A La Natural

From the beginning going natural during labor has always been my priority choice. My mom and grandmother both did it without much of any complications. I told my nurse when she first asked me back in April that my choice was to go without medication. I scheduled a class with the hospital to learn about techniques, and looked into hypnobirthing and all that fun stuff. Plus, not to mention my fear of needles runs deep and the idea of one going into my spine doesn’t thrill me.

I had never really questioned myself, but rather the people’s reactions around me:

“You know it hurts, right.”

“I’m not going to lie to you; you are going to feel like you’re going to die.”

“You do realize it’s the worst pain in the world.”

Stuff will start to weigh on you for sure, and you will start to second guess yourself and your ability to do something that nature, your body, and your baby’s body had naturally intended to happen. I’m timid when asked if I want to go natural in fear of hearing people’s reactions. I have never really been one to let other people’s opinions influence me, but when you’ve never been through something your intuitions are a little skewed.

It wasn’t until this past weekend at my birthday dinner my dear husband had put together that I realized I was truly capable of this. We were all gathered around the Old Spaghetti Factory slurping noodles and strawberry lemonades and someone asked “So you going to go natural”. My response had become my defense and went something like “I would like to, but who knows”.

It had been earlier that week Michael and I had attended our natural child birth class so it was obviously fresh on his brain, but nonetheless Michael’s reaction was “No, Aubs you WILL go natural. Remember what the nurse said, if you're hesitant about it you won’t do it, and you want to do it, right?” BAM! Hit me like a tone of bricks, yes, yes I do want to do it, and yes, yes I should tell people I want to. And best part of all I apparently have the amazing support of my husband to do it!

If this is something I really want to do the first thing I have to do is say I want to do it.

My dear dear husband, how I love him so. Thank you for letting me keep true to myself.

Madame Zaritska Labor and Delivery Prediction

The day you deliver, outside will be cold. Your baby will arrive in the early morning. After a labor lasting approximately 8 hours, your child, a girl, will be born. Your baby will weigh about 5 pounds, 12 ounces, and will be 22 1/2 inches long. This child will have amber eyes and barely there blond hair.

- I know kind of cheesey, but thought it was cute.

Waiting Game

So we have received all we are going/needing to receive through all these amazing showers that were thrown for us the past few weeks. And my nesting has been in full swing. I have all the clothes and blankets washed, the monitor is installed, the diapers are organized by sizes, the bath tub is set up with toys and cute towels, bottles are cleaned and stored, and mommy and daddy are anxiously awaiting the arrival of their little girl.


I realize I’m only at 34 weeks, full term is 37, and the latest they’ll let me carry her is 41 weeks. So technically speaking I could have two full months left before this baby is here. I also realize the power to “will” her to come early is all in my head and there’s nothing I can do at this point except wait.

And wait we will. . . I hear the Jeopardy tune every time I think about waiting.

Thankfully the next few weeks will be full of activities: headed to Springfield to meet with good friends for our annual holiday gathering, then it’s my birthday, then the best holiday of all, Halloween.

After that I’m afraid, November may be the longest month of my life. We will just sit there anticipating the first contraction, the first run to the hospital, our first baby, the first of many things.


Until then we will just wait, do do do do, da do do do, dododododododoo, bumbum

Family of Friends

Family: it has always been a prevalent force in my life. I realized at a young age what traditions were held dear to my family, what could easily be overlooked, and what I wish we spent more time with. Growing up there were two major holidays that defined my family, Christmas and Fourth of July. With those two days of the year my maternal family would gather together, eat good food, give each other trouble, and not see each other for another 6 months. My paternal family is small, as my dad is an only child and we would see that family for holidays and birthdays on regular bases, but nothing to extravagant, nonetheless traditional.

When I got to the point in my life when family members started to pass on, leave us, or create new families of there own I reevaluated my expectations. Michael and I have always known that we want a large family; partly because we both value how valuable traditions and relationships are and the other part because we never really had a big family ourselves. So we start planning: how many kids, what kind of traditions we will instill, how important certain events will be, all of the planning can go without a hitch but if you’re trying to build something from the ground up it takes a lot of work with small foundations (little families, uninterested family members, etc.).

After the past few weekends with all the amazing friends gathering around to help celebrate the impending birth of our daughter Michael and I started to realize our foundations aren’t as small as we might think they are. At first glance one would see this baby as having a rather small extended family. But pulling back the layers and looking closer you will start to see she’s going to have numerous “aunts and uncle”. The people whom we would trust her life with honestly surpasses the number of fingers and toes I have.

We don’t have a small foundation we’re working with here, we have one of the largest, most loving, amazing situations we could possibly ask for. Our friends truly make up our family. I don’t sit there, at my showers, counting the number of family members I wish were there, I sit there counting the blessings of each of the people who are truly there for us.

Blessed

I am blessed, there is honestly no better word in the English language to describe my current situation than, blessed!

I have a wonderful family and the start to and even more wonderful family AND my friends (who are practically my family) are just as amazing and wonderful.

Thank you to everyone who made it to Columbia for the shower this weekend. It was a blast and my hostesses sure know how to throw a party. Complete with matching cupcakes, butterfly decorations, a baby diaper wreath, yummy food, and a great time!! Thank you Martha and Emily for all you have done for me (this baby is going to have amazing aunts)!! A special shout out to Leslie for décor!

What a wonderful time, this baby girl is going to be set for life. I am amazed that so many people already care for her and love her and they haven’t even met her. Blessed, I tell you.

Not to mention when I got home Michael said he would have had more fun with me than drinking all weekend with the boys, a hint of maturity I hear?

THANKS AGAIN!! I LOVE YOU ALL!