Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Getting Into Week 32

Our pre-baby time is wearing thin! At 32 weeks with 8 weeks left, time itself and not just the start of birthing classes has made the thought of us with a baby almost tangible. It really has changed the way I think about everything. When I walk in the kitchen I wonder where we're going to put all the baby bottles and paraphernalia; sitting in the living room, I imagine stuffed animals shoved into the couch corners and burp cloths getting pulled out of places like a magician's endless colored scarf; and what I see in the nursery goes without saying. Like so many moments, I'm trying to hold on to these because I know they are fleeting and will soon change drastically and irreversibly.

It's not only pre-baby moments I'm trying to capture in a glass jar, there are many pregnancy memories that I want to hold on to, too. Right now I'm marveling at being able to see my belly move with Jooner's kicks and punches. It's one thing to feel it, but that jumping up of the fabric when the mood strikes him is just one of the coolest things.

Z and I attended our first birthing class last night. It definitely made everything seem more real, and it definitely made labor seem scary. Scarier. I appreciate that there are women out there willing to share their birthing stories with numerous, uncertain, unknowing preggos, but can I at least see a delivery with an epidural involved? Because that's the route I'm taking. No water birth or midwife for me. This is one time that I'll take all that Western medicine has to offer. I know some women have very strong feelings one way or the other about how they picture their labor and delivery to go, and this is mine: as painlessly as possible.

A pic from our baby shower, courtesy of Uncle Thomas. We opened gifts after the guests had left

Besides the fear that the "Stages of Labor" video put into me, the rest of the class was innocuous and pretty educational. We went over some vocab words and I gave a dorky internal laugh when the words "crowning" and "moulding" were positioned just on top of each other (crown molding, get it? Like I said, dorky). We spent time relaxing and getting massaged by our partners (great in theory and practice, but it was hard to keep my eyes open during it at almost 9 at night). And we came home with a stack of literature that has claimed an infamous spot on our kitchen table (things stacked on our kitchen table tend to get buried or forgotten).

It's important for me to know about the labor and delivery process even though ignorance is bliss in that department as far as I'm concerned, but I'm more interested in and excited about how to care for our little guy. When I feel him kick I'm not thinking about how I'm going to push the dude out, I'm thinking about holding him and feeding him and laying him down for naps. One of Zach's main concerns after getting so many swaddling blankets from our baby shower is, "What is a swaddle and how do you do it?" We have a lot to learn...(that's becoming a theme)

1 comment:

KristinG said...

Learn the swaddle - it will be your best friend through many a night (and hopefully provide some sleep for all!).