What I Do When Being Lazy

We realized that we had forgotten pretty much everything we learned on the first tour, so we did a second tour of the Barnes maternity ward today. It was very useful because after doing the St. Luke’s and Missouri Baptist tours I felt like I really knew what to look out for on the tour. After the tour, I feel much better that Barnes is the right choice for us. The tours at Barnes are given by the doulas, and both that we’ve met have been really nice and knowledgeable people. I am excited to have one there (for free!) to help me through labor. The labor and delivery room at Barnes was quite a bit nicer than Missouri Baptist and about equal to St. Luke’s. When the tour guides were explicitly asked about birthing balls and other equipment available, both St. Luke’s and Missouri Baptist admitted they had some available – but Barnes was the only one that mentioned them without being asked, pulled them out to show us, told us about the squat bar being available, said that we could bring a birthing tub in, noted that some rooms have Jacuzzi tubs available, and generally made it clear that they welcome alternative methods of pain management. Barnes has also made changes to enhance baby-mother bonding – for example, they now leave the mother and baby alone for a full hour after birth before taking the baby for routine post-birth treatments. Barnes doesn’t just allow the mother to room-in with the baby, but encourages it, and provides a private post-partum room with a second full bed for the husband or partner. And, of course, Barnes is a cutting-edge, world-class hospital with top-notch equipment and doctors on staff in case of an emergency. After seeing the other hospitals and getting a better sense of what they have to offer, I’m really happy with Barnes.

I’ve been off work a little more than a week now, and I have to say that I have been really enjoying it. It’s so nice to be able to sleep exactly as much as I need to. If I wake up in the middle of the night and have trouble getting back to sleep, it’s no big deal – I just sleep in later the next day. It’s not like my job is very physically strenuous, but nonetheless it was really starting to get to me. My neck and shoulders were getting sore from using a mouse (especially since I now have to sit six inches farther from my desk), my swollen hands were sore from typing, my feet were swelling more from sitting at a desk … it was just generally uncomfortable. So now I sleep in until 8 or 9 (sometimes 10), go for a walk, do a little yoga maybe, have a nice lunch, watch a little Days of Our Lives, spend some time with my husband, take care of a few errands, read a bit, and generally try to relax. My goal is to fit some Tetris-playing time in this week. I was really one of those people who thought they would just work up til their due date and it would be no big deal … but I have changed my tune. If you can spend the last few weeks relaxing, it really helps. I know, you’re probably thinking, “Why doesn’t she post more to the blog if she’s off work and laying around the couch watching cable?” I’ve been asking myself the same question. My best answer is: You’d be surprised how much time laying around being lazy takes. I’m lucky if I can get one or two actual productive activities done in a day.

Tomorrow we have an ultrasound to determine exactly how big Seda is now. The average baby at 38 weeks is 6.8 pounds. We’ll see how she compares.

I saw a few drops of blood yesterday – I think this might be the “bloody show” that the pregnancy books talk about. It’s supposed to happen when the cervix starts dilating a little bit – it breaks a few blood vessels and causes a little bleeding. We’re guessing that when the doctor checks me tomorrow I might be a centimeter or two dilated! That doesn’t necessarily mean anything exciting, though – it could still be several weeks before labor really starts. I haven’t seen any other signs, though – no contractions and haven’t seen the mucous plug (or the snot cork, as I now call it, a term I borrowed from Mr. Nice Guy’s Blog).

Mac and I have been doing my Hypnobabies self-hypnosis CDs together. Self-hypnosis is really just a way of relaxing and focusing the mind, and I think it will really help me during labor. At the very least it will give me something to actively do rather than just sitting there passively, panicking, or feeling out of control. I use some of the self-hypnosis techniques when I have headaches or backaches, and they really seem to help – I have high hopes that they will also provide some assistance during labor. And, as a bonus, the CDs are fun to do – they are very relaxing and pleasant.