One last belly picture

For my best friend Leta! This belly picture was taken about 20 minutes before Ivy was born. Every woman should be this happy 20 minutes before birth!

Tuesday morning

Still nothing, sorry I forgot to put up a note yesterday!

Around 4am, I did have 4-5 strong contractions in a row at 8 minutes apart, but then... they stopped. Sigh.

Sunday night

All right, these daily updates are getting a bit boring... once the kid is born, I'll probably go back and delete all of them!

Anyway, not much new to report. I saw Alice the midwife this morning, and the baby has descended a bit and now has its head "fixed" instead of floating as it was on Thursday, but is not quite engaged. My amniotic fluid level, which was a bit low on Thursday is now totally fine, so tomorrow's ultrasound was rescheduled for Thursday (let's hope baby has come by then!!!). I will see Alice tomorrow for a routine monitoring, where she will listen to the baby's heart rate for a half hour to make sure it reacts well to my braxton-hicks contractions, etc.

So in other words, all is fine, and baby will get here when he or she darned well feels like it. It's probably waiting for the rain/snow expected to start falling later this week, or for the full moon on Wednesday.

We had our second "last weekend before baby", and enjoyed more walks to the lake, naps, and good food. If there is a third "last weekend before baby", I may start to get more irritable (than normal...). We are also expecting my mom to arrive next Saturday, so I'd better start working on getting this kid out!!!

Saturday Night

And nothing new to report! I'll see the midwife tomorrow morning for another check-up. They tend to do check-ups pretty close together once a woman passes her due date.

Still here...

Hello avid readers, it is now Friday afternoon, and I have NOTHING to report. But I thought I'd better check in anyway.

It's snowing outside, but I still took Eliot out and kicked around a ball with him for a while and we both got soaking wet. I didn't bother to put our jackets on beforehand. I'm reaching a new level of motherhood laziness these days.

I did manage to place an online grocery shop order to be delivered tomorrow morning. This pretty much guarantees I WON'T be in labor tonight or tomorrow, and that we could have just gone grocery shopping the normal way, but oh well.

Due Date!

I will get Frederic to take a belly picture this evening, but no guarantees that I can get it posted!

I saw my midwife this morning, and there's not a whole lot to report. I'm dilated to1.5cm, but the baby's head is still not engaged firmly against the cervix. So in other words, WHO KNOWS when this kiddo is coming! My amniotic fluid was a little low, but I haven't drank much this morning and so that could be related. I will see her again Sunday morning, and am supposed to drink lots and lots in the meantime, as amniotic fluid is easily affected by dehydration.

In other news, Dell just sent me an email with a new estimated date of delivery for the 10th! Let's hope our computer delivery is more predictable than our baby delivery!

Consumer Reports on Childbirth

I really enjoyed this article from Consumer Reports, which discusses (implicitly) some of the advantages of the Midwife Model of Care to women experiencing normal, low-risk pregnancies.
http://www.consumerreports.org/health/medical-conditions-treatments/pregnancy-childbirth/maternity-care/overview/maternity-care.htm

Entering the Due Month

So, as I've learned in my hypnobabies program, the due date is actually a "guess date", and pregnant women have a "due month" that goes from 38-42 weeks. As of today, I have entered my "due month". My suggestions during this month to all friends and family are:
Don't ask when the baby's coming.
If you're going to ask, you'd better be holding a plate of Mexican food in front of you.

I hope everyone can find this information helpful.

Eliot measuring the baby

After Alice left, Eliot wanted to measure the baby some more, so I tried to get it on film. And as you can see, my belly is so big, I can actually hide my feet AND Eliot's feet underneath it.

37 (almost) week check-up

I saw my midwife today (another home visit... gotta love midwives!) for my 37 week check- I'll be 37 weeks on Thursday. Anyway, as we could have all predicted, all is well. Baby apparently has lots of space, thanks to big brother stretching out my uterus, and so is still free floating and spinning around, but always with head down. Most second-time babies don't engage in the pelvis until labor anyway, so that's not a problem. Eliot helped measure my abdomen, though he and Alice came up with vastly different estimates of my fundal height- Eliot said 5, she said 33. I wonder who was right?

Another three lasagnas went in the fridge this weekend. Now I'm going to work on some sauces and marinades which just require the addition of meat, and then we'll stock the pantry this weekend with some other easy meal stuff.

I've got a little something to do pretty much every day this week to keep myself busy, but I need to think up some stuff for the next two weeks too, as Alice did not make any stunning announcements about how sure she is that I'll go early or anything like that.

Only a few baby-prep things left to do: small trip to Ikea for drawer organizers and storage baskets, trip to our basement storage to get out the infant car seat, bouncy seat, and box full of burp cloths and additional diapers, and packing my bag for the birth center.

If you have any ideas for freezable meals, leave a comment...

Marsettes 2009

In early January, I got together with a group of Swiss women, who are all due in March. It was a ton of fun, and we finally got the group picture that one of us took. This photo is further proof that I am of normal height here. The tallest person in the photo is from Venezuela, so she doesn't count.

Nesting

Today I made and froze 3 lasagnas, and 2 batches of enchiladas. Not bad!

Funny Eliot-ism...

Friday, a plumber came to the apartment to look at all of our leaking sinks. He asked me a little bit about the pregnancy, and if we knew if we were having a boy or girl. I said we were leaving it as a surprise, so he asked Eliot, "Tu veux un petit frère ou une petite soeur?" (Do you want a little brother or sister?) To which Eliot replied, "Un pizza!"

34 week belly picture

I'm only posting this picture because I love you, LJ! This was taken after a LONG day including a trek out to Morges in the pouring rain with a toddler for my final ultrasound, and then a missed nap (me, not Eliot), and a LONG afternoon spent inside avoiding the rain. The news: I saw my midwife yesterday, who proclaimed me and baby to be in perfect health. She did estimate that I'm carrying a smaller baby than Eliot was, based on palpitation, and that was confirmed today by ultrasound. Eliot was born weighing 3.6kg (8lbs) and this baby is looking to be about 3kg (6.6lbs) at its due date. I'm kind of excited about having a "small" baby, since I remember being a bit shocked with how big Eliot was at birth. The ultrasound also confirmed baby is head down, which was the main purpose- midwives in our canton cannot assist at known breech vaginal births.

I have sitting right next to me, a sealed envelope containing the ultrasound report made by my doctor, to be delivered to my midwife. On this report is written THE SEX OF THE BABY!

Ok... I'm opening the envelope...

And the winner is...

Oh come on. I've waited 34 weeks, of course I'm going to wait 6 more for the grand unveiling!

For comparison's sake, here's how I looked at 34 weeks with Eliot...

34 Weeks

I had my appointment today with my midwife Alice, and baby is doing great, and so am I! Our next appointment will probably be the last until the birth, which just seems crazy! Time flies. Tomorrow I have an appointment with my ob/gyn for one last ultrasound to make sure baby is head down, but I feel totally sure he or she is head-down based on the movements and lumps I can feel in there.

Things are slowly, but steadily, getting crossed off of the "to do before baby" list.

All right, I will make a CONCERTED effort to produce within the next 24 hours:
a. a belly photo
b. Eliot singing Itsy Bitsy Spider, complete with hand gestures

Fondue Chinoise

Last night, we inaugurated our new fondue chinoise kit- it holds hot broth, wine, or oil, and you cook pieces of meat or vegetable in it, then dip the meat into your choice of several sauces. Served here with chips, beet salad (Merci Denise!) and cucumber salad. It was delicious!
This week's menu, in no particular order:

homemade pizza with mushrooms
turkey cutlets with cranberry sauce compote
salmon
chili
pork chops with cherry sauce

Unfortunately, I have compoletely lost my appetite, especially for meat. Trying hard to keep putting on some weight for baby's sake! So what if the baby is composed mostly of chocolate milk? That never hurt anyone, right?

29 weeks, 5 days

I had an appointment with my midwife today, and all is well. We had a tour of the other, closer birth center, and it was very nice and will be our first choice when the time comes, since it's 15 minutes closer to us.

I am "all baby" and on track for gaining around 25 pounds, just like I did with Eliot. New studies have shown that routine testing during the pregnancy for toxoplasmosis is not really beneficial, so no more blood draws for me! We began discusing my wishes for the birth, and what her standard procedure was, and I am really looking forward to March!

Alice, my midwife, is so great with Eliot because she is also a pediatric nurse. He likes to use her stethescope to listen to everyone's heartbeat.

Why I'm chossing out of hospital birth

I’ve been meaning to write this post for a while, but it’s taken this long to get some free time and my thoughts in order! I’ve received a few questions on the subject, but thankfully no one has outright questioned my sanity. I’ll start with a few disclaimers:

1. Frederic is in total support of this decision, and my ob/gyn is ok with the idea.
2. I would never, ever hesitate to go to the hospital if advised by my midwife to do so, of if I (or she) felt instinctively that the birth was not going as it should.

Eliot was born at l’hopital de Morges, a short drive from our house. When I arrived in L&D, I was 3cm dilated, and had to be monitored for contractions during 30 minutes while lying on my back, which was extremely uncomfortable. I then labored for several hours in a birthing pool, which was very nice, but the most comfortable position did not work with the fetal heart monitor, and so the nurse constantly came in and made me move. I did not know at the time that continuous fetal monitoring is medically unnecessary. I got an epidural at 5 cm, which worked for 45 minutes, then wore off on one side. Because it was still working on the other side, I couldn’t get out of bed or change position. Eliot was born and I was able to hold him for a few seconds before he was taken away for oxygen and clean up, despite having apgar’s of 8 and 9. I got terrible sleep in the hospital because I could not stop replaying the birth events in my mind and questioning my decisions about how I went form wanting a natural labor to having a non-functioning epidural and being stuck in bed for the second stange of birth.

These are only the negative aspects of my hospital birth. The nurses and doctors were very kind, and the woman who caught my baby advocated for me with the doctor when the doctor wanted to use a vacuum extractor and I said no. The food was great, Eliot roomed in with me, and the breastfeeding support was excellent.

After weighing the positives and negatives of my birth experience, I have decided to birth out of hospital for our next child. There are two birthing centers nearby, and my midwife practices out of both. Each birthing center is like a studio apartment, where mom labors, births, and recovers. My reasons for choosing this option are the following:

1. All studies show that home birth/ out of hospital birth are as safe or safer for mom and baby, involve less unnecessary medical interventions, and result in far fewer unnecessary c-sections.
2. I want to know the person who assists in the birth, and I want her to know my medical history and personality through regular contact and check-ups before the birth.
3. I want more labor support (the only labor support at the hospital was the nurse coming in every half hour to ask if I wanted an epidural) which does not rely on medication.
4. Assuming all is well, I want to have my baby in my arms from the moment of birth until I feel like passing him/her over to someone else.
5. I want the option to choose the birth location and position (in or out of water, standing, kneeling, lying, squatting) without restriction.
6. I want the option to decide after the birth if I want to go home right away, stay the night, or stay several nights.
7. I hope that by recovering in the same room that I give birth, discussing with the same person who helped me deliver, and being in a comfortable home environment, I will be able to process the event of birth faster and recover faster mentally and sleep better immediately!
   
8. I want follow-up appointments to take place in my own home. (My midwife will come to our apartment every day for 10 days to check on me and baby, throw in a load of laundry or cook a light meal, etc, and then visit several more times in the following 6 weeks)

One of the only drawbacks to these birth centers is that, if both are already occupied by a labouring/recovering mom, I must have a back up plan- either hospital or home birth. Frederic and I are both ok with a home birth (with midwife in attendance) under certain circumstances (fast labor, already dilated to 6-7cm, rush hour traffic…), and a hospital birth otherwise (plenty of time to arrive without stress). When I go into labor, our midwife will come to our home to assess the situation, and then take us to either the birth center or hospital, or stay home with us and assist in the delivery.

Some of the resources I have used in making this decision:

Hynobabies Guide and CDs

Active Birth

The Thinking Woman’s Guide to a Better Birth

Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth

Heart and Hands

Many, many midwife, doula, and homebirth blogs

I'd be happy to answer any questions, because I know that babies are not just the concern of the parents, but of society in general, and friends and family in particular.

Nesting

I'm already nesting. Today, something posessed me to weed out a bunch of books that were "one time only" reads, which I'll now decide to either sell or donate. I cleaned out a cabinet full of random junk, and now have two grocery bags full of paper for recycling day, plus two garbage bags to take down to the bins. Feels good!

Baby Photo

Our last official visit with the ob/gyn went very well. We had our detailed 20 week ultrasound, which showed a healthy, wriggling baby. We chose not to find out the sex again, although it was much harder to resist this time around for some reason!

For the time being, baby is head down, facing out to see the world. However, it will still move around quite a bit in the next 20 weeks. Baby had it's head tilted wayyyyy back, which is why the neck looks so long and skinny.
From now on, I will recieve care from a midwife who will also deliver the baby (barring some emergency) in one of the nearby birth centers- either Morges or Nyon. I'll post more about why I'm choosing an out-of-hospital birth at some later time. :-)

Belly Picture

According to the scale, I'm up about 5 pounds (2kg). I'll have an official weigh-in as well as an ultrasound on Tuesday though! Baby is moving more and more, though I still need to be holding still to feel it.

I have not yet started my hypnobabies birth prep course, but have been listening regularly to the pregnancy affirmations CD, which is very relaxing. Even more so for Frederic, who can only make it through about 4 minutes before falling asleep.