What a busy few weeks it has been. Our house is looking great - the picture of James and I above is in our newly painted dining room complete with our $90 Ikea table and chair set. Gotta love Ikea! Only the kitchen, bathrooms and nursery still need to be completed. The renovations of the nursery (currently our laundry room) probably won't take place until next spring now. The contractor took too long to start and James and I don't want builders in the house when I am in my last two weeks of pregnancy or when we have a brand new baby. Since Dori will be sleeping in our room for the first year anyway, there is no real rush. So the nursery and one of the bathrooms (which will become half bathroom/half laundry room) won't be completed until next year. Still, when our main bathroom and kitchen are completed, we will take pictures and a video of the whole flat so you can see what we have spent our summer doing! I am so pleased with our house - I am really nesting now!
James and I are now certified "first responders" for infant, child and adult. We know CPR, the abdominal thrust movement ("Heimlich Maneuver") and how to use a defribillator. We have been to hypnotherapy sessions once a week for the past few weeks and faithfully practicing at home. We attended our Childbirth Preparation course (8 hour intensive) on Saturday. It was such an incredible class - we are both so grateful we took it. We watched a few birthing videos - I cried at the end of each one when the mothers held their babies for the first time! The instructor went over all the ins and outs of labor signs, false labor, active labor, when to go to the hospital, etc. She went over the various pain medications, epidurals, induction techniques, c-sections, vacuum pumps, forceps, complications, and hospital procedures. James and I are more determined than ever to aim for a natural birth. There is no way I will take pain medication. Absolutely no way. If it gets to the point where even my hypnobirthing techniques are not helping me get through a long, exhausting and/or extremely painful labor, I will take an epidural over a painkiller any day. The morphine-derivitive painkillers can get into the baby's bloodstream, causing respiratory distress. Epidurals very rarely effect the baby; they simply block the mother's pain signals. Epidurals produce more of a risk for the mother (possible, though very rare, nerve damage, severe spinal headaches), but I would rather take that risk than risk harming my baby. Ditto for vacuum pumps and forceps - I will have an emergency c-section before using either of those possible brain-damage inducing instruments on my baby. I was so relieved to finally have someone lay it all out for us - every pro and con of modern maternal medicine. I feel prepared and armed with the tools I need to have the birth I want, even if it doesn't go exactly as I hope. Having said this, I still feel incredibly excited for labor itself. My hypnobirthing techniques are going to help me tremendously and the breathing exercises we went over in class were most useful as well. We held ice tightly in our hands and sat up on our toes to create a really painful feeling. It was horrible. Then we did this over and over again while practicing the breathing techniques and having our partners talk to us quietly, massage our backs, etc. What a total difference it made! I felt remarkably relaxed and like I could conquer the world. I am going to practice holding ice at home (seriously, try it, ice is painful!!!) with my hypnobirthing techniques.
Today James and I have our first Baby Care class! So exciting. Dorian's arrival is coming up fast. I only have a few more weeks of work left now. And a good thing too...look at my big belly!!!
4 comments:
Congratulations, Crockmama, you look fantastic and you guys sound extremely prepared. Our birthing class was much lamer, the instructor spent a lot of time encouraging us to talk about our "favorite things and fears." I just wanted to be told how to breathe.
Also, none of the videos in the class moved us to tears. In one video, the woman was encouraged to reach down and feel the baby's head as it crowned. While the instructor sighed and cooed Kristen and I looked at each other with that "is everybody here crazy but us?" look.
It's so nice to see Y Chromosome Provider in the picture with you, Crockmama. Girl, your belly is HUGE. Very exciting how close you are to meeting Dorian. Your dining room looks great. When's the dinner party?
You are so much braver than I am when it comes to that epidural thing...The very thought...*shudder* But then I have this very very bad phobia of needles to start with and didn't want to cooperate when the nurses started me on an IV.
Take care!
You look so excitingly preggers kel. He's gonna b a bigun! And you keep practising for an 8 hour intensive childbirth - you never know!
Your pain relief exercises sound great, We had practised a few breathing techniques but nothing more than you could pick up from an episode of "friends" and to be honest, the physical pain of birth took me by surprise (really!) so to be prepared on how to use the techniques to actually overcome pain is going to be of HUGE benefit to you.
You've probably heard this before, but there comes a point during the contractions when you feel you can't do it any more, it's tiring, it hurts and another contraction might just finish you off.. .and then by some miracle of mother nature, your body fills with the energy and strength and motivation to get this baby out. It really is amazing, I don't know where it comes from, maybe it's adrenalin, endorphin, some kind of release. But that feeling of being able to conquer the world? That's it.
I can't wait to hear all about it!
Oh yeah, and your dining table looks lovely. . .
xx
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