Thursday, February 3, 2011

31 weeks? Time for a pregnancy update!


I can hardly believe it, but I am 31 weeks and 5 days today. Baby Robert could be here in a couple of months! I'm not envisioning a due date, because I want to enjoy the end of my pregnancy, but mid-April. Sometime in there. Right now I am enjoying an icy glass of extremely lemony water. If it had sugar it would be lemonade. Sorry for the uncropped photo.

There are so many things to say about this pregnancy that I know they won't all fit into one post. Here's a start.

1) Hypnobabies. Jordan and I have had two babies and two childbirth classes--the hospital one and a really good one that promoted natural childbirth, taught by a doula. We weren't sure if we should take another class or not, but finally decided to sign up for Julie's Hypnobabies class. While a lot of the childbirth information has been a review for us, the relaxation techniques are awesome. I have to admit I didn't see how the "positive pregnancy affirmations CD" was going to help me, but I think it has, and I haven't even listened to it every day like I'm supposed to. Not nearly. I love the scripts too, but it's been hard to find time to do them. We haven't practiced Hypnobabies in the recommended fashion, but I think it'll still be what we need it to be. If I were having a hospital birth I'd probably have been more serious about carving out time for it every day.

2) Paranoid! I really haven't been bad this time around. With Ivey I worried over every little remote possibility for things to go wrong, but until a couple days ago I'd made it through this pregnancy almost totally worry-free. (Except for the first trimester when I kept thinking I might not really be pregnant.) Anyway, remember how the last two times I kept getting comments about how big I was? Well, this time I had been getting comments about how small I was. I had noticed the same thing myself, but figured it was a good thing, because I had still gained a normal amount of weight and have been getting more exercise this time and I felt fine! Then I read this about a woman whose baby might have had IUGR (but he was actually fine). And then to make myself feel better I decided to try and measure my own fundal height, and got 27, when it is supposed to be about the same as the number of weeks pregnant I am. So I got worried that Robert is just TINY! And they are going to want to induce!!! And it's all my fault his growth is stunted because I didn't completely give up coffee! I called Carey and she came over and measured. Turns out I was measuring to the top of his butt and not to the top of my uterus. I feel better now :-)

3) Happy! I feel great about this birth. I worried about the last one, but I'm not worried about this one, because it's going to be the most beautiful, wonderful home water birth ever. I'm truly excited about the process. I think it's partly that I had one homebirth that went well, and partly the positive pregnancy affirmations. I am serious, they work.

4) Hungry for sugar. I don't know why I haven't been able to lay off the chocolate. Other than eating too much candy and stuff, my nutrition hasn't been bad. I've added Cal-Mag Fizz and ChlorOxygen to my supplements this time around. Love those! I don't mind eating enough vegetables and protein, especially if somebody else fixes it for me, but restricting the things I want has been hard! I've been hungry, too, and I must be burning those calories off running all over the place after the girls, because like I said, I'm smaller this time.

5) A little emotional. Pregnancy intensifies whatever I am going to feel. I'll be really excited, or a sort of cute joke will be hilarious and I'll laugh for 15 minutes, or, on the other hand... I won't be able to do all the housework and I'll spend an entire day convinced I am a totally useless drain on society and Jordan will have to talk me down when he gets home. Ha. That was a bad day.

6) Crafty and nesty. I've enjoyed the third trimester nesting and crafting energy I've had. It's going to be sad when it's gone!


That's it for today. I need to post soon about some birth craft projects and our plans for the big day.

6 comments:

Lauren Wayne said...

You look adorable! I'm glad to hear how things are going for you.

You're inspiring me to listen to my affirmations. I had them playing for the first time (again) a couple weeks ago, and Mikko hated them. :) So I keep putting it off till I can find some headphones…

I really enjoyed the aspect of Hypnobabies that kept me relaxed and non-panicked and certain that all would go well. I didn't really do the techniques "correctly" during my last labor, but I had a calm natural birth after 42 hours, so something must have worked, right? I had this idea to be a tad more intentional this time around in terms of practicing, but during the birth I'm sure I'll just go with the flow again!

Megan said...

I can't believe it's already that close!

I'm glad you're enjoying hypnobabies!

And although you're itty bitty this time around, I don't think you looked that big with Ivey.

Unknown said...

Thanks for posting an update, Jenny. You look so beautiful!

I also really liked the pregnancy affirmations from Hypnobabies. I didn't end up actually using the scripts during my labor, but going through all of it during the pregnancy definitely helped my labor anyway.

Anonymous said...

You look great!

And I'm so impressed you even attempted to measure your own fundal height. I really tried and tried to feel where everything was when I was pregnant, but I couldn't do it to save my life. Luckily, my fabulous midwives did it for me and then I could relax.

Tanya said...

Hi there! Reading this post has made me want to be pregnant again. hehe. And don't worry about the birth, your body knows what to do. With my second I had a natural birth and what really helped me was visualizing my cirvix opening and the baby decending. All the best to you :)

Mrs. Money said...

You are so cute. :) I can't believe you are so far along! *rubs belly*