Posted on
November 16, 2015
I’m a month behind in these updates. I keep sitting down to do them but end up distracted with some other task. The last few weeks have been fairly taxing. One of my Grandmother’s had an accident on her bicycle and was in the trauma center at John Muir for a few weeks. She is finally in a care center slowly recovering with several broken ribs and an infection in her lungs. I’ll feel a lot better when they finally get a handle on that infection. It’s pretty nerve wracking when they keep saying it could be pneumonia. That’s the last thing she needs right now..
We’ve also been totally overwhelmed with orders, especially this last week. It’s exciting and awesome but also way too much for just Steve to handle. I can’t help like I used to. I try and by the end of the day, I feel absolutely awful. My body just can’t handle it anymore. The poor guy is working non-stop, trying to get the orders cut and shipped and no matter how long he works, it seems he’s still 500 orders behind. We’ve been at work between 11-14 hours every day and here we are, on his 36th birthday, at work. I hope we can at least get him out of here before 7 tonight to get a nice dinner.
Aside from getting tired easily, pregnancy has been very generous with it’s “symptoms”. The nausea has returned and while it isn’t as persistent as it was in the first trimester, it’s definitely just as bothersome. It comes and goes and nothing but sleep can soothe it. Along with the nausea, I have lots of heartburn, indigestion, sinus issues, headaches, back pain, constipation, gas, leg cramps at night, swollen ankles, and probably a few others I can’t remember. Thankfully, I don’t have stretch marks yet or hemorrhoids. I’ve gained probably 30 pounds already but technically, I weigh about what I used to weigh (+5 to 10 pounds) before I started eating strictly paleo a few months before getting pregnant. I haven’t been strict about it since bread and milk are the only way to soothe the nausea and indigestion. The good news though, is that my heart palpitations are gone. At my last prenatal appointment, I was still having them so my OB wrote a referral for me to see a cardiologist just to make sure everything was fine. By the time they called me to schedule an appointment, they were gone. Phew!
A few weeks ago we interviewed two doulas. A doula is essentially a woman who is the emotional support for the birthing process. She’ll meet with us for a few prenatal sessions to help prepare us for childbirth, she’ll be there for the entire labor and birth, and then she’ll provide support postpartum. I had never heard of a doula until my therapist recommended I get one. Since I don’t have a mother to help guide me through this big adventure, I thought the idea of a doula was absolutely perfect. I started looking for one a couple weeks ago and had a great feeling when I found Brooke’s website. When we met with her, I knew pretty much instantly she was who I wanted to help us but met one other doula who was recommended to me just in case. It turns out the two used to work together so the second doula will be the backup in case my labor is long and/or if Brooke has an emergency. Steve really liked Brooke as well which was very important to me. She’ll be his support too and I want him to feel totally comfortable and apart of the process.
I’ve been reading a lot of natural childbirth books the last few months. I’m not entirely sure how it happened because I’ve always assumed I’d end up having a hospital birth with an epidural, etc but the more I read, the more convinced I want a natural birth, ideally outside of the hospital. I don’t want to be pressured into medical interventions whether it be inducing medicines, c-section or epidurals. I don’t want this to be about just getting the baby out and I don’t want to get all hippy on you but I want it to be a spiritual experience. This year has been all about transformation for me and I want this birth to be the same.
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