We're at the head of our class!

We had our first childbirth class on Thursday night. Jon and I are determined to be the best in the class. :) Shouldn’t be too hard considering we’re the only couple in the class! That’s right, I’m not joking – we are the only couple in our class. At first I was kind of creeped out about that (all the pressure on just us!), but after the first class I think it’s going to be neat. We’re going to have lots of personal attention, that’s for sure. The instructor, Mary, seems nice – not exactly the same sense of humor as Jon and I, but still a nice lady. When we originally signed up for the classes she switched the day she teaches just for us, since we’re busy with Bible study on Monday nights, and she also moved up the start of her next class by a month so that we would be finished with the classes before the baby arrives (seemed like that would be important).

For those of you not “in the know” we’re taking a class called the Bradley Method. It focuses on husband-based coaching with the goal of having a non-medicated vaginal birth. They have an 86% rate of couples meeting that goal, which is really astounding to me! Of course, as they joked in our 3rd trimester nurse visit, the amount of time you spend preparing is longer than the actual labor, so it better work! We will have a total of 10 classes, each 2 hours long, and lots of exercises and practice each day.

One of the first things we learned are different exercises that we’re supposed to do (some just me, some both Jon and I) that will help us prepare. There are squatting exercises, pelvic rocking, the infamous Kegel’s (I’m not going to explain that one, you can look it up if you’re interested), other miscellaneous exercises to strengthen your thighs and increase flexibility, and – my favorite – relaxation exercises for Jon and I. That’s the best part of the classes!

Our “homework” right now calls for me to do my relaxation exercises for 10 minutes on my own each day and 10 minutes with Jon. What this is translating into is that 10 minutes before bedtime each night we dim the lights, turn on soft music and I relax on my left side, all propped up and snuggly with pillows, while Jon massages my back and makes sure that I’m not tensing any muscles and am completely focused on relaxing my body. I’d recommend the class to any would-be-mom just for the relaxation time alone! It’s quite wonderful.

We’ll keep you posted on what else we learn in our classes. Right now we’re looking at nutrition for pregnancy – I wish I’d known a lot of this stuff sooner, although I haven’t been that far off with what I eat really. We have a student handbook which we’re going through and the topics look really interesting. I never knew there was so much to learn about having a baby!

Am I Overreacting? Grrrr.

I’m quite displeased with my doctor right now. On Thursday Jon and I had our 3rd trimester nurse visit, where they go over the hospital procedures, when to call them, how to know when you’re in labor, etc., and we also had a doctor’s appointment right after the nurse visit.

The nurse visit went fine, was interesting, and we got free stuff. My only minor annoyance there was when the nurse seemed to put down our choice of the natural childbirth education classes. She said it used to be considered the “hippie” way of childbirth (which it was, no biggie to me that she called it that). But then she went on to relate, rather gleefully, that she has seen the couples who didn’t want any interventions or drugs often being the ones who want it the most later. While that may be the truth from what she’s seen, the way she said it was really mean I thought. I hate to think of a nurse being happy in the fact that a woman who had made a choice before hand to try and not have any drugs ended up needing them. I would think she should feel sorry for them that their birth may not be going according to what they had prepared for or wanted. Anyway, she irked me a little. Fortunately the free stuff made me happy, so it all evened out. :)

Our doctor’s visit really ticked me off though. First off, we saw a different doctor (we’re rotating through so that we actually recognize the faces of all 5 of the doctors in the practice who could possibly be the one to be at our birth). The thing is, though, I liked this doctor much better! Our doctor is always nice enough, but never seems that interested and never seems open to questions. For instance she’ll be sitting for most of the exam while she’s going over my chart, etc. and then when she asks us if we have any questions she stands up – kind of like signal that she would like to leave and not answer anything. And when we’ve asked questions in the past she has seemed kind of put out that we’re asking and not receptive to having a conversation on the topic.

This doctor was much nicer though and was perky and seemed really eager for questions. She went over my glucose test results and my blood levels in detail, which our other doctor has never done besides saying they are fine. But then, when we didn’t have any questions, she said, “Okay, then, since everything is doing great we’ll just get you your Rhogam shot and you’ll be on your way.” My what?!? What the heck is she talking about?!

Turns out that I have O negative blood. Any time a mother is negative there is a possibility of her baby having an incompatible (a positive) blood type, if the father isn’t also negative. If the baby does have positive blood and the mother is negative there is a chance that the mother’s body can begin producing antibodies that cross over the placenta and attack the baby’s blood cells.

Well, our doctor never told me I was negative, and I didn’t know my blood type, as strange as that sounds (they asked me that on my first visit and I told them I didn’t know, but then forgot about it!), and I didn’t know about this incompatibility thing. Since my doctor never told us about this we never had a chance for Jon to get his blood typed (she never even asked what his blood type was, grrrr!!!), and they needed to give this shot at the 28th or 29th week of pregnancy (I was at 29 already). So I ended up with a shot of this stuff. There are no real dangers to this drug and it is considered one of the “obstetrical miracles” of the century, but it still makes me very mad that I was never told about this. I didn’t have a chance to read about it and understand what the issue was, and if we had known earlier we could have had Jon’s blood checked. If he is negative as well then the shot is unnecessary. Until we know his blood type for sure I have to carry around a little card that says I need another shot if I start bleeding (major accident, not little ouchies), and will have to have a shot right of this stuff after birth as well.

This whole incident makes me quite upset with my doctor. Even as I’m writing this I get upset all over again. Maybe I’ll see if I can switch to another doctor in the practice (not that it would make much of a difference in who actually is there for the birth, but at least I might be more comfortable with the last few months of visits). I just can’t imagine not telling me this or asking what Jon’s blood type is. Am I overreacting? Wouldn’t be the first time. :)

Underwear Woes

Well, it finally happened. I’ve reached the milestone of needing to go out and buy maternity underwear. *shudder* Or else learn to live with the feeling of my underwear rolled down underneath my belly. Attractive, huh.

Anyway, I’m down to one pair of undies, apparently made from heartier stock than the rest, that doesn’t roll right down every time I bend or roll-over or shift or twitch or even think about moving (my underwear’s ability to withstand the aforementioned factors disintegrated in exactly that order, by the way). Jon of course has the perfect solution to my problem -- declare ourselves an “undie-free” household. Not going to happen, sweetie, not going to happen. Maternity underwear, here I come. :)

Another Glucose Test

I went for my 28-week glucose test on Saturday. I had one done around 20 weeks and everything checked out fine, so I’m hoping this one does too. I really should have gone earlier on Saturday though – the place was packed and I was there forever. You aren’t supposed to eat or drink for at least two hours before the test, so I had gotten up and had breakfast before 7 so I could have the test done while the lab was open (they closed at noon, and the test takes at least an hour). After having breakfast I went back to bed though, and that was what my mistake was. I ended up sleeping until almost 10!!

By the time I made it to the lab/urgent care center it was 10:15. The waiting room was packed with people, mostly for urgent. At this place you sign in, are then called to registration and THEN get on the list to be seen. Well, I signed in, told them I was here for a one-hour glucose test, and then waited. And waited. Reminded them I was here for a one-hour test. And waited some more. I ended up waiting for 45 minutes to even be seen at registration! I finally registered at 5 to 11, and the registration lady freaked out because I was a one-hour test and the lab closed at noon. Well, duh, that’s what I’d been telling the sign-in guy for the last 45 minutes! She wasn’t mad at me, thank goodness (she was mad at the sign-in guy) – and hustled me right back to the lab.

I drained my glass of super-concentrated, syrupy, flat, “cola”-flavored liquid in less than 20 seconds of my “allowed” time of 10 minutes. Then back to the waiting room for another hour until I could have my blood drawn. And this is where the fun started! I don’t know what was in this syrup stuff, but it made Elijah go crazy. He was a complete spaz for about 20 minutes! Kicking and wiggling and squirming all around! He finally settled down and then kicked only off and on for the rest of the time. I had my blood drawn after the hour was up (still batting zero on a tech being able to get blood from my forearm so it was another draw from my hand, owie). I got home a little after noon– definitely later than what I had planned -- and I was completely starving, but at least the test is done!

Third Trimester! Already?!?

Wow, time really does fly. This week marks the beginning of our third trimester. It makes me happy – our Elijah will be here before you know it! But it also makes me a little sad – soon I won’t be pregnant anymore. So far pregnancy has been one of the most enjoyable and wonderful experiences of my life. I don’t really want it to end. Of course, I still have several months left here, so by the end of that time I’ll probably be begging for pregnancy to be over and done with! Still, you feel so special and happy and excited for every day when you’re pregnant that I hate to think of it being over.

The biggest thing to change so far, now that we’ve entered this last phase of our pregnancy, is that we see the doctor more frequently. Every 2 weeks instead of once a month now. And, of course, now it’s crunch time – time to clean the guest bedroom, transform it into a nursery, have a baby shower (ooh, goodies!), and get our house “baby-proof”. The first two trimesters have really zipped by, so I know this last one is going to be done before we know it!

Here is what Elijah is up to, at 28 weeks -- he’s filling out (2 pounds!) and getting longer!

How your baby's growing: By this week, your baby weighs a little over 2 pounds and measures about 14.8 inches from the top of his head to his heels. He can open his eyes — which now sport lashes — and he'll turn his head toward a continuous, bright light from the outside. His fat layers are beginning to form, too, as he gets ready for life outside the womb.

No longer just a “bean”! Our baby has a name!

Jon and I finally decided to make up our minds about what to call our boy. We had originally, before we even knew it was a boy -- actually before we even knew we were pregnant -- liked the name Elijah. But once we knew we were having a son we wanted to look at other contenders, just to see what was out there.

First we had a discussion, okay several discussions, and decided that we did want to name the baby before it actually arrived. Then we made a list of names that at least one of us liked and set about crossing off the ones that we couldn’t both agree were still in the running. We kept batting around names (again, and again, and again) and had a short list of probably 4 or 5 that we both liked. Finally, we were sitting in the kitchen talking about the baby names (again!) and we kept coming back to Elijah. We both liked it, it’s Biblical and has meaning (which was a big thing for me), it is shortened to a nickname, “Eli”, that we both like, and it sounds cool with our last name. Finally, Jon looked and me and said, “So, have we just made a decision here?” And I’m sitting in the chair with a goofy smile on my face, saying, “Yeah, I think so!”

We still don’t have a middle name – but we do have several viable options which all sound good with the first and last names of our son. I think we’re going to keep the middle name a surprise though so there is still some mystery for people to find out (a small mystery, I know, but still a mystery).

It’s been kind of neat calling my tummy Eli for the last week, and saying that Elijah is kicking, etc. I still get a goofy smile every time I say it though, I’m so happy. I’m glad that we decided to name our baby before he actually arrives! Little Elijah is on his way!

I get so emotional, baby . . .

Little known pregnancy fact . . . when you don’t want to eat pasta for dinner, and yet that is what your spouse is making, your hormones can turn you into a crying baby sitting on the chair in the corner of the kitchen. Don’t ask me why, it makes no sense. Yet this happened on Friday night to me and Jon. And in case you didn’t figure it out already – I was the spouse on the chair crying and Jon was the spouse cooking. :)

I don’t know why, I can’t remember how, but it started with a discussion about what to have for dinner and me saying, “I don’t want pasta” and ended with me crying on the chair blubbering that “Everything is all out of control, I don’t know what is happening to me! I just want my life to be in order and not feel crazy emotional all the time!” And Jon making dinner, wiping away my tears and telling me that this is the one time in my life when I can be crazy and he’ll understand completely. What a good husband.

It really is remarkable though how different I feel emotionally while I’m pregnant. I didn’t think I would be like that -- though how could you ever know what you’re going to be like really. I get upset more quickly now though and can’t recall crying as much in the last 5 years as I have the last 5 months! It’s usually over stupid stuff too, not big things -- which makes it harder for me to understand. I’m used to being in control of myself and not being all emotional like that. Now my emotions are so unpredictable that it’s hard to cope with sometimes.

All of this makes me sound like I’m walking around crying every day, which I’m not – it’s more like one emotional cry a week on average I would guess, really mostly in the last month or so. Hopefully the frequency doesn’t go up any – or my husband may get sick of me and start looking for a new home!

Registry Gauntlet

Well, we made it. We have . . . drum roll, please . . . registered! And we still have all our appendages and some modicum of emotional health left (not much, but some). What doesn’t kill you, or your marriage for that matter, only makes you stronger, right? Let’s hope so.

It all began innocently enough, with a fun little scanner gun. Cool! We get to point and shoot stuff! We proceeded to the first “color-coded” section –infant care, neat! -- and then we saw “THE WALL.” The wall of floor-to-ceiling bottles. Uh oh, I didn’t research this.

And Jon’s looking at me, holding the scanner in his hot-little hand, saying “what should I shoot?” Uhm, I have not the faintest clue. And I see Jon’s confidence in my ability to shepherd us through this registering process plummet. I quickly check the Babies R’ Us “recommendations of lots of stuff you should register for and if you don’t you are a bad parent and your children will be monsters” sheet. Hmm, 8-12 bottles -- doesn’t say what kind or size. Crud. Well, let’s register for a starter set of “these” bottles (not saying what kind, I make no money off endorsements) – I remember a lady at work saying that her baby had chronic ear infections and colic until she switched to this brand. That’s a representative sample and adequate market research, right? Sure, we’ll go with it. Hmm, do you need to register for extra nipples for these things? No idea, so we better just in case. You can never have too many nipples, right?

At this point I send Jon off to get a cart to put our coats and my printouts and books in (I came prepared to choose car seats, monitors, gates, etc. but not bottles), since we’re beginning to realize that we could quite possibly be in this store “registering” until I go into labor.

After bottles comes monitors – easy peasy, I’ve got research! Then safety equipment – uh oh. Do we need toilet seat locks? Hmm. Then bathtubs – no idea, though we see later on the Babies R’ Us website that the one we registered for has been rated only 2 stars by parents so we change to a better one. Don’t get me started on what we’ll call “babygate” – oh the humanity (we had research on safety gates and it still took forever!). By this point we had been in the store an hour and a half. But we’re still in the FIRST section!! And there was a decided, shall we say, “lack of communication” between Jon and I (swear words don’t count as communication, no matter how many times you say them).

Plus, I had managed to get a charley horse in my foot about half an hour in that would not go away. We’re looking at Boppies and I’m walking up and down the aisle without my shoe on, then jumping up and down, then sitting down rubbing my foot, then putting my shoe back on, and nothing is helping. Do we need bottle warmers and sterilizers? Jon says no, my foot hurts, and I don’t care. We skip bibs too, since we were more apt to strangle each other with the bibs than decide on ones to register for. Our one consolation – two other couples are in the same section registering and they look just as miserable as us.

Finally, a light at the end of the tunnel – we turn the corner to a new section. The car seat section. Yippee!! We know what we want here already – shoot it honey, shoot it! Then strollers – we picked that out already too! Bang bang! We’re on a roll! Smiles are on our faces again! Pack n’ play! Highchair (we had fun testing these out)! Bouncy seat! Researched, researched, researched -- scan, scan, scan! We’re on the move to the other side of the store, and it feels good. And we can remember again why we actually liked each other enough to procreate together, so everything is on the upswing.

Minor debate on sheets, mostly because we’re hungry and tired and our feet hurt. That brings the mood down some but it’s still better than the “infant care” hell that we’ve gone through. Then a discussion on blankets -- “What do you mean I can’t scan them all, Jon?!?” – and a perusal of the activity gyms and toys. We decide to register for one activity gym and no other toys. We figure people will give us a bunch of toys anyway, and judging from my nephews’ and nieces’ toy collections there will come a time when the last thing we want to see is a toy, so why register for them. :)

Then we’re turning in our “gun” and cruising for the exit. We’re outta here suckers – the other two couples are still back in highchairs and have no research, haha! At dinner we start plotting ways to take down Babies R’ Us. After our baby shower of course – we wouldn’t want people to not be able to get us the stuff we just spent all that time registering for after all. We made it though – we’re registered! Feel free to lavish us, er I mean lavish the baby, with gifts now. :)