Pregnancy and Birth – Page 16 – a hippie with a minivan

wow… this kid is active!

My pregnancies with Xavier and Colin were quite simular.. they were both posterior, both in the same spot the whole pregnancy, you could hear the heart at the same place for both, the placenta was very low lying each time and though they were active it was not much and most of the movement was limited to one place on my tummy and right below my ribs on the far right side. My labours with them played out mostly the same way also…

This baby however, is all over the place… was tranverse for quite a while, has been breech and is now head down most of the time. It turns and punches and kicks and is having tons of fun in there it seems… a few times int he day and then for an hour or two in the evening there is non-stop movement… kicks, stretches and it often feel like it is trying to get out from the top of my uterus and right through the skin…

I really have a big feeling that labour this time will be completely different… maybe I will be lucky this time and have no back labour… It is hard for me to imagine though since I haven’t had “normal” labour before… All of the contractions I have experienced were in my lower back, though I could feel the contractions in front it was the back pain that stuck out and In each case they turned within minutes of coming out… so I really didn’t get to feel what a normal labour would be like…

At the moment this babe is LOA… a great position for a quick birth… I would love for it to stay like this… I would love to labour without back pain, or at least ALL back pain…

Anyways… this babe is always moving, the placenta is high and instead of being stuck in a low OP postition and not being able to move… this babe is having a ball…

Just a few more week left… I am starting to get nervous…

met with the doula…

Well… the doula came by yesterday and the boys were great and really let me talk with her… I found that we really hit it off but whole she was here my nose started to get stuffed up, my eyes were tearing and I started feeling off and even took a bit of my inhaler a bit later on…

This morning it hit me…she might be a smoker or live with a smoker and it was maybe an allergic reaction as I feel that I am getting more and more sensitive… I e-mailed her and was right. Both her and her DH are smokers… she asked if she could recommend me to other Doulas that she knows… I have a feeling that that might be best.

It is a bit sad because I really liked her… but it is something that I just can’t deal with… I don’t want to start tearing up, get stuffed up and have trouble breathing in labour…

I may meet with another Doula… and if not well I will just stick to my original plans of ust having Simon, the kids and maybe a friend or two depending on if they can make it or not…

Maybe I can talk to them a bit more and get them ready for what may or may not happen in birth and really talk to them about what I expect from them…

Productive day…

Well…

I finally got some meals done. This morning I started by cutting up onions, garlic, carrots and Celeryâ€¦

Cooked the onions and Garlic with two Family size packs of ground beef.

Filled 5-6 bags with that mix (two big portions aside) and froze it… (the prepared frozen ground beef with onions will be used in recipes that call for browned ground beef like tacos or shepherdâ€™s pie)

Cooked up the carrots and celery in two big pots and added meat to both of them and then canned tomatoes, puree etc and spices and made one big batch of chile and one big batch of Spaghetti sauce.

While that was simmering I made two loaves of Banana Bread and baked them.

While the Banana bread was baking I made two Apple Pies which I put in the Freezer before cooking and then froze one of the Banana breads (Simon wanted to have one left out to eat) but froze a Zucchini bread that I made the other day instead….

Then I baked a big squash that I had on the counter for a few weeks now that I needed to cook upâ€¦. and then bagged and froze that.

Then I cut up a big peice of Pork that I had bought on special and got 4 very large porkchops out of it and then cubed the rest and marinated them for souvlaki brochettes and put them into bags that will make two very generous size suppers for us allâ€¦.

When the Chile had cooled slightly I put it in Ziplock bags and got 3 meals worth out of it and the spaghetti sauce will give me quite a bit more than that but I am just waiting for it to cool nowâ€¦

I am really happy with todayâ€¦ I still have quite a few things that I want to get done but at least I have really gotten my head startâ€¦

I already had a portion or two of spaghetti sauce in the fridge and I had a few meals worth of homemade burritos and enchilada sauceâ€¦ now with the things that I have today I have some things that I can fall on when I donâ€™t feel like cooking, especially after the new babe comesâ€¦ I am going to plan another one of these days again soon and get even more doneâ€¦ I also want to start making meals double the size and freezing halfâ€¦

Our first buy…

Well last week we made our first purchase for the new baby…

An Amby bed!!!

found on Craigslist in Montreal for a great price! This is a very rare find here in Quebec since pretty much no one that I know has ever even heard of them…

Though we are Co-sleepers most of the time… (well 100% for the first few months) at some point I like nursing to sleep in the living room and then putting babe down in their bed and then they can join us after the first wake up… I just love the way that this bed is made and it just feels so much more natural to have baby in a hammock/sling like bed…

around 31 weeks…

Every few days I have to check and see about how many weeks I am… This pregnancy I seem to be really in touch with myself and how I feel etc… but the technical stuff seems to evade me…

I don’t really have a due date in mind, and I don’t want to… I just tell everyone that the baby will be here between mid November and the beginning of December… But everyone seems to want a dateâ€¦so I just give them one that is in the middle somewhereâ€¦

Not having a date gives me comfort; however, knowing how many weeks I am gives me an idea of how many weeks I have left to get things done…

I still have tons to do… though I keep thinking that I have more time and keep on procrastinating what I have to get done and then when I check again to see how many weeks I am at then my mind starts racing again…

we have to find two bureaus for the boys clothes (or one big one)… the dresser that ds#1 is using is broken and doesn’t have enough space so I can’t even pass it on to Colin… and the one that Colin is using is for the new babe (it has passed down and used for 3 generations)
we also have to rearrange their room so that it all fits since the babe will be sharing a room with his/her big brothers. (Well technically the babe will be in our room)
I have to make Xavier’s Halloween costume,
get the babies clothes out and pick out the warmer clothes,
get clothes out for Colin from Xavierâ€™s old clothes.
Wash the new babeâ€™s diapers and find the covers that are somewhere in the house on various cabbage patches and other dolls…
Prepare and Freeze more food so that I will be able to have somewhat of a babymoon without having to cook a lot.
Finish buying birthing supplies and figure out if I want to buy a water birth pool…

There must be other things that I have to get done tooâ€¦

Anywaysâ€¦ I am getting more and more excited about the birth. Even though I have had rough and long labors, I LOVE giving birth! I am looking forward to laboring in my own home, not having anyone there but Simon and the kids. I feel ready to have my UC and I feel confidant that it will happen.

I am also looking forward to having a babymoon after the baby is born. Staying in bed and getting to know the new babe. Simon will be on Parental leave so I really feel like I will have the time to get to know the new life that will come into our home and the boys will also be taken care of. And then later on I will be able to give attention to the boys also and Simon will be able to get to know the new little oneâ€¦