With four weeks until my due date, Cody and I are now at the point in this pregnancy that is just waiting--waiting for our baby to be ready, waiting for my body to be ready, and there's not much we can do to hurry along either of those processes. It just requires waiting. Even though I was a little antsy about waiting a week and a half ago, I'm pretty much resigned to it now. The baby is in a nice, warm, safe, healthy place, exactly where he should be until he is born.
During the past month, Cody and I have gotten his bedroom ready and as of yesterday, we now have everything (we think!) that we need to have him come home and everyone be comfortable. Yesterday we made our last big purchases: crib mattress, humidifier with the capability to put medicine in it if we need it to be diffused, and a space heater (because his room is really hard to get warm, even with our heater on).
Here's the finished product:
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| Crib and dresser |
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| Baby bouncer, bookshelf with baby stuff on top two shelves and photos & music underneath, rocker |
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| Bassinet (that will go into our room once we've brought him home from the hospital) and hospital bag (with clothes for me and some stuff for him) |
Also during these last five months I've been doing reading on pregnancy, labor, and the postpartum period. I don't buy into one method or process or whatever. Whatever needs to happen to keep me and the baby safe and for the baby to be delivered is what I'm in favor of. As such, the books I've read reflect that. In addition, I have to go back to work after six weeks and possibly we'll be moving at the end of the summer if/when Cody gets into grad school so I'd kind of like to have muscle back in my body, so I read a book on helping with that.
I really liked the French philosophy of pregnancy and childrearing. A lot of it seemed like common sense actions that my Mom did when we were growing up and when she did daycare. Plus, it was written well and very easy to read.
This book went through the history of all the different types of birthing methods and why some are more popular now than others. I thought it was a fascinating read plus it gave me more knowledge on my body, what's going on in the hospitals, and the experience that I will probably have and the experience Cody will have.
Since every woman is different and so is every baby, and therefore, every pregnancy too, I liked the easy way this book went through most, if not all, the different types of birthing methods and pain relief, with pros and cons to each.
Don't let the title scare you--this book was awesome! It gave really good information and advice about the postpartum period. The author is a doctor and a mom so she could provide her own experience from being a practicing doctor and seeing her patients, to being pregnant herself, and then the postpartum experience she went through. Really good book to know what to expect and it's funny.
Similar to
The New Mom's Survival Guide, this book was really good because the author used her own experience of losing weight healthily after having her first child. That's what I loved the most about this book--she went through each month and gave target workouts for that month, how much weight will probably have been lost and why, and how you are probably feeling about yourself and your body. And it isn't a six month or six week program. It's a real-life program--it has workouts to last for a whole year because that is about how long it will really take for your body to completely "bounce back"--muscles on the inside and out, emotions, menstrual cycle to regulate, breastfeeding effects, etc. Another thing that I really appreciated in this book is that each workout has a picture of what you should look like when you're doing the 20 minute (yes, only 20 minutes) workout in your home.
