I took my wedding and engagement rings off a few weeks ago due to my swelling fingers. I was kinda sad, I've really grown to love them. In the meantime I'm wearing my Nana's anniversary ring, which was always a little too big for me, it's really pretty. There's an oval garnet or ruby and then three teeny tiny diamonds on each side in leaf like shapes. It's quite lovely and I look at it often.
This pic looks like I'm nude but I'm wearing shorts, I swear. Dickie and my baby belly had a stare down the other night. I think she finally KNOWS what's going on!
Harold, my favorite garbage man here at work, brought me some trash....or another man's treasure:
It's like a rosary type of thing with a charm of St. Ann. I looked St. Ann up and she is the Patron Saint of many things but the most important one right now is that she is the Patron Saint of Women in Labor! How cool is that?! Perhaps after I give birth she can be my Patron Saint of Horseback Riders or Cabinet Makers, because those are a few other things that she is a Patron to. Who knows what will be in my future!
In this weeks class we learned about all the things that we may see on the baby and coming out of the baby when it is a newborn that we may have never heard about before. Our instructor mentioned that we will worry about everything and knowing about some of these things ahead of time will help ease our new-parent-worry-wort-selves.
VERNIX
We talked and looked at images of vernix, which is basically this protective white coating on the baby's skin. This stuff covers the baby in utero to protect it from getting all pruny and such in it's aquatic environment, a.k.a. the amniotic fluids. They shed most of it (shed is probably not the correct word because vernix is not hair.) before they are born but sometimes they may have some on their little bodies here and there. This stuff is good for their sensitive skin and shouldn't be wiped off but rather left on to soak in. Apparently newborn skin is super sensitive.
CYANOTIC HANDS AND FEET
We then looked at pics of babes with cyanotic hands and feet. If the baby has this it basically will look like they have blue hands and feet (just like smurfs!) and if they have this it should disappear within a couple of days. It is a sign of deoxygenation and it sometime just takes a little more time to get that oxygenated blood flowing to their extremities (apparently this can happen when we get old too.)
MOLDING AND PUFFY FACE
Depending on the shape and size of my cervix and birth canal combined with the size of the baby's head there could be a funny head shape of the baby. This is called molding. The baby's skull is not closed up all the way, it's still forming by the time it is born. Read this little bit I found at baby center dot com:
"The soft spots on your baby's head, called fontanels, are diamond-shaped
openings in the skull covered by a thick layer of skin. These openings —
one in front and one in back — allowed the bones of your baby's skull
to compress during his trip through the birth canal, and now they'll
allow for the quick growth of his brain.
The rear fontanel will take about four months to close. The front one will take between nine and 18 months."
Because of this incomplete skull it is able to conform to the birth canal better and sometimes babies will have cone shaped heads. The baby's head should go back to it's normal shape within 24 hours. Having a puffy face is also something that a newborn may have and it may also be because of all of the squeezing it goes through during labor.
CEPHALOHEMATOMA Cephalohematoma is a blood hemorrhage between the baby's skull and it's periosteum (a membrane that lines the outer surface of all bones.) This can happen to the baby's little head by a prolonged second stage of labor or the use of things like forceps to help pull the baby out. This usually shows up a day or two after the birth and will eventually go away.
EDEMA BLISTER
An edema blister may appear on a baby's head and I don't remember why a baby may get an edema blister, probably from all of that pressure down the birth canal. Apparently it is like a water blister and thankfully it will go away within 24 hours or so.
MILIA AND SKIN RASHES Milia are like little white pimples on your little baby's soft skin. Adults can get this too. If you think about it the baby has spent 9ish months in an aquatic environment (the instructor used that term and I like it!) and then all of a sudden it is in this dry world with germs and other outside things that may disrupt the baby's skin so they may have lots of little but minor skin rashes and problems. It just may take them awhile to adjust to this non-aquatic world.
SUCKING BLISTERS
Sucking blisters may appear on the little lips of the baby from all the nursing it may do. Apparently the need or want to nurse surpasses the pain of the blister and baby will feed despite this blister. Just like the mom's nipples will toughen up from all of the nursing the baby's lips will toughen up too.
PEELING SKIN AND CRADLE CAP
In the first week after birth the baby's skin will start peeling. There is no need to moisturize because this is just what happens. It's getting rid of it's aquatic skin (I made that up) and moving on to it's non-aquatic skin (I made that up too.) If you really feel like moisturizing you can use something that is not toxic to the baby, like vegetable oil or olive oil. We have to remember that babies can and will stick anything in their mouths because they have this sucking instinct and will suck on their hands, feet and whatever else they can fit into their little mouths. So, an edible moisturizer is preferable. Cradle Cap is like baby dandruff. Usually it resolves it self and you don't have to apply anything to the wee one's noggin.
SWELLING
From all the squeezing through the birth canal and the mother's hormones the baby can have swollen breast tissue (boys as well as girls), a swollen scrotum, or swollen labia. The instructor said that milk can even be seen leaking out of the baby's nipples (even boys!) Poor babies. All this swelling will go away eventually.
GRANULATION CRYSTALS
Granulation crystals (the instructor didn't know if that was the correct term or not) may be found in the baby's urine soaked diaper in the beginning and sometimes there may be a little bit of blood. She said that it looks like sand. This is the cause of the urethra clearing itself out. This is nothing to be worried about, it is also normal.
So, there you have it - all the things I shouldn't worry about and that are normal in a newborn. Thank goodness I know about these otherwise I would be dialing 911 every hour.
At my bi-monthly Midwife visit she was able to feel the baby's position again. The doodle bug is lying transverse (sideways.) She said I shouldn't worry about it yet and just to do some cats and cows (a.k.a. pelvic tilts) to move it into a better position but there is still time.
This is not the cast of my belly. I found this image at http://www.mamarhythms.com/
In undergrad I took this sculpture class with my friend Sara. We did a lot of collaborative stuff. We would go Home Depot for inspiration. We bought clear tubing and ordered a bucket of latex so that we could make a life sized human/alien made from molds from our own bodies. We casted each other with plaster strips to make the molds and let's just say, thankfully, we didn't have to call the ambulance...and I will never get anything on my body waxed (except for my legs)...and if you're going to cast your body with plaster make sure you slather yourself in vaseline and make sure you are standing up and not lying down where drippy plaster can sneak it's way into sensitive areas to dry. Other than this slightly traumatic experience the results were wacky. You really can get some good detail.
Our yoga teacher happens to be the Business Director at the WBWC. She asked me if I wanted to volunteer my belly to be cast for their Boutique. They will display it in May around Mother's Day (I'm going to be a mother?!) to promote their boutique and belly casting kit. Despite my traumatic art school experience I said sure, as I love this place and would love to lend a hand (or a belly) to help them out. I also like that they will keep it as I don't want a cast of my belly for myself. Maybe I can bring my baby in later to show it what it looked like underneath my fleshy belly.
So, I went over there after work and met Rose, the woman who casted me. She was very sweet and I felt extremely comfortable with her as she saw me in all my glory. She did a really nice job of putting the plaster strips neatly on me. She started at my shoulders and worked her way down to my belly. I told her that I was excited to see what it looked like because I'm sure it would be different from just looking down at myself and even from looking at my reflection in the mirror. As she was putting the second layer of plaster strips on I could barely feel her pats. It felt like I was novacained - you could feel a little bit of pressure and you could see that someone was touching you yet I couldn't feel it. It was bizarre. When it started to dry, my skin started to break away from the mold. It felt like I was hatching out of a shell. You could hear my skin peeling away with each deep breath that I took. FFFwwwwuP - it sounded kinda like that. It came off of my belly and shoulders without assistance but my breasts hung on like a hungry nursing baby. Rose gently pulled it away and rocked it back and forth. There were moments of it feeling like she was ripping a band-aid off of my arm - but slowly and I made faces like I was in labor or something, although it wasn't that painful. It finally came off and it was so funny and amazing! For one thing I look bigger than I imagined and secondly two things are different sizes from one another, if ya knowhattamean. I will be nicknaming the right side "Thanksgiving" and the left side "Midnight Snack" for when the babe is ready to eat. Hahah!
I was sitting at my desk at work on Friday when two of my very sweet co-workers (Traval and Larry) came to talk to me. They are both men with deep voices (not as deep as Mike's) and the baby kicked. I said, "Oop, baby can hear you guys talking to me, it just kicked!" and Traval said, "Oh, that's good, baby's already protective of it's Mama." I didn't even think of it that way but I like it!
I just experienced the most sci-fi-ish movement yet. I was lying in bed on my left side and I felt a movement - the baby was pushing down onto the bed through the side of my belly...strange. So I wedged my hand in between my belly and the bed and that's when I felt the most solid, fleshy, veiny, bony move yet - I felt this with my own hand. I don't know what baby part it was but it pushed/rolled hard enough that I could feel the skin layers of my belly (sort of a veiny texture) and the hardness of the baby's bone. WACKY. It actually made me jump, like in a scary movie when you get startled. O.K. back to bed to experience some more wacky roly poly dance moves by the wriggler. (We watched one of the hockey play off games this afternoon with some friends and then I went to see the Carolina Ballet perform in Raleigh - maybe the baby was attempting a slap shot or a pirouette.)
In this weeks class we went over all of the icky possibilities that can happen with childbirth. Meconium, pre-eclampsia, placental abruption, c-sections, pain/drugs (like an epidural.) It was a little stressful. I just handed the notebook over to Mike. She gave us a sheet on "Informed Consent" and said that it was one of the most important handouts to have on the day of birth because it can assist the laborer (me) and especially the partner (Mike) in what to ask and do if there are any scary or emergency situations.We we were going over meconium the instructor said, "Meconium happens." and Mike leaned over to me and said, "Oh, midwife humour." Ha.
At the end of class she handed out these cards with specific situations. We each read one and we had to answer either what was happening or what we would do in that particular situation. I was so impressed with Mike. He's paying attention! I feel 1,000 times more confident in him now. His therapist (who sounds amazing) was telling him that when he gives me directions like, "Blow through your mouth, don't push." he should make sure that I am looking at him and that he should actually do the blowing/breathing himself because apparently a woman in labor doesn't always understand words and has to see examples instead. (Which isn't much different from how I am not in labor. HA!)
The next evening I told Mike how that class was my least favorite so far although it is important to know about and be prepared for these things. I just hope that we don't have to deal with any of it. Mike is so supportive. He would say during class, "You can do this." and during our conversation later, "If anyone I know can do this it is you." (That made me cry just typing that.) I told him that I felt a little anxious just because we are having all this build-up about contractions and pain and then watching these birthing videos is really intense too; these women sound like they might die with their moaning and what not. Yet no one can explain what it feels like. I know that everyone experiences the pain differently but I am so anxious about it. I know myself pretty well but they say that you become really different when you're in labor. I can't imagine telling Mike something like, "YOU DID THIS TO ME!" or something else totally absurd. I don't like feeling not myself or having it be out of my control. (I'm a control freak.) Yet laboring ladies apparently do say out of character stuff sometimes. I think my walks and hikes and yoga are going to be extremely helpful. I also think listening to the relaxation/hypnotherapy CD that George made me will be really helpful too (I haven't written about my Hypnotherapy session with George yet, I will soon.)
After my conversation with Mike I went to sleep and dreamt about labor. This was my first labor dream! It really put my mind at ease after voicing all of my anxiety to Mike about it. In my dream I had a smooth labor where I was able to practice my breathing and was able to relax away the pain without the use of drugs and when the baby was delivered it was a long slim baby (like it's daddy) and was fairly pain-free. I know this is not completely realistic but it was really helpful for me. It brought back some of my self confidence and strength in preparing for the birth day which is what I need!
Baby movement seems to have fallen into a regular schedule. I can almost guarantee that when I lay down to sleep at night that the baby will start dancing. Although in our yoga class last night the baby was definitely moving around while I was moving around. That was strange. Luckily my balance is still with me and the tiny dancer didn't throw me off kilter with its kicks. When I got in bed for the night Mike came in several moments later and he asked me if the babe was moving. It is getting less kicky and more rolly - smoother movements. I told Mike to put his hand on my belly and he could feel it. He said, "This is the first time I'm really feeling it." Which I guess before he felt a kick here and there but this time he felt like he could feel a body part or a more recognizable movement. Plus it was constant. There were hardly any breaks between movements. This little glow worm was a squirmin'! I'm going to try and get it on video because you can see my belly move like I have some serious gas or something. Mike took a break got ready for bed came back to bed and said, "Can I put my hand on your belly again?" So cute. I love seeing his excitement.
At work the other day I was sitting there and could feel that one side of my belly was really hard and the other side was it's normal squishy self. I was talking to my co-worker Kay and told her that I thought I could feel the baby's butt, head or back and said, "Come, here, you wanna feel?" and so she came around and felt it and it moved! Kay is the first person other than me and Mike to feel it move. It was really cool.
Mike has asked me 3 times in the last 3 days if I have thought of any names. I told him my top four. He was o.k. with 3 of them. I asked him what his favorites were and he couldn't think of any. Sunday night we lay in bed and started really throwing out all kinds of names and at one point I got up to get a piece of paper and a pen because I didn't want to forget any of the ones we agreed upon. We disagree on a lot of names but we have a pretty solid, yet minimal, list of names we are both O.K. with. We are...or maybe I should say, I am getting closer to a name combination that I love, not quite though. I had a dream about a nick name that stems from two names put together. I can't wait to share our funny list after the babe is born and has a name. A coworker told me that I should choose a name now so that I can call the baby that now, while in utero, but a) I don't have a name that I love love love yet and b) I feel like meeting the little wonder will help me to decide what it should be called. One of Mike's pieces of advice was to pick a name that you don't mind yelling over and over. So I've been going around the house yelling names and putting them into sentences like, "________ get over here, now!" and "________ you have to eat your peas and carrots!" Haaha! Before Mike and I called our brainstorming session quits I sat up put my hands on my belly and said each name to see if I would get a reaction. NOTHING. So I don't think we've found anything appropriate yet. All I know for sure is, I can't wait to meet you, whoever you are.
Fecker, I am wearing the fabulous shirt you gave me!!!
According to baby center dot com the baby is about 15.7 inches now and weighs about 3 lbs! I believe it. I can now feel body parts, I don't know what parts they are but I can feel the baby when it's pushed up against one side of my belly. If I touch it there it will move! It's truly amazing.
At my last check-up the midwife gave me a bunch of handouts. One of them was on placenta encapsulation. I had no idea what that meant. When I read the title of the handout I was imagining a placenta in some sort of futuristic pod to save for a later time (for what, I don't know), like in the movie The Matrix:
But, no. Basically it's where you catch the placenta at birth (with a butterfly net or fishing pole), dehydrate it, grind it up and put it in capsules (like gel caps) to take after your birth. Surprisingly the thought of this does not make me gag. Let's go back to my 20s...when I was a tie-dye wearing, long braid having, granola eating hippy....
Back before I was in a loving committed relationship, before I had ever talked seriously about marriage or children with a boyfriend I had heard about people eating their placentas and thought, "Yeah, why not." I thought this without even looking into why you would do that and without it effecting my gag-reflex. If I had gotten pregnant when I was in my 20s I would have eaten my placenta with a side of haggis without putting much research into it.
Now that I am "in the family way," as they say around these parts, I have been doing a lot of reading and have watched more birthing videos than the average non-doula person. Before incubating this little cherub in my belly I thought that the placenta was essentially what is the amniotic sack; I thought the placenta surrounded the baby. Nope, it is just latched on to the uterine wall somewhere like a sucker fish (mine is anterior, or to the front) :
The umbilical cord comes out of the placenta and is attached to the baby's belly which after birth will be cut, tied off and become the adorable little thing called the belly button. While in-utero the baby doesn't eat through it's mouth like us non-utero types, it get's its nutrients from the placenta. Read this paragraph I found at nutrition in the womb dot org:
"The placenta, which is part of the baby that attaches
it to the womb, captures nutrients from the mother’s
blood and transports them to the baby. The growth of
the placenta and the food it supplies are the key to
health for a lifetime. The placenta has three functions. It is the gate between mother and
baby, transferring food from the mother and waste from the baby; it makes hormones that
signal to the mother what the baby needs; and it protects the baby from the mother’s
immune system, which could attack the baby because it is "foreign" to the
mother’s body because half of its genes come from the father. The development of
the placenta begins when the embryo implants into the lining of the mother’s womb,
on the eighth day after conception. The organ becomes fully functional in the tenth week
of pregnancy. At birth its surface is oval in shape. It seems that the tissue along the
length of the surface has different functions to tissue along the breadth."
So, the placenta is full of good stuff (if you're eating well and not smoking crack.) The top reasons I found for eating your placenta (or placentophagy) are:
It can help stem postpartum depression.
It helps contract the uterus back to pre-pregnancy size = less bleeding.
It stimulates milk production.
It can help with infertility and impotence.
All other mammals do it (excluding the camel and sea mammals.)
The top reasons I found not to ingest your placenta are:
If taking capsules you'll get "fish burps."
Judgment from other people (EEEW! or It's cannibalism!)
There haven't been any long term studies and if you eat well already it isn't necessary.
It costs about $200 to have someone dry the placenta and encapsulate them for you (of course, if you do it yourself it is cheaper.)
There must be a fifth reason...anyone like to chime in?
Listen to this lady talk about the benefits:
I have a favorite pregnancy blog called pregnant chicken dot com. Amy, the woman who writes it is a mother and is very funny. She did a post on eating your placenta. Here are my two favorite lines:
"Generally speaking, we're a well fed bunch so it's unlikely we'd need
to eat this because there's no peanut butter around. They have also
studied the reaction of animals if the placenta was with held after
birth and the animals weren't too miffed about it and didn't reject
their young."
"The placenta has a lot of good stuff in it, animals do it all the time
and you don't see deers getting all weepy and telling their husbands
they suck because they bought the wrong mustard and it certainly doesn't
do any harm."
I took the topic to my facebook page and got a gazillion responses. I did ask if anyone had ingested their placenta and of course with facebook I got lots of non-placenta eaters offering their opinions but that's facebook for you. (This could be a good example of why not to join facebook, not that you needed ANOTHER reason.) This is a little hard to read but here is the "conversation":
One thing I dread is postpartum depression. I am not prone to depression but I know that PPD is pretty icky and out of your control - some women don't realize what's happening to them they just feel really blue. Some women have felt like bad mothers because of it. I feel like placenta encapsulation (because I don't think I could eat a placenta lasagna) would be worth a try if I did get the blues. The midwife at the birthcenter who does this charges $200 which is too spendy for me which has made me take a second look at a placenta lasagna or smoothie, like one friend suggested in that facebook thread.
After looking into the pros and cons I think I will ask to take the placenta home. Keep it in the freezer and if I get blue I'll look up some placenta recipes or attempt to dehydrate it and put it in gel caps myself. (That link, thankfully, does not have pictures, I looked at another placenta recipe link and gagged.) If I feel like I don't need it I will bury it like a good hippy would, under the dogwood tree.
I ate so much fruit salad in class tonight. I got the good chair with pillows and it rocks but it wasn't very comfortable because it made me want to slouch when really I need to sit up straight to elongate my torso because everything is getting squished now. So after break Mike and I switched and he sat in the rocking chair.
We continued our conversation from last week about coping mechanisms: positions, mental tools, environment, positive affirmations. We also checked out the birthing rooms downstairs which we haven't seen since we had a tour of the place back in October (I think it was October). Everything looked smaller than I had remembered. One couple said they remembered the bathtubs being rounder, Mike thought so too; they are more rectangular. It's funny what our memories do. It still looked cozy and comfy though.
One of the more interesting things I learned was about the position of your pelvis and the curve of the birth canal. Basically, if you're standing upright your cervix faces down and once you move into the birth canal it makes a quick turn facing forward. So, if you are lying down on your back the baby has to channel Sir Edmund Hillary in order to climb uphill to come out. That is why squatting might be more beneficial...think waterslide. Or even better, on all fours, think laundry chute. Weeeee! I wonder who started the lying on your back trend to give birth? I'm gonna look that up.
In our last birthing class we watched another graphic birthing video where one of the other dad's almost threw up while watching it. HA! It's really one of those amazing things where you are squeamish but then once the baby is out you get very happy/emotional. The video was filmed of squatting births in Brazil. Let's just say that gravity seems extremely helpful in birthing.
One of the things we talked about in class was breathing in a way that you wouldn't be able to push. There are times when pushing can be bad. Pushing=tearing of lady parts. Ouch. So if you blow rather than clenching teeth you won't push and you will be able to breath through it and resist that urge. Apparently there is a moment in transition where you have this undying urge to push. I can see doing that and I told Mike that he needs to say, "Don't push because you might tear." and he said, "I don't want to say that because I don't want to bring in these negative ideas in your head." (How sensitive and thoughtful is he?) and I said, "But I want to know these things. I want the facts and the facts will help me." and he said, "I feel like if I bring a negative word into the room that it will more likely happen." and I said, "What if you just say, 'Think Brazil.' " and he said, "Brazil." and I said, "Brazil." These women in this video weren't pushing really, and these babies flew out like cannon balls - I'm serious. It was amazing. I bet when the time comes and Mike says "Brazil" I'll respond, "Brazil? Brazil?! Why are you thinking of Brazil at a time like this!?" Ha!
In our fourth Birthing class we talked about coping mechanisms during labor. We covered relaxation techniques and started talking about body positions that we will finish next week. I just want to give a shout out to Yoga. I felt I could relate almost every coping mechanism to my yoga practice. Whole body relaxation = savasana which is also called corpse pose.
This is what savasana looks like. (Image from here.)
It is when you lay down on your back at the end of your yoga practice to completely relax your body. Some yoga instructors lead you from head to toe in a softly spoken relaxation visualization. Others just let you lie there in complete silence. It can be the most relaxing 3-8 minutes you can experience. It's nice to know that Mike does yoga too so if he needed to he could lead me through a head to toe whole body relaxation. There are positions like cat/cow(marjariasana) or pelvic tilt that can help move the baby into a more optimal position for delivery.
This is what cow(on the left) and cat(on the right) pose looks like. (Image from here.) I love her ankle/leg warmers.
There is another one that I think the instructor called knee/chest position which looks like yoga's dolphin pose. That is also good for getting baby in a different/better position.
DOLPHIN POSE:
just kidding.
This is really what yoga's dolphin pose looks like. (Image from here.) Although the knee/chest position puts you on your knees rather than feet like you see in this example.
So, that's why the shout out. I've done these poses before so they are second nature to me now. All Mike or the midwife has to say is "DOLPHIN!" and I'll be on it like a bonnet.
I had my monthly check up yesterday. She showed me my gestational diabetes number. It was 117. I don't know what that means other than it is good and I don't have gestational diabetes! I have gained a total of 27.6 pounds since the start of my pregnancy. My uterus measures (from my pubic bone to the top of my uterus) 29 cm. which is also good. The midwife (who is a new one, to me, is very nice. So far all the midwives have been great and I can imagine them helping me on the birth-day.) She said that I have a really long torso and that it will help me feel more comfortable in my final trimester. Yay for long torsos (and short legs)! The baby's heart rate was in the 150s which is good. I love hearing that little swooshy heartbeat. She was able to FEEL THE BABY'S POSITION! She could feel where it's head and butt were located. The wee one is upside down and facing me...which is a perfect birthing position but I'm sure this position will change between now and then as babies in the womb like to mix it up. The midwife gave me loads ofhandouts: a breastfeeding book, a breastfeeding class schedule (the WBWC offers a free class!), a pediatrician list, emergency/fast labor how-to(if It comes on so quick we have it at home or in the car or on the sidewalk.), placenta encapsulation info (this is really interesting, I will write more about it I'm sure.), a list of things to have at home come 36 weeks....and I think that is it. LOTS of information. I need to start a check off list and tape it to the front door otherwise we will forget EVERYTHING. My check ups have been monthly but now we are moving to2 week check ups. Mike is going to go with me to the next one.
I sort of had one of those "aha" moments in between our last birthing class and reading this thing about uterine muscles. Y'all are gonna think this is a no-brainer but it just goes to show how much our world tries to find the quick-fix and get rid of pain rather than a) looking at the root of it and/or b) looking at the usefulness of it - and it almost suckered me in.
In our last class one of the pregnant women asked, "How can we get rid of uterine cramps (a.k.a. contractions)?" The instructor said something like, "You can't, you're supposed to have them. Contractions are what are helping to push the baby out." Duh, right? (Although at the time I was on the edge of my seat thinking that there was a magic solution of getting rid of these dreaded things called contractions.) And then I read this in my book "Hypnobirthing" last night,
"There are three layers of muscle in the uterus. The two layers with which we will be concerned are the outer layer, with muscles that are vertical and the inner layer with muscles that are horizontally circular."
"The circular muscles of the inner layer are found in the lower portion of the uterus. In order for the outlet of the uterus to open and permit the baby to easily move down, through, and out of the uterus into the birth canal these thicker muscles have to be drawn up and back.
The stronger muscles at the top of the outer layer of the uterus are vertical fibers. They go up the back and over the top of the uterus, drawing up the relaxed circular muscles. In an almost wavelike motion, these long muscle bands shorten and flex to push the baby down, through and ultimately out of the uterus.
When the laboring mother is in a comfortable state of relaxation, the two sets of muscles work in harmony, as they were intended to. The surge of the vertical muscles draws up, flexes and expels; and the circular muscles open and draw back to allow this to happen."
We want to have contractions, if you want to have a baby. These contracting muscles are major players in pushing a baby out of the womb. In this Hypnobirthing book the author talks about how stress and fear are possible causes of extreme pain because they want to fight against these muscle contractions. But what if we work with them and let them do their job? Can it make labor less painful? I will report back to you after the birth and let you know if contractions are still my friends. Although I might have completely blocked the entire labor out by the time I report back to you! We shall see! (This is the most epic science experiment I've ever taken on.)
Baby definitely had a growth spurt over the last 5 days because my belly button is sore from stretching.
Here is what www.babycenter.com has to say about the 29th week:
"Your baby now weighs about 2 1/2 pounds (like a butternut squash)
and is a tad over 15 inches long from head to heel. His muscles and
lungs are continuing to mature, and his head is growing bigger to make
room for his developing brain. To meet his increasing nutritional
demands, you'll need plenty of protein, vitamins C, folic acid, and
iron. And because his bones are soaking up lots of calcium, be sure to
drink your milk (or find another good source of calcium,
such as cheese, yogurt, or enriched orange juice). This trimester,
about 250 milligrams of calcium are deposited in your baby's hardening
skeleton each day."
I am still taking my prenatal vites which have calcium in them. Here are some good calcium food sources that I also found at baby center dot com:
1 cup plain skim-milk yogurt: 488 mg
1 cup nonfat fruit yogurt: 345 mg
1/2 cup part-skim ricotta cheese: 337 mg
3 ounces sardines (drained solids with bone): 324 mg
8 ounces skim milk: 301 mg
1 cup calcium-fortified orange juice: 300 mg
1 ounce Gruyere cheese: 287 mg
1/2 cup firm tofu made with calcium sulfate: 253 mg
1 ounce mozzarella cheese: 222 mg
1 ounce cheddar cheese: 204 mg
3 ounces canned pink salmon, with bones and liquid: 181 mg
I haven't been drinking any milk (just almond milk which does have calcium in it) and trying to cut down on dairy so I like the non-dairy sources of calcium listed. I hope to cut out dairy completely once the babe is born because of all of the nasty things I've read about dairy lately. Also molasses is a good one and broccoli and figs!
Whenever I sneeze now I say, "Excuse me, baby." Because I imagine that it might startle the little wriggler. I figure it's never too early to start teaching manners and respect of sharing your space with another...and we are definitely sharing one space. Although, I must add, that when I say excuse me to the baby and Mike hears me he says, "Life is tough baby, get used to it." I'm glad we will always have two perspectives in this household...soon we will have a 3 perspective household! Or four if you include the bossy cat. Oh my!
Mike put his hand on my belly last night (4/2/12) and put his head near my belly and started throat singing. I'm sure most of you who read this thing know what that sounds like but for those of you who don't it sounds like what you hear in the video above. Once he stopped the baby kicked HARD. I looked at Mike and he had wide eyes and open mouth and was in awe. I think he said, "That was a big one!" It was neat to see him experience the movement because it's such a cool feeling. I wonder what the baby thinks about that throat singing.
This image makes me sleepy. It is from the book "The Water Babies" by Charles Kingsley and photographed by Zena Holloway.
In last weeks birthing class we talked about coping mechanisms during labor and one of the things was soaking in the bath and the other was sitting in the shower. We can use water for easing pain and making ourselves a bit more comfortable. We can also use the tub to have a water birth. I like that idea. If the baby is anything like Mike it will be appropriate to enter the world underwater - Mike is like a fish - he could be in the ocean or lake all day. I'm more of a sand crab - I like chillin' on the beach and dipping in the water for brief amounts of time. It also seems appropriate because babies in the womb have been "swimming" around in the amniotic fluids for 9 months or so, so to enter from one wet place to the next is a nice transition I'd think. The birth center has a thermometer just for the tub to make sure that it is not too cold or hot (it shouldn't be above body temperature.) Our instructor said that if we end up doing a water birth that once we give birth we should get out of the water to deliver the placenta, otherwise things will get really...RED. She also recommended getting back in the tub after we've delivered the placenta or if we didn't give birth in the tub getting in there after the birth with the baby and having some of our first moments there in the water since the umbilical cord is still intact and not healing up yet. She said that you can hold the baby's head and have it sort of float on it's back. It sounds so peaceful to me. I was thinking about it while I was driving to work today and really visualizing that scenario and I started to cry. Big, salty tears slid down my face just thinking about how lovely that would be.
So, I've been putting a baby registry together and I think I'm all done. When I first started doing it (months ago) I didn't realize how much research I would be doing. I really know nothing about babies and baby things. In fact, I went to a friend's baby shower this weekend where there was a 3 month old baby and my pregnant friend was carrying him like an old pro and I just said, "Babies scare me." HA! I had no desire to hold him...well, maybe a small desire but he really did scare me. He was very chubby and adorable though. Anyways, I've been taking good notes of the tidbits that people are feeding me about books and cribs and car seats and breast feeding pillows and diapers. We have decided to use cloth mainly because we're cheap and secondly because they're better for the environment (we love you Mother Earth), and thirdly because we love doing laundry, and fourthly because they are more breathable for a sensitive baby bum, and fifthly(is that a word? and it looks like I wrote filthy) we are cheap...oh, I said that already. My friend Liz posted this link on facebook the other day. It has these two charts showing the approximate costs of disposables vs. cloth dipes. Here are the charts and the numbers:
DISPOSABLES
CLOTH
Boo-yah!
(wish us luck on our diaper adventure.)
Fortunately the cloth diapering world has changed quite a bit from when I was a baby in the 70s and even from when I was a teenager babysitting cloth diapered babies in the early 90s. When babysitting in the 90s I think I was still using those big ol' safety pins like this:
But now they have these things called diaper covers where you can just insert the diaper in the cover and snap the thing on. No worries about pricking your fingers anymore. Here is one example of a diaper cover:
They come in all sorts of colors and patterns and materials and styles to make that cute baby bum even cuter.
You also have the option of using these clasps call Snappis if you want to forgo the diaper cover, or you can still put the cover over the dipe to dress it up some. These Snappis are the new milleniums version of the safety pin. They look like flux capacitors to me; "To the future!"
Flux capacitor:
Images from :
http://www.greenworkscleaners.com/blog/2012/02/15/endless-diaper-debate/
http://www.baby-clothdiaper.com/dritz-diaper-pins-pictures/
http://www.diapercover.com/
http://www.nellsnaturalbaby.com/Snappi-Fastener-Double-Pack_p_108.html
http://backtothefuture.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Images_of_the_flux_capacitor
I love science and natural phenomena. When I attended De Anza College
I took an Environmental Biology class and learned about co-evolution.
The example the instructor gave was of the leaf-cutter ant who could cut
leaves and carry leaf pieces many times bigger than their wee ant
bodies. See:
Imagine
walking upon a line of these fellas?! The co-evolution part was that
when the leaf-cutters have their "hands full" they don't have any way of
defending themselves from predators like moths. Moths could potentially
have a juicy ant feast but there are these other ants, smaller ones,
small enough to fit on the backs of the leaf-cutter's backs. I don't
remember the name of these little ants, let's call them the
"wee-defense". The wee-defense sit on the backs of these laboring
leaf-cutter's backs who have big pieces of leaves in their mandibles and
when I a moth comes down for an ant meal the wee-defense attacks! This
is where my memory gets weak - I want to say that the wee-defense has
some sort of nasty bite with venom but I honestly don't remember. There
must be something in it for the wee-defense too. I simply can't remember
whether the wee-defense would attack the moths and then get to eat them
or if there is something back at the leaf-cutter's nest that is
beneficial for the wee-defense. Anyhoo, neat, right? So, I was reading a
book that my cousin-in-law, Paige, sent me called "The Baby Bond"
and I was reading a section on the benefits of breast milk. HOLY MOLY. I
would transcribe the entire section just because it is so amazing but I
won't bore you with it;
I'll just say that breast milk is the baby food of champions.
This is one paragraph from "The Baby Bond" that reminded me of the leaf-cutter/wee-defense relationship:
"We
also know that when mothers stay close to baby and are exposed to
baby's saliva via kisses an stools during diaper changes, this helps
mother provide appropriate immune factors to baby through her milk. The
"enteromammary pathway" is the name given to the process by which mother
supplies specific immune factors in her milk according to what she has
been exposed to. Baby even passes cells directly into mother's breast
while nursing. When premature infants receive mother's milk in neonatal
centers they receive much better immune assistance when mother is in
intimate contact with the infant. High levels of sanitation between the
nursing mother and her infant can prevent this valuable transaction from
occuring."
In our second birthing class one of the ladies was talking about how she is having a hard time getting comfortable at night because she is a stomach sleeper. I am too. We can't do that anymore. We have to sleep on our sides or backs which can take some getting used to. I told her that I use 3 pillows. One for my head, one for my right side and one for my left side. Mike said, "She has built a trough around her." Ha! Which is true and a good description; the softest trough on earth. If I'm on my side I have one pillow helping support my back and the other to the front slightly underneath my belly, sometimes in between my legs. It's like really floofy flying buttresses and my pregnant body is the Notre Dame...maybe we'll stick with the trough metaphor.
Images from: http://www.coolpicturegallery.us/2011/09/notredame-church-paris.html and http://eatyourfeelingsrecipesforselfloathing.blogspot.com
