The Belly

No, I am not about to drop a boulder on my son's head...thats my baby belly....yes, it enters a room before I do....no I cannot hide behind a tree, unless were in the amazon then maybe.

I keep telling myself its not a big baby, that I'm all placenta.

When I try to "get out of the way" I have to face straight forward....

I have to turn sideways to do the dishes & load the laundry.

I think I'm gonna need a corset or 4 after this linebacker is born!

Vernix

My Husband and I took a Birth Bootcamp Re-Boot Class the other evening.  It was a great refresher class on the different stages of labor, the Hubs' role as my coach and how he can help me relax.  We talked about lessons our previous birth experience taught us and what each of our expectations are this time around.  It was a great way to get the conversation going between us, and get our heads in the game....like, this is really about to go down!!  I really appreciated having the instructor there to bring up points and considerations that we hadn't though of. Even though birth can go 100 different ways, it does feel comforting to be as prepared as you are able to be in situations like this.

We also watched some home birth videos, which really reminds you of the work that you put into having a baby!  It was funny, one of the babies in the video was covered in the white creamy vernix...which of course grossed out my husband....but there are so many benefits of the Vernix...

"The power of vernix is truly astounding.  Its main benefits are its various antimicrobial properties, which help protect a newborn against a wide variety of infections.  A secondary benefit is that vernix is highly moisturizing.  To such a degree that many cosmetic companies have researched it."   via birthbliss.wordpress.com

 You can read more and see all the sciency stuff about vernix at the link above....its recommended to delay your baby's bath just after birth and rubbing in the vernix...like lotion so your baby benefits from all the good stuff.

I wonder if I can steal some vernix to put on all these stretch marks, lol....

Hugs & Dates

Wow, time has really flown by so fast....yet, sometimes not fast enough, lol  

The end of a pregnancy can be so grueling, uncomfortable, and just plain exhausting!  I only sleep 2 hours at a time right now because my body is equipped with a timer that goes off when my bladder accumulates approx 2 tablespoons. So then I hoist this tank-like body out of my bed to sleepwalk to the bathroom, step on a kid toy or a husbands shoe, curse a little...eliminate the 2 tablespoons and roll my eyes and go back to bed....oh wait, my body has realized I am trying to go back to sleep...cue the acid reflux...

In 2 hours I will do it all over again....I wish I could talk myself into just wearing an adult diaper, lol...but I just cant bring myself to do it.

2 times in the past week I've revisited the morning sickness stage (if you know what I mean) and I've also had a pulled muscle in my neck for the past 5 days....its been rough, I need a hug.

All of this has put me in a negative and depressive mental state and I want to turn that around asap... so for starters I will be reducing my hours at work to part time for the next 2 weeks and on maternity leave after that to get ready for the baby. Part time starts today and that has already lifted my mood tremendously....I can nap! Its time to take care of ME!

Oh yeah,  to get ready for birth i've been eating 6 dates every day...whaaa? I know it sounds weird but read this....

" a study published in the Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology which concludes that eating 6 dates daily during the last four weeks of pregnancy “significantly reduced the need for induction and augmentation of labor, and produced a more favorable, but non-significant, delivery outcome”.  Some significant findings:

• Cervical dilation was significantly greater in the date-eating mamas upon arrival at the hospital

• 83% of mothers who consumed dates had their membranes intact upon admission at the hospital 

• 96% of the women who ate dates went into labor on their own

• Use of Pitocin (synthetic Oxytocin) was significantly lower in women who consumed dates (28%), compared with the non-date fruit mothers (47%)

• The latent phase of the first stage of labor was almost 7 hours shorter in the date-eating mothers compared with the non-date fruit eaters (510 min vs 906 min). Not bad for eating a few dates!
•  the study demonstrates a significant reduction in the amount of postpartum bleeding experienced by women who consumed date fruit compared to women who received synthetic oxytocin (Pitocin). 

So I thought...why not?