Preparations for Home Birth & Beyond

I am awaiting labor at any time now ... Here are some photos of our home birth preparations.



Here we have our Iron Man ball, birth blanket and carpet shield sheeting. The birth blanket is made out of a futon cover, a couple of blankets and a waterproof layer, and stitched together with yarn. This blanket will be placed beneath me when the baby is born and will be wrapped up and thrown away afterward.



This is the home birth kit that I purchased from Vivante. It has plastic-backed bed sheeting, maternity sanitary napkins, sterile gloves, a peri bottle, sanitary cold packs, flexible straws, mesh pants, lube jelly, alcohol prep pads, and a pink and blue striped baby hat.



Inside here is the birth pool in a box that will be opened and assembled when I go into labor. This will make for a comfy pool to be in during labor -- better than a bathtub in that the water level can rise above the stomach. A water birth is also an option with this pool, but I think I'll just use it during labor and then get out of the water to push.



These are things that I have gathered for labor, including a heating pad/cold compress, Kellogg's Special K Protein Water mix, essential oils for aroma therapy, ginger capsules, ipecacuanha (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ipecacuanha) and tabacum (http://abchomeopathy.com/r.php/Tab) at the midwives' request -- for nausea since my baby is on the left side and contractions will likely cause me to feel nauseous, flashlights, massage oils, and a wooden heart for squeezing.



This is the changing table that we were given by an attorney in Chris's office with all of Nealon's things all ready. On the bottom, the pink bag is the midwives' bag of supplies which includes oxygen tubes, IV supplies, gloves, sterile instruments, and lots of things that I prefer not to look at...



This is a bassinet that we are borrowing from an awesome faculty member at the law school, who also gave us a car seat and the stroller and baby seat pictured below. We are planning to keep the baby in the bed with us, but the bassinet will be nice to have around I'm sure.



He has his own little rain forest seat...



And his own wheels, too.

So, we are all "ready" and just trying to enjoy these last few days that we have together before Baby Ling is here. We've been doing a lot of cooking and relaxing and loving and walking and watching The Office on Netflix.

Chris's last day of work was this past Friday -- so I have him home with me during the day, which is really nice. And his last day of class is this Thursday, so after the 31st we will have no other obligations other than bonding with the new baby -- which is a great blessing. While we didn't plan the pregnancy, we are lucky to have this window of time with nothing else that we have to do. Chris has been working really hard all summer in order to make this downtime possible and I am really happy for all that he has done to ensure that we both have only part-time schedules this year with him still graduating on time. He's a good man and this is going to be one beautiful baby. Baby photos COMING SOON!!

Forest Photography

This past Thursday, July 17th, my midwife Alisha Madrone accompanied me to Tryon Creek State Park to take some pregnancy photos. Here are the fruits of our labor:

Closing in on 38 weeks

So, I am ready to have a baby! I have an appointment with an acupuncturist tomorrow for cervical ripening, a "photo shoot" in the woods with my midwife on Thursday, and Friday is the last day I am committed to work.

I am hoping for sooner rather than later. And that's what the midwives seem to think will happen. Beth commented yesterday during our appointment about how low he is sitting and that she doesn't expect me to go over 40 weeks.

I am slaving away now on what I hope will be my last work assignment -- and I am late on submitting it, so I am trying to relax and work diligently without getting stressed. Sigh... I will be happy when I am all done with this legal work and moving on to the work of labor.

The full moon is Friday, so we will see if April and Terrie's predictions come true.

Belly So Big

Any day now labor could begin. Here are a couple recent photos of the belly - one bird's eye view, one I snapped in the mirror of our bedroom, and another from the pool today. I keep fantasizing about having some cool, artistic photos to post - but until then, I'll just post what I have from the day to day.

The moon is waxing and the baby belly ball is dropping...

36 weeks ... Only 26 days til we're due

Sarah Marie took these photos yesterday before hopping on a plane to Nicaragua. We'll see if Nealon waits 'til she returns to make his big debut.

Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival

Yesterday, Chris, his friend, Josh, and I met our friend Judy at the Waterfront Blues Festival. It was a good time. We heard some front porch style tunes and stayed for the firework show. And the admission fee - $10 and two cans of non-perishable foods - goes to the Oregon Food Bank, so it's a really good cause.

We had lunch downtown before heading the festival and had the fun of forgetting where we parked -- and walking around in circles many, many extra blocks on my fluidized feet carrying an extra 55 lbs.

The crazy highlight of the evening was a drunken lady getting pissed off because someone walked off with an empty chair that she was apparently saving for a friend - and proceeding to walk over to the guy who walked off with it and grab it out from beneath him, causing him to fall on the ground - and then proceeding to talk about how he took it and he deserved it and she is so awesome, etc., blah, blah through the singing of the National Anthem. She was a real piece of work.

We missed Isaac Hayes, who played the day before, but did get to hear some good music -- and learn about where to set up at the Blues Festival in the future. This was a trial run, and we learned what we could do better next time. The festival reached capacity and at some point they were only allowing ten people in for every twenty people that left. I usually don't like big crowds (at all) but this festival was pretty well-organized and, aside from the chair woman incident, I witnessed no other drunken aggro behavior. I did see a little too much PDA - and I posted a pic to that effect for your viewing pleasure.

I still need to figure out how to post a video on Blogger without getting an error message. I searched the forums and found a recommendation that I tried to no avail. So I must return the drawing board. Until then, I will keep posting still pics.

Feet Full of Fluid

My feet are huge. I've been trying to follow all the recommendations - keeping them elevated when possible, drinking lots of water, and having Chris massage them nightly. Yet they remain fully inflated. This photo was taken AFTER I went to the chiropractor and had an activator used on my feet to reduce the swelling. They've been bigger.

I thought this photo would be entertaining.