Now Showing

26 weeks

The Little Miss and I hit a milestone today - a stranger asked if I was expecting!  Yay for looking pregnant, finally.  And suddenly this week I'm really noticing the belly.  Like, picking up Jack's toys has become really, really bothersome.  It's so much easier to just kick them under the couch.  The leg cramps have started back up again, especially when I'm rockin' the heels.  But I will continue to rock the heels because, in my humble opinion, they make my legs look skinnier.  And with baby girl pushing me over the 16.5 pound weight gain this week, I'm all for the thinning techniques.

Actually, I've gained the same amount with this pregnancy as I did with Jude at this point.  And surprisingly it's slightly more than I did with Jack at 26 weeks, but we all know how that pregnancy ended.  And, maybe not so ironically, the post I started writing out in my head earlier today about being 26 weeks pregnant sounded an awful lot like the post I wrote at 26 weeks pregnant with Jude.  And that's why I'm glad I blog.  Because if I hadn't just read over that post right now, I'd probably be wondering (for the third time in three years) why I'm feeling so small at 6 months pregnant!  And also realize, yet again, that I only feel small until I see a picture of myself.  Look at that belly ... oh snap!

Other than the heightened awareness of being with child, I'm starting to get a little psyched for this upcoming birth (not that we need to rush it along or anything).  Jon and I took a tour of the birthing center I've been visiting these past few months.  He wasn't too impressed, but I am very excited about delivering there.  For those of you who don't know, it's a place where "healthy mom deliver healthy babies."  Well, at least according to the midwife last night, or midhusband.  What do you call a male midwife?  Anyway, it's very low tech and high touch.  In fact, for my upcoming glucose test I don't even have to drink that nasty, sugary, flat 7-up stuff.  Instead I drink a glass of orange juice and eat a banana an hour before going in for my appointment.  Convenient and tasty!

There are 4 midwives there, and they make sure you meet all of them before you deliver.  There are three rooms to choose from, all look like normal bedrooms with regular beds, showers, jacuzzi tubs, birthing balls and a big birthing pool if you want it.  There's also a kitchen and living room.  You just show up when you're well into labor, have a baby any way you want to, and then leave 4-12 hours later.  No epidurals, no IVs, no pitocin, no being strapped down to the bed with cuffs and monitors, no being woken up every 2 hours for check-ups after the baby is born.  Um, heaven?

The way I see it, I've had two fairly swell deliveries in a hospital, a military hospital at that.  If this next one is anything like the first two, it should be a piece a cake when I can have my own way.  But I better not get too haughty now.  Time will tell.
Now that we're thinking about giving birth and on the downhill slope to d-day, I picked up this joker - Birth Matters: A Midwife's Manifesta - for my Kindle when we go to beach this summer.  Yup, Ina May has a new book out, and I'm always up for a fresh perspective on natural childbirth.  It still feels strange to think we'll be having another baby in a few months, 3 months actually.  In some ways it just hasn't hit me yet.  But I'm sure it will all become very real once the first contractions hit.  Until then, we're just going to enjoy the summer, our boys, a new house and a big belly.