pregnancy
Well I'm 21 weeks along now. getting fat and uncomfortable. but I should know better than to claim that at a mere 5 months! if I'm uncomfortable now, I will be miserable by 8 months!
this baby kicks more at 5 months than the other two. it will be quiet... so very quiet for hours. and I will actually think "wow that baby is quite right now". and then it hits 9pm and kaboom! I'm being kicked every bit as hard as when I was 8 months along with my others.
Sean calls the baby "the twins". not b/c I'm having twins, but b/c it freaks me out. having twins isn't a bad thing, surely. but it's just too much of a good thing I think heh. I would love any amount of babies i get, but it's my sincere wish to only have 1 at a time. I told Sean if I had two, one is going to be completely his. heh. he can mother that one, b/c mothering one newborn at a time is hard enough work! ;)
I'm finally off of most of my meds but I still take dandelion root everyday. I tried weaning off but my stomach was NOT happy. I have reflux as all sorts of other nasty symptoms. ick. so back on that I went. but that's ok. it's really the unisom that bothers me. I mean it is a sleeping medicine, so it has that pesky side effects of making you sleeping. 3 times a day? and then I have the personality of a cardboard box, really. but now I just take it like every other night or so. this is the longest I've ever been on meds. I was off by 15 weeks with both of the other two.
it's hard for me to realize this baby will actually be born. with Eli and Eva everything was exciting and new and "wow I'm going to have a baby". but this time I'm busy with mothering the two I have that I tend to think of pregnancy as some kinda permanent condition, often not thinking I only have 4-ish months left until I'm a mother of 3. 3! now this is no biggie for someone who is already a mother of 3... but it's my first time, so excuse me while I adjust to it a bit. am I excited? yes! am I looking fwd to meeting this new one? yep! am I totally loving every single second of being a mom of two until this ne one comes? certainly am! I remember after havign Eva I realized i should have enjoyed being a mother of 1 while it was that way... but i was so excited about the new one coming it's all I could think of. now? I'm just taking it day by day.
my mom got the baby a ton of clothes from the thrift store. some brand new! boys and girls clothing b/c I don't know what I'm having. total score! I've been working on washing them and setting them aside. this baby wont have a nursery, atleast not at first, just a cradle and crib in our bedroom. and probably a dresser. so i don't have much set up there! I need a carseat, and dresser, and a few other things. ok actually a lot of things. I need a swing too (one baby gadget I don't want to live without!), a baby carrier (ergo, perhaps?) cloth diapers (probably prefolds and fuzzi bunz), spit up rags (cheapo gerber prefolds work well), crib for our room, more baby clothing, baby bunting/light coat/swaddling wrap, etc etc etc. is it wrong to have a baby shower with your 3rd child? tacky? well I'm hoping someone out there doesn't think so! b/c it's been 4.5 years since my last and we don't have a thing left from that except a 4.5 yr old girl =P
ok this is the part where i get a little panicky realizing i have a lot to do and aquire before this baby comes. lol. but luckily I don't have to worry about anything hospital related. no registrations or packing a duffle bag, or OB appointments. nope none of that. because we're having this one at home. ahhh what relief! takes a lot of your mind. worrying about making it to the hospital in time. and frankly riding in the car when you're contracting every 3 minutes is a nightmare! I'm looking fwd to labouring and birthing at home. no annoying nurses to hook me up to stupid monitors that go "PING". (sorry- that was a monty python reference there...) no IVs. no person telling me I'm labouring incorrectly (as if there is such a thing!) and nobody to bother me. love it! my eyes were opened when I started attending hospital births and homebirths. the difference!! the baby comes out so calm and attentive at home. healthy looking. like they just are like "hey mom and day. nice to meet ya". no one to poke them with a hep vax in their first hour of life. (I mean freaking, really... how is an hr old newborn going to contract Hep B!?) and no one to threaten you with cesareans when you "take too long". really? too long? how about I'll tell you when it's been too long and we'll take it from there? sheesh!
ok call me a little cynical. (or a lot). but I am so done with hospitals. would I go if something were medically wrong? sure I would! but pregnany and birthing are not medical conditions. and they aren't even illnesses. ;) Believe it or not, I'm pretty well educated on it. working as a doula, childbirth educator and instructer of a birthing circle for several years - I've managed to learn a thing or two about pregnancy, birth, and post partum periods. but you know what's help me learn the most valuable stuff? just being a human being. female. yep. just realizing God created me a woman and He's pretty smart. knowing that God is in control of every single life. the author of every book. that knowledge - as simple as it sounds - has more value to it then any degree I could put behind my name. go figure! that little simplistic knowledge could save us all lots of money and worry.
***disclaimer, I have nothing against people choosing hospital births! to each their own!! I stand behind anyone's educated decision. but my educated decisions is not a hospital. I've tried it twice and didn't like it either time. it got a fair shake from me. for what it's worth I also don't like the state of Ohio, but if you wanna live there, be my guest! more power to ya =P
****secondary disclaimer. if you're thinking "but don't you know
babies die at home!?" or "that is a very dangerous idea..." or "I knew
a lady and her baby turned our brain dead b/c she was born at home..."
or any other such thing. please, before you comment or jump to that
conclusion take into consideration three things:
2. perhaps you should look at the hospital vs. homebirth infant and maternal mortality rates before jumping to the conclusion that before hospitals, lots of babies and mothers died at home. you might be very surprised to see what you find! if you look further into the statistics/rates of babies born at hospital contracting diseases, RSV and other deadly illnesses in their first few days of life vs ones born at home you might be in shock.
3. birth is a spiritual event.
Comments
• I really started uses carriers with my third. I found that I loved using pouch slings for little babies. This is especially true for church. Using the pouch sling made it so easy to manage a newborn during the church service. 1) the baby would just sleep most of the time being right next to me, 2) the pouch slings have so many pretty designs (I got one with a simple black and white floral design, which went with pretty much anything I wore to church), and 3) something about the baby being in the sling made people so much less likely to come up and touch the newborn, or ask to hold the newborn, which I'm not a germ freak by any stretch of the imagination, but a sick newborn is no joke. So, I'm pretty strict about not passing the baby around in public at least for the first month of life. The sling made enforcing that rule so much easier. Once the baby got close to a year (and then beyond) I LOVED my ergo! So, that's my two cents on baby carriers.
• Did you do cloth diapering with your older ones? I've never done it, but am considering it this time around. The main thing I'm worried about is laundry. I have a lot of laundry as is, and I'm not the best about keeping up with it. So I don't know if cloth diapering would be a good fit for our family or not.
• Regarding baby showers, I think every baby deserves a party. There's always something the family could use for the new baby, even if it's just money.
• I don't know if Craigslist is big in your area (it is in Atlanta), but it's a great place to find good deals on used baby items. Just today I picked up a used take-along swing for $10 (and staring at it right now, I can't tell that it has ever been used, it looks and works perfect). Cradle swings (made by Fisher-Price) are my favorite
"big" swing that I like. Around here used models go for around $30 for the older, battery operated only models to around $70 for the newer plug-in models.
• I'll be having my first homebirth this time around with my fourth. I have less experience with it than you, I've only watched videos, done a bunch of reading and talked to lots of people, but I've never seen a live homebirth. However, like you, I do feel totally excited and relieved about it. Not having to mess with the whole hospital thing and prepare myself for getting in an argument with someone while I'm in labor, yeah a huge relief.
Sorry for the long comment. I guess you could say I can relate to a lot of what you're posting about. :)
it is certainly NOT tacky to know that you need a lot of things and that people who love you would probably be willing to help... instead of a typical baby shower, why not have a "welcome baby" or "birth" party a few weeks after baby arrives -- and people will even know the baby's gender and name ahead of time!
i cannot imagine having three children, since one is trying enough at times... maybe that is god's way of helping me get past my infertility issues? ;-) you sound like you are more than ready, though, and i wish you the best of luck!
in addition to craigslist, you may want to see if your area has a "freecycle" listserv... that way, you can either specifically request something you are looking for or you could browse the e-mails for other people's offerings... it's like getting birthday presents all year long when you open the e-mails offering stuff you really want/need but dont want to have to purchase (plus, its "green"!)
I'm so glad you watched the film!!! good for you =) I enjoyed it a lot. barely remember it now as it was a long time ago, but I still agree with it's philosophy.
after baby welcome party is a great idea!!
Yeah we're on freecycle. we love it. in our last town we got all sorts of cool things and gave some away too =)
am I ready for 3 kids? nah. I'm never "ready", but they keep coming anyhow hehe. it all seems to work out fine heh
yeah for your first homebirth!! how exciting! (I know I'm excited!) the BEST experience is doing it. after this time you'll be able to say "and I've done it once before!" just like I will be able to =)