And The Beat Goes On...
Here it is Thursday morning so that means that after I finish my cup of raspberry leaf tea, I will be showering and heading to the doctor's.
I am 38 weeks and four days today, ripe and ready.
Last night I had a dream that I was on a riverside beach and an oversized horse came to where I was laying and laid its head on my belly.
I have been taking certain steps to help my body open up when Colette decides it is time. Yogic squats, walking, sex. All good, natural things.
I have also been watching a lot of natural birth videos via youtube. I am not so fond of the ones where the women keep repeating "it hurts, i can't do this" but am digging the ones where women laugh or sing through contractions. In the end all the women end up with a baby in their arms.
I must remember that.
I thought of an apt analogy for what happens when you get lost in labor. It is like when you are on a nineteen hour plane ride and there comes a point when you forget that you have a destination. You start to feel like the plane ride is your life. But then suddenly there you are, in Tokyo or Rome or Detroit and you forget about the ride. I am printing some pictures of my sons and me that were taken after the last births to remind me of my destination. I don't want to be lost again.
I am also working on visualization and meditation techniques. Not panicking when a contraction comes, breathing through it. I have to be my own doula this time. I am telling my husband ways of helping me. I feel more assertive with this baby, more likely to tell people what I need. Perhaps this is what maturity feels like.
- greentara's blog
- Login or register to post comments
for some reason I always think this part of pregnancy is so magical. I guess its like fantasizing about winter in the summertime. And then winter comes and you can't wait for it to end.
I only have one child, but I had a nice birth, and I really attribute it to the positive birth stories I read and focused on. I really wasn't nervous at all, and I think it helped me relax. In any case, you get a baby at the end, which is such as awesome thing,
I will hold fast to the idea of labor as a transatlantic flight. My own have been LA to London and I will hope that somewhere over the Atlantic, little Phoebe will swim free.
I feel somewhat opposite this time. Last time, I had birth plans and ideas and notions that all went askew when I had an induction at the hospital. It was still a great birth, mind you, but *not* what I was expecting. This time, I am a zen mama giving the hands of it over to the gods and doctors and hospitals. More confident because I have been there, done that, and less vested in trying to control the process. Our bodies know what to do. They will, I have supreme confidence, be able to do it. But when my mind starts wandering and unfocusing and feeling trapped, I will picture myself on that plane with the cold air from the window seat and the absolute clarity of my destination.
Did you do music last time? I whipped out my "birth tunes" CD a few weeks ago trying to remind myself what it was like. Have not tried birth videos yet but maybe, if I go past 40 weeks, this will happen too!
How did it get this late! I can't believe you are so close to meeting your baby-- so exciting.
Do you have any purple necklaces? Amethyst is traditionally helpful for finding your voice. If you like that kind of stuff (I don't generally, but hey, it can't hurt, right?) I think it's powerful symbol.
Find ecstasy in life; the mere sense of living is joy enough. -- Emily Dickinson
You want to do what you think is right and what matters to you, and if other people don't like it, as my father would have said, they can go fuck themselves. -- Amy Bloom
Time just flies. I'm glad i read about you watching those birthing videos and reading those stories. That's a great idea that I hadn't even considered.
Tigerfish Mama
Navigation
Who's online
Who's New
- BeachBunny
- gayle.mallinger
- Mamapocket
- mjcwriter
- addie smith
you're right, it is magical.
any day could be the birthday. and there is no doubt that one of them will. it is not like thinking, today i might win the lottery. there is no chance other than which date it will be. it is certain like summer.
i am glad to hear that birth stories helped you. it is my first time really reading them prior to the big day. i have always been a little afraid of the powerful influence they might have in helping my labor start before i was ready. but this time i realize i must just always be ready to hop on the labor train.