Happy Thanksgiving!!

YAY!! We worked hard over the long weekend and finally got the nursery painted! We also finished pulling up the carpet and we are now ready to start getting organized for Baby Collins!! We still don't have much to put in there, but it's nice to get what we do have out of the living room.

The birthing class is still going good - I look forward to it every week. We have learned several pain coping techniques, but mostly they are trying to prepare us emotionally I think. They do a lot of answering questions and addressing emotional blocks that we may have that might slow us down or get in our way during labor, and they give us lots of information about possible interventions and why they might need them and what they might do.

Baby Collins is getting really big and she is still acting like a little gymnast in there. She's head down every time we have an appointment, but she spins and kicks furiously. She doesn't keep me up at night (I usually sleep like a rock) but I know she's in there kicking because John feels her at night. Supposedly, she's about 17 inches and almost 4 pounds.

We had a good Thanksgiving but I wish I'd have been able to eat more!! It gets uncomfortable and hard to breathe after a big meal, but it's probably better that I didn't eat as much as I wanted to!! And the long weekend was nice... now that we finished the nursery, I can start on the rest of the list of things to do before her arrival. I can't wait!!

The First Birthing Class

Our first class went really well. There are 13 couples in our class which made it really crowded since it was in the midwife's living room. Half of the couples ended up having to sit on the floor and - although this is selfish - I'm glad we weren't one of them. We got there early enough to get a loveseat and in other days I might have offered to switch with someone at least half way through, but just the thought of sitting on the floor made my back hurt. John made a move to sit on the floor, but I didn't let him since the loveseat was really more like an oversized plush chair and we were squished up against each other... I'd have been super uncomfortable squished up against a complete stranger. They are going to split the class in two though and have another one on Thursday nights. Phew!

John and I got there at 6:30 expecting an hour long class, but by 7:10 they hadn't really even gotten started... they had just had some lady talking to us about herbs and natural remedies and natural care. It was very interesting but we were very confused when they started to sound like they were going to start the real stuff 20 minutes before time to go. I don't know where in the world we got the idea it was only an hour long class, but it turns out it's a 2.5 hour class. I'm glad it was, I think it will be great and much more worth the drive and the money, but it was a bit of a surprise.

The rest of the class was basically just question and answer, and boy did people have a lot of questions, including us. It was really helpful and informative and very good to get other peoples' perspectives and questions.

There was a girl there who wanted a natural childbirth but was doing it in a hospital anyway because that was where her insurance would cover her, so she was just taking these prep classes with the midwife. She was 30 weeks - one week ahead of me - and her doctors had already told her she was breech and scheduled a c-section "just in case". I couldn't believe it... not that they had scheduled a c-section for a breech baby, but that they had convinced her 10 weeks early that she had a problem pregnancy and would probably need a c-section. Everything I have read said that babies are often breech right up until a couple weeks before the due date (sometimes even turning just before labor) and that is perfectly normal... she has TEN weeks to go!! The poor girl was so worried and so stressed out about it and I felt so bad for her. I don't know where my baby is (I'm always trying to guess at what body parts I feel when she moves) but she moves so much that I can't imagine she'll be in the same position in 10 weeks. Maybe her baby doesn't move much, I don't know. The midwife said that they don't even start checking for breech until 32 weeks and that there are several things they can do to try to turn the baby before resorting to c-section. This is exactly why I don't want to give birth in a hospital... I want to avoid a c-section or other complications by trying everything possible first and I just simply don't trust a hospital to exhaust other options. They have a schedule and a budget to follow, and c-sections are convenient and profitable. Now, I'm not saying that c-sections are never necessary, and I'm definitely not saying I don't want one if I really do need one. What I'm saying is that I think a lot of doctors and/or hospitals schedule them as a first resort instead of a last resort, and I don't want to have that doubt, worry, and suspicion in my head while I'm trying to give birth. I know I say a lot about hoping I can handle it without an epidural... and I do. I know perfectly well I have no idea how much it's going to hurt and that it's probably going to be the worst pain of my life. But I feel confident that I can do it and every time I think of having her in a hospital I feel even more confident and convinced that I am making the right decision for me in having her at the birthing center instead. I don't think there's anything wrong with epidurals or pitocen or c-sections for other people if they want them, but I don't and that's why I know I am doing the right thing for me.

I'm looking forward to the next class. We have an appointment beforehand and I have to do my glucose test and I get to drink that yummy orange stuff... mm-mm-mmm!! I think they are also going to do some more blood tests and check for anemia and probably some other stuff again. They check that at the beginning and then again in the 3rd trimester.

And I just ordered a bunch of raspberry tea. We learned last week that if you drink it in the 3rd trimester, it can help with childbirth and help shorten the bleeding afterward. I can't seem to find any in stores... not even the Sunflower Shoppe or Central Market. Well, I found some herbal tea at CM that had some raspberry leaf in it, but it also had a whole bunch of other stuff too. I ordered pure raspberry leaf and some other herbal teas to mix it with (yes, all pregnancy-safe) and I'm looking forward to tinkering with recipes.

Things are good. I can't believe I am already in my third trimester. Time goes by so fast, and I have no idea where it goes. I intend to do something (ahem... post a blog) and don't quite get to it that day - next thing I know it's a month later. And with the holidays coming up, I'm sure this next couple of months is going to fly by even faster!

I am getting more and more excited to have this baby and see her face to face. It's only three months away!! I think I'm pretty much mentally prepared (I know, I know, you laugh at this) but I know that only goes so far, so maybe I should say I'm as mentally prepared as I'll ever be. But I am totally unprepared by way of supplies and such. I have a few things my sister has given me, but other than that I have nothing ready. There's a lot that I still need to get from my sister - a lot of the big stuff anyway - and then I just need to make a list of the little supplies I need and go shopping. Part of why I haven't gotten anything yet is that the baby's room still isn't ready. We need to be paint, clean, and take up the carpet. I was at Target the other day and thought I'd stop by and look at the baby section to see what they had... I almost had a nervous breakdown!! I feel like there's so much stuff to get and I have no idea what all I need or want. I keep reminding myself that I don't really need any of it except diapers, wipes, and a carseat and if there's anything else that I need, I'll realize it and go to the store. If I don't remember something or know about it, and never miss it, then I didn't really need it to begin with.

And we still haven't decided on a name. Hopefully we're getting closer. I say hopefully because we've already had it narrowed down to two or three twice before and now we are on our third set of two or three finalists. It's so hard to name someone!!

On the upside, my back problem has gotten a lot better. This last chiropractor that I went to told me he thought it was ligament and/or muscle related and not a bone problem whereas the first chiropractor had told me it was a twisted sacrum. I had found almost nothing on the internet about twisted sacrum, but I went home and looked up "sacroiliac joint pregnancy" after talking to this guy and found a ton of information. Supposedly it's pretty common to have this problem during pregnancy (although not usually so early in pregnancy). In a nutshell, the hormones in pregnancy cause your ligaments to loosen and sometimes the ligament around your sacroiliac joint gets too loose and causes problems. It's only supposed to move just a tiny bit and if it moves too much, it can be very painful. I read that a support belt worn around the pelvis would help keep it from moving too much and provide some relief. So I stopped going to the chiropractor (I only went twice and I didn't want him to make it worse) and wore one for about a week and a half and have been otherwise very careful with how I move and how I sit. I also changed chairs at work and my mom bought me a special pillow to sit on and it has just been getting better and better. I still have pain sometimes, but nothing even close to what it was before. THANK GOD!!


On the downside, I have been super clumsy lately. I went to lunch with a friend a few weeks ago and just before getting out of my car, I picked up my water and dropped it all over my lap. I sat through lunch soaked, but was almost dry by the time we were finished. Which is when I picked up my Dr. Pepper to refill it and dropped it all down the front of me. Very embarrassing. And this isn't an isolated occurrence either... this is what my life has become. That and getting tired really easily. In general, though, I'm feeling a lot better now than I was up until a few weeks ago. I stopped eating oranges and a few weeks later I stopped drinking milk and I feel a thousand times better now. It seems both of those gave me horrible stomach aches/problems.

We start our childbirth classes on Tuesday. I'm looking forward to it, although it's in Denton and I'm not really looking forward to that drive right at rush hour. I still wonder if I made the right decision about not having an epidural... I hope I don't live to regret it.