Homestretch

I have somewhere between 2-3 weeks to go with this pregnancy, and hopefully not more.  If I go by the due date my midwives have for me, I have about 2 weeks and 5 days to go.  If I go by the due date I've given myself I have 2 weeks and 2 days.  If I go by the due date they gave me at both my ultrasounds, I have 1 week and 5 days left.  Yikes!  But seeing as how the little person who ultimately decides when the big day will be knows nothing of due dates, I'm just telling people 2-3 weeks.  It makes more sense that way.

What an amazing pregnancy this still is.  Honestly, the little annoying things are nothing compared to how I feel they should be at 8.5 months pregnant.  I'm not constantly sore or anything like that.  Sometimes I feel slow but other times I feel completely normal.  Moving around is still pretty easy most of the time.  Sleep is not perfect but not horrible either.  My hands and feet are getting a bit swollen but that is pretty much due to the heat. 

My weight gain has slowed right down and I probably won't gain much more, maybe another pound or two.  So actually I think I will finish off with a total weight gain of 35 lbs, a new record for me! 

The heartburn has let up, at least for the time being.  Sometimes it comes back, but I haven't had any in a few days.  I get tons of braxton hicks contractions but that is totally normal and I did with my other pregnancies as well.  I just like to think it's my body getting ready so when the day comes everything will go nice and smoothly.

I'm not getting to the gym as much as I'd like, but that's mostly due to being busy and not wanting to put the boys in childminding that often.  So I have been going about once or twice a week.  Last week I was still walking quite a bit, but now that my older son is out of school I haven't been walking as much since I always walked him to school in the mornings.  That's actually ok with me though, since we're in the middle of an awful heatwave this week and I don't think I could manage being outside walking in it.  I'm still always on the move though, maybe not exercising but just busy with life and that keeps me from slowing down.

We are officially planning a home waterbirth which is really exciting!  Last week we had a very positive home visit from one of our midwives and she gave us a lot of reassuring information about homebirth which helped convince my husband to plan for it.  He is definitely feeling much better about the idea and maybe even a little excited.  I still went ahead and registered at the hospital, and I am going to pack a bag just in case we decide to go there.  I'm really looking forward to the possibility of having a home waterbirth though and I hope it goes smoothly so we can stay at home.

At first when I looked at the homebirth and waterbirth supply lists I felt very overwhelmed at all the stuff I had to gather.  But I started getting bits and pieces here and there, and next thing I knew I had it all.  I don't think there is anything left to pick up.  Yesterday at my midwife appointment I picked up the tub and the pump, so we've got that here and ready to go as well.  We do need to have a look at it though and make sure we know how to set it all up when the time comes.

Everything is still looking good with me and the baby whenever I see go to my midwife appointments.  One crappy thing is though I tested positive for group B strep (GBS), which is really common but it means we have to make the decision to whether or not to have antibiotics when I am in labour.  Both previous times I was negative so it was never an issue.  I am really not crazy about the idea of having antibiotics, and I really hate that it would mean I'd have to have an IV placed for the labour and birth, but I think I would rather be cautious and take the antibiotics than risk a GBS infection with the baby, even though it is rare.  That is what we are thinking for now anyway.  As much as I hate antibiotics, I'd rather treat the fallout from them (possible digestive upset for me and the baby as well as an increased risk for thrush for both of us) than have to treat potentially scary and life-threatening infection in baby.

My younger son has been rather clingy lately, and I'm starting to wonder if he senses there is something going on.  I do worry about the little guy, as he is still so attached to me and I'm sure he is not going to be happy with a new little person invading his space and stealing some of his attention.  I have to make sure I give him lots of special attention.  I would like to pick up some little gifts for the boys from the baby.  I saw some cute wheelbarrows and tools at Walmart for kids that I think they would love, so I might pick those up next week and have them all ready for them.  I'd love to get some other stuff too, we'll have to see how much I can afford to spend.

We got a van!  That is a huge relief, and it's just awesome having it instead of my tiny little car.  There is so much more room in there, and it makes getting around with kids so much easier.  Now I need to dig out the infant carseat from the basement and arrange all the seats in the van so everyone has somewhere to sit.

We're pretty much all set.  There are always other little things, but if the baby came tomorrow we'd be fine.  It's amazing how much more relaxed I feel by the third baby.  There's nothing that needs to be done that can't be done after the baby is born.

So for now it's just waiting and puttering around, getting done what we can but really just enjoying these last few weeks before everything changes....again!

The Baby Book and Parenting Styles

I've finished August's book, albeit a teeny bit late (kind of slowed down towards the end there!), and so onto another book.  This month I'm starting The Baby Book by Dr. Sears.  It will no doubt take me much longer than a month to read it, it's quite long and I tend to read in tiny bits and pieces rather than big chunks at a time.  As with the last book, I have already read this one before, maybe even twice.  It is a great resource with lots of information not just about babies, but a broad range of topics including attachment parenting, breastfeeding, labour, birth and postpartum, toddlers, and so on.

Whenever I read (or re-read) a book, I tend to get bombarded with a slew of my own thoughts and emotions regarding my own parenting experiences.  There is often that feeling when looking back, thinking "Did I do the right thing at the time?"  I also find my opinions are constantly changing based on my own experience over the years.  When I first read The Baby Book my older son was a newborn, and it all made so much sense to me - the babywearing, the sleep sharing, listening to my baby and reading his ever cue.  As a new mother I thought it was brilliant.  I soon discovered that not everything is for everyone.  Take co-sleeping for example, something that sounds so beautiful in a book turned out to be not right for our particular family.  While in the early weeks it did make my life easier, I soon realized that both my baby and I slept better in different rooms.  End of story.

So then I changed my point of view, thinking that attachment parenting was not all it was cracked up to be.  I read a few other books in the meantime, and took from each what was helpful.  Some books were more helpful than others.  Some were the total opposite of attachment parenting, and others preached a happy medium where they said it was ok to not feel like a mother has to be 'all baby all the time'.  We developed our own sense of what worked based on all of this.

And funnily enough, going back and reading the Sears book again, now that my boys are just a bit older than last time, I am starting to see where he is coming from.  That whatever parenting style you choose has to be what fits your family.  It doesn't have to be an all or nothing deal.

Parenting is a journey that starts when you find out you are pregnant.  And it doesn't stop at any one point, it is ongoing and ever changing, and you are always learning.  So many times I look back and think "If I knew then what I know now" - with my pregnancies, with my births, with my children as tiny babies, then older babies, and now toddlers.  It makes me feel like I want another chance to do it all again, just so I can do it right.

It's hard to think that you might have somehow did it 'wrong' with your child in the beginning, like there was a better way.  But there is no way of knowing how things will be, no matter how prepared you are.

But then I realize that I did do it 'right'.  I didn't always know what was best, but I was learning and my babies were learning with me.  We have been on this journey together, helping each other through it.  I have read a lot of books, and there are a lot more to be read I am sure.  I have felt overwhelmed at times thinking I should be doing things a certain way.  Then I realized that I have done things the right way for us.  I have taken from the books I've read what has applied and worked for us.  Not every thing suits every family.

In any case, I have a poor teething toddler who is once again up from his nap early and upset calling for me, and so while I think I probably had more to add to this post, it will have to wait for now because he calls.