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Tuesday, March 23, 2004

Nesting insomnia

I had my 36 week check-up today. Jeff went with m e because they had to do a "female examination". And do a Group B Strep test. Both of which are invasive & I didn't want Emma to have to sit through that alone. So daddy came along & after he heard the baby's heartbeat, he & Emma went into the waiting room. So, the doctor says I'm about 50% effaced & 1 cm dilated. Not bad for 36 weeks. He says this is normal & does NOT mean I'm going into labor tomorrow. But now Jeff's freaked because he's afraid that we won't have anyone to watch Emma while I'm in labor. Our neighbor across the street (Morgan's mom) said she'd watch Emma overnight if need be, but she works during the day & Morgan goes to preschool & daycare, so we'd have to find someone else to watch her during the day. We may be doing the neighbor "babysitter shuffle", as Emma goes from one person to the next. If things don't happen very quickly, and my mom is here when I go into labor, then I figured we'd just take Emma with us. I'm sure all hospitals have to have some sort of contingency plan for having siblings at the birth if there isn't anyone to watch them. I know we aren't the only people who have had this dilemma. But, then again, this could all just be preliminary stuff & I won't go into labor for another 4 weeks, but we have to be prepared for anything.
Speaking of being prepared, we're slowly starting to get things ready in the baby's room. We put together the changing table/dresser yesterday & I started doing her laundry, getting all her clothes cleaned & folded. Emma's liking this part, especially when she finds something that she thinks HER baby would look cute in, she confiscates it. She's also done this with all the stuffed animals I've set aside for Sarah. Emma doesn't want to share any of them, even though she doesn't play with anymore. Unfortunately, I think this is a side effect of being an only child for so long. She's not used to sharing anything with anyone & doesn't like it when she's in a situation where she has to.
Jeff & I watched another "episode" of our childbirth video. This one covered the 3 real signs of labor & 2 Lamaze breathing techniques. I never took any breathing classes (or any at all) when I was pregnant with Emma, so this was new to me, too. But, they seemed easy enough to utilize. Jeff & I both practiced the breathing because, as the instructor said, most women, when they're in the middle stage of labor, want their coach to breathe with them to help them concentrate. I could see how that would happen. So, that's why I told Jeff he needed to practice the breathing, too. He was a good sport about it. They did this exercise to show how the breathing takes your attention away from the intense pain (albeit not completely, this is breathing, not a miracle) because your brain can only get stimulation from one area at once. And, the idea is, if you're so attuned to the breathing, it's "said" you won't notice the pain as much. So, the instructor had all the men squeeze their wife's leg, kinda like a contraction would go, light at first and then getting more intense, peaking at about 30 seconds & then gently relaxing until a minute had gone by. All the while, the women are doing their breathing. I noticed that he was squeezing my leg, but it didn't bother me too much. She then had the guys squeeze our leg again, with the same amount of pressure they had while we were breathing & all the women jumped. It was amazing how much it hurt the second time & I had thought that he wasn't squeezing me that hard. But, since turn about is fair play, the women were then able to do the same to our husbands. So, we squeezed while they breathed. It turns out I can't squeeze all that good, because it apparently tickled & not hurt him. But he noticed it the second time, when he wasn't breathing. The instructor also said that if the men had any sense that this was the worst a contraction could be, then they were dreaming.
Although I started this particular blog yesterday afternoon, I got side-tracked & didn't finish it. But I woke up early this morning & decided to finish it. Like, 6:30am this morning. I had some serious insomnia today. I woke up to go pee at 6am, and couldn't go back to sleep. For the most part, if this happened in the past, I would just lay there until I fell asleep again, but I could tell that it wasn't going to happen this time. So I rolled out of bed & decided to do something. I balanced my checkbook, unloaded the dishwasher, loaded it back up again, made some blueberry muffins (from a mix, I'm not THAT industrious that early) and generally just cleaned up. Emma woke up around 7:45am & Jeff got up at 8. Now, it's 9:30am and I actually feel like I've already accomplished something today. And I normally don't have this feeling until around 5pm, when I actually get around to doing something productive. Today, I'm ahead of the game. You'd think this would make me even more industrious, wanting to get even more accomplished. You'd be wrong. Since I've pretty much finished all the goals I set out for today, with the exception of the never-ending, always present laundry, I'm going to take this opportunity to lounge. At least until Emma makes a mess of something. Then the cycle starts all over again.

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