34 Weeks/8 Months

I had the baby!!! APRIL FOOLS!!

Well, I didn't blog last week, so here's two weeks worth of info:

Last week was very fun! My mom and I took our road trip to Chico, Ca, where I pretty much grew up. We drove down Sat and got back on Wed. It was a very leisurely trip, we just kind of played everything by ear. We got to see several of our friends from church, our old neighborhood and my childhood, more than we expected, so that was fun! We also got to eat at our favorite restaurants, which was great for the pregnant mamma! Lots of yummy food, I'm sure I gained more weight, but I get bigger by the day anyway. Nelson didn't go with us and when I got back, he said the belly had definitely gotten bigger during the five days I was gone!!

We hired a doula!! I LOVE her!! Her name is Megan Kelley and she is going to be an amazing asset to our delivery. She has years of experience and two daughters of her own. She is also a Birthing From Within instructor which is a HUGE advantage to our plans for a natural delivery. I've been reading Birthing From Within and we will be taking the class from her soon. So excited!!

We have 2 more of our Kaiser Permanente generic classes, which have been fine. The class has covered a huge range of topics, which has been great, but the focus is not doing this naturally. They try to present all information as naturally as possible, but it's obvious that "most" people who take this class are planning on drugs and medical intervention. Only one other couple in the class is planning on trying to birth as naturally as possible. It's sad to me how many women/couples don't realize how empowering and amazing birth can be. Last week we saw images of babies crowning and emerging from the birth canal and one woman actually said, "Eww, gross, I could have made it through everything never seeing that!" I was shocked! I mean, I probably wouldn't wallpaper my house with those images, but they're amazing!! I think it's awesome that my body can do that. I actually want pictures of ALL the details of the birth, but apparently we are not allowed to take pictures or film when she's actually coming out. I'm pretty mad about this. I wanted the pictures just for me and maybe for my daughter some day, maybe in preparation for her own deliveries, but I guess it's against hospital policy. I am NOT happy about that.

I'm still feeling pretty good, about the same. It's just getting harder and harder to find comfortable positions to do pretty much....everything. She's getting bigger and bigger and, depending on where she's hanging out, it's getting more challenging to do regular things. There are days I'm fine, but then other times, I refuse to wear shoes with laces (unless someone is willing to tie them for me). I have trouble finding comfortable sleep positions sometimes, and get up at least 2 times per night to pee. Any time I sit or lay in a position too long, I get uncomfortable. And on that note, I've been sitting at the computer too long!!