Sweet, sweet snow

Oh happy day!

I have been waiting for enough snow (any snow, really) so that I could go skiing. After the strong storm that moved through on Sunday night, and a few subsequent inches each night since then, the Nordic Club decided to groom out one of the free local XC skiing areas (Pattee). A while back I decided that to keep safe, I would only ski groomed trails this winter, so I was THRILLED that they groomed Pattee- only 15 minutes from our house! Nice long looping gentle trails!

Don't I look psyched? Oh joyous day to be on my skis. And my good XC jacket still zips up... barely.

The only bummer is that Lucky cannot go on these trails- no dogs allowed on the groomed paths. Sad, but necessary to keep the grooming lines clean. I understand. But Luck was upset to be left behind in the house, of course.

Success is ours

- We made it the birthing class on time (as opposed to last week)

- Matt watched an entire movie of a birth without passing out (again, as opposed to last week)

- A girl in the class offered to lend me a work-appropriate maternity dress for my upcoming conference in Atlanta (I don't want to have to buy new clothing for just one day, of course)

All together now- Hurray! We did it!

Second class tomorrow

I am looking forward to our second birth class tomorrow with a sort of sado-masochistic perspective. Will Matt pass out on someone again? Will the woman that he passed out on top of last time come to class at all? Maybe she switched to the Monday class to avoid us (not a bad idea if that makes her more comfortable).

The whole thing is so funny. I told all the girls in my pre-natal water aerobics class (which in itself is incredibly amusing) and they were dying laughing. Except, of course, for the woman in the class whose husband is claiming he will refuse to go to class with her because it makes him feel queasy to just think about it. She paled and later asked me if she should really force her husband to go or not. I basically said, "You know, if he really, really thinks he might vomit- I'd take him seriously. I'd advise talking to the teacher ahead of time and working out a solid game plan to make it through the class." Or maybe he is a wussy-pants and should just keep a bucket handy. But I didn't say that last part.

Matt is not yet mentally prepared for the second class. I think we'll have to discuss it tonight and create a strategy for him. I'm thinking he should take lots of breaks during the class (especially the videos), and we can arrive a little early to get a good seat near the exit.

Wish us luck!

Quick clarification

In Matt's special guest post, he says, "I think I scarred that poor woman for life."

To clarify... He is referring to the woman to his right, the eight month pregnant girl. She and her husband were both quite horrified and shocked, by the looks on their faces. And of course they didn't know what was going on so maybe they thought it was an actual medical emergency, which would have been very scary for them.

I, on the other hand, am not scarred, horrified, or shocked. I am actually just rather entertained by the entire thing and have spent quite a bit of time laughing at Matt at his expense. We'll get past this, I'm sure- or else he really will be required to wear his new spiffy ski helmet to the birth. And one of my friends suggested maybe a mouthguard too, in case he hits the floor face-first. Dental work is not cheap these days.

We will not be sitting next to those same people this week. I don't want to risk traumatizing them again.

SPECIAL guest post by Matt

The Incident!

So, as Leigh mentioned earlier we started birth classes. Now, I have had a fair amount of medical training, I've put my own finger back together after severing the tip, I've performed first aid with blood gushing from wounds, and I can gut and skin a deer. So I don't know why, but I was a little intimidated by the thought of watching videos of natural childbirth; I felt like I needed to ease my way into it and Leigh said she would help by showing me still photos before I saw video.

Anyway, I missed the first half hour of the birth class because I was in class (Human Behavior in the Social Environment- the irony of this kills me). So I showed up to our first birth class just in time to begin the presentation - AND VIDEOS!! Yikes! The nurse teaching the class (Lindsey) showed us a video of "Riley's Birthday" (not sure who Riley is but I went with it); it started out alright and then came the closeups of the "business end" of the birth process. I felt the temperature in the room rise slightly and I began to fidget a little. I noticed at least 2 other guys in the room uncomfortably shifting positions a few times; heck, I couldn't get comfortable either. I kept looking away from the screen but my eyes were strangely drawn back again within seconds. Then the baby's head came out and I thought, "wow, that's not too bad", then the rest of the baby came out and was placed on the mother's stomach. The temperature in the room went back to normal and the next thing I knew, Leigh was pulling me off of the 8 month pregnant woman to my right. Yup, I passed out cold! I felt it happening too and was powerless to stop myself or warn anyone. I think I scarred that poor woman for life.

Well there goes the idea of easing my way into seeing the birth process. Better now than during the real deal, I guess. Leigh keeps joking that I have to wear my ski helmet when she goes into labor; not a bad idea (considering my track record).

22 or 23 weeks

Depending on what you look at, I might be 23 weeks pregnant today. Some stuff says 22 weeks and 4 days, and other stuff says 23 weeks and 0 days.

Either way, here is a picture of me... today. At aboooout 23 weeks!



We tried to fix the red-eye from having it be nighttime with flash when we took this picture, but it kinda makes me look creepy. Too bad!

Classes, meetings, appointments

I feel a little bit... busy these days.

I am taking a (hilarious!) prenatal water aerobics class twice a week at the local women's gym. It is very inexpensive and my friend (who is due in January) is going with me. Everyone besides the two of us in the class is, well... quite obese- so the fact that she weighs less than 120lbs while about 7 months pregnant is pretty funny in comparison. Incidentally, she is really short, so for her height she is a healthy weight. I look quite ludicrous in my blue bikini, dare I say it. I'm falling out of the top in a rather overstuffed fashion. But it is comfortable still, so I'm sticking to it.

Matt and I have birthing class once a week. Two hours of videos, breathing, etc. This starts tonight for the first class and I'm not sure how it will go. I am looking forward to it, while I am fairly certain that Matt is just scared of the videos.

Then I have school. That takes 1 1/2 days a week on campus running to seminars, meetings, and my one class.

Oh yeah, and doctor's appointments. Once a month. And doula appointments, once a month. Somewhere in all this I work 30 hours a week.

No wonder people think pregnant women are forgetful! I need a personal assistant just to keep my datebook up to snuff!

Belly button gives up

My belly button has been trying hard to maintain its innie status. I know it has, because the darn thing has been hurting me for months.

I think I will mark today as the day it lost the war. It might have happened yesterday, or even a few days ago, but sometime recently more of my belly button arrived on the "out" then was able to stay on the "in." You can clearly see it through my teeshirts as a funky little lump. I think part of the pain that I experienced in that area for the last couple months was actually my belly button fighting to maintain its position. Now that it has given up, that part of my belly is far less sore. Bonus!

22 weeks, and the belly button goes for it. At least it made it past the halfway mark.

Doula mania!

After reading up on birthing options, about two months ago I decided I wanted to look into hiring a doula for the labor and birth. Birth doulas (which are different from post-partum doulas) are (inevitably well meaning) women that are there to help you mentally and physically prepare for labor and birth, and also to be there from start to finish to help you survive/endure/(enjoy?) the birth experience. The medical profession recently has come out strongly supporting the use of birth doulas, which is very cool.

Matt and I really like the idea of having an experienced hand on deck for the whole time. Nurses come and go with shift changes, OBs flit in and out until something goes wrong, but a good doula is like a combo of your best buddy, coach, and personal slave for the whole time. That sounds so reassuring to me, and it takes a lot of the pressure off Matt.

So, once we made this decision, the search was on. The only doula I knew at the start is a brand-new mom turned doula-do-gooder. I'm not opposed to this in concept, but I personally wanted someone with lots of experience. Like, maybe 10 years? Or at least 20-30 births? That would be good. I don't want to be a "never seen THAT happen." I want to be, "I've seen this, what you need to try is..."

I tried the internet for doula certification organizations, and basically failed at that tactic. Darnit! So then I smartly asked my OB, who told me to ask the Birth Center, who emailed me a list of recommended doulas that they enjoy working with. Here is a synopsis of some of the more interesting phone interviews;

Doula #1- Highly informative. Very friendly. Massage therapist. Good on the phone. Having a baby in February and would be bringing the infant to my birth. Hmm... that is OK, I guess, and considering a first birth can easily take over 24 hours, I do understand where she is coming from with that- what with feedings and such. But is that what I want? What if the baby is crying a lot while I'm trying to concentrate? Been a doula since 2003, which is a pretty decent amount of time. Kinda hippy-esque, but not too much.

Doula #2- Direct entry (lay) midwife = bonus! Very nice on the phone. Been attending births for over 20 years. I liked this one right off the bat. Very matter-of-fact and yet reassuring at the same time. We set up a coffee shop meeting.

Doula #3- This was what I came to call the "boot camp" doula. She was kinda scary on the phone, to be honest. Been attending births for 32 years. Interrupted me mid-sentence several times. I was intrigued, and kinda intimidated, and then she insisted we set up a meeting (Matt, me, and her) to talk. If nothing else, it sounded quite educational to meet with her, so I agreed to it.

Doula #4- Wow. The other end of the spectrum was completely represented by #4. Just shy of suggesting I rub crystals where the sun don't shine, this one was very, very "left of center." I barely got a word in for 40 minutes as she expounded on the beauty of birth, and how her and her friend teach a holistic birthing class together, and how birth is so great, and empowering, and... yeah. I stayed on the phone mostly because she amused the heck out of me. And because I could not get a word in edgewise to end the conversation.

Doula #5- Another massage therapist. Lots of good ideas, but only has been a doula for two years. I was hesitant mostly because of the lack of experience- the rest of this woman's phone interview went really nicely. In my head, she was the back-up if #s 2 and 3 bombed their in-person interviews. She seemed quite reasonable.

The in-person interviews were far less entertaining than the phone interviews, mostly because I weeded out the hippies before proceeding. Boot-camp doula ended up being softer around the edges in person, but still really set in her opinions and a little over the top. The best was when she talked about her diet- no wheat, soy, corn, rice or dairy products. Wow! She proudly mentioned that after she started on this diet, she lost 35 pounds last year. I can't say that surprises me. Doula #2 ended up being even more fabulous in person than she was on the phone- she was a lovely person to talk to, we related to each other very nicely, and she clearly is what I was looking for. I really enjoyed her company.

And the winner is... a woman from New York named Kathee.

Ahhhhh.

Kathee is officially on board now. Our first meeting as an expectant couple + doula grouping is next week at a local bakery. She's bringing more books! So exciting.

Squirmer!

I've been able to feel the baby move for at least a month, but in the last two weeks it has gotten downright strong. I've had my hands and arms nudged, kicked, and otherwise manipulated by the baby when they were at rest against my stomach area. The baby goes through periods of lots of movement (usually after I eat) where you can actually see my skin moving around like a scene from Alien.

Three days ago, I finally timed it just right with Matt so that he could feel the little squirmer doing its thing. Matt was pretty psyched- it kicked him pretty firmly right in the palm of his hand. Nice job little buddy! I've only recently gotten better at predicting these movements so even though we had been trying to get it to kick Matt for a few weeks, this was the first time the three of us were able to coordinate efforts successfully.

This morning the baby got really frisky after some pancakes and orange juice and we laughed as I pulled my shirt tight over my belly to watch the little feeties run patterns across my skin. We could clearly see a few kicks, and then some sort of "running man" kinda jogging-in-place motion for a while.

I can rarely feel its arms, but sometimes I do feel it doing things in that vicinity. I think the arm feelings are really muted because of my anterior placenta - which is fine. I know it has arms, and I know how capable it is at moving around its little legs. I think I can feel the head pretty well- that is like a dull shove rather than a little pokey kick or squirm. Makes sense to me.

Maybe once the baby gets even stronger I'll try to video its little feet smooshing up against my belly. That could be fun.

Blood pressure

Matt and I are getting life insurance. After the tragic and untimely death of a friend and his son a few weeks ago, I realized that the hardest part for me to imagine was not how our friend and his little boy could be lost forever, but how his partner (long time girlfriend, mom to his son) could possibly ever recover. And part of that is the sadly real financial aspects of it- how will she pay the rent while mourning? How long will it be before she is capable and comfortable with rejoining the workforce? How will she pay for grief counseling, should she need it?

So I applied for and bought some sensible life insurance for us, which requires a blood, weight, urine and blood pressure test. I wasn't allowed to eat for 12 hours because it was a fasting test, so I had a huge delicious dinner and then had the appointment scheduled for bright and early in the morning.

8am is not my happiest time of day. I arrived at the doctor's groggy, hungry, and undoubtably low blood sugared. It was cold out and still sort of low light. The nurse tattled along and went to take my blood pressure. "Do you know what it normally is?" "Oh, I forget, but it is almost always quite low."

And it was. First measure- 80/40. Second- 80/40. She looked puzzled. "You feel OK?" I reassured her. "I'm fine- I'm just tired and you told me not to eat anything."

She found a smaller cuff for my thin little arm (in her words) and tried a third time. 85/40. Wooo!!!

I had to laugh. My blood pressure has historically been quite low, and pregnancy plays weird tricks with your circulation. Normally a BP of 80/40 is rated "Hypotension" which according to the charts will make you feel weak and tired. A little lower than that and you'll get borderline fainting-prone. I've actually had doctors advise me to eat a little more salt, and once someone asked me, "Are your hands always cold?" I'd say more like icy, thank you very much.

Just last week I had my blood pressure taken at the OBs and it was perfectly normal, if a little on the lower end. So I know it isn't a problem.

The moral of the story? All those years of saying, "I'm not a morning person" and "I hate skipping breakfast" were not my imagination. And why is it so hard for me to wake up in the morning? Hmmmm...