Weekly Chat: Sept. 19-26

[*Amy*]

It's awwwwfully quiet around here this morning. [crickets chirping]

Good morning mamas. I can't believe this, but it's 10:30 and I just got out of bed. I got up with DH around 7:00, ate breakfast, and then got back into bed "for just a minute" and slept for another two hours. I was kind of shocked at myself. Growth spurt, I guess! I felt really crappy yesterday though, so maybe I'm not getting enough rest or something. Anyway, I feel really indulgent now.

I had a great birth dream last night; I could feel Brynn's head, shoulders, and elbows being born, but I really was not in any pain at all. Seems like my Hypnobabies programming is working, at least subconsciously! When I saw Brynn's face, I said, "ohhh, that's what you look like - I've been wondering!" But now of course I can't remember what she looked like.

This week my plan is to order my diapers ( ) and wash and organize the baby clothes we have so far. I'm very excited about this.

I hope everyone's week is off to a great start!!

[Queen of Cups]

Look at me - posting on the first page of the new thread!

My main goal this week is to finally finish cleaning my guest room/sewing room so I can start on all my baby projects (diapers, slings, quilt). I have no motivation to finish it, though - just to sew!

I really exhausted myself on Saturday: work, took DS to a local festival and had to sling him while I walked at least a couple miles, then went to a craft fair, then to a family fun night at the children's museum. I was feeling soooo bad that night and the next morning. I hate having to limit my activities, but I guess 30 weeks is about right to start taking it easier... I should have learned my lesson last time with the PTL a month before DS was born.

I'm loving the Hypnobabies program again - I'm so relaxed about the actual birth, its just the timing of it and family reunions around it that I'm stressed about!

[DreamsInDigital]

6 more weeks until I go on maternity leave. That means only 5 more Mondays. Blah. I wish I could sleep until 10:30.

[AmyGirl28]

Hello Ladies. How was your weekend? Mine was nice. I went to visit my mom 2 hours away. That will be my last trip until after the baby is born. I have resolved to firmly plant my arse to the sofa. :LOL
9 more weeks to go. I am so jealous that some of you only have 4 or 5 weeks left. I am not quite to that totally uncomfortable stage, but I am getting there. Gosh, September just flew by! I'm sure October and November will just crawl. I'm trying to keep busy though to make the time go by faster.

[babykaoss]

Hi everyone.....this is my first time jumping in on these threads, but I'm glad I caught it before it was pages long! Well I finally got all the closets cleaned out.........you have no idea how long that monster has been hanging over my shoulder, as i was one of those that would sort of chuck things in the closets and close the door real fast. I'm SO proud of myself for getting so much organized. It probably wouldnt have happened if I wasnt pregnant and nesting, honestly.

I borrowed the Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth from my friend yesterday, so I'm excited about getting this book read because there have been so many people recommending it left and right!

Oh, and I have gotten to know one of my neighbors in my apartment complex this week, a single girl w/ a 2 week old daughter and 2 year old son. She's had me babysit for her already and we're talking about me doing childcare for her while she works after I have my baby! YES! Stay at home mom AND income?!? This would be a lifesaver!!!

[babykaoss]

Originally Posted by Queen of Cups

My main goal this week is to finally finish cleaning my guest room/sewing room so I can start on all my baby projects (diapers, slings, quilt). I have no motivation to finish it, though - just to sew!

I really exhausted myself on Saturday: work, took DS to a local festival and had to sling him while I walked at least a couple miles, then went to a craft fair, then to a family fun night at the children's museum. I was feeling soooo bad that night and the next morning. I hate having to limit my activities, but I guess 30 weeks is about right to start taking it easier... I should have learned my lesson last time with the PTL a month before DS was born.

you'll have to post pictures when you're done, especially of the slings. i'd love to see them!

i did have a similar day to yours yesterday, we ended up going with another couple and their 6 month old baby to the zoo. Dd has been consistently worn up until the past few weeks when she has alternately asked to 'walk' and thrown a fit when i try to put her on my back.......so i think i'm losing my tolerance for it. Yesterday though, her little legs were worn out and so i put her on my back in the mei tai, and although it wasnt uncomfortable as far as carrying her, i was SO exhausted and didnt even realize it until we got back home. And our van doesnt have air conditioning, and so I was all hot and sweaty and cranky when we got home. That must have been why dh sent me to take a nap, heh heh.

[HoneyTree]

Plagio, MelW, gonnabeamom, Bensmom, zjande and Kavita, thanks so much for chiming in about birth anxiety in last week's chat thread. I can't tell you how helpful it was to read your posts!! In fact, I have borrowed a couple of phrases and used them in an idea that I think was mentioned only in jest, but that I am trying anyway:

www.geocities.com/treesock/messages.jpg

I am not usually one to do this sort of thing -- post affirmations to myself -- but then this would not be the first time that I've realized in the past 8 months that the person I thought I was is alrealdy someone I'm growing away from...

[Feathere]

Hi Mamas,
I am finally getting around to this weekly thread thing! I keep saying to myself, this is the week... but finally it is.

I'm feeling pretty good still. I am 32 weeks... we are taking our last big excursion this week to WI where we will be moving...it's rather peculiar, but we are moving a lot in the next year or so. In January we are moving overseas for about 6 months, then to WI. We are going to try to sell our house while we are overseas, keep stuff in storage, and then come back for it before we move to WI, where we will have to buy another house... I can't even begin to think about all this, all I want to do is think about buying diapers and getting our hb supplies in order.

At my last appointment I learned my baby is currently breech. The mw isn't stressed about it yet, and I'm not tooooooo concerned, but I am seeing the chiro to try to help things along. I set up the ironing board and have tried laying on it... has anyone else tried that? It's a real drag!! My 2 yo dd keeps telling the baby to 'turn head down' which can't hurt. I hope the aby turns soon because it would be more comfortable all around.

It is so comforting to read the posts on this board; even though I don't post a lot, it is nice to know that other people are having the same sort of pg events and we are all having babies around the same time! I am excited for everyone!

[meagen]

First of all, Amy, those pictures are beautiful! You will treasure those forever. I've been tempted to do something like that, but since I didn't with the first one, I feel like I shouldn't this time. I do, however, have amazing photos of Molly @ 6 mo, and will for sure do that again!

As far as weekend goes, we (dh and I) were big lumps yesterday, which led to a cranky dd. dh ran a marathon, and walking the mile from our house to the finish line and back about wore me out! :LOL So, by the time we got home, we laid around and watched football. I really feel like if we could have just one more weekend day, I'd be happy. The plan this week is to get ready for the in-laws : mil actually said to me, "we wanted to get out for a visit before you get too big" yeah, well, I'll be 35 weeks, so it doesn't get much bigger than this! You missed it be like 6 mo.! Can you tell we get along well? They are very stressful for me, so I'm trying to stay calm and let things go, as not to go into labor while they are here! That would be hell!!! Usually they just give me migrains, so we'll see.

Other than that, I'm getting very excited for Liam! I'm washing all my nursing clothes from Molly this morning, and packing a hospital bag. Woo Hoo! I hope the next few weeks fly by!!

[trmpetplaya]

Meagen, best wishes with your in-laws! That definitely sounds quite stressful...

It's starting to look as though my Mother will be able to fly up from Georgia to be here for the birth (if the timing works out, of course...)! I will be 33 weeks along tomorrow and the EDD is the 8th so my mom is probably going to fly out the last weekend of October so she won't be here for too long before the baby's born (hopefully this one won't be very late...).

Our first childbirth class was last Thursday and there are only four couples total in it which is a really nice size, I think. They're based on "Birthing From Within" which I just finished reading and are going quite well so far.

This week, I hope to go to work and survive! That's really my only goal till the weekend when I want to sort through our baby clothes and get our registry out to everyone who wants to get us stuff so they'll get us stuff we need/want.

I'm not at work today because I had a slight fever last night and have terrible rib pain on my right side. If anyone knows anything about that or has gone through it, please check out my thread on "I'm Pregnant" about "Bruised Rib?" because I explained it much more fully there. It's no fun though... other than that, things are going well

love and peace.

[gonnabeamom]

Meagen,

Good luck with the in-laws. Mine drive me crazy, but fortunately are very hands off. Remember that being 35 weeks pregnant is a very good excuse for just about anything. "I'm sorry I need to go lie down". "I just can't face food first thing in the morning, feel free to help yourself to whatever you'd like for breakfast". "Why don't you take DH and go, I'd just slow you down"


DH and I spent the weekend puttering on neglected household stuff. He got his eyes checked so he can actually see the babe when it arrives, we stocked up on some stuff at Costco, and did a mountain of laundry. He was coming down with a cold Sunday, which was a mixed deal. Mostly bad, but it did make him slow down. Lately he's so stressed by the amount he thinks needs to be done that he doesn't relax when he comes home, which means he drives me crazy. It turns out some of it is because the house is very chaotic (our painter is working on week 5), which bothers me some, and him a lot. So now we have a couple of rooms that are functional and a couple of rooms that are, closing in. The handy guy is here right now working on the leak in the kitchen and then he'll replace the faucet in the bathroom. Pregnancy seems to be the only thing that forces me to get stuff done.

It was actually kind of motivating to get stuff done, I actually steam-mopped the kitchen floor, and cleaned up the dogs bowls, and started to vacuum the rest of the downstairs. Then I ran out of energy and hear I am noodling on line again.

Off to try and be productive.

[SonjaW]

This is my first time with the weekly post as well!!

I am 33 weeks today!! Wow! DH and I headed to our cabin in the woods this weekend, and I had a wonderful time away from mirrors. I've noticed that the mirrors in our house make me feel "large" and "tired". Several moose visited our pond at the cabin, one was a mama with her baby.

I am noticing that I hate stairs. We have two sets of them in our house (basement) and they just tire me out. I limit myself to how many times I will go up and down them.

I also seem to be very HOT laitly. It was in the 50's last night and I still slept without blankets.

This week I plan to get Annabelles college fund set up, write my first draft of my birth plan for my doula to review, and practice my HypnoBirthing dilligently.

Annabelle has been moving a lot laitly and she is head down 95% of the day, which makes me very happy. She has discovered that my ribs feel good on her feet, I love it.

Thanks fo listening!

[Awaken]

Hi all, read thru all your updates! I'll try to paraphrase since I have a lot to say and don't want it to get too long!

The w/e started out crappy, I won't go into detail but it involved another parent actually walking up to me and berating me in front of other people for letting my ds splash in a puddle!! The only thing ds had enjoyed and laughed at all day, btw. Between that, putting my back out getting ds out of the car seat, and the blazing heat, I was in tears and so angry I just stomped out of there and went home and cried and thought of all kinds of mean things to say to that idiot father who thought it was fun to ruin a pregnant woman and toddler's day!

Anyway, things got much better after that- we ended up going to Ikea that night and ds had an absolute blast running all over the store and playing with the lights. We got some much-needed household stuff so that feels good.

And we got an organizing shelf for diapers, etc for the kids' room so I was able to clean out a bureau drawer and go through all the newborn clothes and put them in- it feels sooooo good to do *something* to make way for the baby, finally! And it's good to rearrange ds's room now, months before the baby comes, instead of changing it all once the baby gets here.

Then we all went swimming and had a wonderful time- I did laps while dh and ds splashed in the baby pool. Swimming just gives me a huge mental lift, and I felt so much better emotionally afterwards. And my prenatal yoga class resumes this week so that'll help, too.

yay- and just now found out my neighbor 2 houses down just had a baby girl! Woo hoo- can't wait to see her and hear all about it- she was going to a nice birth center.

**TMI alert** Thanks again to all who responded with suggestions/support about my sex and preterm labor question- we didn't have any condoms when the time came, but we, uh, have been trying some other tactics and it's worked out really well...I am so relieved- I really didn't want to be off sex for 8 more weeks, then have a baby and wait even longer after that! I told dh he has to go buy the condoms though- I'd be too embarrassed buying them at 7.5 months preg.! :LOL

Feathere- where are you moving in WI? We lived there for a year when I did my internship.

Ok, well I'm sure there's more but I'll end it here! Have a great night everyone.

[MelW]

Mary~ I can see the embarrassment at buying condoms at this stage. Though it would be entertaining to come up with wisecracks: "I'm trying to prevent twins!" "Just making sure that this never happens again"... :LOL

I've finally gotten off my butt and back to some working out (besides packing and unpacking), with a wonderful swim this afternoon. I'm feeling a little out of shape, though...I haven't worked out consistently for over a month. I'm hoping the exercise will boost my appetite, which has been pretty bad lately. It really worked to get me eating in the first trimester. Is the always-hungry pregnant woman just a pop-culture stereotype?

Otherwise, I'm just coasting here at 33 weeks. I have a midwife appt later this week, then three weeks later, then two, then weekly. I actually booked appointments until the end of my pregnancy- the receptionist booked my final time for December 1st, which is 43 1/2 weeks! I refused to write that one down in my dayplanner... Unless I need a postpartum visit

[HoneyTree]

Sonja, ITA on the stairs and hot temps. If I walk up stairs (like, two of them) too quickly, it gives me a BHX! I take it as a sign to slow WAY down, but I'm planning on mentioning it to my mw this week just in case. AND, it may have to do with the still-upper-80-degree nights around here, but I can't get cool enough either. I can't justify putting the AC on 70 degrees, so I brought our little oscillating fan in the bedroom for when I'm sleeping. That seems to help a lot.

[*Amy*]

Is the always-hungry pregnant woman just a pop-culture stereotype?

Um, no. :

Man I have been SO tired the past few days. It's like being back in the first trimester. I hope it doesn't remain this way for the next 8-10 weeks.

Yay on all of you swimming, exercising mamas! I just sent out an email to the stay-at-home-mamas in my village to see if they wanted to start walking with me MWF mornings. We'll see how that goes! I figure the possibility of having other people there will help motivate me to get out of the house at 8:30am. (Instead of going back to bed after DH goes to work. :LOL )

[Gunter]

Hey you mamas!

I am swimming, too! Yay! I kick myself for not having done more of it this summer. But my neighborhood pool stays open until Sept. 30th. Feeling great other than a cold. Thanks for the advice and support about my MW situation. Feel free to check out my post and offer more thoughts!

The head cold started with a mild sore throat last week and is now total nasal flow. I don't take meds so just trying to let it run it's course. I did make potato soup. Nice to be able to stay home on the couch today! I have to go in to work tomorrow though but only half the day.

We've got a decent diaper stash set up, Goodwill clothes washed and ready. We have set up little diaper changing stations in a few rooms upstairs and down just to make life a little more managable. I still need to get cloth wipes from somewhere and some sort of diaper pail. Suggestions?

I had three friends from high school stay this weekend. It's been over 2 years since we were all together at one's wedding. They each brought a blessing for me since they couldn't come to my mother's blessing last week and strung the necklace. I graduated HS in 1996 so it's been a while. While they were here, DH had a surprise guy's night out. He thought it was just one neighbor friend but I e-mailed some of his friends and they all met at a bar downtown to surprise him. Fun times for us.

[tryingitnatural]

Hello Ladies

Well this weekend was busy for me. I washed all my son's clothes and fixed our bedroom to accomodate him. His bassinet is ready and covered so dust won't get on it. My oldest cat did not seem to like what was going on, though. I felt a little sorry for her b/c this is nothing yet! . I have yet to fix my bag but at least all the babies stuff is taken care off (even the lotion, bodywash, brushes, etc.) I can always do with out at the birthcenter it is not like I will be there for days - I hope

[tryingitnatural]

Amy don't be so hard on yourself. I swear that at 30-32 wks for me my energy just disappeared. I felt so sorry for DH b/c I only get to see him during the weekend and all I wanted to do was to lay in bed. I just now started to gain some of my energy back not a whole lot but better than 2 weeks ago. Hope you do the same :-)

[Kavita]

BTE--I liked your pic, and was impressed with myself b/c of you and MelW--I've never actually authored a legitimate affirmation before!! Now I feel like Deepak Chopra or something! :LOL

Gunter, I bought a diaper pail from Baby Belle Bottoms along with a x-large purple waterproof tote (bummis? Can't remember.) I also got some Kissaluvs terry wipes and they seem pretty nice, soft and like they will be absorbent. However, it's probably better to get input from someone who has actually seen these supplies in action!!

Amy and anyone else who is buying diapers--I ordered a dozen DSQ chinese prefolds for about $10--clothdiaper.com is having an overstock sale, and I though that was a pretty good deal. I also got 4 double flannel receiving blankets for 9.95. They arrived today and the diapers appear reasonably well made and durable, and the blankies are big and soft and seem pretty cushy, and the colors are very nice. They come in mint, yellow, peach, pink and blue--you can specify colors, so I asked for "mint, yellow, peach, and suprise me!" They sent blue--think it's a cosmic sign that I'm having a boy?

No news here--I am tired today. I didn't sleep enough last night and then I was busy all day today. I'm actually considering starting my maternity leave a week earlier than planned--I'm "due" on 11/15 but was planning to start on 11/7. Now I'm wondering about something like 11/1. I'm just too stressed with all the negative crap at work and I think it would be a good idea to be done with that and focus on the pregnancy and myself for a little while.

Last night I finally did the hypnobabies and sort of remembered some of it! I did one of the CD's before and didn't remember anything between "relax" and "you will count up and be alert". Not sure if I was deeply hypnotized or just snoozing! I am feeling rather behind on it, don't know why I'm procrastinating so much except that in some way I realize that I am thriving on a certain level of stress and feel like I'll just collapase in a heap if I stop and relax. And also I have a lot of anxiety about "doing it right". Hmm, that could be the whole labor problem I'm trying to prevent with hypnosis in the first place, couldn't it?!

Well I need to get off of here, I need to do some work for work tomorrow and then DH needs the computer for his coursework.