Last Christmas James gave me a voucher for a two hour pregnancy retreat at Aurora Spa in St Kilda which I used this morning. Oh. My. God. It was amazing. I don’t think I’ve ever had a massage for the sake of relaxation before but the idea is certainly growing on me. In addition to a full body massage it included a facial, foot wrap and meditation. She even massaged my ears! I walked in there somewhat stressed out about a whole bunch of things I need to do, and have walked out of there feeling ready to melt. Then I visited James at work for some lunch, have come home to a hot bath and now plan to have a nap. Couldn’t have asked for a more relaxing day really.
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Last night we had an unexpected ring at the front door - our midwife Jan popped past with a birth pool for us to keep here in the lead up to labor, and to practice setting up. It comes with a pump, one hose for filling it with and another for draining it. Jan checked out our kitchen sink with James and thankfully one of the hose adapters fits perfectly.
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What a weekend! On Saturday we shot Kate and Fraser’s wedding which was a long day for an almost eight month pregnant person. Our friend John Robb came along to cover for me and I just acted as a supporting photographer for the day. Later on we stopped off for some Chinese food and to download images before heading home to sleep.
Sunday I had to get up at the crack of dawn to be in Dandenong for a St John’s first aid course. If I was starting a new job I would train myself, and parenting seems like a fairly major job so it feels only natural to do some training for it too. The course I attended was aimed at people who live or work with babies and children. The content and our instructor were excellent. There was plenty of practise time which we all found immensely helpful because you don’t exactly need to tie a sling or perform CPR or administer an epi-pen very often. I strongly reccommend the course for any new parents.
Later in the afternoon we had our big birth plan meeting with both our midwives and we also had a student midwife come along to see how it all works. It was all fairly mundane but important stuff. We talked through each part of labor and Jan asked a few specific questions to gague how we felt about things like regarding injections and getting out of the birth pool to deliver the placenta. It was a good task to get everyone on the same page and I feel better having talked it through with the people who will be there, than having a written birth plan sitting in a corner somewhere during the birth. When it comes to home birth, we’re pretty happy with the ‘deafult’ scenario which basically means doing what feels right at the time (for the family) and checking with the mother before doing anything to her or the baby (for the midwife).
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"A new idea is delicate. It can be killed by a sneer or a yawn; it can be stabbed to death by a quip and worried to death by a frown on the right man’s brow."
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Hiccups
The baby has been having hiccups for quite a while, but lately we’ve noticed that she does it for much much longer, and that they are very evenly spaced. She usually starts up when I’m in bed at night or sitting quietly with a book, and it can go for a good twenty or thirty minutes. It’s so funny, but when trying to sleep they have the same affect as a tap dripping. Ergo, last night I got up eight times.
All the books say hiccups are the baby practicing breathing and swallowing. If that’s the case, my money is on her coming out screaming! She seems very keen to clock up some practice time in utero.
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We have been trying to clean out the spare room for months, but it’s every time we make some progress the void seems to be instantly filled with baby stuff. Today I picked up a bookcase at Ikea and will have to go back for some baskets to use as draws (they were out of stock). So at least now we have something to start putting all the baby things away into to keep the floor clear.
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During all my reading and research about baby stuff, one thing which has really appealed to me is babywearing. The practice of ‘wearing’ a baby is common in other parts of the world and makes a lot of sense for social and biological reasons. It keeps the mother mobile and able to use her hands, it keeps the baby settled for longer periods of time, and it aids breastfeeding on demand.
We have purchased a wrap style baby carrier which distributes weight evenly and which also allows discrete breastfeeding. It’s a bit of fluffing around to get it on, but I’m sure with some practice it will become second nature.
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Today I’ve ordered some Rescue Remedy which apparently helps calm you down while you’re freaking out having a baby. I wonder if it’s for the birthing mother or the stressed out partner? ;)
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My iron levels have been on the low side recently so I started taking an iron supplement and have also ordered some Certified Organic Nettle Tea which is supposed to be an easily absorbed form of iron. I’ll need to have another blood test in a few weeks to see how things are going. So long as my iron levels don’t fall any further, it’s all good.
