Birth Prep

I am 34.5 weeks, there's about 6 weeks left to go on this journey or approximately 40 days.  The timeline finally feels 'real' but I am not in any kind of panic mode.  I had a birth dream last Thursday night after our first childbirth class.  The dream wasn't that pleasant.  The birth was virtually painless but the baby was premature and having a hard time getting started.  I was also having a hard time getting Pablo to wake up and take action.  The good side of the dream was that I was 'present' in the birth experience, as in I could absorb everything from the temperature of the room, to the rollercoaster of emotion, along with the incredible visual detail.  I guess that dream is part of my 'subconscious' birth prep.

In other categories...

Childbirth classes:
Wow!  Ana Paula is a super childbirth educator.  I first met her at the Business of Being Born screening where she served as the hostess.  If you live in the L.A. area I highly recommend her class and I've only been to one!  Her angle is physiology, as in taking a good look at how a woman's body is engineered and for virtually 100% of women today totally capable of natural birth.  She does not promote a method.  Think about it, if it's a 'method', it's not natural, that's what Dr. Michael Odent says.  Dr. Odent is featured in Ricki Lake's movie and a strong advocate of Ina May Gaskin.

We have 5 more classes to go, I wonder if we'll make it.  Out of the 11 couples, two are ahead of us: one due in 3 weeks and the other due April 12th, our 'guess' date is April 19th. Before attending the first class I was stoked at the idea of having Vida born earlier in April but I want to finish Ana's classes first, she's a great person and I enjoy the 'community' of other expectant moms at the class.  Most of the couples are about our age and Pablo had a good time too, talking to two of the dads.

Class #1 was about our goals for the class, anatomy, nutrition, and self-latch breastfeeding.  Self-latch is when the baby is given the opportunity to locate the breast on its own and begin to nurse for the first time within an hour of being born.  Naturally birthed, un-medicated babies were most successful.  It's something to try and include in the birth plan.

Birth Plan:
I will have it revised before my doula appointment the week of March 17th and will post it as well.

Nursery
Most of the 'elements' are in place: furniture, wall decorations, and curtains.  We need to do some clean up, baby laundry and roll out the area rug.  'Final' pictures coming soon...

Birth Lit
I finished IMG's Guide to Childbirth!  I will most likely update this post with some of the key quotes that resonated with me.

Birth Media
So I have already seen BoBB and I was able to see Birth as We Know It (the 40 minute version).  I have to jot down my take aways from that as well.  Pablo watched it with me too!