Childbirth Boot Camp

Well it's been a fun weekend. We had all-day childbirth classes at Birthways, a pregnancy/birth education joint here in Chicago. It was all pretty useful and interesting, but alot to absorb in two days. Not to mention alot of sitting on uncomfortable chairs for two days... Before you ask, no we didn't learn how to breathe. Or how to relax. The theory behind the way this class is taught (which is intended for those wanting natural birth) is that information and understanding is more useful than artificial breathing techniques, and that your instinctive responses to each stage (be it moaning, or moving around, etc) are generally the most helpful. And we got to enjoy a whole lot of birth videos, which all seemed to have been made in the late 80's and early 90's. As you can imagine, this meant a whole lot of fantastic hair and fashion. Good times. As we are wont to do, Byron and I enjoyed finding humor in some of the videos, like one where a laboring woman stood in the shower and was hosed down by her husband. I mean maybe that water spraying across her body felt good, but she looked like a prison inmate being processed with an involuntary shower.
Overall I'm feeling pretty good lately, getting more of those delightful irregular "practice contractions." Not so much fun, not only do my belly muscles get all hard and tight, but I also feel a little out of breath. I feel a little out of breath alot lately, surely because someone is trying to take over my entire torso. And doing a bang-up job of it so far. Someday, someday my internal organs will all return to their rightful homes.....

I passed!

Just thought I would share the good news from my 28 week appointment today - I passed the glucose tolerance test with flying colors! She said I had a perfect response and zero hint of any diabetes. Which is fabulous. So we can cross gestational diabetes off the list of potential pregnancy worries. She did note that my ankles were somewhat swollen, which I can live with. In the last few weeks my fingers have occasionally gotten swollen, but I must admit I had not been checking my ankles. So I could be on my way to getting cankle-y. For those of you who may not be aware, the term cankle is used to describe your ankles when they are very large and indistinguishable from your calves. Ankle+calf=cankle. Which led Byron and I to wonder out loud, if you already had cankles, how would you know if your ankles were swollen?

Mmmm, orange glucose drink....

Today I went and took my 28 week glucose tolerance test. Which, for the uneducated, involves limiting what you eat beforehand, then drinking a delicious (by which I mean nasty) orange sugar drink, then loitering in the waiting room for an hour, then having your blood drawn. The whole point is to see how you handle the surge in sugar, to get an indication of your likelihood of having gestational diabetes. We'll find out in a few days if I passed. The orange drink is decidedly unpleaseant, basically tasting like a can of orange soda that has gone flat. Yumm!
Thursday we head in for my 28 week appointment, at which point I have to start going in every 2 weeks instead of every 4 weeks. Guess that means we're getting closer! And I am most certainly getting larger. Mostly I'm feeling pretty good, except for the continually resurging heartburn and the not-quite-going-away lower back stiffness. All things considered, not too bad. And apparently I'm not as big as I think I am - two people I know casually at work just asked last week if I was pregnant. The one told me that I'm so tall it just isn't as obvious. Yeahhhh. I wonder how long they were thinking to themselves "hmm, she's put on a few pounds...."

Well at least when I get huge...

I won't get THIS huge!

Just saw this photo online of the mom of those octuplets. If nothing else, at least this part of her story will make all us other preggos feel better. Seriously, how do you even stand up and walk around with that?

Please God let me not be a waddler

Not that I was ever capable of doing somersaults and backflips, but in the last week or so I have started to really feel heavy and unwieldy. And I often wonder, where did my center of gravity go - as it is no longer where I left it. I swear it was right here....
Now when I stand up it actually takes a certain amount of effort because of that dastardly force, gravity. And the really fun part is knowing that it will only get worse! It's not like I've packed on 50 pounds (I've gained 11) but they are all, how shall I put this, distributed between my top front and lower front. No counterweight at the back, which I suppose is a good thing. I'm doing my best to still walk like a normal person, although I know the day will come when I adopt the standard preggo waddle. I hope that day is still in the semi-distant future....

In other fun news, we met with our doula Victoria last week, which was great. She's very relaxed and groovy, which is essential, and, this is the best part, quite compatible with our senses of humor. I find alot of release in humor (as does anyone I chose to be friends with!) and I just know that it will be my sanity saver during labor to have someone who can sass it up with me the same way. And in two weeks we are headed to childbirth class bootcamp - a full weekend of class to ensure that we sort of know what we are doing.

Little Bubba is still quite active, and has definitely taken a shining to my ribs. He also seems to prefer assaulting my right side versus my left. No idea why. It would be awesome to have some sort of belly cam to see what in the world he is doing. Breakdancing, I bet.

Setting a High Bar

Well our kid is going to have quite the educational legacy to live up to - Byron was just accepted to the MBA program at Notre Dame (and offered a huh-uge scholarship too)! Pretty damn exciting stuff. So little Junior could spend his first few years in South Bend, hanging out on campus and starting his indoctrination into the Irish mindset. And planning ahead, if both his parents are alums then they would have to accept to the university too, right? :) Besides the obvious fabulousness of the MBA program at Notre Dame, it would also keep up pretty close to family and friends, since it's less than two hours from Chicago.

That kid is going to look so cute in a toddler's ND football uniform....

26 Weeks tomorrow

I'm 26 weeks tomorrow, and here's my latest pic. All is going along swimmingly, and I feel pretty good except for some unpleasant lower back stiffness. In fact, it hurts to bend over and pick anything off the floor. Or to, say, bend forward to shave one's legs. Byron suggested I duct-tape my razor to a stick to accomplish that task, but I take it as a handy excuse to avoid that drudgery.

Our little boy took great delight yesterday in repeatedly poking me in the rib, like he was trying to figure out what it was. I'm all for encouraging his scientific inquisitiveness, but my ribs however seem to be against the idea. Unfortunately for my ribs, I think Junior will keep up his poking.

It's really hard to fathom that in just three months, we'll have a child. Wild crazy stuff.