38 weeks and a snow day

It snowed last night and into most of the day today. I'd like to point out that it is March. What happened to my Spring Baby? There are buds on the Bradford Pear trees, but it's in the low 20's and there's about 5 inches of snow on the ground. My acupuncturist canceled my appointment today because she didn't want me out in the snow, and I am not going to my prenatal yoga class tonight because I would have to shovel my driveway to get there. I told Shawn it might be good because maybe it would put me into labor, be he insisted that one fall on the ice is all I'm allowed this pregnancy. I'll have to do my DVD at home instead.

I'm having a bit of a dilemma about what to do about work. This is my last scheduled week of work, but I am afraid the baby is going to come later than that and then I will have wasted a few weeks of my maternity leave waiting for the baby instead of mothering the baby. The easiest thing to do would be to take a few of my boss/assistant boss's shifts because they can always take administrative time, but they are both doing long L&D shifts early in the next week. There is no way I am volunteering for a night shift at 39+ weeks pregnant! Plus, Shawn is already committed to taking his 2 week vacation/paternity leave starting next week. On one hand, I want the baby to hurry up and come when it is convenient, but on the other, I trust nature to know what to do and when the best time is for labor to start. I'll just have to do what women have been doing for centuries and let the baby come when it is ready.

Shawn gave me a prenatal spa day a couple of weeks ago. I had a prenatal massage, a facial, and then a pedicure. It was great. Ever since we found this spa in a new area of town, I've been looking forward to my pregnancy and getting the "Modern Momma" spa package. Here's me getting my toes done. Note the rather coma like expression on my face.


Here are the requisite belly photos. They are from last week and I swear I am already bigger. I think we will take more tonight.



This is Julius and me watching TV. I think he likes his new perch. You should see when the baby kicks him, it's very cute.

Laundry at 3:30 in the morning.

Is it still nesting if I wake up at 3:30 in the morning and feel compelled to get up and start washing the baby's clothes, sheets, and blankets, or have I crossed over into panic mode?

I was 37 weeks 4 hours ago, and anxiety has hit. Shawn and I got in a stupid fight on the way to our hypnobirthing class because I am freaking out about the things that still need to get done/purchased to be ready for the baby, and Shawn is having parental anxiety on top of some serious professional issues. Usually one of us is fairly sane during an argument and we can rationally talk the other down to find the real problem before it escalates, but last night we were both pretty fragile. I predict a good number of those kinds of fights in the next few months. Luckily we are pretty good at talking things out and are fine, but blech.

For the last few nights I have been waking up to pee and then having a hard time going back to sleep because I start thinking about all the things I still need to do. Two nights ago I couldn't sleep because I realized we only have a single pair of socks for the baby! Are socks really that important? Probably not, but regardless, I couldn't sleep. When I woke up a little bit ago and realized I was heading down the same path I went ahead and got up to sort the laundry. I started to try to clean the car seat and stroller that my cousin gave me, but it's on the sunporch and it's 27 degrees outside. I think that can wait till the morning :) I feel better for starting the laundry, and Shawn and I are going shopping on Saturday to fill in the major blanks. I'm glad I'm not working in the morning :)

Baby Shower

I had my baby shower yesterday and it was great. I was surprised at how many people came, and overwhelmed with the presents for my little one. Everything is just so cute! We got tons of onesies, and the little sheep are too cute. Shawn has pictures on his zenfolio site (smseifert.zenfolio.com). Leah did a fantastic job organizing it. We had yummy food, fun games, and cute prizes. One of my midwife friends knitted the cutest little booties, and another got me a bib that says, "I'm special...a midwife helped me out." There was a great mix of people there, my cousin Leah, my sister-in-law Desiree, her daughter Ella, some friends from the teen clinic I work at, 2 former classmates, a current co-worker, a future co-worker, a former patient now friend, my neighbors, and an ER resident and her husband, a hand fellow (who stayed in the kitchen and helped Shawn.)


This is Roxann having guessed how big around my belly was within about 3 millimeters!

My friend Kathy is hopefully going to come over sometime next week and do a belly cast for me. Next Saturday Shawn has a spa day scheduled for a prenatal massage, a facial, and a pedicure. I can't wait!

I am in full blown nesting mode now. You should have seen the frenzied house cleaning that went on yesterday. I had the sudden urge to wash all the blankets, including my down comforter. I was also on hands and knees swifiting under the beds, and organizing all the closets in the house. It's a little bit crazy. Now that we actually have baby clothes, we need to wash them and find them homes in the nursery. That's on my to do list today, but I did so much yesterday that I have just been resting all day. I will muster up some energy to go to prenatal yoga tonight though. Gotta try to stay somewhat fit. I can't wait to be able to climb again.

36 weeks on Thursday!

I am truly feeling "great with child."




Our baby is now big enough that we can hear the heartbeat with a stethoscope! Shawn heard it first and then when he passed the ears to me, it sounded like the heartbeat was in the 180s or so, which is pretty fast. Then as I listened a little longer, it went back down into the 150s and I knew I had just heard an accel. It's one of the things we look for to assess for fetal well-being so it was an exciting moment for the midwife in me. Being able to hear it this easily was also nice after I slipped down the back stairs after an ice storm a couple of weeks ago so I could hear that baby was still doing well. (In my defense, the ice was gone from the front of the house and I forgot that the back of the house does not get as much sun.)

Shawn and I are doing a childbirth prep method called hypnobirthing, which puts mom in a deep relaxation for labor and birth to help cope with and facilitate labor. It's a lot of guided imagery and self/partner induced hypnosis. We have had 2 classes now and are practicing as much as we can at home. In class last week the instructor led us through a session that was 30 minutes long but we all perceived it as about 10. I think it's going to go well for us. Last night Shawn led me through a practice and I was able to get pretty deeply relaxed fairly quickly. I attended a number of hypnobirthing births when I was a midwife at the Maternity Center, and the families were pretty successful. I am hopeful that it will go well for us.

I am getting anxious about the baby actually coming home now. We still don't have too much prepared. We have gotten a number of blankets for presents, but we have no clothes or much of anything else yet. My shower is on Sunday so I am sure we will do lots of shopping after that to fill in the gaps. The nursery is almost done. There are a few more wall hangings to go up, and we need some shelves above the changing table and closet organizers, but then we are good.

We have been reading parenting/baby books and have a parenting class on Wed night. I feel at a little disadvantage because I never did much in the way of babysitting and my siblings are so much younger than me, I am worried about my mothering ability. Shawn took care of his brother a lot, so he has a little more confidence, but I am looking forward to Wed night! I know how to do the basics, like diaper changing and I am a darn good swaddler, but I am used to handing babies back to their parents when they start to fuss! Now I will be the parent!

My baby is a baby magnet

Apparently my baby is a baby magnet. I have been so busy at work, and so very tired! My last two 12 hour shifts, I have delivered 3 babies each, and been very close to a 4th. Friday, I had a student on her last day of integration, which means she is ready to graduate now, so I let her do most of the work. It was great, but I still had to run around be there. My back hurt so bad by the time I got home. I wear a maternity support belt, but being on my feet and running around for 12 hours straight takes it's toll! It's especially bad on night shift. Luckily, I have my last night shift of the pregnancy on Tues. Maybe someone will take pity on me and I can have some sleep while I am there. Send some prayers! Of course with my recent track record, that won't happen...

What a difference 2 weeks make!

Well gang, I'm 32 weeks pregnant which means 8 months to most people.

The fatigue has returned with a vengeance. I am super tired all the time and very much not looking forward to my night shift tonight. I don't know how I am going to function. I have been awake for about 4 hours today and can't wait for my nap. The baby is moving for much longer stretches now. I think it was almost a hour straight yesterday. It's great except when I am trying to go to sleep and the baby thinks it's fun to grind his or her little head against my bladder and then punch it a few times just in case I wasn't paying attention. It's quite fascinating to watch my belly roil and try to identify which body parts are cruising by. I am very pleased to report that my little one is vertex (head down) already and in a good position.

Shawn and I are making good progress on the nursery. The crib, dresser/changing table, and feeding chair are in place, and some wall hangings up. Here's the obligatory photo of the father-to-be putting the crib together .



We started registering for baby supplies. It's quite overwhelming. We began at Target because the baby section is at least manageable, and then did Babies-R-Us on Saturday. My cousin is giving us a bunch of necessities, which will be great. I have lists of things we need compiled from various books and friends, but it's still like learning a foreign language with all the baby lingo. Convertible car seats, travel systems strollers, air-flow bottles, organic cotton, sleep sacks, etc. It's enough to make my head spin.

Shawn and I begin our childbirth classes next week. We are doing Hypnobirthing and it's a 5 week course. We won't finish until I am 39 weeks pregnant, so we'll see how the baby feels about the timing. Then we have both a breastfeeding and parenting class mid February. We have been reading lots of pregnancy, parenting, baby care, and babyproofing our marriage books, but I still don't feel even the remotest bit prepared. I guess you can't ever truely prepare for somthing like this though. We promise to do our best!

Nursery Woes and Pregnancy Musings

Here's me at 30 weeks.  

Shawn was off last week.  One of those use it or lose it vacation times.  He really wanted to use that time to paint the nursery, since I was going to be working so much.  We had gotten a bunch of paint samples from Lowes a few weeks ago, we just hadn’t made the final decision as to which one to go with.  I wanted a soft sage, and Shawn wanted a brighter, more childlike color.  We compromised with a fun limey green, which turned into mintchocolate chip once it hit the walls.  I really didn’t like it, but Shawn had spent so much time on it, I felt bad.  We tried to live with it for a few days, but I hated it even more.  Then we bought a comfy chair for feedings, a chair and a half with ottoman, which turned out to be so big we had to take the door off the hinges to get it in the room.  Then with this huge chair and ottoman, mint green walls, and my raging hormones, I ran out of the room and burst into tears.  We went shopping the next day for a new color and now it looks great.  It’s a nice, bright sage, softer, but still bright and childlike.  We were smart this time and brought a carpet square, wall hanging, and fabric sample from the chair to the paint store to be sure we would be happy.  

Here's the original color.  It looked much more obnoxious in person.

And here's the new one. It looks much better in person. 

Now that the paint is on the wall, there is some furniture in the room, and more on the way, we are feeling pretty good.  I have been doing some great bonding with my baby the last few weeks.  The movement is getting more personality.  I can feel individual body parts and am having fun poking the foot and feeling it kick me back.  All of my midwifery books talk about the psychological transformations that occur during pregnancy and the preparation for motherhood.  It’s funny how I am totally normal.  First trimester was very self centered, all the changes that were happening to me and my body was totally separate from the life I was growing.  I knew I was pregnant, but it still didn’t feel very real.  I kept scrutinizing every change as if to verify the pregnancy.   I would almost chant, “I’m pregnant, I’m pregnant,” to keep it real for me. 

Second trimester was hard because I felt like I should be bonding with my baby, and glowing and happy, but it still felt very distant.  I would feel the movement and know it was the baby, but it still felt very alien.  Other people were happier about my pregnancy than I was.  I mean I was happy, don’t get me wrong, but I was just detached, like I was keeping the baby at arms length.  I couldn’t get attached. 

Now that I am truly into the third trimester, I am embracing this baby and the new life Shawn and I are going to have.  I rub my belly all the time, and having fun showing it off to friends and coworkers.  I don’t even mind when they rub my belly without asking.  (Of course strangers haven’t done it yet and I think that may make me a little crazy.)  I love having people feel kicks and seeing their faces light up when they really feel it.  I’m happy.  It’s nice.  Shawn has been fantastic too, very attentive and loving.  He has the cutest giggle when he feels the baby move.