Weeks Pregnant

Only two weeks till the due date! I wanted to get this blog up sooner to make up for last week, but yesterday and today were both pretty busy…sorry! I also wish I wasn't wearing the same outfit two weeks in a row...hopefully no one cares. :-)

We got home from our final Bradley class around 9:00 last night, and then I couldn’t stay awake for another minute. All day today I was working on preparations for one of the recitals I had scheduled for my students. (Half of them were in tonight’s recital, the other half will play in next Tuesday’s recital.) I had this great idea to make three different kinds of cookies to put in goody bags for each kid, but when you procrastinate and end up doing all of that in one day, it’s a big job, especially when you have to go out and buy ingredients and cute bags to put the cookies in. I also had to make certificates for them, which Travis ended up pretty much doing for me, and I had to alter the top I wanted to wear, etc. etc. The recital went really well, though!

Baby Norah is still growing, I’m sure, but my belly measurements have stayed the same this week. As predicted, she has started to descend into my pelvis, which is pretty exciting! I definitely feel like she is lower. I told Amy that sometimes when she moves I feel crampy in the lower part of my belly, and she said that’s a good sign that things are moving in the right direction! I seem to be having even more Braxton-Hicks now, and sometimes they’re stronger than usual.

I didn’t get to weigh myself at this week’s appointment because we were in a different room (there was another appointment going on in the usual exam room), so I don’t know what I weigh this week. I don’t mind. J

The only other piece of news from the appointment is that I am Strep B negative. It wouldn’t have been a big deal if I was positive, but it’s nice not to have to worry about it.

I got my oral Vitamin K in the mail, and I am to take a drop a day to give Norah a boost while she’s still in utero, and then I’ll keep taking it for some unknown length of time so it will be in my milk. I think Norah is supposed to get a drop soon after birth, another at one week, and another at one month.

Someone bought the 5-W from us! Yay! I’m really glad our money wasn’t wasted, and neither were the pills.

Travis’s Aunt Carolyn and cousin Leanne threw us a great baby shower last Saturday! They went crazy with food, decorations, and gifts!!! The cake was so cute – they used a picture of the mural Travis painted on Norah’s wall (which I realize I still haven’t shown you…) and had it airbrushed onto the cake, which was so yummy! Unfortunately, most of it is still in our fridge, and I refuse to eat it. I think Travis might take it to school tomorrow.

Anyway, we got lots of CUTE outfits and other stuff we needed. Travis’s sister Rachel even got us a Boppy pillow that matches Norah’s room! So I guess my other one will be a spare, or I’ll keep one upstairs and one downstairs or something. We also got lots of diaper money! We’ve already used some of it to get all the diapers (6 of them) that we wanted from www.alvababy.com. I can’t wait to show you our diaper stash! The Alva Baby ones will probably take several weeks to get here since they’re coming from China and the shipping was free. Here, I’ll show you a picture of one of them:

While I’m at it, here’s a photo of a couple of little tiny shirts that Travis screen printed for Norah. So cute!

Our last Bradley class was kind of sad! I can’t believe it’s been three months since we started. We learned so much and feel very well prepared. Mary spent most of the class talking with us about how to handle different situations, such as strangers trying to grab the baby’s hands or pick the baby up, or people staying too long when they visit, or people trying to push their own parenting style onto us. It was good just to start thinking about how we would handle situations like that. I’m not terribly worried about all of that, but we definitely do want to make sure Norah isn’t exposed to too many germs before her system is developed enough to handle it.

Then we spent a few minutes talking about care of a newborn…mostly just feeding, bathing and caring for the umbilical cord. Interesting factoid: you don’t have to rub alcohol on the umbilical cord stump. If you leave it alone, it will actually fall off faster because the bacteria help it to decay. However, if bacteria gross you out, it’s fine to clean it. J We’re going to do a bit more research on that.

At the end of class, we got contact info. from some of our classmates (the ones who didn’t run out the door before we could get to them), and Mary gave us each a goody bag with some free samples of stuff, plus a couple of adorable burp cloths that she made.

As I mentioned, we really feel like our class helped us to feel prepared. My excited emotions are starting to outweigh the apprehensive ones. I’m really not worried about anything going wrong. Sometimes I’m still afraid of the pain, and sometimes I’m totally confident that I can handle it. Hopefully I still have two weeks or so to finish getting myself mentally prepared. I’d like to go into it just feeling excited and ready. We are definitely looking forward to meeting our little Norah!

37 Weeks Pregnant: Full Term!

I’m so sorry this is so late! I’ve never been this late with a blog before. This week has flown by.

I’m full term! Can you believe it? This has gone by SO fast for me – especially the second half or so.

Norah is now gaining weight at a rate of approximately a half ounce per day, and she sure is kicking hard sometimes! She probably weighs over six pounds now. My measurement around the belly is about 40 ¼ inches, and I’ve now passed the 140 lb. mark! Eek! I weighed 140.5 at my midwife appointment on Monday. That’s not bad, though, it’s just weird when I’ve never weighed more than 115. If I gain 5 more pounds by the end, I’ll still be well within the “normal” range. Amy also said that my official belly measurement is 36 centimeters (still technically a week behind), and that it might not get any bigger since Norah’s head will probably start to descend into my pelvis soon.

Random tidbit: I hate wearing pants now, especially if they aren’t super stretchy. I was left with only one pair that was still comfortable, so the other day I went to Target and got some yoga pants, leggings, and a few long tops/dresses. I only bought one maternity item, because I won’t need them for too much longer.

I finally figured out where the pharmacy is that had all of my prescriptions, and I went to pick them up on Monday. My insurance covered about half the cost of the Pitocin, and almost nothing on the Methergine and Vitamin K, so I called Amy because she told me if they weren’t covered she might have some at the birth center left over from patients who didn’t need them. She told me to just get the Pitocin for now, and then she started talking about the Vitamin K shot, so I told her that we had decided on the oral Vitamin K and that the doctor had told me it’s the same stuff, but you just administer it orally instead of as a shot. I had been surprised when he told me that, but I didn’t ask questions. She said that, yes, you can do that, but then the baby is still exposed to the preservatives, etc., that are in it, so you almost might as well give the shot if you use the same stuff. She pointed me toward a natural form of drops, which I just ordered today.

Speaking of supplements, it was pointed out to me that some of the herbs in the 5-W I planned to take might not be safe for pregnant women. I don’t think they’ve been proven to be harmful, but they haven’t been proven to be not harmful either. Wow, double negative. You know what I mean. Anyway, since it’s probably not really necessary, we’ve decided that I might as well not take it. Unfortunately, I had already opened the bottle just because I wanted to see what they looked like. Dumb me. So now we can’t return them. Amy said if she has any patients who want to use it, she’ll give them the option of buying ours for a few dollars cheaper.

I am especially confident that I probably won’t go too far past 40 or 41 weeks now, because the other day I woke up at 5:00 in the morning with pretty strong contractions. Braxton-Hicks don’t bother me much, but these were painful, especially in my lower back, and I had to stop what I was doing to cope with them. I couldn’t get back to sleep. I called Amy because though they were strong, they didn’t seem like real labor contractions because they weren’t coming at regular intervals. They were anywhere between 2 and 5 minutes apart and between 30 seconds and just over a minute long. She said I just have an “irritable uterus,” and to take a bath (which I had already done) and have a half a glass of wine. It worked. They stopped soon after. Now, don’t freak out over the wine! At this point in pregnancy it’s considered safe to have a small amount of alcohol. I certainly wouldn’t condone drinking for no reason if you are pregnant, though. I didn’t even drink a half glass. Alcohol is like medicine to me. Blech. Anyway, my guess is that if I’m having tons of Braxton-Hicks, plus that episode of strong contractions, I’m probably getting ready to go into labor in the next few weeks. Actually, I’m hoping Norah can wait at least that long, because I have piano recitals for my students on May 3^rd and 10^th, plus a baby shower in North Carolina this Saturday and one at Travis’s school on May 5^th! Not to mention I’d like to finish my sewing projects. I also just don’t feel quite ready to be done yet! I feel like I just got to the point where I’m obviously pregnant, and for the most part I’m still enjoying the attention that comes with that. J And it’s just going to be such a huge shift when Norah goes from being part of me to being her own little person. It’s kind of scary.

Other than the contractions, my main symptom right now is leg cramps at night and when I wake up in the morning. I’ve tried drinking more water and eating more bananas, and neither seemed to help. Oh, well.

Getting Ready For Norah

Even though the blog is pretty much all about getting ready for Norah at this point, there are a few specific things we’ve been doing to prepare.

First, my sister Toni brought her kids over on Tuesday to do yard work! She and the boys mowed the lawn, trimmed the bushes, and even washed my car, while the girls and I cleaned the porches (between cuddle sessions with one of our cats). All of this was long overdue, so it’s so great to have it done. Travis and I don’t much like yard work.

Travis installed the car seat in his car, and there’s a free car seat check at his school on May 4^th.

We've got all of the placenta encapsulation stuff pretty much ready to go. I also found a list of the “known ingredients that give the placenta its healing properties”:

Gonadotrophin: the precursor to estrogen, progesterone and testosterone

Prolactin: promotes lactation

Oxytocin: for pain and bonding; produced during birth and breastfeeding to facilitate bonding of mother and infant

Thyroid stimulating hormone: boosts energy and helps recovery from stressful events

Cortisone: combats stress and unlocks energy stores

Interferon: stimulates the immune system to protect against infections

Prostaglandins: anti-inflammatory

Hemoglobin: replenishes iron to prevent anemia, a common postpartum condition

Urokinase inhibiting factor and factor XIII: stops bleeding and enhances wound healing

Gammaglobulin: immune booster that helps protect against postpartum infections

I found detailed instructions for encapsulation at http://www.cafemom.com/journals/read/1577334/Placenta_Encapsulation_Instructions_w_Pictures, and we ordered some empty capsules and got permission from Travis's very generous (and apparently not easily grossed out) mother to use her food dehydrator. The only other thing we need is a jar to keep them in. I'll probably just use the one my prenatal vitamins are in. I'm really excited that we went the super cheap route with this...to have someone come and do it for us would cost $200. To buy a kit with the instructions costs $75, and a kit without the instructions costs $25 (I'm curious as to why there's such a big price difference for with versus without instructions). On the site I was looking at, even just the capsules in a cute jar with a flower on it would have totaled $13. The capsules we bought were around $6 from Amazon, including the shipping. So, instead of ending up with a $200 jar of vitamins, I'll get the same thing for $6! I just love saving money. :-)

Speaking of saving money, someone told me about a consignment sale going on throughout the month of April, so I went to check it out a week or two ago and bought a Moby Wrap and the exact type of chair I wanted (a dish/saucer chair) for Norah's room. Both items are normally $40, and I got them for $14 each. They weren't priced quite as low as most of the stuff we found at the consignment event we went to a month or two ago, but still good deals.

I have also made my own laundry detergent. This is in the "Getting Ready For Norah" section because you can't use just any detergent on cloth diapers, or they will start to lose absorbency. I THINK you can use All Free and Clear or Tide, but even these are sort of iffy. There are better ones, but you have to order them. I just thought I'd rather make it myself since I found a recipe online that people swear by (http://www.duggarfamily.com/recipes.html), and I sort of thought it would be fun. It was! The stuff gels up to a really strange consistency, and Travis and I honestly had fun squishing it in our hands for like 15 minutes. We're easily entertained, I guess. Also, the recipe makes 10 GALLONS (!) of detergent with just one cup of Arm and Hammer Super Washing Soda, a half cup of Borax, and one bar of Fels-Naptha laundry soap, plus some water. Super cheap. Smells good, too!

We have also started getting our bags ready for when it's time to meet baby Norah. We've mostly got her stuff together in the diaper bag, and we've made a list of all the stuff we want to pack for us. We haven't picked out Norah's "going home" outfit yet, because we still have those two showers, so we'll probably have more to choose from. Other than that, I think we should have all we need. We will probably only be staying at the birth center for 6 hours or so after she is born, so it's a little easier than if we were packing for a two- or three-day hospital stay. (Just so no one is concerned, a short stay is pretty standard for birth centers, but they will send a postpartum doula to our house the following day to check on all of us, and the pediatrician will see Norah the day after that. The doula will continue to make home visits for six weeks, or until we leave for Pennsylvania.)

The Bradley class this week was mostly a review of what to expect during labor and how to handle it (for me and for Travis), especially some energy-saving techniques to ensure that I can get through the whole labor without getting exhausted. Next week is our last class! I think we'll be going over newborn care.

Lastly, we had a great Easter! After church, Travis's brother Nathan took some photos of us so that we could get some better ones of both of us and some of my henna. Then my dad, step-mom, and brother all came over and brought Easter dinner! We showed them the nursery, even though it's still not completely finished. I'll show it to you soon, I promise! Here are some of the photos Nathan took. Have a great weekend!

36 Weeks Pregnant

See my henna tattoo?! J Travis has a couple of Indian students whose mother does them, and ever since he expressed interest months ago, they’ve been pestering him to bring me to have one done. I love it! And she was SOO nice! She also did a sun on Travis’s hand and a bird on his inner forearm, and then gave us four tubes of henna paste so we could do our own later since she didn’t think she would be able to use them up before they expired. And THEN, she wouldn’t let us pay her anything! She just gave us some business cards and told us to send people her way. So if you like what you see and you live nearby, let me know and I’ll give you her info!

Also, you may have noticed our new picture at the top of the blog. Last Thursday we decided that we would go get the henna done the next day, and I wanted to take some cute belly pictures before then. It was a beautiful day and I wanted to take a walk anyway, so we went to a nearby garden (the same place we went for our engagement photo shoot!) and Travis brought his nice new camera and a tripod. We ended up with several great photos, including some of both of us, which I was most excited about since we take pictures of just me every week! We’re hoping to go again while I have the henna, which should last for 1-2 weeks. Here are a few more from last week’s trip:

With only a few weeks to go, the onslaught of mixed emotions is starting to hit. I’m anxious, worried, stressed, excited, happy, sad, needy, sentimental, selfish, loving…the list goes on. I hope we’re ready for this. I think I just need to remember to take it one day at a time. I feel a little bit better since I made a list of things I’d like for us to get done before Norah arrives. It has almost 30 items on it, though!

One of the things I’ve been wanting to do is apologize to our friends and family for not being a better friend, sister, etc. I want you all to know that I’m so sorry I/we don’t spend more time with you. There are a lot of reasons why we don’t, and while I don’t want to flood you with excuses, I’m hoping you can sympathize with some of them.

The main reason is simply that Travis and I have opposite schedules most days. When he gets off work, I’m just starting. By the time we’re both home, we just want to spend some time together at home.

In that same vein, my schedule is different every day, and I teach every day (including weekends), so it’s hard to plan things.

I don’t really like driving. I don’t mind riding, but that means Travis always has to drive.

I always seem to get tired before everyone else does (especially now), and when I’m tired I truly CANNOT function, and then I end up coming across as rude or angry or unhappy.

I’m terrible at socializing. I just am. It takes a lot of effort for me to carry on a conversation. I enjoy spending time with people, but after a couple of hours I’m drained.

I’ll stop there. I just wanted everyone to know that we neglect all of you equally, and it’s not you, it’s us. :-P

Also, I can’t guarantee that it won’t get worse once Norah arrives. In fact, it probably will.

I’m worried that our friends who don’t have children won’t understand. I don’t think they can. For example, I don’t think I’ll be okay with leaving Norah with anyone overnight for quite a while, and then very seldom. I guess I’m just sensitive to other people’s opinions, and I will take it personally if people don’t like some of our parenting choices, or if they think we’re lame for staying home with the baby all the time, or whatever. I hope everyone has enough confidence in us to know that we've put a lot of thought into our decisions, and we’ll do whatever we think is best for our daughter.

Norah has been even more active than usual lately! It seems like she spends more of her time awake now. She has been waking me up most mornings this week. This morning as I was watching my belly, I saw her two feet go – step, step! I could almost see the exact shape of each foot! So tiny!

Yesterday I had my 36 week doctor appointment. As far as I know, everything was fine. He didn’t tell me my belly measurement (I should have asked, but I’ll see the midwife next week anyway). My measurement all the way around is 39.5”. The heartbeat was good, and my weight was 137.4. I did the strep B test, and I’m not sure when I’ll hear back about that. I really like that doctor, though. He’s a family doctor/obstetrician/pediatrician. He seems very laid back and open-minded, etc. We will probably keep him as our family doctor.

He also wrote my prescriptions for the Vitamin K, Pitocin, and Methergine tablets. Unfortunately, I spent over an hour driving around looking for this specific pharmacy that carries all of those, and which is supposedly less than two miles from the doctor’s office. Never found it. Drove home feeling like my whole day was wasted. I’ll go back later this week, after I call his office to ask once again where the place is and what it’s called.

Yesterday’s Bradley class was really helpful. It was sort of a labor rehearsal. After we watched a video reminding us of some of the positions we could try during contractions and some things our husbands can do to encourage and make us more comfortable, we went into the birth center and did several practice contractions. Travis took notes on what I liked the most.

Well, I think that's all the news I've got for today. See you next week, when I will be FULL TERM!!! :-)

35 Weeks Pregnant

35 weeks down, less than 35 DAYS to go. Insane.

This week I made a disappointing discovery: stretch marks. Noooooo! I was having such good luck so far. Vitamin E oil was recommended to me, so I might try it even though my midwife and Bradley instructor both say nothing can prevent or get rid of them. At least they’re not very big or very dark…for now.

Norah is still getting the hiccups often and is very active at certain times of day. Last night she kept waking me up getting her feet up under my ribs. So uncomfortable. That was the first time she has actually woke me up. She usually seems to sleep when I’m sleeping. I also had a lot of vivid dreams last night and actually woke up crying because I dreamed that Travis died. This is my worst fear, and I’ve had dreams about him as well as other family members dying and never getting to meet Norah. I’ve heard that pregnancy can bring strange and vivid dreams, so hopefully they’ll go away after she’s born!

I had been getting concerned that Norah never seems to react to sound. We’ve tried to startle her a few times (kind of mean, I know) to see if she would move, and she never does. Yesterday Travis fell asleep after he got home from work, and when I couldn’t even get him to wake up for dinner (brought to him in bed!), I blasted some Led Zeppelin from the computer room. He still didn’t wake up, but Norah started dancing around like crazy! So, I’d say she can hear just fine. J

Next Monday is my appointment with the doctor, and he needs to know our decision regarding Vitamin K. I think we have come to a decision now, but I’ll give you a little background. Vitamin K is mainly needed to help blood clot. It’s named after the German word for coagulation, which is the same word, but spelled with a “k.” In US hospitals, the vitamin is routinely injected into every newborn in order to prevent the rare occurrence of a bleeding problem which could be fatal. All newborns have very low levels of Vitamin K because it does not cross the placenta very well, and because they lack the good bacteria which allow them to synthesize their own supply of it. Babies are at higher risk of hemorrhaging because of Vitamin K deficiency if they are premature, their mother is on medication for seizures, they are breastfed, or they sustain an injury during birth, such as bruising, which uses up the clotting factors they do have. Our midwife, Amy, also told us that because of hospital routines in the US such as early circumcision (which obviously doesn’t apply to Norah) and an antibacterial/antimicrobial bath shortly after birth which kills the good bacteria that would help the baby synthesize Vitamin K, babies born in our hospitals have an increased risk of clotting problems.

My initial feeling was that since Norah will have a very low risk of suffering from a bleed due to Vitamin K deficiency, she probably doesn’t need the supplement. However, since I did read that breastfed babies are more at risk, and since there is an oral version of the vitamin that carries no risks and is painless, I think we’ve decided to opt for that. The injected version is painful and can cause allergic reactions because of the preservatives, etc. The drops are completely safe since they only contain pure, natural vitamin K, which doesn’t even have a known toxicity level. I can’t remember the exact regimen, but it involves me taking the drops at the end of pregnancy and for some amount of time after Norah is born, and giving a drop or two to her within 24 hours of birth, a week later, and when she is 4 weeks old, or something like that. This way we’ll be sure she’s protected, and she won’t have to be welcomed into the world with a nasty shot. Unfortunately, she’ll still have to have the PKU heel prick test, because PKU is a very serious disease that causes brain damage early on if left untreated. All babies have to be tested. I won’t go into that – you can look it up if you’re curious. J

Yesterday’s Bradley class was fun! We played Jeopardy, and Travis and I KICKED BUTT! We only missed ONE question. Before the final question where you wager points, we had 7,000, and I think the next highest score was 3,500! Then we were the only ones to get the final question correct, so we ended up with a total of 9,700 points. I felt kind of bad because everyone was asking us if we had studied, and we hadn’t. We just make a good team because I’ve been reading pregnancy and birth books for at least a year now, and Travis just has a mind for facts. Mary has a little “store” (a wall of shelves in the birth center) where she sells products for pregnancy, birth, postpartum, etc., so our prize was $10 off something in her store, which was perfect because we bought the 5-W yesterday. That’s the herbal supplement I mentioned a few weeks ago that’s supposed to help balance my hormones so I hopefully won’t go past 40 weeks. It’s already time to start taking it! I’m still a little wary, though, because I need to get through the May 10^th recital for my students. I might wait a few more days to start it.

Making Room For Norah

I haven’t had time to sew anything for Norah’s room yet, but we are actively trying to make room for her by selling stuff. Last Saturday we took a whole bunch of stuff to the flea market with Eric and Valerie. Between us, we had three car loads full, and then Eric still had to go back to our house and get the rest!! However, the whole experience was a little disappointing because we only sold a few things. Two of them were 40-dollar items, so that was good, but it was frustrating to have to haul almost everything back home again.

There are some things we’re going to sell on Ebay, but I don’t want to deal with shipping every single thing, so we’ll probably put some on Craigslist and donate some. At least we’ll get the money back with next year’s tax refund. Too bad we have to wait that long for it.

I’ve also been working on my housekeeping habits. It’s easy to keep up with when it’s already clean, so I’m trying not to let things get messy again! Doing great so far!

Travis’s 30^th Birthday!!!

It’s tomorrow! Happy Birthday, Travis!!!!!! :-D XOXO!

34 Weeks Pregnant

This week, Norah is developing her own immune system. The lanugo (the fuzz that has covered Norah’s whole body for most of her time in utero) is mostly gone, but she is still covered with a white creamy substance called vernix, which protects her skin from the salty amniotic fluid. My pregnancy sources all say that she should be nearly 5 pounds and around 17 ½ inches long now, but since babies vary SO much in size by the time they are born, I hesitate to take any estimates too seriously.

I’m starting to feel slightly handicapped. It’s hard to put my socks and shoes on, it’s hard to shave the lower half of my legs, and last night after we got in bed I actually said to Travis, “I want to give you a goodnight kiss, but it’s too hard to roll over.” I also dread dropping anything on the floor, especially if my pants aren’t really stretchy (I can squat easily, but certain pants dig into my belly when I do).

My back is feeling SO much better since I went to the chiropractor last week! He was amazing. He had me lying face down on his very adjustable table (didn’t want to squish Norah!), and by just looking down my spine he was able to tell me exactly what bones were out of alignment. There were at least a half dozen different problems that he fixed (I sounded like a very loud bowl of Rice Krispies!), including something in my lower back which he said can cause a lot of contractions when it is out of place. I still feel like I get them a lot, though. He also checked my tailbone, which he said is fine. It only hurts occasionally now, and it wouldn’t hurt at all if it weren’t for the pregnancy exercises I have to do. The last thing he did was check my pelvic ligaments to assess the baby’s ability to get through my pelvis. I was very reassured to know that he thinks I’ll be fine. It’s rare for a woman to have a pelvis that is truly too small. Back when they used to do x-rays on pregnant women to determine the size of the pelvis, a lot of women were thought to have a problem when they really didn’t. Doctors didn’t know or didn’t take into account that the pelvis is made up of several bones which are connected by ligaments that become stretchy during labor. Even so, my biggest fear is not the pain, which has been the most common one expressed by the mothers in our Bradley class, but that I am somehow malformed and incapable of having a baby. I’m trying to get past that, because I know it’s irrational and will only cause unnecessary fear.

This week at the Bradley class we talked about unforeseen circumstances, such as transferring to the hospital, c-sections, etc. She just said that if anything unexpected comes up, we should take a few minutes to talk it over on our own so that we can at least get used to the idea of having to make a new plan. We also talked about postpartum care, which includes planning ahead to have meals premade (or people to make meals for us) and the house already clean, etc. We are lucky because Travis will be home to take care of me.

We had a midwife appointment yesterday, and everything is still going great! My weight is now 136 ½ lbs, and my belly (fundal height) is still measuring a week behind, so 33 centimeters. Norah is also in the best position possible right now, with her head down and her back along my left side. She was that way two weeks ago as well, so hopefully she’ll stay there. Amy explained that all babies rotate in the same direction during the labor/birth process (clockwise, if you’re looking down from my view), and since it’s better for them to come out face down, Norah will only have to do a quarter turn if she stays where she is. This could make for a shorter, easier labor. Yay, Norah! She’s so smart. J Her heart rate is perfect. It gets faster when she moves, which is a sign of good neurological development as well as overall good health.

In two weeks, my appointment will be with the doctor the midwives use. The purpose of this is to do the Strep B test and to get whatever prescriptions I will need to bring with me to the birth center when I’m in labor. These will include Pitocin, which the midwives will inject if I start to hemorrhage, the vitamin K shot for the baby (if we choose to have that done), and one or two other things I can’t remember. At my next midwife appointment (the week after that) I will be considered full term!!!!!!! Holy moly.

Making Room For Norah

We got a ton of stuff done last week! It was amazing how quickly everything came together after we got started. First, we successfully consolidated my piano room with Travis’s art/computer room.

Before (sorry, this is courtesy of our realtor, who is a terrible photographer. It’s the only picture she took of the room.):

After:

There's actually a lot of floor space now. The sewing machine is on a table along the left wall, and the closet (also on the left) is very well organized.

Then, we cleaned up Norah’s room enough that Travis could paint the walls, and while he did that I worked on painting the crib and finishing up the changing table, stopping every once in a while to get some practicing in for the wedding I played for on Saturday (which went quite well, by the way). When Travis finished the walls, he helped me finish painting the crib, and he also somehow lugged the changing table and a bookshelf up the stairs all by himself without me even knowing what he was doing! Now HE needs an appointment with the chiropractor. Then Travis assembled the crib while I organized Norah’s clothes, books, etc. So, all of the major stuff is done. I just have to sew the bed skirt, changing pad cover, etc., and Travis is working on a set of little paintings. I’m also going to order a chair small enough to fit in there, but comfortable enough for Norah and I to hang out in. I don’t want to show the whole room until it’s completely done, but here are a few teasers for you.

First, the before (sorry, these pictures are pretty bad too):

And now, the teasers:

Now, here’s an interesting twist: as soon as we got all of that done, someone wanted to set up an appointment to look at our house. So then we had to clean up the rest of the house too, which was especially difficult because we are in the middle of getting things together to sell at the flea market this Saturday. We managed to stash all of that stuff in the storage area under our house, and we worked like crazy trying to make the closets and everything else look presentable. The showing was this evening, and we have no idea what they thought since we aren’t allowed to be present when they show the house. Anyway, we have very mixed feelings about the whole thing at this point. We were just about to take it off the market for a year or so and do a little more work on it in the mean time. Right now, I don’t know what we would do if they said they wanted to buy it. We’d be moving either right around my due date or a month later when we’re supposed to be in Pennsylvania, which would mean we wouldn’t be able to go. It would just be ridiculous either way. So I kind of hope they don’t want it so we can take it off the market knowing we did everything we could for a full year to try to get it sold. We’re going to see about getting our mortgage payment lowered. We tried twice before, but it’s been a year or more, so maybe they’ll be able to help us this time. Who knows. I’m so conflicted – I really want to get out of this house, but right now is terrible timing! A month or two ago would have been nice. Sometimes I wonder if it was a dumb idea to have a baby before we had all of this figured out. Of course, I wouldn’t ever take it back.

Well, I guess now that I’ve made myself sad I better sign off. One last photo – I wanted to show you our master bathroom since it hasn’t looked this good in quite a while and we don’t have any work left to do in there. All the other areas I haven’t shown you yet still need to be painted or rearranged in some way. Here it is:

See you next week!

33 Weeks Pregnant

Only 7 weeks till the due date! My belly is growing SO fast, so I guess Norah is too. The measurement now is 38 ¾ inches! I’m still feeling good in general, and I’m finally going to the chiropractor tomorrow. I can’t wait! I’ve heard great things about him, so I hope he can fix me!! I’m having Braxton-Hicks contractions all the time. Sometimes they come in clusters – today I had three in a span of 10 minutes or so. I think they’re getting stronger too. They don’t hurt, but they are not comfortable.

This week at our Bradley class we talked about breastfeeding. We had been assigned to read a book on the subject (any book – I read Ina May’s Guide to Breastfeeding) and to complete a page in our workbook. In class, we went over the questions. Travis and I seemed to be the most prepared couple in the class (not to brag…). J I will just list a few interesting tidbits here, because I don’t want anyone to feel that I am being judgmental of those who choose to use formula. However, I can’t resist sharing a few pieces of information that I found to be extremely compelling.

· Breastfed babies have MUCH lower incidences of ear infection, colic, digestive problems, and other illnesses.

· They don’t sleep as deeply for as long as formula fed babies (because of faster digestion), which makes for more nighttime feedings, but also drastically decreases the risk for SIDS.

· The mother’s body uses the baby’s saliva to determine what the baby needs in its milk. Isn’t that amazing?!

· For those who feed formula: Studies have shown that breastfed babies have slightly higher IQ’s. However, this is probably at least partially due to the one-on-one attention and skin-to-skin contact they receive on a regular basis. So, formula fed babies given the same type of attention will likely do just as well!

We left class early because I wasn’t feeling well – I was STARVING and nauseated at the same time. When we told the instructor why we were leaving, she said, “That’s a hormonal shift!” I don’t know exactly what that means, but she said it like it was a good thing. I guess it’s just a sign that I’m getting ready to have a baby. So yay! J

The second half of class was going to be about writing a birth plan, but even the instructor said that there isn’t much point in writing one if you are not planning to give birth at the hospital. Every single couple in our class is planning an out of hospital birth, so she probably let everyone leave earlier than usual anyway. She said next week we would discuss writing a short birth plan just in case we have to transfer to the hospital for some reason.

Getting Ready For Norah

This week we’re on Spring Break! I LOVE having Travis home and having minimal obligations. The only thing I really have to do is practice violin for a wedding I’m doing on Saturday. Other than that, getting ready for Norah is all we’re doing this week!

We bought a crib mattress through Craigslist for $20, and it’s really nice. It’s a Simmons, and it looks almost new except for a section the lady’s son doodled on with pen. :-P She also said it was barely used, except that her daughter “may have jumped on it once or twice.” It’s also vinyl covered, so there isn’t really a possibility of any gross stuff hanging out inside of it. Travis and I each tried it out on the floor, and it was pretty comfortable! Travis even said, “This is nicer than OUR mattress!”

We’ve almost fully cleared out the art/computer room, which is to be the art/computer/piano room. The next step is to reorganize it and put the piano and other music stuff in it. We’ll do that tomorrow, as well as tidying up Norah’s room enough that we can paint it on Thursday.

Today we bought paint for the walls and the furniture. We bought the low VOC (which Travis says stands for “Vapors Of Concern” :-P) stuff since we had gift cards (otherwise we might not have spent the extra money). That way I can at least be around while Travis is painting. I also hate to be left out of the painting process. I like doing it, and Travis doesn’t (he likes painting pictures, not solid colors). When we got home, I painted the changing table outside while Travis mowed the lawn. I am so excited to have that project (almost) done!! We just have a little bit of touch-up work left to do. It didn’t take as long as I thought it would, and it looks really cute! But I’m not showing pictures yet – it’s a surprise! I can’t wait to finally get to put stuff inside of it. I’m sick of having everything strewn all over the place.

I think that’s about it for today! See you next week, and maybe I’ll show you some of what we accomplished this week!

32 Weeks Pregnant

Belly measurement: 38”!

At 32 weeks gestation, Norah only has about two to three more inches and about the same number of pounds to gain before she’s ready to make her debut! And I’m such a daydreamer – I keep looking through her little outfits and trying to imagine what they will look like on her!

My tail bone is finally almost healed. It’s only hurting once in a while now. Lower back pain is getting worse, but it’s not all the time either. If I’ve been sitting or lying down, when I first get up my lower back hurts and my legs/hips feel weak and I can’t always stand up straight right away. Is that what sciatica is?? Still considering the chiropractor. :-P I should just go for it. I’ve spent weeks debating with myself over spending the $25. It’s just $25. Yes. I will make an appointment.

I haven’t really had cravings this whole pregnancy, but lately I keep making the same ice cream concoction: vanilla ice cream (chocolate would be great, too, I’m sure), raspberries, chocolate chips, and mini marshmallows all mashed up together. I don’t know if this is pregnancy related, or if I just like this mixture. It’s similar to what I’ve always ordered at Marble Slab or Spill the Beans.

I have a cloth diaper update. So, as I said in my 30 week blog, we ordered a “grab bag” of six girl diapers from GoGreen Pocket Diapers, using a $50 gift certificate from Travis’s parents. We decided to do that even though we wouldn’t get to pick the colors because the diapers were about $7 each that way, instead of $9 to $10. Anyway, we got the diapers, kept the four that we liked, and are currently selling the other two on Ebay (zebra print and bright pink). While I was on Ebay listing them, I noticed that other people were selling the same exact cloth diapers for way cheaper than what GoGreen charges! I looked into it and found that GoGreen orders their diapers from a large manufacturer in China called Alva Baby, and then marks up the price by a ridiculous percentage. Alva Baby sells their diapers on Ebay under the store name “perfect_store_I,” and also at www.alvababy.com. Their price is between $4.59 and $5.59 per diaper, with free shipping!! GoGreen charges between $9 and $15 per diaper, depending on which type you want, PLUS $5 shipping on every order. On top of that, when I placed my order there using the $50 gift certificate, they wouldn’t let me use it toward the shipping cost. I had to pay the $5 using my debit card. I asked them about it, and they said, “Since we have to pay the shipping, we can’t take it out of a gift certificate.” This made no sense to me since they were paid actual money when the gift certificate was purchased. Grr.

I ordered three diapers from the Ebay store yesterday, two of which are the $15 type, which I’m really excited about! I paid a total of $15.99 for all three, when the same three diapers from www.gogreenpocketdiapers.com would have cost $44 when you include the shipping cost!!!

Ok, sorry about my long rant on that. It really makes me mad! These people are making a killing and all they’re doing is buying and selling someone else’s product.

At yesterday’s class, we talked more about labor and what to expect. It’s good to have an idea of what thoughts might go through my head and what I might feel, do, and say so that Travis and I will both know how to handle it. Basically, the husbands are just being instructed to stay encouraging, do whatever we tell them to do, and not take offense if we say mean things. J Perfect.

Then we watched a birth video. Poor Travis. He wasn’t feeling well in the first place yesterday, and I think he almost tossed his cookies. He’s now thinking that he might want to support me from behind so he won’t have to see everything, which is totally fine with me. I think I’d feel more supported (physically and emotionally) with him behind me rather than standing off to the side gawking at me. The only thing is that he was considering catching the baby, but I think he’s sort of insecure about that idea even though it would be pretty cool. I can also catch her myself if I want to. I have no idea whether I’ll want to or not. We’ll just see how it goes. You can’t very well plan out the whole birth process in advance anyway.

Making Room For Norah

So…(sigh)…we’re still having trouble knowing where to start with all the cleaning we need to do. It’s so overwhelming. We did manage to put some stuff up in the attic finally, so it’s looking a little better. And next week is Spring Break, so we’ll both pretty much be home all week and will hopefully get a LOT done. I’ll go nuts if we don’t. I just want to have it all done and organized and clean and ready.

This weekend we had a really nice St. Patrick’s Day dinner with Eric and Valerie (they brought homemade corned beef, cabbage, and veggies!!). Travis also made really good Irish soda bread! Then on Saturday, Eric’s sister Dana came all the way up from Greenwood to bring us tons of clothes that her girls had outgrown! Norah now has clothes in sizes all the way up to 3T! I spent some time organizing those, plus all the other clothes that are 3 months and up, and some of them have already gone up to the attic and are ready to be pulled out when Norah grows into them. (But I want her to stay little forever!)

Midwife appointment: we just got home from our 32 week appointment. I don’t want to make this blog a whole lot longer than it already is, so I’ll TRY to be brief.

We got to spend some time getting to know Linda, the other midwife that will be attending the birth (unless there are two births going on at once). We really liked her!

Weight is now 134.5 lbs., and official belly measurement (fundal height) is 31 centimeters (technically one week behind, but totally fine).

She retested my hemoglobin level because it had been on the low side. I’ve been taking a supplement called Chlorofresh to bring it up, and apparently it’s working because I’m at a good level now (11.4).

I was having a Braxton-Hicks contraction when Linda put her hands on my belly to feel where Norah was, and I didn’t even know it! I guess I get them more often than I thought. Once in a while they’re strong enough to be uncomfortable, but often my belly gets really hard without any discomfort. I wasn’t sure if this was a contraction or if Norah was just in a weird position. Now that I know it’s a contraction, I would estimate that I have them quite often – maybe five times a day. My body is doing exercises to prepare for birth, just like I’ve been doing!

Norah is head down and will probably stay that way. I thought so, because I keep feeling kicks up high (like right now). Linda showed us how to feel for different body parts, which was pretty cool!

This part might gross you out, and I’m sorry, but I think it’s important – placentas. Different cultures have different traditions, beliefs and practices regarding the placenta, which is the organ that is created along with the baby at the beginning of pregnancy. Its main function is to nourish and supply oxygen to the baby. In our culture, most people regard the placenta as a waste product, and it is usually disposed of immediately after birth. In other cultures, a woman might eat her placenta, bury it in a ritual, keep it attached to the baby until it shrivels up and falls off (yeah, that one is a little odd to me), or any number of other things. Since it is not my nature to be wasteful, I wanted to know my options. We asked Linda about it today. She gave us some ideas and basically said we can do whatever we want with it. The birth center is going to send it home with us no matter what we decide, because legally they are not allowed to dispose of it for us. Now, I am not going to fry up my placenta and make a meal out of it. That sounds gross to me. But we’re looking into having it encapsulated. Linda said she knows of someone who does that, but she charges something like $200, which seems like a lot. So we might do it ourselves. You just need a food dehydrator, something to grind it up with, and some capsules to put the powder in.

Now, what’s the point of ingesting it, you ask? The placenta is an extremely nutritious organ. I think it is meant to be eaten by the mother. I’m pretty sure most animals eat their placentas. It just seems like the natural thing to do. In human mothers, eating the placenta has been associated with a faster recovery, improved lactation, and reduced rates of postpartum depression. There are probably other benefits that we don’t even know about. It would be nice to take advantage of those.

Anyway, again, I’m really sorry if I grossed you out. When you think about it, though, is it any stranger than eating liver, or gizzards, or any other piece of meat? (Ok, maybe just a little…)

On that note, have a nice week! I hope you weren’t eating dinner while you read this! J