Monthly Check Up and a Quick Bitch

Steve and I attended our monthly check up this morning and all continues to look good!  My weight is right on track (though a little shocking to see I have to say), baby's heart rate looks good and there seem to be no problems thus far.  And that is all kinds of great.

Most of our appointment was taken up by me running through my list of questions :)  We recently decided to fore go the epidural and try for an unmedicated birth.  Turns out that while my rods (see post below) are high enough to insert the epidural and it would be medically safe, it's still iffy that it would work and it would increase my risk of a spinal headache.  So to avoid all that noise, we're going to try for old skool. 

I'm avoiding the use of the term "natural birth" here because I find it incredibly annoying and insulting.  Allow me to take a moment of your time for a quick rant.  I've been doing a lot of reading about unmedicated births in preparation for my own and find that most books/websites that use the term "natural birth" also use a pretty snotty holier than thou tone.  There's a subtext that if you're using any form of medication then it's somehow "unnatural."  Like somehow if you're not going without meds and squatting a baby out on your living room floor, you're somehow missing out.  Which is pretty much bullshit.  If the act of birth is only "natural" if medical intervention is not used, then does that mean conception is unnatural if it does not result from traditional male-female intercourse?  How absurd and brazenly offensive.

Something I've learned about myself in this process is that while I tend to use more crunchy/hippy/alternative methods to cope with emotional and physical stress (yoga, breathing, visualization), the whole lifestyle tends to make my eyes roll so hard it hurts.  I was on a website the other day that had a drawing of a naked pregnant woman with a flower over her vagina and milk spraying from her nipples.  Seriously. 

This rant could go on much longer, as this ridiculous competition between women for the title championship of Worlds Best Mom knows no bounds (breastfeeding, childcare, vaccinations, etc).  And I refuse to take part in yet another socially constructed competition between women.  But I'll stop here as you've been so patient so far and I appreciate your willingness to read :)

In non-angry lady news, these days Baby Swartz seems to be reenacting the "Maniac" dance scene from Flashdance in my gut :)  Every morning, lunchtime and evening around 8/9 pm she goes to town in there!  And of course pretty much anytime I eat a banana--then the naner dance ensues.  It's pretty neat to put it lightly.

That's all for now!  Next week I'll be 6 months along!

Many congrats!!

Steve and I want to wish our good friends Jen and Ron a gigantic congratulations on their first son Carson James Schibner!  We are so happy for you guys!  So much love to you both!

Expanding Exponentially

20 weeks!  Now that we're halfway through this pregnancy, I thought it would be fun to look back and see how much we've grown!

Baby

5 1/2 weeks

8 weeks

13 weeks

18 weeks!

Mama

3 months

4 months

5 months!

So as you can see, we're growing rapidly!  Baby is about the size of a large banana and she's getting stronger and stronger.  I can feel her moving on and off throughout the day, but about four times a day now she gives me a good swift kick that makes me jump!  This is of course fine at home, but a little awkward when I'm in session with someone :)  Sometimes if I pull my shirt up a bit I can see what looks like someone playing the drums on the inside of my belly--and yes, while I love it, it is still pretty weird.  Let's be honest.

Things are progressing at home too!  We've decided to move out of our bedroom and into the front one that we worked so hard on.  It's a bit bigger than the one we're in and we're finding ourselves more and more cramped on space.  So now we're clearing out space and preparing to plaster and paint the nursery.  It will still be a bit, but once things get going I'll be sure to post before and after pics. 

We've also finished the registry!  Check it out if you're interested!  Thanks to Jodi and Stacey for helping us put this together.  Otherwise, we would have never known the importance of nipple cream ;)