6 weeks to go and prayer requests

I know a lot of people don't read this blog, but a few do so I wanted to take a moment and ask for your specific prayers about our upcoming birth.

This is a terribly exciting yet anxiety filled time as we wait for our daughter to make her appearance. We have prepared the best that we can. We have read the books, taken the classes, we are practicing relaxation techniques, I am doing my exercises to strength my birthing muscles.

I have a lot of anxiety about trying to give birth naturally in a hospital environment. I have heard nothing but horror stories from folks who say the L&D nurses are super pushy and want to do unnecessary interventions. I want a natural birth but not at the risk of harm to the baby or myself.

Please pray that there would be no major complications during our birth that would force us to have a C-section.

Please pray that we would enter the hospital with a peaceful and respectful attitude toward the nursing staff and doctors assigned to us. I hope that if we give respect that we would receive the same respect in return. They are the trained professionals and that should be respected. But they are not always right. I think that if we approach their suggestions in the right way, we can diffuse an otherwise stressful (bad for me and baby) situation.

Please pray that Eric and I would remain calm, remember our training, and do everything we can to relax and allow nature to take its course.

Breastfeeding is very important to me. I have a lot of anxiety about not being able to do so. I know there are lactation consultants at the hospital for this very purpose but it is also one of the reasons I am as anti-medical interventions as I am. I have lots of friends that have had Pitocin/epidural/C-sections and have gone on to breastfeed with no problems. I've had friends that have struggled A LOT with the baby not latching properly and/or not producing enough milk. Some have given up totally and went the formula route. Please pray that our baby latches on quickly and properly and that I am able to produce enough milk for her, esp in that first 24 hours in which the hospital will try to supplement with formula/bottle if they feel she isn't getting enough.

Pray for good weather on her birthday, no blizzards please!

We are as ready for this baby as we are going to be! Still need to find a better diaper pail, don't think I like the one we have. But that's pretty minor. Last Amazon order is in the cart and ready to go, everything we registered for and didn't get (well minus a few star wars onsies). Just need to pre-wash all the diapers but we have lots of time for that. January starts weekly doctor visits. I will also go to my first La Leche meeting as well as the POPS group at church which has a good guest speaker this month. I will volunteer again at Carenet this week and help them get some mailing ready. We have an appointment with the police dept to make sure the carseat is installed correctly. Tomorrow Eric and I will have our last "date" and will go to see the new hobbit movie and go to Red Lobster for dinner. The rest of the time we will just wait for her arrival :)

Some Christmas pictures

My family

Eric's work party at Gibson's Steak House in Chicago

At Trinity

Playing in the brass

Eric's Family

9 months

OK, so I'm technically at the nine month mark on Sunday. Close enough for me. I am suffering today from a very badly pulled calf muscle. Just before 7 this morning I stretched out in bed apparently incorrectly cause I immediately got the worse Charlie horse in my life in my right calf. I couldn't move, couldn't breath normally, finally got to sit up and tried to massage the rock hard muscle without much success. It finally relaxed after a few mins of not moving but the damage had been done. I swear I thought the muscle was actually going to tear. I'm walking with a horrible limp and the heating pad and continued massages is not really making a difference. Wouldn't be so bad except that Eric's Christmas party for work is tonight and we have to drive into the city. Great, 9 months pregnant and limping like I have a sprained ankle. We don't have to go but I WANT to go. Its Gibson's steakhouse after all! Yum! I've really been looking forward to it.

We took our last class at the hospital last night. This was the breastfeeding one and I did learn a lot. I borrowed a book from a friend to read through as well. In Jan I hope to attend a La Leche meeting. Still looking for a good pediatrician, hope to find one that is flexible with the vaccination schedule.

Otherwise things are looking good. Got Christmas celebrations 1, 2, 3, and 4 set up for next week. amazing how much more complicated Christmas gets when you get married! All the 3 showers are done and we will be ordering the rest of our Amazon registry items (mostly the cloth diapers) after the new year. We were blessed to receive a number of gift cards to help offset our cost for buying those.

Nursery is still in a state of disaster. Some of it needs Eric's help but a lot of it I'm just procrastinating doing. One more load of clothes to wash and then to pre-wash all the cloth diapers. Still need to get a drying rack for those too. It seems so surreal that I am going to have an infant in my arms in as little as 7 weeks. And this one will be mine! Eric and I are practicing our relaxation techniques and I've started doing exercises more earnestly (like squats and keagels). I can only hope its enough to get through labor without pain meds. Edward Hospital is very mother/baby focused, no denying that. But they don't seem to be very natural birth friendly. A friend just told me that 90% of women who birth at Edward receive an epidural. That's insane. I just hope we end up with a good experience and not a bad one. Otherwise future babies may be born elsewhere.

Keeping Busy

After I quit my job I was really wondering what I was going to be able to do to fill my time. Funny thing is... now I don't know how I ever managed to work 8 hours a day and still get my errands, chores, and me time in. I don't often feel bored or like I'm climbing the walls. I have settled into a pretty nice routine of walking/yoga, laundry, dishes, Christmas shopping/errand running, baking, and of course resting (sleeping/reading). I really enjoy not having to set the alarm clock. Sometimes it is hard for me to sleep at night. Either baby was moving around too much or I'm congested or sometimes Eric is just snoring too much. Its nice to know that I don't have anything pressing first thing in the morning that I have to get up to do. I can sleep as long as my body feels it needs to. The only early morning thing I have to do about once a week is drive my brother into work. Since its only one day its not a big deal, though I have to remind myself to stay available for when family or friends need me. I like routine too much I think! I explored the possibility of volunteering at Carenet but I don't want to volunteer for a regular position that they would actually be dependent on me (like receptionist) since I won't go out if the weather is bad or if I have a doc appointment scheduled already. They don't seem to have a lot of opportunities for me right now, but then again, I'm staying plenty busy.

Our last ultra sound showed everything good and normal. At the time she was weighing about 3.5 pounds and I can't remember what they said for length. We have given our birthplan to the doctor and she has no problems with it. My bigger concern is the labor and delivery nurses at the hospital... I will have to deal with them the most. Praying that we get understanding nurses who don't try to force interventions when they are not needed. I have finished reading the "natural hospital birth" book and gained a lot of good insight into natural birth and hospital "rules" that I might come up against. I will try to stay home as long as possible to limit the possibilities of them intervening. Also, you can't eat or drink once your admitted and that could complicate delivery as well if I'm dehydrated or hungry. Nothing I can do about being tired except to just try to relax and not fight the contractions. But we have plans in place for that too.

Eric has been working on a research paper for his class for the least 3 weeks. He finally has it done and I feel like I have my husband back again. It really did consume a lot of his time and thoughts. I haven't been able to get him to think about Christmas stuff or a lot of baby stuff for a while now. The paper will be submitted this weekend and we have another baby class to attend and a Christmas tree to decorated. He still needs to shop for his family, my side is already done.

In the last two weeks I've also had two baby showers. Note to self: never have a Target registry again! I could not believe how many duplicate gifts we received! Same thing happened with our wedding registry 3 years ago. Oh well, that's what gift receipts are for I guess. I had a lot of returns this week to do though. There is a nasty cold going around so a good number of friends were not able to attend the showers but still have gifts to give our little one. Eric's work friends are also planning something but we don't know when it will be. So I can't go out buying the stuff we didn't get until probably closer to Christmas if not January. Cloth diapers are not a favorite to buy apparently. I had one friend buy us a half dozen from our Amazon registry but that's it. Fingers crossed that there are still more coming!

I'm trying to get all my running around done now because it is already getting harder to be on my feet a lot (back ache, fatigue). Also, it will eventually look like winter outside and when it does, I don't want to be going out in bad weather. OK, baby girl and I are going to go read a book until its time to start dinner :)

Every Act of Love

I've been liking this song lately, thought I'd share it

Every Act of Love~ by Jason Gray
Sitting at the stoplight
He can't be bothered by the heart cry
Written on the cardboard in her hand
But when she looks him in the eye
His heart is broken open wide
And he feels the hand of God reach out through him
As Heaven touches earth

(Chorus)
Oh - we bring the Kingdom come
Oh - with every act of love
Jesus help us carry You
Alive in us, Your light shines through
With every act of love
We bring the Kingdom come

There's silence at the table
He wants to talk but he's not able
For all the shame that's locked him deep inside
But her words are the medicine
When she says they can begin again
And forgiveness will set him free tonight
As Heaven touches earth

(Chorus)

God put a million, million doors in the world
For his love to walk through
One of those doors is you
I said, God put a million, million doors in the world
For his love to walk through
One of those doors is you

(Chorus)

Oh - we bring the Kingdom come
Oh - with every act of love
Jesus help us carry You
Alive in us, Your light shines through
With every act of love
We bring the Kingdom come
With every act of love
We bring the Kingdom come
With every act of love
We bring the Kingdom come

28.5 weeks and research

We have arrived at the 3rd trimester! This is when I'm told things get more uncomfortable. So far I feel pretty good. More pains when I'm sleeping at night and heartburn has gotten worse but other than that, nothing to complain about.

We started our Child Birth classes at Edward recently and to say I was a little overwhelmed would be an understatement. Having never witnessed a birth myself my frame of reference was of course, Hollywood. I now see what is really going to happen and how long it could actually drag out for. I think I was overwhelmed not by how much its actually going to hurt but because there are so many options for childbirth these days. Every woman has a different story to tell from the friend that had preeclampsia and delivered 6 weeks early via C-section to the friend that just gave birth to baby #5 who ended up being over 10#s. In the end, there is no right or wrong way to birth a baby! As long as you end up with a little girl or boy to hold in your arms, the rest really doesn't matter.

That said, I am doing a whole ton of research on the subject of natural childbirth. My #1 issue with getting an epidural  (I would never do the IV drugs since those will affect the baby) is that you become confined to the bed and have limited ways in which you can move to help your baby get into position. #2 issue is that I really believe it can make your labor longer. #3 is that I don't want the doctor to have to tell me its time to push. #4 I don't want a catheter because I won't know when my own body needs to go to the bathroom. I can have all the reasons in the world but when we get to that point, I may be begging for the epidural. At the very least, I won't do it right away when we arrive at the hospital, I will put it off for as long as possible and use alternate methods of relaxation/pain relief.

Right now I am looking at aromatherapy for at home and in hospital as well as water therapy. Lavender for the initial labor and trying to relax and Jasmine for after we are at the hospital and contractions are worse. The hospital has a shower with Jacuzzi tub and removable showerhead so I can continue to use hot water to sooth contractions as well. Just can't sit in the tub if my water has broken or if there is any bleeding due to increased chances of infection. I may or may not do some visualization type stuff, not sure I'd be able to focus my mind enough for it to be effective.

I've asked friends how they have gotten through their natural childbirths and each has a different story/strategy. All I can do is try. If baby doesn't cooperate or if there are other complications they will do the C-section. I won't let them jump straight to it by any means but if its for the best  of our baby girl, they will do what they need to do.

I am also doing some light research about vaccinations for the baby. I let them give me the t-dep shot last week because I can't tell you when I had a booster for whooping cough or that one that starts with P. Tetanus I had for Bolivia but a booster is never a bad idea. I refused the flu shot, I hate those things! I am not anti-vaccinations for the baby but I'm not all for them either. I will probably delay the vaccination schedule by as much as a year but will probably have them all done by the start of school. A friend of mine knows someone who has a doctor that is more understanding about the delayed or non-vaccination plan and I'm waiting to get his info. I have also just started researching it. A friend recommended a very balanced book on the issue and I've gotten it from the library but have  not started reading it yet. Its called Natural Baby and Childcare by Lauren Feder M.D. Also my teacher at one of my classes recommended a book called Natural Hospital Birth by Cynthia Gabriel. That one is on order with the library. If I start reading internet articles and blogs I'm bound to drive myself crazy trying to decide who is right and wrong on the issues. An extremist I am not. I just want to do what is best for myself and my family. And that may just fly in the face of what most doctors believe (or are paid to believe) about medicine.

Next two weeks are baby showers then then rest of the classes. Yay!

Unexpected Changes

Yesterday was a pretty bad day. I ended up quitting the job that I've had for the last 3 1/2 years. Still hard to believe I was really there that long. Climate Pros was a small business run by former service technicians that never learned the correct way to administratively run a company. Lack of professionalism combined with employing too many family members made for an especially trying 3 1/2 years. And yesterday was the final straw. Eric has been wanting me to quit for 3 years now and I've always found a reason to stay. I had given my notice sometime ago that I would leave at the end of the year due to the pregnancy. I had about 40 working days left with the company when I was insulted and accused for things that were in no way shape or form my fault. They see that now but the damage has been done and I will not be going back. So we are now on what I was calling the post-baby budget even though we are still pre-baby.

So I find myself with a lot of time on my hands. But its time that I plan to use well. I have been doing some Christmas shopping, looking and researching ways to get our monthly bills down (cell phones, cable, etc), and I have returned full-force to couponing. I have been using my parents treadmill to do some walking since its the #1 recommended exercise for pregnancy. I plan to use the time to reconnect with friends I haven't seen in a long time which is mostly due to them not coming to night activities such as sports because of bedtime for little children. But I also plan to restrict my driving as much as possible, esp with the winter weather coming. I've been driving 40 mins each way to work and going through about a tank of gas a week. I'm hoping to stretch a tank at least 2 weeks if possible.

There is not much more I can do in getting ready for baby's arrival. The shelving unit and dresser have been assembled and the room painted, much thanks to Eric on all accounts. I need to cut up receiving blankets for baby wipes and find a good plastic container to store them in (air tight) and wash a ton of clothes. But its a little early to be doing all that. The showers are coming up in a few weeks as are the holidays. This weekend is our first childbirth class at Edward and there are 3 more classes after that for baby care and breastfeeding. So I will stay busy and time will fly. And I will be a much happier person for getting out of a bad working environment!