Bump it: 33 Weeks

Hey Everyone! I'm 33 Weeks Along!

I can't believe it, I'm over 8 months pregnant! When did that happen!?

This week we had another doctors appointment and everything seems to be checking out normally. My belly is measuring within the normal range and the baby's heartbeat usually is dialed in at around 140 BPM every time the doc checks it. Way back when I was thinking about getting a doppler so I could listen to it at home but most of them were about $75 and I just couldn't justify the expense; especially since now the baby moves so much that I don't even need to hear his heartbeat to know he's in there!

I got a giggle out of my doctor this week too when he asked me how I was sleeping:

Doc: So how are you sleeping?

Me: HORRIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

::doc laughs::

He told me that one theory behind the lack of sleep is that your body is preparing for being up with a newborn. If you ask me I think my lack of sleep has more to do with the fact that I have a 4 lb little person River-Dancing on my bladder all night long, but I'm no expert ;-) He is sticking with my original due date of September 6th so we'll see what happens! I do have a feeling that he will be late but that's just a hunch. I asked him about going past 40 weeks and he said he has no problem going to 41 (good to hear) and he doesn't induce unless there is a strong medical reason to (even better to hear)

I finished my carseat cover this week and i'm really happy with how it came out! Watch for a post! I'm continuing my Hypnobabies training and starting next week I will start my maintenance therapy with a different hypnosis track each day until I go into labor. Or as hypnobabies puts it "until my birthing time begins!" Very zen-positive way of looking at it huh?

Until next time I remain a happy (but sleep deprived) mama to be!

Bump it: 32 Weeks

Hey Everyone! I'm 32 Weeks Along!

Sorry I have been MIA for the past couple of weeks I was buried alive under a pile of toxicology emergency flash cards in preparation for my Certified Emergency Nursing Exam which I took this week and PASSED!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank GOD that is over with! I am so happy to have that done with but even more happy that I decided to go ahead and get certified. I know that having that credential will come in handy when I decide to go back to work again. 

Pregnancy wise this week has gone by pretty easily. Except for the fact that a full night sleep; well sleep for more than 3 hours at a time, is becoming more and more of a rarity I'm still feeling pretty good. I've been keeping up with my exercising but have found that I need to work out literally as soon as I wake up in the morning. The likelihood of me working out goes down exponentially in relation to the time of day. If I make it to 12 noon or later the chances of my exercising are pretty much absolutely zero! Oh well. I guess I can afford to take a few days off to let my body rest right?

Next MD appointment is next week. The nursery is still in shambles but I have been hard at work sewing some projects for the nursery and I hope to have most of them completed in the next three weeks. It will give me something to do since I didn't die of suffocation under all of those index cards :-)

Until next time I remain a happy mama to be!

Hypnobabies Week 3

This post is a review of my third class using the Hypnobabies at home study course for hypnosis in labor. I finished class three a while ago but haven't had a chance to blog about it yet. The theme of this week's class was "birthing choices" mostly revolving around interventions typically used in hospital birth. They lay out most of the interventions that you typically see in a hospital setting and explain the risks and benefits of each. Since this is a course which is meant for women who are seeking a natural birth it is a somewhat biased approach against the interventions. Having said that I do think the way they present the information is a little more tolerable than other "pro-natural delivery" people I have talked to or things I have read. I have come into contact with people and literature that literally try to scare women into following their advice on natural labor and advocate for women to "demand" and "refuse" and "don't trust the hospital staff." Scare tactics like that really leave a bad taste in my mouth.

Speaking as a medical professional myself I have a different perspective on hospital birth than the average person. I understand that a medical focused model is what I am going to get in a hospital. I understand the rationale for many of the things that they do and why they do it. All that being said I do still want as natural a labor as possible with as little interventions as possible. That is the best choice for me but that doesn't mean that I don't want access to advanced care should something change (which it does). When you walk in the door not wanting to work with the staff and your doctor you are setting yourself up for difficulty. To be honest these women who honestly don't want ANYTHING and are not willing to compromise shouldn't be giving birth in a hospital. You have the option of a birthing center or a home birth, both of which are viable options if you do it the right way and keep it as safe as possible. Ok i'll get off my soapbox now....

I am planning on having a written birth plan for the nurses and my OB (we have already talked about this) but I understand that birth is a dynamic and constantly changing experience and I am willing to bend and flex as need be. The readings of Class # 3 helped me start to think about how I want to word my birth plan and they stress working WITH the hospital team and that THEY ARE NOT THE ENEMY (Amen!)

The hypnosis tracks were

Creating Anesthesia
&
Deepening

I am loving the time out I take every day to listen to my tracks. It's 30 min of total relaxation and I think it's working, I'm feeling more and more relaxed each time I do it. Next week is when my "birth partner" a.k.a. Kyle will get integrated into the process. I have given him the head's up that it's coming; he seems skeptical but he knows it's important to me so he said he'll do whatever needs doing.

Good man!

I'll let you know how it's progressing in my next hypnobabies post!

for more information on hypnobabies check out their website here

Bump it: 31 Weeks

Hey Everyone! I'm 31 weeks along!

This week was a tough one. It kind of caught me off guard since I feel that I've been taking most of my pregnancy symptoms in stride. However I was introduced to a wonderful new (for me) side effect this week:

uncontrollable crying (ugh...)

It happened the first time when I had a setback while studying for my CEN (certified emergency nursing) exam. I scored lower than I thought on a practice exam and as soon as I graded it I started bawling and I couldn't stop for 15 minutes. By the time I finally got myself together I had even forgotten what I even was crying about. I remember thinking sometime during this event that I wanted to stop crying, but I seriously couldn't. When I told my mom about it she wisely told me "oh THAT'S the baby" to which I replied "ooohhhhhhhhhh." I honestly had forgotten that way back in my first trimester I read that this was a symptom of pregnancy but since It never was a problem for me before this week I had forgotten about it. 

There were a few instances during the week where I got really weepy for no reason which to be quite honest I'm finding really freaking annoying. I hope that this doesn't continue for the next 9 weeks otherwise I'm in trouble... However the good people at Kleenex will rejoice.

The rest of the week (besides all the crying) was very enjoyable. Kyle was off of school for his mid summer break so we had a  lot of time to spend together. We spent the 4th volunteering at our Church's hot dog booth at the downtown parade and festival then we BBQ'd with our neighbors. Next week we take our hospital tour!!! 9 weeks to go until we meet our little man!

Until next time I remain a happy (but sometimes weepy) mama to be!

Bump it: 30 Weeks

Hey Everyone! I'm 30 weeks along!

I can't believe that I have made it to 30 weeks. In many ways the time has gone by so fast I can't believe I'm only 7 weeks away from being term with this pregnancy!! 

I have had so many thoughts and feelings running through my mind over the last week. I am a little nervous (well actually a lot terrified) about parenthood but at the same time I am so excited to meet my son and to be a mom. I find myself day dreaming about what he's going to look like and what his personality will be like.

I know many of you are anxious about what our name choice is for this baby boy and I gotta be honest with you; I am still on the fence. We have narrowed it down to two choices and I fluctuate between which one I like more by the hour. Today before dinner I was convinced that I was sold on option 1 then by the time the dishes were in the dishwasher I was thinking more about option 2. I have always been so indecisive about everything; I can't even decide what I was to eat at a restaurant! How am I supposed to choose a name for this kid???? Kyle likes both, I think we might just wait until he's born to see what he looks like. 

And no; I'm not telling what the two options are ;-) You're going to have to wait right along with me until this baby comes!

I had another doctor's appointment today and the baby's heart rate was a strong 150 BPM and the baby's head is currently facing down (right on top of my bladder...joy joy). I'm pretty sure it's too early for him to go head down and stay there but I hope he does do that when the time comes. My husband was a breech baby and even though I want this child to be just like his daddy; he can skip that part please :-)

Until next time I remain a happy mama to be!