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June 16, 2003
32 Weeks – Hiccups, Buying my First Baby Clothing and the Nursery is Done!
This was a fairly quiet week after last week. I didn’t have a doctor’s appointment – it’s tomorrow – and after a few weeks of Prenatal class at night, we didn’t have one this week. Instead we worked hard on our theses all week, starting at 8:00 or 8:30 in the morning, having a half hour lunch break and working until 4:30. Long days, but pretty conductive, so it’s been worth it. I had a meeting with someone from the province this week and got some information that I wouldn’t have had time to gather otherwise, so that was good too :-)
We worked on the nursery this week as well during the nights. I cleaned out and organized all the stuff that had been collecting to date in the room, so now essentially everything is in its place! It looks really great too. I wiped and cleaned all of the porcelain figurines I have had since I was a little girl, and also Simon’s little knickknacks he received as a little boy. My mum received a little Beatrix Potter figurine every year on her birthday for a number of years, and I was lucky enough to been given them when I was small. They have survived a huge number of moves, and nothing new had been broken when I unwrapped them all, to my relief! I think that they will eventually find a home on a shelf within the nursery, but we’re waiting to see how we use the room before we mount anything to the walls. No use putting in holes only to change them later. We went out this week and bought the materials to make the closet. There were already two shelves and a metal hanging bar in the closet from the builder, and we removed the hanging bar so that we could mount two wire shelves in there. We made sure that the lowest one will be able to function hanging dresses or shirts and that sort of thing later on in the room’s life, so that we don’t have to have a bunch of unnecessary holes in the walls :-) We also left space on the left hand side for longer hanging items. Right now it functions to store the vacuum. We only have carpet in the upstairs, so the vacuum has to be stored somewhere and until now has lived in the guest room closet. However, Simon’s parents are arriving for a visit at the end of June, so basically a couple of weeks, and we thought that we would get used to storing it in the nursery closet from now on.
So, now it feels as if the nursery is really done :-) We do need to buy a whole bunch of stuff, like all the clothing, the cloth diapers and everything, but we’re waiting until July for that, when our theses will be done and we can just go out and have some fun. I would really like to get the bedding soon, because that is our last major purchase that I can foresee and it will make a tremendous impact on how the nursery looks, but we’ll have to wait and see if Simon feels up to going out to the baby boutique store that carries the bedding I want – I really want him to be included in this. That’s it though, and then it’ll be finito! :-)
I had yoga again this weekend and it was so great seeing one of the women there, because in this last week she has really popped, it’s so amazing to see the changes in each of us there! We usually have our mats right beside each other and are not as chatty as some of the women can be, but rather just talk quietly at the start of class and then occasionally through class if the posture elicits a comment or two :-) At the end of savasana she sat up and held her belly and Guylaine, the teacher asked if it was the baby moving. She replied that it was actually hiccups, and that it was getting annoying because the baby had them all the time. I said, and thereby jinxed myself, that I hadn’t had them yet, and was curious as to how they felt…. Well, that night as we were relaxing in the living room, I had hiccups. Or, rather, the Little One had hiccups. It was so funny, because I said to Simon that the Little One had hiccups and explained what had happened in yoga class that day. I wonder how much I’m going to feel them now that I have essentially jinxed myself? :-) I also have to say that they feel quite interesting, and it’s really fun watching my belly move so rhythmically!
After yoga, I knew that Simon was working on the closet, so I dropped by Sears and bought my first baby clothing ever. Well, my first baby clothing for my own baby. I have had the opportunity to buy maybe three pieces in total in the past for other infants, but it is entirely different when it is for your own little person. I picked out two white onesies and when I got home I went right upstairs to where Simon was reading in our sitting area of our bedroom. I took out a onesie, laid it on my belly and said to him, look, it fits! He looked at me with the expression he uses when I am being impossible or silly, and I knew that he was okay with me going out and buying the clothing on my own (remember we were waiting to buy it together in July). I carefully folded the little tiny items and put them in the dresser to wait to be washed. They are so sweet, so tiny… It does make me a little impatient for the Little One to make its entrance, but at the same time, I know that it needs a little more cooking before it can come out… I can be patient! :-) I also can’t wait for all the drawers to be filled with receiving blankets, crib blankets, burp pads, onesies, sleepers and little outfits… Just brings a grin to my face.
Also this week we have found out some interesting news from Simon’s graduate studies group. One of the fellows who defended last year (I can’t remember for the life of me when) is expecting… and soon! Simon had a meeting with his supervisor and was asked for a copy of the fellow’s thesis because it had been misplaced, and he didn’t want to bother them right now because she was due this coming weekend. Simon was completely shocked, but didn’t belay this emotion and just said he’d get the thesis to his supervisor. Okay, now for the sad part about this all. This is a couple who were not expecting to have children right now, the mum was supposed to start another degree in September, when the baby would have been conceived based on this due date, and then they were going to work for a few years. They live in a one bedroom apartment right now, really squeezing money, and that is the same way that the mum grew up, living from employment insurance cheque to cheque. She views it with a lot of shame, which again is unfortunate because for a huge portion of the population here in this province, and in many other provinces, this was the way of life. When the primary income for the house was something like fishing, when the season was over, you went on EI. The town would go on EI. I got the real feeling from her when she let this slip at an after party after her husbands defence that she was truly ashamed at this. Now, I am not sure if she knew that I came from money, and to me, it doesn’t factor in at all, a way of life is a way of life, especially in a province whose economy is so primary industry based. So, this child was an mistake – which I view as different from an accident, which is when conception occurs but is not unwelcome, like if we conceive earlier for our second child than we had originally wanted, it would be an accident, but NOT a mistake. And I can see this mum, maybe not the dad, living out her life viewing this child as something that forever limited her goals, just from the mindset and character traits that I got from her on my several occasions of meeting her. I would hope that it doesn’t turn out this way, that it changes her life and her goals for the positive, but as it stands right now, I cannot put any faith in that type of outcome. She is very much the person who perpetually sees the cup as a half empty one, never thinking that it too could be half full.
I went to a Breastfeeding Class this week as well, which was interesting in some respects, and boring in others. I didn’t really find out too much more information than I had not known before, the one good thing about the class was that I was actually shown and coached the different positions you could hold the baby in to breastfeed – every one but side-lying, as we were in a class room in a church, with no bed available to practice this one. I found myself really comfortable with all the positions, particularly the cross-cradle position as I think it is called. It was a tad difficult to position the baby doll when such a huge belly was in the way, so it was then a little difficult to get a real feel for the position, but still, it was nice to have the guidance from the lactation consultant at this early stage. We also learned of all the resources that exist for nursing or new mums in the city, something that I didn’t know before, so that was also something good :-) It was a little boring for me as I mentioned because I have already done so much research and just reading to gain awareness of issues with breastfeeding, and we also watched the same breastfeeding tape that I had just seen a couple weeks prior in my Prenatal Class, so that was another half hour wasted for me.
At the class was the couple from the above paragraph, and I was completely shocked to see them there. First of all, because she is due at the end of the week, I thought that if she was going to a breastfeeding class it would have been slightly earlier in her pregnancy, a week before is cutting it quite close! Also at the class was one of the girls from my cul-de-sac who is expecting, the only one I have met so far. The couple looked really haggard and the mum, I hate to say, looked horrible. She just looked sad, didn’t have a positive energy about her at all (and I am someone who is really affected by other’s energy outputs), and throughout the class consistently asked questions that were, as I mentioned above, looking at the glass from a very half empty kind of view. I really got the sense that she was interested in breastfeeding, but totally preoccupied with the problems that *can* occur, not interested in the many, many solutions that do exist for many of the problems. The other girl, from my street, was very similarly preoccupied with the same type of information. She ended up sitting right beside me and I actually had to get up and move away, her energy was just so negative. I made it seem as if I couldn’t sit properly with my feet up at the table, but most of all I just came away from the class saddened by these two women who were so clearly negative about their pregnancy and the life they will be living afterwards. Something the girl said really struck me as well, when we were going around doing introductions, she came in late, actually when I was giving mine, and gave me an odd look although I had talked to her on the street and said that I was going to this class. So, when it was her turn at the very end, she gave her due date and then said, ‘at least, that’s what they tell me!’. It just made me get the feeling from her that she was in a little state of denial about being pregnant, becoming a mother, the whole deal. Left me feeling quite odd.
Symptoms: Okay, this week, it is the continuing saga of my ever swelling feet. They really are quite swollen now, the ankles have also started to swell, particularly at the end of the day. I sit at the computer and type for almost the whole day, which really isn’t that great because it really restricts the blood flow down there and the whole circulation cycle is interrupted and slowed down. So, I have been putting them up on a stool with a cushion on top to try to elevate them a little more, but it really isn’t that effective. I have also been having ice baths, twice a day if they are bad, and it helps a little bit. The swelling does go down a bit, and the heat that they put out is also cooled down a bit, which feels wonderful. I am thinking that we should try to wrap tensor bandages around the top of the foot to literally squeeze the fluid out, and see if that is helpful at all. Right now, I have had to stop going on walks this week, it is just too painful to put on my running shoes. The tops of my feet are quite sensitive to pressure, what with the skin stretching so much to contain all that fluid, and the ankles have also started to become quite sensitive. Oh, the other thing is that when they are really bad, walking down stairs is quite uncomfortable, as there is no ability for the foot to flex, the skin is so tautly drawn… I’m going to keep trying little remedies and hopefully something will work! I have already started to drink heaps of water, I am up to two litres a day right now, and hope to increase that to perhaps three. Bearing in mind that I will have to pee some of this out! :-)
**Talk to Me**
What was the first piece of clothing that you bought for your own Little One, and when was it?
Did you have access to a Breastfeeding class, and if so, did you find it was helpful or not?
Namaste, Laura and the Little One
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