Classes

When I undertake anything new, the first thing I do is read books about it, then I take a class. I see no reason why babies shouldn't work the same way. I've read about childbirth online and in books, now it's time for the class.

I've been looking into which class (or classes!) we should take. I've enrolled us in an infant CPR class through OHSU. I was really looking for childbirth sorts of classes, but I was having trouble finding anything that matched up with our (irritatingly difficult) schedules and sounded like something we'd be interested in taking.

There's basically two options:
1. Class at a hospital (like OSHU). They sound fairly clinical, and talk about the anatomy of birth, pain management, and possible complications. It sounded sort of like a class I didn't want to take for the same reasons that I've chosen to not give birth in a hospital. On the plus side, there are a whole bunch of different ones available so it would be easier to schedule.
2. Class at a woo-woo place (like Zenana Spa). They're a lot more touchy-feely. They talk about visualizing birth, thinking about the birth process through art, and creating an atmosphere of love and intimacy. I visualize the people who take this class as people who wear crystals and weave their own hemp clothing (which I'm sure is totally untrue). On the plus side, they won't be trying to convince me of the benefits of scheduling an elective C-section.

Mike recommended that I call Dr Liz and ask if she had an opinion. I did, and she did. She said that she used to teach childbirth classes and then stopped when she realized that no matter what she taught in the class, births never quite went that way. No matter how you prepare before birth, nothing can prepare you for the actual process. She agreed that the hospital classes would probably be too clinical for what I was looking for and that the woo-woo classes would be very full of woo.

She recommended that I take prenatal yoga, which I'm going to look into at the yoga studio she mentioned. She also sort of recommended Hypnobirth classes: she said "I've never seen hypnobirthing go catastrophically wrong, no matter how it goes". Another thought is The Yoga Way to Birth. She said it might be a little "intense", but I'm not sure if that's intensity of woo or what. The website says that you don't need any yoga background to take the class. She also recommended that we take this "Becoming Parents" class, which I was already thinking about. She said it wasn't worth it to take a breastfeeding class (she will "get us through it") or infant massage, unless we discover that we really need infant massage after the baby is born (because it's "extra cranky").

I'd seen Hypnobirth and Yoga Way to Birth mentioned in other places and I'd looked into them somewhat, but it was good to get validation that they might actually be useful things before pursuing them further. I'd been planning on taking prenatal yoga next term, but I might work harder to squeeze it into this term's schedule as well (she thought that would be a very good idea). It was validating to hear that she agreed with my thoughts on the two types of classes (hospital and woo). It was also really comforting to hear that she didn't totally think we needed to take a birthing class. If we can't fit it in, the baby will still get born.

It's a wiggler

There's been quite a bit of action from the tiny squee recently. Today, it felt like baby was bouncing up and down either on my bladder or cervix. It's a really interesting sensation. I wouldn't say it's an entirely pleasant sensation, but it's not as entirely disconcerting as it was when it first started happening.

Baby has also been hungry for junk food. We need to have a talk about this behavior before it gets out of hand. It would really be more convenient (and healthy) if I started craving kale, squash, or cabbage.

Re-stomach issues

Thursday met with a resurgence of stomach upsets. I think it must have been stomach flu and not food poisoning - it lasted too long to reasonably be food poisoning. I spent Thursday tired and sick and ended up calling out of work (which I never do). I think I watched 12 episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and eat 6 or 8 pieces of toast and that was about the peak of my productivity.

Luckily, I felt better yesterday and seem to be back to normal stomach behavior today (although I'm still pretty tired).

Baby seems to have made it through the experience relatively unscathed, as judged by the amount of dustbathing that's been taking place in my abdomen. Baby prefers to wiggle around when I'm driving and in the evening. Mike has yet to be in the right place at the right time to feel a wiggle, but I'm not actually sure if they can be felt on the outside yet. I haven't managed to feel one with my hand either.

We took our Christmas / baby announcement photo yesterday. I had a groupon for holiday cards and it had to be used by the 15th, so we had to move forward on the project. I hope they don't take too long to get here so I can get them mailed out before Christmas.

Halfway!!

I'm at 20 weeks now, which means that we're halfway to the birth. I still don't look all that pregnant (although sometimes I look a lot more pregnant than others), but the baby starts to gain weight a lot faster now. That means that I'll probably start to look pregnant-er in the next couple of weeks. I should also start feeling the baby move more.

I've felt what could potentially be baby movement. It sort of feels like there's a degu dust-bathing in my abdomen. It feels almost like nausea, but not quite. It's a really weird sensation. This has been going on for a week or so, but I'm not entirely ready to pin it down as baby movement. It's difficult to identify a sensation that you've never felt before. I was pretty sure I felt a definite baby movement last night, which felt sort of like several pokes, but then I spent the rest of the night sick so there was obviously something abnormal going on in there to start with.

Dr Liz says that in the next few weeks I should start feeling the baby move at least once a day. That'll be exciting. It'll be nice to know that everything is going ok in there. It's sort of tough to tell right now. There's not a lot of pregnancy symptoms at this point, so I get concerned that there's not a lot of pregnancy. However, baby has been doing fine at all the appointments, so I shouldn't worry.

This week, baby is roughly the size of a degu! So if you picture one of these rodents on the inside rather than on my lap, that's in the right ballpark. The length of a goo is probably pretty close to the crown-to-rump measurement of the baby and the weight is about right.

Stomach upset and Doctor's Appointment

Yesterday, I must have eaten something that made me sick. Mike and I ate dinner before we headed off to work and I was fine until about 9:15 (the class goes till 9:50). Around then, I started getting gas pains and my stomach was getting upset. At 9:30, I had to tell the class we had to take a break but that I would be back shortly. After 10 unpleasant minutes in the bathroom, I came back and told them that the rest of class was cancelled and I'd email them with the administrative information I'd wanted to tell them. Note to self: need to email class.

I headed back to the bathroom for a bit more quality time. Finally, I felt confident enough to creep to my car and drive home, but I felt really questionable the whole time. Questionable enough that I pulled out a plastic bag in case I puked. I didn't, at least not till I got home. 

After some more enjoyable bathroom time, I laid on the couch and watched 2 episodes of Buffy The Vampire Slayer. My stomach was cramping and I just felt crappy. Finally, I headed into bed, but didn't sleep well at all. I kept waking up, although I don't think it was due to my stomach being upset. A yucky evening overall. 

I had an appointment with my doctor this morning, so I asked her about the whole thing and potential baby impacts. She didn't seem concerned, although the internet seemed to think it was a major problem when I googled it last night. I guess because it's cleared up today, it's not a big issue. 

We chatted for an hour about how things were going. Sadly, she's moving locations. We're still going to see her, but it won't be as conveniently located. We'll still have access to the birthing room at this place, if that's what we decide to do, but all of the prenatal appointments after Jan 1 will be at her new office. She says she got tired of the homeless people camping out in the front doorway (and in the locked yard in the back) and that the building is falling down and the landlord doesn't care. I'd probably move my office, too.

We listened to baby's heartbeat (normal), she measured me (normal), and I got weighed (normal increase). We're hoping for completely average as far as the pregnancy and delivery go, so we're off to a good start so far.

Eating

This seems to be my major pass-time these days. I get hungry about every 1.5-2 hours and need to eat some sort of meal. Sometimes, eating a container of yogurt or a few crackers will do the trick, but other times I need to actually eat a full-blown meal.

I'm discovering that meals which contain protein are better (more filling, last longer) than meals which don't contain protein. I made lentil soup and that works really well, but (TMI) it gives me gas. Of course, just about everything seems to.

I've started carrying snacks with me everywhere I go. I figure it's practice for when I actually have the baby and I need to carry crackers or whatever for emergency baby nibbles. My pregnant lady friend (who's not American) didn't agree with me. She thinks that people here snack too much and that we should eat designated meals at designated dinner tables. Mike would be pleased with that assessment, but I'm still not sure it applies to babies.

My common snacks these days are: apples or pears (easy to carry and eat while driving home from work), various types of granola / protein / fruit bars (also easy to carry and store in the car), peanuts and tasty seed mix (containing sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, soynuts, and whatever else I find in the bulk bins), and crackers. I was thinking last night that I needed to get some baby carrots, which would also be convenient.

I've been way too busy with work to do much baby-related planning or stuff... I figure that'll be what I do during the third trimester after this term from hell is over.

Showing

Weeks ago, I had to tell two of my department chairs that I was pregnant because they asked me about working winter term. Today, I told the last one. I was unexpectedly offered another class for winter term (after being told there were none) because someone suddenly couldn't teach it.

We sat down to discuss the matter and I told her that the only consideration was that I was pregnant. She said "I know, you've started showing." This pleased me quite a bit. I hadn't thought it was that noticeable because no one has said anything... but apparently it's not the sort of thing you mention to someone unless they've told you that they're pregnant. This makes sense and I know it to be true: I wouldn't want to accidentally ask someone about their pregnancy and find out that they just had gained 10 pounds.

As I was teaching lab, I kept thinking about her saying that I was showing and getting happy feelings.

She is, like my other department chairs, totally supportive and willing to find a sub if I have to leave early. She also suggested that I look at the labs for the class and see if there's anything I'm uncomfortable with (chemical-wise) and that we could find a sub for those particular labs as well.