Prenatal classes: Done!

Last night, we successfully completed our prenatal classes.  I asked T, "Does that mean we're now ready to prenate?"  ;)

It's kind of crazy that seven weeks ago, we sat in a room with 11 other couples.  And within these 7 weeks, two of the couples already had their babies (both premature).  Makes me wonder when everyone else is going to give birth.

My mom asked me tonight if I'm feeling excited or anxious.  I said I'm feeling more excited than anxious.  I read or heard somewhere that fear makes the labour process more painful.  Because when you're afraid, you tense up your muscles and make it more difficult for the body to do what it needs to do.  My perspective on labour and birth right now is this:  it's what God created my body to do, so if I can relax and let my body do its thing, I think it will be alright.  I still anticipate discomfort, but I don't think that my labour needs to be like those on TV and Hollywood movies where the mothers scream and curse and it looks like the worst day of their lives.

At the grocery store today, the cashier commented that I looked like I was going to pop soon.  Soon, I thought, but not quite.  Baby is still able to flip from one side to the other, so I think there's still some room for growth.  I am getting to the point though where I really look forward to having baby outside of my body so that I don't have to be the only one carrying the weight.  T and I considered what it might look like if the dad could alternate with the mom in carrying the baby throughout pregnancy.  How would that work?

My sleep comes in segments now.  I sleep for about 3 hours, wake up to use the bathroom, sleep another 3 hours, wake up to use the bathroom and eat, sleep for another 2-3 hours, wake up to eat again and then depending on what time of the morning it is, I may or may not sleep for another hour or so. (Aside: I'm often surprised at the number of cars on the road at 3am.  Why are these people out and about in the middle of the night??)  Sometimes, I'll nap in the afternoon.  But usually my naps last about 50 minutes before my bladder alarm goes off.

I have other thoughts floating around in my brain but I think it's time to call it a day.  Till next time...!

It's coming together

With 6 weeks to go until the official due date, things are certainly coming together.  We're pretty much finished clearing out everything we don't need or want and down to reorganizing baby's room.  This afternoon, we went stroller and crib mattress shopping.  These were the last two "big" items we needed to get.

We were looking for a compact, lightweight and durable stroller and found one by the same manufacturer as the carseat we have (for those interested in the details, the stroller was a Britax B-Nimble and goes with our Britax Chaperone carseat).  After scouring the internet for local shops that carry the model we were looking for, we finally found one store in North Vancouver that stocked it and had floor models we could try.  An extra bonus was that it was the store's 3rd anniversary weekend so with the purchase of the stroller, we got $50 of in-store credit to use toward something else.  Conveniently, we put the credit toward a crib mattress.  =)

I'm super excited about rearranging baby's room tonight.  Because after all the furniture is in place, I can finally take all of baby's clothes and linens out of the boxes and bags they're currently sitting in and find a home for everything.  And after that, basically all that's left is packing the hospital bag!

On another note, I think there's a reason for the term "bun in the oven."  I definitely feel like an oven these days, especially when I sleep.  There hasn't been one morning where I haven't woken up in a sweat. Or maybe all the sweating I'm doing at night is what's keeping me from retaining water in my hands and feet?

It's crazy to me that we're nearing the end of this pregnancy so soon.  They say the baby can come anywhere between two weeks before to two weeks after the due date.  That means we could potentially have 4 weeks left before we meet baby Chan!  (Or, it could be 8 weeks still...)

I'll end off today with what my fabulous hubby made this morning to help us figure out how to organize baby's room.  Just one of the many reasons I love him.  =)

Go ahead, grow me up

One thing that has surprised me most about this process of pregnancy is my own struggle with body image. I've touched on this in a previous post but I guess it's a major enough area that it warrants another post.

A number of weeks ago, I was at a conference where singer/songwriter Carolyn Arends was performing. I picked up her book, "We've Been Waiting for You" which documents her journey to parenthood. I have to confess, every time I look through the book, I am brought to tears. Many of her thoughts resonate deeply with me.

One of my favorites is this: "Go ahead, I whisper to my child-in-waiting, take all the room you need.  Increase my waist.  Expand my heart.  Enlarge my soul.  Grow me up."

It challenges me to let go of my previously tightly held "ideal" body image to welcome something even better.   When I am tempted to ruminate over whether my thighs have gotten fatter or if I'll be able to fit back into my pre-pregnancy clothes, Carolyn's words beckon me to remember that my life and body are now to be given for someone else's life and well-being. They exhort me to live more selflessly.

I don't know if I will always struggle with this but when I see the words, "Grow me up," my heart says, "YES!" and I know it's all worth it.

On a lighter (heavier?) note, I found an image that expresses how I feel when I try to turn over in bed these days:

Ha.

Mad and ruthless

These days, we are mad and ruthless.  Don't worry, it's not toward each other, just toward our stuff.  Yup, we're madly and ruthlessly purging our apartment.  We're down to the final room in the house:  the office-soon-to-be-baby-room.  By the end of this process, we figure we'll have scrutinized every item we own and given away or gotten rid of at least 20-30% of it.  We can't wait till everything's sorted through and the furniture is all rearranged.

I haven't posted much of late.  I guess this point of the pregnancy has been pretty uneventful (a good thing).  Thanksgiving weekend was nice.  We celebrated our third wedding anniversary in a very low key fashion.  Since my left hip has been bothering me when I walk too much, we went to watch a movie (50/50 - we'd recommend it) and had dinner at Swiss Chalet.

It's kind of fun being out and about these days as strangers will ask me when baby's due.  I feel a little like a waddling turtle though.  Slow and well, waddling.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, here are some things I'm thankful for these days:
- I can still sleep pretty comfortably
- my hands and feet are not swollen
- baby's growing and getting stronger
- my back feels fine - most days anyway
- family and friends have been so generous in lending us/giving us baby items
- T's been an amazing support and super helpful around the house

Just for fun, here's a photo my mom took of me and my dad when they came to visit back at the beginning of September.  My dad gave me permission to share it here.  Tee hee.  =)  My belly's a lot bigger than his now!

Brain jam

I feel like I have a backlog of thoughts waiting to be written.  So today I will attempt to clear some of the brain jam.  Be forewarned, this might end up being quite a long post.

Things have been happy.  Things have been sobering.  Things have been difficult.  And things have been hopeful.

The happy:
We are slowly acquiring things we need for baby.  The best part?  We're getting really good deals in the process!  So far, we've gotten a free change table, a baby bath tub for $3.50 and a super-nice rocking chair/footstool combo for $35.  I'm extremely happy about the rocking chair because I had been praying for one and stopping by our local thrift store every now and then to check if they had any.  Last week, they finally had one.  And it's the perfect size for me and for our apartment.  As T was loading it into our car, an elderly lady walked past us and commented, "That's a really nice chair!  I've never seen something so nice in that thrift store.  It must just be for you and your baby."  I smiled at her and thought to myself, "Yes.  This chair is just for us."

Isn't it lovely?

The sobering:
Prenatal classes.  Learning about the birth process and the average length of time labour lasts, I have found myself bracing for some hard work ahead.  In our class last night, we covered variations on labour and different interventions that can be taken.  This included a role-play lesson on c-sections that resembled something like ER.  Now that I know what has to happen in a cesarean birth, I really pray that I (and all my classmates) would be spared from that surgery!

The difficult:
Saying goodbye to some of our stuff.  As we have been systematically going through every room in our house, we've been clearing out a lot of stuff.  Some of the items I couldn't care less about and am happy to give away.  Some other items have been harder to part with, either because I remember buying them (and paying good money for them!) or because they represent some sort of memory.  It has certainly been a process of letting go and "growing up" of sorts.  I wrote more about it here.

The hopeful:
I'm not sure if hopeful is the best word for this.  But I have been re-working a painting that I had done 13 years ago as a high school art project.  Back when I was a teenager, I had intended for this piece to be a statement against abortion.  And thus had included a lifeless fetus as part of the image.  Now that I am carrying a child and have grown in my understanding of redemption and life, I wanted the painting to be less depressing and more hopeful.  So I have refinished it.  I think it's neat that what I painted so many years ago is a reality happening in my own body right now.  The remaining question is, where might be a good home for it?

Here's the finished painting.  It's a two-part piece titled, "Life."