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Happy May!

7K views 207 replies 13 participants last post by  RachelCap 
#1 ·
I'm excited that it's May now! Only one month away from our "due month" and I can hardly believe it. Definitely starting to feel ready for it, though.
 
#2 ·
Yay for May! There's a good chance that at least a couple of our babies will be born towards the end of this month! I'm torn between being so ready, and having a bunch of things on my to-do list that I don't have enough time to get done in just one more month.
 
#3 ·
May!

I feel like having my baby is so far away, yet so close. I'm 32 weeks and not really expecting to have my baby until 41 weeks sometime, so probably July. July seems far away. But, 8 weeks until my due date does not seem as far.

I'm still part of a really active FB group that formed from my last due date club, and we have a bunch of us due starting in May and going through July. The first baby was born a couple days ago and another mama is in labor right now. Super exciting! Makes it seem like I am that much closer to meeting my new little one.

As uncomfortable as I am getting, I'm trying to take each day as it comes and enjoy all the moments until we get there. I don't want May/June to fly by because I love warm weather and I don't want to miss out on enjoying any of it! We finally had a pleasant day today and I could be outside in short sleeves.
 
#4 ·
It's already getting kind of hot here. I took the kids for a walk to the park and my fingers swelled up! Ugh! But I also love this time of year -- everything is pretty and green and I hope to enjoy it and not rush through it. At least, not too much! I feel like my due date is going to come before I know it. I'm also prepared/expecting to go past my due date. But I'm pretty certain he'll be a June baby since my due date is closer to the beginning of the month.
 
#5 ·
I also can't believe it is May!! Mostly excitement here, and I'm so looking forward to getting a little bored in the next few weeks/wrapping up as much as we can on the to-do lists.

My little ticker thing on the bottom of my posts for so long was not a big deal...now every day I see it it's exciting!! Even though I know it could be an extra 10-14 days past the due date, just to think that we're in "the thirties" of days till his due date is unbelievably exciting!

I'm starting the chapter in Birthing From Within about pain in labor. It's helpful so far. Also getting close to finishing the Womanly Art of Breastfeeding. I've loved reading that one, and have a million tabs in the nursing section.
 
#6 ·
The "Nursing in slow motion" section with the pictures in The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding was very helpful to me in the early days of nursing.
 
#7 ·
Had a filled, but good day today. Coached a soccer game. We actually lost this one, one of 3 that we have lost since the beginning of fall season, but I felt like the kids played really well; some of the best playing I've seen from our team. I was sure to tell them so. After the game, we rushed over to my husband's uncle's funeral, which while sad, was also quite uplifting. Very much a celebration of his life. Also took the kids to the local pool. They had a blast, and it felt so good to float around in the water! I will have to go again before the baby comes.
 
#8 ·
@MnMtm that sounds like an awesome day!! My day was not quite as great - studying for statistics the first half, then taking the exam. But that's done!! Now I have about 10 pages written of a 30-page paper...and it's slow going. Looking forward to turning it in on Wed :)

I'm so curious about the royal baby's birth - first I think it's so cool that they went past her due date, and the news people say that Kate was only in the hospital for a few hours - which leads me to believe she either labored for a while before going to the hospital (cool!) OR maybe it was a c-section since it was so quick. Either way, the little princess has super cute chubby cheeks!!!!! DH is annoyed with my fascination, but I told him I don't follow any other kind of celebrity stuff or fashion or anything like that - let me have this one :)
 
#11 ·
Poor thing deserved an easy birth after that pregnancy! (No, I don't generally follow royal/celebrity happenings either, but you know... babies!) And yes, the wee princess is VERY cute! Remarkably non-red for a newborn, don't you think?

Monday today. New week, and I'm trying to think of some good concrete goal to get done. I should probably have a go at painting the chest of drawers in the garage, so I can put it in the kids' room, thus freeing up DS' current dresser (which has heavy 'sticky' drawers he can't open by himself anyway, a huge pain) for the baby's clothes.

Hopefully Mum left behind the primer she used on our dresser, so I won't have to sand the darn thing. I'll go have a look at it in a minute. Now's not the best weather for painting, but then, it's only going to get colder and wetter for the next few months!

My friend who's due in less than two weeks had false labour the other night. She and her husband got up and packed her bag and cleaned the house and everything, only for labour to peter out in the morning. Must have been frustrating, but in some ways a 'preview' of labour pain is valuable. We chatted about coping techniques and stuff, and DH is going to have a manly talk to her husband about what he has to do during labour. :p

Which reminds me of another thing I should do this week, actually - finish baby gifts! This friend (the most imminent) doesn't know the sex. I have a gender-neutral-but-kind-of-leaning-towards-boyish floor quilt almost done (just needs binding), but she's been given a ton of gender-neutral stuff and I know she's hoping for a girl and likes girly things, so if she does have a girl I'd like to give her something really pink and ruffly, you know? I have some leftover quilt fabric in pinks and greens, big squares I could make into a simple quilt in no time flat; I should probably do it, and if she has a boy, well, I've got plenty of other pregnant friends!

Then I've still got a dozen or so letters to go on the alphabet I'm making another friend. (And the one I'm making for *my* baby, which I may as well get finished before the baby arrives too!) And I have a couple of wee baby bonnets stashed away as well, but they do sort of rely on people having girls. :p

Plus I have two onesies I want to make for our baby. One's an elephant onesie - both our other kids randomly happened to end up with an elephant-themed onesie each, and DH made up a little song he'd sing to them when they wore it. It was cute, and even though Morris will have both hand-me-downs, I feel he deserves an elephant onesie of his very own.

The other is just a onesie of some kind with a Morris Minor appliqued on it... for obvious reasons. :)
 
#12 ·
I am not adding any else to my to-do list for before baby is born. My plate is full enough. I am impressed with your ambition, Smokering!

DS's big birthday party will be this Saturday, so that's the next big thing on my to-do list. I feel pretty good about it. We are on track for everything to be ready.
 
#13 ·
I agree, @MnMtm, I can barely get the things I have on my list currently done:

Deep clean the house
Outside herb garden planted
DH vision check-up
My glasses updated
My dental check-up
Vet check-ups for cats
Wash all baby clothes
Prep cloth diapers
Changing table stained
Assemble all the baby gear
Install Car Seat and have it checked
Arrange for a sitter
Choose a Pediatrician
File FMLA paperwork
Finish cream baby blanket
Make Mother's Day plans
Think of something inexpensive to do for our Anniversary

Oye! I need to get on some of this stuff- Only about 5 weeks left to schedule appointments, etc.
 
#14 ·
I'm definitely not adding too much to my to do lists in the next little bit. I have some things left to prepare for baby and that's basically it.

Today I'm going to prep prefolds and wash baby clothes. I'm relaxing mostly because it's my birthday, and Star Wars day which means obviously I need a Star Wars marathon. Plus it's a local provincial election and I need to watch that coverage. Most of my day will be on the couch :)
 
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#15 ·
Awww Happy Birthday @NaturallyKait! hope it was a great one.

My to-do list is pretty long at this point, too. Lots of things that just kept getting carried over month to month, so of course I'm saving a lot of the least fun stuff for last :/ but I found out today that I don't have to help with grading papers or finals, which is a huge win! So I should actually be able to wrap up my school stuff this week and have a REAL WEEKEND (no school or work) for the first time since January :) very much looking forward to that.

I'm curious what you all think about the need for vitamin k after the baby is born. I was up an extra hour the other night, researching the difference between the shot and oral methods, and of course I know we have the option of refusing it all together as well. The internet generally is such a black hole for researching this kind of thing, and it's so hard to sift through people's cranky/vehement opinions (on both sides). Taking statistics this semester has also made me very wary of single, non-replicated studies -- hypothesis testing in particular (this is or is not "significant") doesn't seem like a very reliable way to measure effectiveness of various things!!
 
#16 ·
We opted not to get the vitamin K shot. From my research, it sounds like the oral vit K isn't very effective, so for us it was the shot or nothing. Neither of our children had traumatic births, or births involving vacuum extraction or forceps, so the risk of hemorrhage was not really there. Also, we don't circumcise, so I wasn't worried about excess bleeding there. If one of our kids had had a traumatic birth, especially with any pressure to their head, I would be more apt to get the shot to prevent possible cranial hemorrhage. The risk of future leukemia is higher in children who receive the vitamin K shot, though it is still quite a small number. To me, this one was not as cut and dry as the others. (Eye goop? No, I don't have any STDs or vaginal infections. Hep B vax? Nope; I don't have it, and my children are not high risk for contracting such diseases.)
 
#20 · (Edited)
To me, this one was not as cut and dry as the others. (Eye goop? No, I don't have any STDs or vaginal infections. Hep B vax? Nope; I don't have it, and my children are not high risk for contracting such diseases.)
Same here. The others are also easier "no" decisions for me as well (and I think we'd have to elect to make special arrangements for either of those, as I don't think they're standard at our center). If he's born premature (which would mean at the hospital) or as you said @MnMtm with any kind of trauma/bruising, then I'd also be more willing to opt for the shot. The thing I read that scared me a little is the risk of this (highly rare but scary) newborn bleeding disease that can happen anytime up to 3 mos. Were it not for reading about that, I think I'd be fine skipping the Vit K altogether - DH dug up some material too, though, questioning whether if newborns are deficient in k...maybe there's a reason?? Something to think about.

I'm pretty sure I read in my short foray that the link between the shot and cancer was disproven as well, BUT there have been so few studies (for and against) that I'm not overconfident about the risks/benefits of the shot or the oral...

@Smokering that 5-pager sounds awesome! Any "bullet points" you'd be willing to share here??
 
#17 · (Edited)
Eugh, I'm torn on the Vit K shot too. We declined both times before, but now I'm unsure again. As MnMtm says, the oral vitamin K doesn't seem to be that effective, so we'd do the shot or nothing. I thought the vitamin K/leukemia link was disproven, though?

My friend who's due in less than two weeks hasn't done much childbirth prep, and I was getting a bit worried for her. So I asked if I could send her a list of advice based on my own experiences, and she said she'd been planning to ask me to! So I just wrote out... um, five pages. :p Some of it's pretty graphic, too! But it's all stuff I wish I'd known before having my babies, and I think she'll appreciate it. A lot of it's just 'this is what this stage of labour feels like', or 'you should bring this to the birthing centre for this reason'. It was fun to write, actually! Reminded me of a lot of things...
 
#19 ·
I'm choosing the Vitamin K shot simply for the reason that it seems babies are depleted until a month or more after birth and I don't know what trauma could happen after birth. I tried to chase out the leukemia/Vitamin K connection and didn't find anything current or convincing. That's just my take though.
 
#21 ·
I'm trying to get my butt into gear finally and get the house ready for a newborn. I've been really letting it go lately just because I've been tired, but this morning I had a renewed sense of motivation to kick this house into shape. Then I'll plan on trying to maintain it from now on. I do have all the baby clothes washed, and the diapers prepped, and finally have enough covers, so I am feeling more prepared on that front. I decided to go ahead and buy a new carseat, and that should be delivered today. Yay! I know I'll probably still go late, but I definitely am starting to feel some changes lately. I think he's settling in lower and the braxton hicks are coming on more and more frequently. So, it's good to know that my body is gearing up for delivery.
 
#22 ·
DH dug up some material too, though, questioning whether if newborns are deficient in k...maybe there's a reason?? Something to think about.
That's really my concern. As far as I know (and again, I researched this awhile back, so I'm not super current) the shot IS good at preventing haemmorhagic disease of the newborn, which is serious although rare. So my objection isn't to that; it's just to a kind of dubious "But what if they're MEANT to be like that?" thing.

Like, remember when they thought breastmilk was 'deficient' in iron and put iron supplements in formula, and it turned out babies are actually supposed to have low iron because too much can cause brain damage and other nasty things? My worry is that we just don't know enough about neonatal physiology to determine whether or not low vitamin K in infants has a purpose.

But that's not really based on scientific data, and maybe it's paranoid. So as I say, I'm torn. :/

@Smokering that 5-pager sounds awesome! Any "bullet points" you'd be willing to share here??
Heh, thanks. To my relief she really appreciated it (and the gory bits didn't make her faint with horror). She asked a ton of questions and said she'd read it over again tomorrow and make a list and stuff. So that was cool. :) She had false labour the other night and experienced a few of the things I told her about - like a sudden desire to be naked - so I think that helped convince her I knew what I was talking about!

If you want I can PM you the whole thing - I won't spam this poor thread with 5 pages' worth of advice! I warn you it's a bit graphic in spots, but then... well, childbirth IS graphic, and forewarned is forearmed, right? :p
 
#28 ·
If you want I can PM you the whole thing - I won't spam this poor thread with 5 pages' worth of advice! I warn you it's a bit graphic in spots, but then... well, childbirth IS graphic, and forewarned is forearmed, right? :p
yes, please :)

Great article, too. Some things I hadn't thought about -- GBS results/possible antibiotic use (won't know for another 2 weeks or more about that one), and the fact that DH and I are vegetarian and don't eat a lot of the things listed as rich in K2. I completely agree that our diets have gone downhill compared to the past, and even though DH and I eat healthier than the average American, I can completely imagine that we're not eating enough of many things, comparatively speaking. So I'm not counting on the maternal supplementation option.
@MnMtm sorry about the anxiety about baby maybe coming earlier than expected...but that's also pretty exciting!! I hope you'll find the time to get things done that need to get done.

AFM - DONE with my big paper!! I was feeling like it wasn't coming together, but something clicked last night and this morning, and when I printed out the hard copy/put it in a cover, I thought - yep, that's not too bad!! I'm very happy at the thought of not being in class + pregnant again (though I may still be working on my dissertation next time, I am definitely not hoping to be pregnant within a year of this little guy's birth)
 
#23 ·
I'm with you guys, Smokering, and Fyerfly. They have found that even if mom really doses up on the vitamin K before birth, the baby is still "deficient" in it. THey have found that nothing they do before birth will raise those vit K levels in the newborn. My natural childbirth and breastfeeding ideas are all so closely tied to the idea that it was all designed this way, so even though we're not sure why newborns have lower vit K levels than older babies, I keep thinking there must be a reason. i mean, it's not like every baby born is born flawed with a vit K deficiency, right? But, yes, that's not terribly scientific.
 
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#25 ·
My midwife said we could play it by ear based on the risk factors, like bruising at birth... So if all is normal no shot for us. I have a long list of to dos that would be making me panic but I took time off of work starting this week which is giving me so much more time! As a FTM though I am starting to get some nerves as I think how close it's getting. I'm one that could be July though
 
#26 ·
I'm getting a little nervous that this baby may come sooner than I thought. Both my babies have been born within a couple days of their EDD (DS barely after, DD barely before.) However, this baby has dropped; I can feel a difference. The good is that I have less heartburn and shortness of breathe. The bad is that I can't jog or walk quickly anymore because I can feel the baby's head in my pelvis. I guess I will be having to pass the soccer coaching onto parent volunteers for the last 2 games. Also, I've been having an increase in BH contractions. Based on my LMP, my EDD is June 2nd, but I'm fairly sure I ovulated 3-5 days earlier than usual, which would put my EDD at somewhere between May 28th and May 30th. Which means that I am closer to 37 weeks than 36. As much as the end of pregnancy is uncomfortable, I admit that I have been a little anxious since the baby dropped, wondering if the baby will come earlier than expected. I know this sounds really dumb, but I have been picturing the baby coming at the end of May, and it almost makes me panic to think of LO coming sooner. I still have things on my to-do list to do, and plans to cover. At the very least, I have to get DS's B-day party this Saturday done. And I have not been as vigilant about perineal massage as I meant to be. I'm not ready yet. I still need a couple more weeks or so. Though I guess I don't really get to choose.
 
#27 ·
MnMtm, I'm right there with you on not knowing when mine is going to show up too. Although I haven't dropped! I asked my midwife about that and she said with first babies once they drop they usually stay but after the first baby she says they can wait and drop in labor or go down into the pelvis but than come up again. I guess the pelvis is just roomier after we have our first child?!

I've been measuring 1.5 weeks ahead consistently which has my midwife thinking I might go 1.5 weeks early also. I also know that I conceived very early in my cycle as we didn't use protection the day my period was over.And that is when this lil one came to be! My midwife has my EDD set at May 28th, and I'm trying to get ready, but I feel like May 28th is coming fast and if I go early? Ah, I find myself looking at my house and bathrooms every day thinking oh my, not today, its a mess! I cleaned the house top to bottom last Friday but with 3 teenagers and a 4 yr old and than I worked full days -8 hrs on Mon and Tues when Normally I only go into work 2 hrs early morning and work the Breakfast shift at the School cafeteria where I work, Its a mess today! I am catching up laundry this afternoon and cleaned my fridge out today! Totally nesting :grin:
 
#29 ·
yes, please
Bah! MDC's message system is freaking out because it's too long, and wants me to cut it up into tiny chunks. I'll post it as a new thread here, so it doesn't clog up the May chat, instead.

Had a talk with my MW today about the vitamin K thing. She was quite supportive of not doing it, which made me feel a lot better. Apparently midwives in NZ don't tend to actually recommend it except in the case of a traumatic birth (ventouse, forceps etc). That was interesting (and NZ has a really good infant mortality rate).
 
#30 ·
I am having trouble figuring out if he's dropped actually... Most people are telling me I'll "know" but I've been having a grinding sensation in my pelvis for about two weeks now. It literally feels like someone kicked me in the crotch and it's worse after lying horizontal. But at my baby shower most of the mom's said it was obvious I hadn't dropped.
My midwife said yesterday she can feel his head right against my cervix which is shortening and softening already. *shrug*
I guess it doesn't matter that much as far as timing of when I'll go into labor but I'd like to think this pelvic pressure isn't going to get worse in the next 4-6 weeks.

Also, I absolutely smashed my toe Tuesday night so now I have a gimp in addition to a waddle. I'm terrified that walking incorrectly is going to cause more pain/injury. :/
 
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