Baby!

Jen's Baby Updates - Week 30

Sunday, February 9th, 2003

Midwife Visit

The exams with my midwives will be every two weeks now, so you'll be hearing a lot about them.

I just got back from the midwives, where I did my gestational diabetes test. That meant that I wasn't supposed to have any excess sugar yesterday (pop, candy, etc), and wasn't supposed to eat after midnight. This morning when I got to the midwives' office, I had to drink some liquid that tasted like slightly thick, flat, cola. It was basically pure glucose. It wasn't bad, contrary to what I had heard. I downed it in one gulp.

We did the usual exam, and Cindy was very impressed with my fundal height (they measure my belly from the top of my pubic bone up to the top of the uterus). I'm at 30 centimeters now, which is about a centimeter ahead of my week (29-1 today), which is fine. They consider anything within 2 centimeters of your week number to be healthy. I wonder if that means that he'll be early?

She confirmed that they will have a birthing ball at the hospital, as well as a squatting bar. She said that Americans, due to the fact that we don't squat much, have trouble staying in the squatting position during labor, even though it is considered to be one of the best for comfort and progression. So, I'll need to work on that.

In Karate class we do an exercise called 'thighs parallel', in which we squat with our (you guessed it) thighs parallel to the floor for two minutes. It can be pretty difficult at first, but once you've got it down, it is great exercise. No impact, but it gets your heart rate up, and is good for your leg muscles! I'll be working on that from now until the birth, along with squats. My prenatal yoga tape recommends doing 30 full squats every day.

Unfortunately, hospital policy dictates that a nurse be in the room at the time of birth, so it won't just be me and Travis and the midwife (Cat or Cindy or Ann), as I had hoped. She said that they are generally unobtrusive when they are dealing with the midwives, though, knowing that the woman has chosen to use midwives (at least in part) to avoid random people around and people coming in and out of the room the entire time.

She told me that it looks like the baby has switched sides. He seems to be lying on my right side, still with his head down. I had noticed that the kicks were in different places now, and couldn't figure out how he was doing that from the position I thought he was in.

After the exam, it was time to get my blood drawn for the glucose test. Cindy offered to come with me, but I was feeling pretty macho so I said that I would be fine, and I was! The blood drawing woman just kept up a rapid-fire of questions, leaving me no time to think. She did a good job. I may be overcoming my pathological dislike of having my blood drawn. Pregnancy will do that to you.

I immediately went to have lunch, because I was feeling a bit faint during the entire exam, probably due to not eating. I had a bowl of french onion soup and a burger (they told me to eat protein), and I feel much better now!

Movement

He's moving a lot, and it is getting stronger. Sometimes he moves really fast and strong, especially when I'm lying on my side. He likes it when Travis is talking to me and tends to move more when Travis is touching my belly than when anyone else is. Whenever I try to show his movement to anyone else, he stops at first, like he's shy, then starts up again, but not as rambunctiously. When it is Travis, it is like he wants to show off. That sounds crazy, but it seems to be true!

It is probably just because when I invite people to touch my stomach, I really want him to move, so I may get more tense, which might signal him to be quiet. Travis has his hand on my belly so much these days that I don't even notice it, so neither does the baby!

Symptoms

For a while now, my gums have been very tender and have been bleeding a lot when I floss my teeth, and sometimes when I just brush them. This is called 'pink toothbrush', and commonly starts in the first or second trimester. It is due to the increased blood volume in your body. I've cut down to flossing every other day instead of every day, to avoid doing damage to myself

Exercise

I've been walking on the treadmill a lot, and today I signed up for Prenatal Yoga classes. I should have been doing them all along, of course, but I didn't know that they existed. Oh well! I'm excited about starting next week.

I've been walking every night this week, because I believe that being in good shape will make labor easier, as well as the recovery afterwards. In addition, regular exercise is supposed to increase circulation and thus prevent varicose veins. Oh, and I just like to work out.

Several of the childbirth books (and my prenatal yoga videos) suggest squatting as a good exercise to do every day. I've started doing 10 of them in the restroom at my office every time I go to use the bathroom. Because I've increased my fluid intake quite a bit, that's a lot! My legs were actually sore today, which is a sensation that I've missed since taking a break from martial arts.

Other People's Babies

This weekend, our friends Brett and Gail came to visit, with their daughter Marenna, who is 13 months old. It was great to see them again, and Marenna is adorable, but having a toddler around was really tiring! It left both of us feeling worn out by the time they left. I can't figure out how parents do it... they seem to survive on a lot less sleep than I need to be functional. I guess we'll find out!

Gifts

I've been going through our registries online, reading every review available about each of the things we registered for. I've learned a lot! I think that the registry now includes all things that we probably need, and they are all items/brands that people generally like. We certainly don't expect to be given everything on the registries... some of the items are really expensive... but maybe people will want to get together and buy things. It was a good way to make a list for myself, in any case.

I took Travis with me to register for things at Target, because many people told us it was cheaper and that they had the same stuff as Babies R Us. I didn't find that to be true, really, and the selection was not nearly as good. I was discouraged after registering there, and had nearly decided to cancel the registry. However, I got home and did some web work and found that they had a lot of things available on the web that weren't in our store. So, I moved some stuff from Babies R Us to Target. It is really cool that you can do all of this registry stuff (and the actual purchasing) on the web. Very convenient!

We did not register for any clothes or toys because people can select those themselves!

As I've said before, no one is obligated to buy us anything! We registered just to make it easier for people who _do_ want to buy something, not to encourage people to spend money on us!

Names

As far as names go, we are now just waiting to meet him before we make a final decision. We have ideas, but we won't know for sure until he's entered the world. Even people who thought that they had a name picked out often have to change their minds when they actually meet the baby.

Miscellaneous

I've been reading a lot about childbirth and labor recently. I read the book by the originator of the Bradley method of childbirth. I like his ideas, but his writing is a bit pompous, I thought. It is written for the husband (the Bradley method is also known as 'Husband-Coached Childbirth') and it makes it sound like the woman is a fragile flower who needs to be babied all through pregnancy, and that she really can't think for herself so you need to take care of her and help her through labor. I have no trouble with the idea of helping the woman, but I was a little offended by his portrayal of women. I shouldn't be too surprised... he was practicing medicine back in the 1940s, so he is really from a different era.