Birth Inspiration

I've been getting inspiration from all kinds of places. I'm not sure how comfortable everyone is with the images of birth, but you can choose to click on the links or not. Two of them are pictures from National Geographic's Photo contest. One is I Love You Baby! the other is Between Two Worlds. NPR also did a series on birth this summer as well as a blog and there have been lots of great stories to read there, including this one. Then there is my friend Heather's blog. She's a Midwife and Doula and I just watched a non-birth related video on Breastfeeding.

I finally found the birth and baby section in the public library. There are a few English resources, mostly Sheila Kitzinger. I have expected to see "What to Expect.." there, but it wasn't. I just found out through reading one of the books I loaned that many women have fears about when and where their water will break. I had not thought to be worried about that before. I can understand though. The author reminds us that people can tell you are pregnant and will not respond with snickers, but with concern and helpfulness. I guess part of it depends on whether your water breaks relatively early or not. I'm sure if you were in the mall and your water broke along with having heavy contractions, you would just go to the hospital. But if you are dealing with early contractions well and it breaks and you still want to walk home.... Hmm...

Anyway, I've been feeling much bigger and tighter lately. Heavy. I'm also getting sore where my leg meets my hip. Sometimes more sharp, sometimes just an ache. I'm trying to not spend too much time on the couch, but instead sit on the floor cross legged when knitting or typing. Or get on all fours when reading something on the computer, or even my book. I think it definitely is shifting baby to be OA. When I move off all fours, I can feel the biggest bulge (the back I hope) right in front. Otherwise I just feel little bumps on up high or to the sides. I think there are less big moves happening, just stretching.

I've been doing BabyFit again- related to SparkPeople - just to see how many calories, etc, I'm eating. Since my goal has been to make sure I eat enough, I under estimate. It's hard to know how much carrot I ate in the mixed veggies we had with spaghetti, especially if there are leftovers! But after a few days it's made me feel better about how much I'm eating, especially with iron, etc. My favorite things to eat these days are: yogurt and strawberries with just a tad of maple syrup; and shredded carrot mixed and sunflower seeds with a little mustard maple vinaigrette. I cooked some chickpeas recently so maybe I'll try adding them to the mix.

I think that's enough for now! We are going to try to buy John some boots today or tomorrow. Today is the mall and thrift stores. Hope we find something good!

Love, Emily