Blah!

That's exactly how I have been feeling lately. Every time I eat something, it makes me feel blah! Even in the morning, today I had a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios and now I feel so heavy and my tummy feels yucky.  I feel like my food should be giving me energy and not weighing me down so much. I hope it is just temporary and passes soon.

I had a doc appt on Tuesday and it went well. Blood pressure is still really good, weight is good, and I got a negative on my fFN test and my cervix is still high and closed. Afterwards, my doula met me at the hospital to participate in the Monogram Maternity program they are starting. The program focuses on encouraging natural labor and explains all of the ways the hospital can help support you in your natural labor.  Some things include aromatherapy, labor tub, birthing ball, squatting bar, rabozo, and massage.  You can also pre-register.  They also give you some material on preparing a birth plan and submitting it straight to the hospital so that it can go in your chart.  Then you get a tour or labor & delivery, post-partum, and the nursery.  This gave me the opportunity to ask a lot of questions that I had. For example, I want baby girl to wear a cloth diaper from birth, is that possible? How long do I have to bond with baby in my L&D room before being transferred upstairs if baby is term? Can I try and breastfeed baby before being transferred? Can we have skin to skin contact for an extended period of time before baby is weighed and measured?

I felt very reassured and confident that the hospital staff is really in tune with mother/baby bonding.  They actually encourage the parents or a family member to give the baby their first bath, instead of just the nurse doing it. You would think after 2 babies that I would not have many questions about the birth, etc.  But I've never had that "normal" birth experience before. I have always had the baby, the NICU wisks them away, and I just want to hurry up and be transferred so I can get down to the NICU and see the baby. I have no idea how a "normal" birth works in terms of what happens after baby is born.


My doula was really impressed with all the things this hospital does to encourage and support natural birth.  She took lots of notes and some brochures to hopefully help encourage the hospital in our town to move in that same direction.  I think its very encouraging to see hospitals trying to take as much of the medical aspect out of "birth" as they can, while still having the safety of the hospital for those who need it.  I also find it encouraging to have a doc and a hospital who support me in trusting my body to do what it is made to do, with as little intervention as possible. And also who treat me as a single person instead of my labor/delivery being the same as the woman's in the room next to me.

Is is strange that I always look forward to the labor/delivery part of pregnancy? I know some women fear it, but I actually look forward to it. Its' like training for a marathon and then finally the race is here. Maybe I'm strange?! :)