Any Day Now

Well, y'all, the time is nigh. Though she's not due until later in July, we hit 37 weeks last Saturday, which as I mentioned in a previous post, means Cati's at term. Any time little Spork decides to emerge s/he will be perfectly ready for the world. Considering all wham-pow going on in Cati's belly, Spork is definitely primed.

We, too, are fairly ready. We have a funny relationship with our midwife, who kind of terrifies us. Not in a bad way, but in that mentor/teacher/coach/parent way where you spend a lot of time trying to impress them. She's just a shade over 5 foot, but is as immovable as a rock. I spend a lot of time trying to make her laugh, and when she chuckles a little I feel it's a major victory and go home glowing. She's scolded us a couple times, once because Cati wasn't gaining quite enough weight, and then again later when Cati had apparently too enthusiastically embraced that advice. She also gave us a stern look when at 37 weeks we still didn't have our infant car seat purchased. Recently, we've met several people who also have Maria as a midwife, and we've been very relieved to laugh along with them as they relate similar stories. It's nice to know we aren't the bad kids at the back of the room...

I think part of the problem is that the baby-hospital culture has made people a little inherently lazy when preparing for birth. Even though we're doing a homebirth, we still managed to fall into the general fog of "Oh THEY'll take care of it, or IT will get taken care of..." In fact, when you birth at home, it's YOU that's doing everything. Our midwife's job is to be there to assist when needed, be there for emergencies and go into action at crucial moments. The rest is me and Cati, roving about the house, trying to get comfortable, making crazy sounds together, singing, talking to the baby, and ultimately making life. We've also been purchasing supplies and arranging the house properly. At first it's daunting, like "Damn, are we really ok being responsible for all this?" But now, with all our birth supplies laid out in the hallway and our various massages and movements practiced, and phone trees set up, it feels really good. Even if we end up having to go to the hospital in the end for some reason, it feels like we've really embraced this birth in a way we wouldn't have if we'd gone to the hospital right off. I don't know how every midwife is, but part of the effect of Maria's stonefaced yet gentle urgings has been to make us really turn inwards. There's no one out there who's gonna make this baby happen or make the pain different or anything. Cati really is strong enough, and I'm really ready. I don't know that we would've known that about ourselves otherwise.

That's what he said

Me: I *did* have plans this afternoon. I was going to come home, get the house tidy, put on something slinky and wait for you to come home.

Him: Can you still slink? You could slink like a snake that has eaten a deer.

Kicks

Today, we woke up early to go see USA vs Algeria at a bar with some friends...the place was packed, and Cati was hovering at the entrance, uncertain about plunging in. I sort of looked at her quizzically, thinking "Why are we standing at the door?" I keep forgetting that squeezing through small gaps between people is not only difficult for her at this point, but she has to think about sudden leaps and elbows flying as goals are scored and people cheer. Eventually we located Luke in the back and I plowed a path forward for her through the giddy fans. Watching the match was amazing fun, gripping, intense, and so much better for being surrounded by USA fans. Chanting, yelling, curses, the whole business. Anyway, when we finally scored in the 91st minute, pandemonium broke out. Screaming, chest bumping with strangers, high fives all round, etc. As I leaped to celebrate with our gang, I noticed Cati huddled in the corner, belly away from all the craziness. Anyway, for some reason that made me more excited, and I jumped and yelled some more. She was as excited as the rest of us, but just protecting the little bugger from inadvertent happiness. Good move. And then I realized that it's quite possible s/he will be born during the World Cup, which suddenly puts all that kicking in a different light.

Although Cati's mom has put in a very firm demand that the baby be born on July 22nd, since she'll be arriving the day before. It'll be interesting to see who wins that battle of wills!

Speaking of which, at the last day of birth class (we are now certified and legally allowed to give birth) one of the couples that departed the class early to have a baby (I don't know how they got away with it) returned to tell their story. It was very cool, and Ezra was extremely cute. The thing that struck me most of all, however, was that they had their baby at 36 weeks and 4 days (perfectly healthy and normal). Which is exactly the day we are on TODAY. The mom was studying for her finals, which were the next day, and the baby didn't have the good sense to wait a couple days. So, I've been thinking all along that we're pretty ready, but suddenly realized we are not THAT ready! Still some loose ends, Cati's wrapping things up at work, Mission Pictures has all manner of things hopping, and we're still a few fragments away from baby-prepared at home. Time to start making those lists and checking them twice!

Win free hugs - send the baby words of wisdom

I'm at work late transferring video files from one drive to another so I can take them home on the lighter drive (I'm on foot) to review over the weekend. Splendid, right?! But transferring the files makes me unable to view them (which is what I need to do next), so I'm catching up on my Pretty Pictures blog reading, where I found a neato quote contest Words to Live By, where folks send in pictures of quotes they like or put pictures up on a flickr page.

I'm not proposing anything quite so fancy, but I promise I'll compile the words of wisdom for Spork and post them up here if you comment them or get 'em to us. Send me an email or a text or carrier pigeon! We'll take pictures, audio recordings, sign language or even Sanskrit. Maybe we'll even send out a prize!

Ok, here is a onesie that just happens to have my totally impartial words of wisdom. ;)

And here is a close-up:

Almost There

One more week and Cati'll be at 37 weeks, or for those who haven't read 8 million pregnancy books, AT TERM. Though she's officially due July 17, any time after next week will be a normal birth time.

We're thinking lots about this new life, meanwhile trying to swim through the one we already each have.

You guess

Today's picture is a replacement for the usual update photo because Cati keeps sneaking out of the house without letting me take her picture. I took this during our homebirth prep class with a woman whose name is actually Jane Austin. Your job is to guess which is the giant gym ball, and which is Cati's belly. She was leaning on the ball in between leaning back on her toes to simulate some of the physical "challenge" of childbirth while I tried to do things to help. First, I was to just use touch with no talking, trying to massage, lightly touching, etc...then, I was to try to get her to say yes. Finally, she told me stuff she liked and then I did them. I was doing pretty well until midway through the "Yes" part when I asked her if she loved her mommy and daddy and her brother and she definitely said yes to all but then she started almost crying so I had to go back to things like ice cream and puppies. I shoulda known better, she does miss them an awful lot.

Meanwhile, Ms Austin is a fine teacher, with a nice mixture of fairly genuine new ageness and crass body fluid talk. Each leavens the other in a way that makes all of us fairly comfortable. While she lacks the original Jane Austen's economy of language, she's a bit more helpful on the topic of birth than our literary hero. One of the best parts of class is meeting all these other couples homebirthing, from all different walks of life and ages and backgrounds. Very helpful to feel part of a community. The other day, the craziest thing happened...Cati was telling someone she was from Marietta, and this guy pops up from across the room..."You're from Marietta? Me too!" Turns out, though they went to different high schools, they graduated the same year. AND, they have the same midwife. AND, they are due the day after us. Weird, eh? I guess them Georgians love their summertime...

Otherwise, all is going fairly well. Cati has been struggling with acute acid reflux (heartburn), but that seems to have eased somewhat. All our tests and checkups and whatnot continue to come out all grand, and our baby continues to dance the amniotic fluid dance. I alternate between panic and ecstasy, which seems to ratchet up even as Cati descends into a preternatural calm about child birth. I think Cati would laugh to hear this, but I've started just gazing at her to calm myself. She's the center of my storm, and a lovely place she is to spin around...

Braxton Hicks

Yes, you guessed correctly. This is the name of our child. Doesn't it have a nice ring to it?!

Ok, y'all... just kidding. Braxton Hicks is the name of practice contractions (totally normal) that are helping my body gear up for Spork's arrival in late July. It's strange because sometimes I can't tell the difference between one of these (my tummy tenses up) and a good hard baby stretch (my tummy tenses up).

We saw our midwife this morning. Seems like the baby is very much dive-bombing my pelvis. This is a good thing. She really had to fish around to find what she's pretty confident is a head, settling into the groove. Sometimes I have a vision of Spork in a WWII leather bomber helmet, arms pursed tightly by her side, toes pointed to the heavens, barreling out of the sky and down into my pelvis! 

The baby has a strong heartbeat and is doing just fine. And I have a strong heartbeat, too, but I have to lay off the sugar. I'm a sad sack who'll no longer get to eat vegan flan (delicious dinner with Casey last night), clean up desserts for vegans who can't eat them, or coerce and ransom cookies out of Shane (Arne's best friend and business partner). I do get to eat anything probiotic: Kombucha, Kimchi, Yogurt, Sourkraut. Oh goodie! ;)

We've been doing kick counts. You're supposed to be still twice per day and if you don't get 10 kicks in an hour or two, call your doctor. We have literally yet to get to 10 minutes before getting 10 kicks. Either that, or in our evening sessions, I keep falling asleep. 

More belly pictures very soon. Hugs to all!