I’m pretty excited about that!
It’s now time for some Week 34-35ish updates!
1. First, the most magical thing arrived in the mail today.
Maternity sweatpants. If you thought sweatpants couldn’t get any better….
Or as the Gap likes to call them “marled joggers.” I actually think maternity leggings/pjs/yoga pants are unnecessary (at least for this pregnancy), and I’ve been wearing my regular Reeboks & Lulu’s thus far. But Gap was having a great sale, and I figured they’d be good transitional pants also. Plus, I like the look of skinny sweats, but they tend to be tight on my calf muscles. I had a feeling these would be extra roomy. Unfortunately, the tees I ordered don’t fit my arms. Weird??? I have some very similar that do. Oh well. I just wanted some plain tees to wear at home for the next few months, but I’ll have to return them. I can never bring myself to pay $20 for that type of thing at Target, and the Gap sales can actually be a better deal. I obviously did not pay the marked price of almost $50 for the joggers. Not a chance.
2. Baby Boy had a check-up this week…. and a breech scare!
The midwife was having some difficulty determining our baby’s positioning this week and thought there was a chance he might be breech. Basically she was having a hard time telling if something was his head or his shoulders. Trust me, it’s really fun having her dig in there… owwww. She ended up doing a quick ultrasound to confirm that he’s still head down. Yayyyy!!! But not before I got a bad and then a medium blood pressure reading. Oh wellllll…..
I had no idea there were so many positions a baby could contort himself into… at this point, it looks like my baby boy is ROT… my midwife said “almost” ROT. It’s not the best position, but in my limited understanding, it’s not the worst. Because I’m a pregnant woman, I did some Googling after my appointment and found that ROT babies typically end up flipping and coming out sunnyside (face – haha) up… which in turn causes (painful) back labor. My luck is worsened by the fact that I have an anterior placenta… but let’s not get too technical here.
At the midwifery, they are much more concerned about baby’s positioning since you are (ideally) going to be laboring through it without drugs or most interventions. They are very optimistic about using good positioning and exercises to turn the baby naturally. But I’ve felt him hanging out in the same spot since I first felt him move. He’s very comfortable. Cat/cow stretch all day, and I actually switched sides of the bed with Kevin to try to encourage myself not to sleep on my left.
After I did loads of hang squat cleans tonight in CrossFit, I told Kevin I really don’t think the baby is ever going to be any position other than head down. Haha. Seriously. Plus, not to brag, but I have great posture. I am a piano teacher after all.
Otherwise, the baby is doing GREAT, and all of my numbers are wonderful.
3. Our Natural Childbirth, Breastfeeding, and Birth Recovery & Infant classes were pretty great. I definitely got a little syllabus shock when I saw exactly class hours you are expected to go through at the midwifery, but now I’m a believer. The whole point is to prepare you so you get (less) freaked out and can let your body do what it’s meant to do naturally. Plus I love the fact that the birth center is constantly implementing new research and they approach everything in a very balanced way. For example: they aren’t preaching to us that epidurals are the devil. They teach us that there is a time and a place for epidurals, but they are often used unnecessarily.
For some reason, I cry my eyes out in every class. Whenever they talk about, your baby is going to be here, you’ll be holding your baby in your arms, etc. I just lose it. Or anything about bonding with dads. Haha. I guess I just find that too sweet. I’ve also been dreaming a lot about our baby. The night after our last class I had a dream where I basically went through all the steps they taught us in our class… everything went VERY smoothly. Ha ha ha.
4. The stages of labor.
Our teachers really loved this chart:
I talked to some of the other CrossFit moms about this, and they agreed that it basically sounds like labor is an EMOM followed by a really nasty chipper. OF COURSE, I know it’s not the same (it’s bloodier, for one), but that mindset helps me be calm about it. For as much anxiety I’ve had about being pregnant and all things BABY, I’m uncharastically optimistic about how labor and delivery will go. On the other hand, I feel like people either get an easy pregnancy OR an easy labor/delivery. That’s purely anecdotal, haha, but doesn’t it seem fair? :)
But then, you have to remember what Ina May (the midwife QUEEN) says:
I can’t say I squat 300x a day, but I have to say that bodes well for me. I’m sure non-CrossFitters find this extremely annoying, but the moms (who have experienced it already) did say they felt CrossFit helped them prepare mentally and physically for labor and delivery. Of course, that’s purely anecdotal, and you could still have to a C-Section or any number of unhoped for interventions.
5. It’s going to be weird not going home for Christmas. It’s the first time I’ve EVER not been with my family on Christmas. Of course, I’m sad. But I’m really happy to not be traveling. The last few days have been, by far, the most uncomfortable ever. However, I think that’s partially because I was sitting in class or in the car on Saturday from 9:30AM-6:30PM!!!!! Owwww… I did sit on an exercise ball for some of the class time which helped. I was also pretty inactive on Sunday so that didn’t help. Kevin and I are going to Christmas Eve service, hanging out with friends, and eating!!!! I’ve already made gingerbread cutouts and peanut butter blossoms for my cookie monster. See, I don’t deprive him!!!!!!!! I’m also planning to make fudge, chex mix, and more snacks for Christmas Day. We’re not going to do a meat/potatoes dinner because we’re not in the mood. Trying to think of some other fun things to do to keep my mind off of being sooo pregnant and not at home in Minnesota. Thankfully, Kevin’s parents will be visiting over the holidays, showing up here on the 26th. So we will at least have a little piece of MN with us. It’s hard to believe this will be our last Christmas with just the two of us… next year at this time, our baby boy will already be pretty big!!!!! He’s going to look so cute!!!
6. I have no idea how pregnant people hack it without exercising. I really mean it. Some days (like today), I think ugh, why go and do ring rows. I’m sick of doing boring modifications — I get jealous watching Kevin do pull-ups!!! Haha. But I was totally feeling like I lost the will to live this afternoon. And for no reason! I had the day of!! But it was snowing and cold, and I was just struggling. An hour later, everything just seemed more manageable!!! I feel so bad for those who are put on bedrest.. it must be miserable. Yes, I know some women feel better not working out. So if that’s best for them, cool. But my baby seems cool with it at least this time around, and I personally don’t get any endorphins from the couch! Although I’ve heard you can get a decent dose from junk food which might be worth looking into. :)
Related:
Hahaha. SO TRUE!!!!!
7. We’ve made a lot of progress on our baby’s “spaces.” Haha. I say that because we’re not exactly doing a nursery, but there will be a place in the “orange room” for his crib to camp out someday. For at least a while, we will be attempting some version of co-sleeping so he will be in our room. In the birth recovery class, they talked a lot about just nesting in for three days and being really organized for that. Since the birth center discharges you on the same day (with a tiny human!!!!!!!!), they really emphasize the self-care at home. Sometimes that requires a new comforter from anthro… Just saying it does sometimes. A totally impractical one for dogs and babies…. just hypothetically. Haha. Someday I will be come practical!!!!! Kevin successfully built the bed for the spare room which we will be using as a daybed. Now we are on the the market for a rocking chair. I’ve bee searching Cragislist, but I also like this affordable one from Babyletto. I don’t think I’m going to show pics until it’s all put together.
8. It’s like the end of an era. I’m so excited (and okay, terrified) to meet our baby. But it’s clearly going to be a huge life change for us. In light of that, we’re being serious about Date Nights and spending lots of quality time together during these last few weeks!
I can’t believe we’d never tried the Taqueria on 32nd. Loved these gorgeous carnitas tacos!!!
9. This book was fun!
And it brought me up to 68 books for the year. I’ll be lucky if I finish 70 by the end of the month. We’ll see how I do next year. Could be better, could be worse.
Alright, good night! The only reason you got all this TMI was because there was apparently a Broncos game on. On a Monday. How annoying. I think one day a week is enough for football!!
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