[week 37]

I'm 37 weeks (ie. full term)! Feels like I've been pregnant for ever. You know, 10 months is a long time to wait for something. At our last OB appointment the midwife said...okay...we'll see you at your appointment next week if you haven't had your baby yet. Um. CRAZY! Matt and I are collecting our last minute questions and birth plan for next week's appointment. Matt has been awesome and has gone to all of the OB appointments with me...it has been fun and so surreal that it will be over soon.

Pregnancy is a trip....right?! I don't even remember looking like this 12 week photo anymore.
Oh, spud.

...so without further ado here is spud's progression from week 12 to 37 weeks.
Music is M.Ward's-Never Had Nobody Like You.



Want to see spud's first movie?!
[a spud movie]

Want to see my weekly posts about pregnancy and my thoughts/symptoms?!
[weeks]

Happiest Baby on the Block

[here]

Last night Matt and I watched an informative DVD " Happiest Baby on the Block." This book is recommended everywhere, which we will be buying soon. But we also got the good advice from fellow blogger-mom Claudia, to get the DVD version. Turns out my library had it...and it is fantastic! We thought he (Dr. Harvey Karp) was a little hokey and it feels like it was made in the 90's, but after we started to watch his method of the 5 "S's" Oh my. Magic. We were entranced. We wanted to have our little fussy spud right there in our arms to try it out for reals.

The 5 S's:
1. swaddling
2. shushing (which in reality is a VERY loud shushing, borderline irritating)/ white noise
3. side or stomach lying
4. swinging/ vibrating (weird jiggling thing you have to see on the video excerpt below!)
5. sucking (nursing, bottle, finger, pacifier)

The theory is that each fussy baby will be different, but they all will respond to 1-5 of the above. The 5 S's simulate what life was like for the little babe in utero for the first 9 months of life. Sometimes all it takes is just swaddle and shushing, and sometimes it's all 5 at once. Has anyone tried this method?! Does it work in real life?

[week 16]

Ahh.... week 16! This is really getting exciting! You know how people talk about their bump just "popping." Well, I noticed something crazy. My stomach is hard. No, not from my abs. I assure you I have zero muscle tone... which is probably why I started to have a squishy "bump" soo early. Anyways, my abdomen is hard and it's getting bigger. I cannot physically suck in my stomach any longer. The bump is there and I love it. Almost every time I pass a mirror I think this is the most amazing thing I have ever done... I'm growing a human! (I'd like to say I'm exaggerating, but I'm really not...come on...this is brand new to me!) It makes me smile, holy crap...I'm pregnant. We did it!

So now I am just waiting to feel those little baby movements...what does it feel like?! I don't want to miss them. I also have something awesome to share with you...

a spud movie. from homegrown spud on Vimeo.

Yup, that's spud! I was at work... just a coworker, myself, and an ultrasound machine. So we thought what the hey... no guarantees...let's try to find a spud! And oh my gosh, we found a little person! It is absolutely amazing. Talk about a world of change from the comma-shape we saw at week 9. I had my handy iphone...so I was able to share the video with all of our family and matt of course. Do you see all the little punching, kicking, and thumb-sucking?! Adorable. I could watch it all day (actually I try to, believe me). I tried to see if it was a boy or girl...but our ultrasound machine is far from what an OB office would have. It's grainy at best. Oh yeah, and I'm not an ultrasound tech. So there was all of that working against me. So for now we were lucky enough to see our spud alive and growing. And we will have to wait a month to find out the sex.

a kiddo movie...

So I watched another documentary on netflix watch instantly: Nursery University. It was great.... and I greatly appreciate not living in New York...and it also helps me not regret my decision to leave teaching. This is a documentary on the rigors of getting accepted into preschool...in New York. It shows 5 families, all from different backgrounds going through the process. It is out of control! I had no idea. Its *almost* harder than trying to get into nursing school. Then if you get accepted, these schools are about 20K for a year. Unbelievable. The application process, essays, monetary donations, interviews, "play dates" aka kid interviews, then almost a year after applying comes the acceptance/rejection letters. The schools have about 500 applications for about 20 open spots (and only 500, because they cut off the number of applications that are dispersed within the first 2 hours). And, to think that teachers have to put up with this when all they probably want to do is teach the sweet lil kids- not feed into the parent's desires to guarantee that their child will get into Harvard. I would definitely recommend this movie. And for those of you who live in New York... I'm sorry, I feel for you....and I hope things have changed since this movie was made. I have a little twinge of this when I looked into daycare at the hospital I work at. I have to call them the day I find out I'm pregnant in order to be placed on the waiting list to have the best chance of having a spot. Haha... okay, sure... I'll call them right after my parents to tell them the good news.


...just for fun cuz I think "embeding" clips is the coolest thing ever...

another prego movie...

We are constantly looking for good movies to watch, and we are constantly being let down. So these days we turn to netflix's documentaries, the watch instantly variety. Last night we watched Pregnant in America. I loved the Business of Being Born, so I thought this one would fall short....but it didn't! It showed the downsides of having a baby in the hospital and at home, the always better national healthcare system in other smarter countries, our alarming c-section and epidural rates, the benefits to nurse midwives, but what I loved to see most of all is that the women were supported to have natural childbirth, free from drugs, free from fear, and empowered. I will not know how I handle birthing a child.... but what I want most is Matt to support me in my choices. To understand why I want to do it myself, without medications. The movie also showed the risks to mother and babe of epidurals and c-sections, which I appreciated because I couldn't remember from my classes what specifically they were.

I know that the movie was biased and the main guy was a little bit of a tool but we liked it. It spurred some great conversation afterwards also. After each one of the prego-movies we watch Matt says... Ok... lets have a baby at home! We can do it!! No!! I really and truly don't want to (plus...you read about stories like John and Sherry's over on Young House Love and couldn't be happier for hospitals...if you read it have some tissues on stand-by). So even though all of my ideals line up with home birth; I feel comfortable in the hospital setting, I want it, I need it for my sanity. I just need him to help re-enforce my choices. Like for example....no suction, no forceps, no episiotomy...I'd rather rip that little ray of sunshine out myself thank you very much.

Also, something the movie brought up is how some women feel out of control with an epidural, and for the first time I realized I think I would actually and literally freak out with one. I hate feeling out of physical control of my body. If I couldn't feel my legs, I think I would not be a happy camper, I'd want a reversal agent STAT. Then there goes $2,000. Have you ever done that game as a kid...where one kid tells a story while you close your eyes...your legs are being held up high...then they lower your legs slowly and it feels like you're going below the ground. That your legs just aren't yours any longer?!Yeah. Not my favorite game.

birthing plan...in progress...

With all of these baby thoughts and next semester starting my maternity/child portion of nursing school I am reminded about this baby movie- The Business of Being Born- I saw a few years back with Matt. I just watched it again...and it is truly great! It's a documentary on the industry of child births...and how giving birth doesn't need to be treated like an emergency. Most of the time pregnancies can progress naturally, without intervention, and on your own biological time schedule. And with a walk away message that if you want to have a natural childbirth, have it at home with a midwife!

When I was in college for the first go-around, I received my degree in child development. I remember taking a specific course on pregnancy/child birth/infancy. This course talked about all of the incredible benefits to having natural childbirth and how it benefited not only your baby in numerous ways but it fostered this unbelievable bond between mother and baby. I need to research more about this to refresh my memory, but it stuck with me that this is the way I want to go- given the option. So I am all for the natural child birth. I also thought I would definitely want to have an at-home, water-birth for my baby. What a peaceful way to bring a child into this world right?!

Leo Hart from The Panic Room Videos on Vimeo....a perfect example of a truly beautiful, mind-blowing at-home birth...

 

Well after much time in hospitals working, seeing how quickly normal-healthy situations can get scary fast, and actually now being in the position to have a child...instead of a wide-eyed-optimistic 22 year old... I want a hospital birth. No water. No mess in my house. No stress. If I were at home I would be so stressed out in my mind that something would go wrong, it would absolutely kill any enjoyment of having an at home birth for me. Not to mention the dogs roaming around... yuk. Being naked in a tub?! Not for me. No thanks. It just makes me smile that I had such strong ideas for what I wanted back then... and how easily they all changed, which I am sure they will yet again. But seeing this movie gives me power that I can have the birth I want, granted the spud is healthy, and I want to make sure I choose the right doctor now that will listen.

My birthing plan [in progress]

-stay at home with contractions until they progress in intensity

-ipod music... this is something that I NEED. This calms me.

-natural childbirth

-no epidural

-no c-section

-no induction

-deliver at the hospital I work at

-calm voices. I do not want people yelling at me to push. I don't think adults should yell, it agrivates me. I will understand biologically what is going on in my body, I understand hospitals, the vitals, monitoring, pain, interventions... I am comfortable with it. But I need soft, confident, peaceful voices. I love the traumas we get where we all all organized, peaceful, work as a team, and use quiet calming voices. I need that.

-matt by my side, only. Nurses, doctors, residents, student nurses...whatever, thats all great. But I'd like family to come into town a few days after giving birth, this is something I feel rotten about wanting. But I think I want some time to adjust to being a mom, matt being a dad, and our new family. Then have the rush of family/friends excitement. Being that our families are from different states I think this might be doable.

...trailer for Business of Being Born, FYI- you can watch the actual movie instantly on netflix...