Homebirthers! - Page 26 « Back to Group Discussions

[callieollie]

I know - I feel such pressure to keep my house clean!  I'm not liking this part of homebirth!  

Are all of you having food available for the midwives?  I'm hoping for a repeat short labor, but if not, what should I have? I mean, we have normal food here that we have and they can of course help themselves, but I havent' done anything else special. I did get them tea (they drink coffee but we don't and have no way to make any so they just said they need caffeine), but that's all.  Plus, they are much more "crunchy" and natural food-like than we are so I'm worried they'd see anything in our house as too processed!  

[Astraia]

Food- easy to eat fruits (grapes, apples, oranges, strawberries), veggies (cucumber, baby carrots, baby tomatoes). Bread and sandwich fixings (cheese, lettuce, mayo, PB and jam/honey), yogurt, snackies like granola bars, cereal, oatmeal, crackers, healthy cookies or bars or breads (oatmeal raisin cookies, pumpkin bread, etc.) I buy it and we eat it, but as soon as we run low I buy or make more so we're never actually out of anything. Keeping a running mental inventory and keeping up with it is tricky, especially when I totally don't care about food at all.

[BubbleMa]

Originally Posted by callieollie 

I know - I feel such pressure to keep my house clean!  I'm not liking this part of homebirth!  

Are all of you having food available for the midwives?  I'm hoping for a repeat short labor, but if not, what should I have? I mean, we have normal food here that we have and they can of course help themselves, but I havent' done anything else special. I did get them tea (they drink coffee but we don't and have no way to make any so they just said they need caffeine), but that's all.  Plus, they are much more "crunchy" and natural food-like than we are so I'm worried they'd see anything in our house as too processed!  

I asked mine about food and they pretty much said don't stress about it too much.  They don't usually eat, but might need something in case it's really long.  But they said things we normally have in the house would be fine (granola bars, sandwiches, etc.).  I went to Trader Joe's and got a few things the other day.

[Astraia]

My first labour was 10 hours long, and the midwives didn't eat anything or drink any coffee. I was honestly a bit put out because I'd put so much time and effort into figuring that stuff out!

A lot of my food inventory isn't just for midwives, but for my doula and my MIL and the kids so that there's easy stuff to grab that doesn't require them to be in the kitchen long (since baby will likely be born in the kitchen, since that's where our birth pool is).

[cristeen]

With DS, we went through a gallon bag of dried pears, and I think 2 loaves of bread.  I couldn't tell you what else was eaten, although I do know the apprentice ran down to WF (2 blocks away) a couple times because she bought me the pineapple juice I needed, so they may have bought food. 

I'm not worrying about keeping food in the house beyond my normal, really.  I cleaned out, organized and inventoried the freezers and the pantry.  I restocked everything that was low, and I shop weekly for fresh.  Beyond that, I'm not gonna fret.  If I'm feeling like we're missing something, I can always take a walk to WF or do some baking in early labor like I did last time. 

[lindsayjean]

Yeah, the beauty of homebirth should not be that we have to extra stress about keeping our homes extra clean!!  I do clean my kitchen every night before going to bed, but I would do that anyway, ya know?  I like that the 'could have this baby at any moment' is helping me to sort of stay on top of things.  I know the house won't be perfect when the baby comes, but that's OKAY.  (and i say that as someone whose birth is going to be filmed for the local news, haha!!)  

I did just look at my hair this morning and think it'd be nice to have the baby today because I look cute, HAHAHA,  ridiculous I know!!!  

Lindsay

[cristeen]

Oh, and I forgot to respond to the keeping the house clean part... I'm not.  I'm not doing any more than I would normally do, which means my Living room is trashed every morning, my kitchen is in a constant state of mess, and the rest of the house could probably use a vacuum.  But since we did a massive decluttering in preparation for both my shower and this baby, and we got it done BEFORE my shower, at this point the rest is gravy.  I'm trying to keep up with the kitchen, so that it's never more than a dishwasher load ahead of me, and I vacuum once a week if I can get away with not doing it more - I vacuum when the grit under my bare feet is too irritating to stand any longer. 

[sosurreal09]

I made stuffed peppers and brown rice and threw it in the freezer for after the birth. I made a HUGE thing of white bean dip for fresh veggie dipping. (DD loves it!) I bought some easier stuff DH could make for us like microwavable quinoa/oat oatmeal, sausages, hash, sandwich stuff...chopped up a big bag or salad. We have granola, PB, and some protein bars on hand too. Also bought some of the TJs steam in bag rice and some rice pilaf for sides with dinner.

Anyone else destined to "bed rest" after birth? MW said I need a week of no stairs which means I am stuck upstairs with the bathroom...

[cristeen]

Originally Posted by sosurreal09 

Anyone else destined to "bed rest" after birth? MW said I need a week of no stairs which means I am stuck upstairs with the bathroom...

It would be nice, but I don't see it happening. 

[BubbleMa]

I don't know if I'll make it two weeks, but I'm going to stay in bed (or on the couch) as long as possible.  I have to take DD to the airport on the 21st so she can go to her dad's.  That should be interesting.  Just one more reason I want this baby to come this weekend!

[Ruby2]

I seem to feel the need to buy things "just in case" every day too. Instead of just noting that something needs to be replaced on a list for later, I feel like I need to get it right now! Same with keeping the house "clean" (it's all relative...). I just worked a full day and then did a huge grocery run with 2yo dd, which is exhausting in the best of circumstances. I have tomorrow off and easily could have done it then, but felt like I might miss the chance if I didn't do it today!

My midwife called 2 days ago extremely distraught and said her brother in Texas (we live in Michigan) was close to dying from cancer and she has to visit him this weekend. It's so sad and also so stressful. I was freaked out at first but I've made peace with it now. We've actually met her backup midwife because we interviewed her last time I was pregnant and we're okay with her. I would be disappointed to not have our midwife at our birth, but on the other hand, she's staying with her dying brother for only 24 hours so that she can be back here for us. That makes me feel horrible. I almost want to have the baby tomorrow so we can call her and tell her to stay with her brother! On the other hand, she obviously really wants to be here. We've been through a lot together and she obviously wants to be the one to see this baby into the world, which is a great feeling.

[Ruby2]

And congratulations, BlessedOne! Your birth story is so peaceful and inspiring. I'm glad everyone is doing well!

[lindsayjean]

Ruby- that's hard!!  But I'm sure for the best, you want her to be able to be with her brother so she can 'let him go' so to speak and be able to be fully present at your birth if it happens when she is back.  I am a firm firm believer that whoever is supposed to be at a birth is there.  I'm hoping that this super moon kicks things into gear for me!  Ready to meet this little one!!!  Though of course we don't have a girls name at ALL so now it'll probably end up being a girl hehe.

[callieollie]

Quick tip for newbies who may be using a birth pool.  We used the fishy pool and I was so worried about running out of hot water. We started with some cold water so we didn't melt the plastic and then turned it on full heat. I figured we'd run out of hot water, but we really didn't until it was almost full.  We then started to add more cold water because it was waaaaay too hot. I just wanted to get in so we started bucketing out hot water and refilling it with cold.  So then it felt fine (and the temp was fine) but when I got in, the water was only fine on the top.  The bottom of the pool had freezing cold water from the hose being down there. I never thought to make sure we stirred the water up!  So when we did that, it was way too cold. So we had to bucket the cold water out and put more hot water in (which thankfully we still had some of).  So, just a tip for anyone else like me who didn't think of that!