Latest update
On one hand it feels like not much is going on—that we’re just passing the time (redecorating our bedroom, watching lost, hosting dinner parties, playing settlers of catan) and on the other lots of new stuff is happening.
I’m at 33.5 weeks right now. My 32 week appointment went great—Ethan and I are healthy. My blood pressure was slightly elevated (but of course they took it as soon as I had trekked in the exam room with all the extra weight from my giant work bag, winter coat, and boots.) I have all my doctors appointments scheduled up until the end which is kind of scary to see on paper.
We started taking our classes at the hospital. So far we had pediatric care & breastfeeding. I had a lot of anxiety about breastfeeding and the class made me feel a ton better. It still seems kind of tricky, but it’s one of those things you need to learn by watching, not reading. One interesting thing we learned was that you bond closely with the l&d nurses but they aren’t really interested in making sure you are breastfeeding before you leave the hospital. The postpartum nurses are responsible for that but you may not see them as often—so you have to push your l&d nurses to support you when you begin to breastfeed. Another thing is that the hospital tightly swaddles the baby (because they want to minimize all the crying in the nursery) but you should really do skin-to-skin when breastfeeding.
I’m definitely in nesting mode—we are redecorating our bedroom (my theory is that it will be the only place safe from brightly colored plastic toys so we need to make it nice) and I am dying to wash everything in the nursery and organize it based on size. We finished buying everything we need—baby sling, rectal thermometer, humidifier, etc. Today we’re even packing the hospital bag (I made an extensive list about 2 weeks ago).
3 more classes to go: what happens at the hospital, cpr & first aid, and baby care basics (a friend brought her 4 month old to work and asked me if I wanted to change her diaper—I said “Sure! I could use the practice.” and then realized I had absolutely no idea what to do. She did it and I watched.)
In general, I feel good. Sleeping has been a challenge with all the late night bathroom breaks, my belly sticks out so much sleeping on the side isn’t super comfortable, and i’ve had nights where my brain will not relax and I’m up for four hours watching hulu on the couch before falling back asleep for 2 hours and then dragging myself to work.
I decided I’m going to take maternity leave starting April 1st. I was going to work up until my due date but don’t really want to go into labor at work or on the el (what a nightmare that would be!) plus I want to be mellow and get into mom mode and get out of work mode.
Oh, and my belly button is going to pop any day now.
