“How a woman approaches birth is intimately connected to how she approaches life.”
- The Birth Book
How true. How true.
I have spent the majority of this week recouping from the events of last weekend. With a baby shower, anniversary party and family visiting all at once, needless to say things were a little hectic. However, a lot of preparation and planning made things flow fairly smoothly.
Another pregnancy symptom has hit in full force. I’m having slight swelling in my hands and have started having numbness and some pain associated with it all. Sleeping was rather difficult, but I believe that chiropractic care is helping relieve some of the pain and I’ve been able to sleep a little more comfortably since my adjustment. Like a school kid, I’ve begun counting down the days until my due date.
I’m also getting in nesting mode and need to get on the ball on ordering some registry items that didn’t arrive, including cloth diapers and baby wraps/carriers. I believe most people are intimidated by cloth diapering, don’t understand the new fangdangled ones, and since you can’t buy the in a store, they skip purchasing them. I imagine that the cloth diapers will be the bulk of our baby expense in the next few months to come. I think the same applies to wraps and carriers. They are new and different, and need to be purchased online or in a specialty store.
Interested in a sling? I have one made in Guatemala… it was a gift from several of the midwives I worked with. You may want to wait and see about slings/carriers until after the baby is born and she/he can try them out before purchasing (since they can be pricey). Some babies are very particular about how they are held… Will was fine in the sling but would go berserk if put in a Bjorn/Snugli carrier. Kate was the exact opposite, fine in a carrier but would try to flip out of a sling no matter how tightly wrapped inside it. (Granted, this is also the only child perhaps in history who would lift herself up and out of a bumbo seat in under a minute at 4 months.) I also found these things cumbersome due to my short frame, in the end, it was just easier to hold the baby.
My sling is in Mobile and I could send it up for you to try… since it looks like we’ll be going there this weekend. Just let me know!
Ditto. I wanted to use a very traditional sling, but Robbie wouldn’t have any of it. I ended up giving it away because it wasn’t returnable. I ended up trying on a ton of slings with Robbie, but he is the only baby my pediatrician knows that flipped from back to tummy (over and over again)at 11 days old and he needed more “restraint” than the traditional sling allowed. Might be because he was later diagnosed with severe GERD that he preferred being more upright in a Bjorn. No matter, you don’t need or use a sling/wrap much initially so when Baby Mead is born and you decide what is best, publish it and I’m sure one of us has whatever Baby Mead likes.