Week 42: My friend - due 3 weeks after me - had her baby... and we're still waitin :)

It's rather funny, actually. My friend Christie was due 3 weeks after me with her baby #2... I should have known what was coming because (1) 2nd babies usually come earlier and (2) she had her first born a few days early as well. She made a baby-date guess on Mark Baade's baby poll that I would give birth at 3:10 on Sunday, July 20th. Guess what... SHE gave birth at 3:10 on Sunday, July 20th!!!! Pure Craziness. She must have had some type of mothering birthing intuition about that time/day...it just wasn't for me and my baby. :)

I am very happy for her and her new little girl. Sounds like all went well. She was able to labor in water for a little while and she pushed out baby #2 without letting them give her pitocin or an epidural. I can't wait to meet her new family addition.

So here on the homefront we are trying to be patient. Sandie Baade says that her kids were all born right around their guess-date... My mom had all hers around Week 33-34. So maybe we can average the two and be somewhere in the middle... like Week 42?!?! :)

Another homebirthin' Mom just had her baby yesterday. Jeni - one of our midwives - reminded me that Mag was due WAY before me...and her baby boy came out a super healthy, happy 8lbs, 4oz baby last night. She told me again to go relax, take a warm bath, and enjoy these last days of feeling my baby move inside me. Good advice.... I'm too tired for a bath right now. :)

i just thought this was funny... :)

I was way pumped this week to find a Doctoral student/midwife/doula in Canada who is studying birth and she had a copy of a book that I have been trying to find for the past month that she was able to send me in a pdf file. I am SooooO thankful to her because the only place I could find this book (Come Gently, Sweet Lucina) was for $330-$400 online. It has not been in print since 1957 which is the reason it is so hard to come by. But MAN it's a good book!! I am about 1/2 way thru... A lot of it is hilarious craziness of the 40s/50s -- things like "calcium is bad for you because it makes your pelvic bones too hard" or "the best thing pregnant women can do is fast and smoke to not gain too much weight"... the author also talks about how x-rays are not safe in the first 2 trimesters, but ok to use at the end... which of course took us 30 years to find out was completely untrue -- they do damage no matter when they are administered. I wonder what we will know in 30 years about ultrasonic waves on developing fetal tissues...

Anyway, the main reason I wanted to read this book is because the author, Carter, had 9 children. Her first 2 were born in hospitals and she had terrible, awful, painful labors and horrible birth experiences. For baby #3 she decided she was staying home and doing it herself. The rest of her 7 children were born gently at home, with no tension, no fear, no pain. They were beautiful, empowering births. She studied Dick-Read's work (Childbirth Without Fear) and her book is partially a response and expansion on his theories and observations. (Dick-Read is one of the all-time masters of gentle childbirth and was a world-renowned obstetrician who rocked the medical world in the U.S. and U.K. by stating that obstetricians could learn the most from birthing women and midwives themselves).

Another homebirthing Mom who I have become friends with via our online correspondence recommended I read Carter's book. There is a LOT in it that is extremely empowering, encouraging, and eye-opening. She is also a hilarious writer with an exceptionally witty (and sometimes cynical) sense of humor. Needless to say, I love the book. And I am SO glad to have gotten a copy without having to chuck out $330 (which no, i would not ever have done). And now I have the file to share with anyone else out there who is interested in reading her work.


This past week Nick and I took a LOOOONG walk around the Botanical Gardens here in VA Beach. It is a beautiful area and I love walking there (and feeding the ducks/geese). We walked and walked and walked all afternoon/evening...and I had 2 "good" contractions. But then things resumed as normal and baby must have decided s/he was not yet ready to come.

I also had my first "belly injury" at the Botanical Gardens -- a century old Agave plant that is blooming for its one and only time (before it dies) stabbed me in the belly! (To be honest I have a tendency these days to run into things with my burgeoning belly...) Nick asked me a few minutes later, "What is that?!" and I looked down to see blood oozing from a little stab wound on my tummy seeping thru my white shirt... haha. So my only injury this pregnancy was the result of a 100-year-old Agave plant!

On another note, I do have a feeling baby will be arriving sometime soon... so I recorded my measurements (as I have each month from the beginning) because I wanted to know and keep a little record of how 42+ weeks of pregnancy has changed my body.
The results?
I guess nothing too shocking.
From the beginning of pregnancy till now...

Weight: +28lbs (if I would have had this baby on our official guess-day i think we could have stayed at 20lbs...little bugger!)

Belly: +8 1/4 inches

Chest/Breasts: +4 1/4 inches

Upper Arm: -1 1/2 inches (how on earth did I gain inches all over and loose an inch-and-half on each arm??? It must have shifted South...)

Butt/Hips: +2 inches

Thigh: +2 inches (this also happens to be the only area of my body where I have stretch marks. what the heck?? My legs love being thick and strong. ;-)

Ankle: no change (i guess this means I have not experienced the common pregnancy swelling of the ankles... or it means I had big cankles to begin with... haha)

So that's the physical rundown.

Emotionally, mentally, spiritually Nick and I are doin' pretty good I think. We are ready. But patient. And it is a good thing that I married a loving, caring, patient man who is exceptionally good at calming me EVERY time we go out someplace and people exclaim "WHEN ARE YOU DUE?!?!" with wide gaping eyes at my huge baby belly...

Lately the question has been, "So are 'they' going to induce you?" (I love how "they" is somehow this big vast expanse of supposedly all-knowing-all-powerful medical personnel who must control and save me from my own body birth baby with drugs and machines)... So I calmly say "No, we are having a homebirth and letting the baby come when s/he is ready." And sometimes people respond with, "OH I wish I had done that!!" and sometimes they say, "Wow, you are brave!" to which I think...No, it takes a heck of a lot more guts to birth in the hospital these days than it does to do so calmly at home. But I keep quiet and don't say much because I'm not in a position to educate the world at this point.

I'm simply too tired. :)

Nick and Danelle ~ 41 Weeks+5 Days Patient

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