My 3rd Tri

3rd Trimester that is! Thank you all for the supportive comments. It's nice to know I haven't been forgotten :) Wow, time has really flown by lately. It seems like the first trimester crawled by, I'm sure because I was waiting to tell my mom and post it on my blog. And I hear that something similar happens in the 3rd tri, that the growing discomfort coupled with excitement to meet the new little human makes time slow down. I guess we'll be finding out.

We've been slowly readying the house. When we bought this condo 5+ years ago we took down the stair rail with a plan to get a new one. That never happened so we painted and reinstalled the old one and it doesn't look bad actually. In the nursery we installed new blinds (with blackout lining!) and have purchased new closet doors that need to be painted and installed.

Miguel is painting the room as we speak. We went round and round on colors, starting with blue ideas, but finally settled on two shades of green, a light green on the upper walls and a darker green on the lower. I love the colors! I can't wait until we can get the furniture in and all the cute bedding and stuffed animals and just everything! I purchased a pre-loved Dutailier Glider & Ottoman on Craigslist. I washed the cushion covers so those are air drying now. I think it's going to look so cute in the room. I splurged on an Organic Crib Mattress and that's supposed to arrive early next week. Man, times are getting exciting around here.

My boss is off for the next two weeks so the office will probably be really quiet. We don't have any big work projects coming up and a lot of my colleagues are off. That, coupled with all the holidays, will make the end of the year fly by I'm sure.

I started taking little walks during the work day. I'm not kidding when I say I haven't been getting any exercise. Each day on Thursday and Friday I went for a 15 minute walk. I'm going to make that a daily routine and want to add in some after work walks on the gym treadmill too.

On the birthing front we picked a class. We're taking a hypnobirthing class in January. I am really looking forward to both the education and the confidence-building that I'm sure will come from it. Hypnobirthing does not involve being hypnotized in the Las Vegas sense. It's basically a deep state of self-induced relaxation. At the birth Miguel will be there to help reduce distractions and to communicate our preferences to the medical folks.

As far as what type of medical folks will be there, well, that depends on where we give birth. As of now I'm with an OB group here in Marin and, if we stay with them, I'd give birth at Marin General, our local hospital. But we're considering moving care to a Midwifery group in San Francisco and giving birth at their birth center. That would be a compromise on the home birthing option and would have the added nicety of our little guy being born in San Francisco like I was.

We went on a hospital tour this past week and I have to say I was impressed with the nurses description of what they (the medical staff) are like there. She basically said they are very supportive of moms having whatever type of birth we want, with the ultimate goal to have a healthy baby of course. She said they don't push pain meds or interventions, etc. Of course she encouraged us to talk to our doctors since they are a big influence in all this. The maternity wing was nice and comfortable looking, though the "delivery rooms" were a little intimidating. The bed with the big stirrups and lights just doesn't seem so inviting.

We're going to an orientation in early January of the birthing center in SF. I am looking forward to hearing what they have to say about a lot of this stuff and seeing how it all fits with what we hope to have. I'm not fixed on any certain birth, I know the ultimate goal is to have a healthy baby and I know there might be cause for interventions if things happen. But I do know I want to avoid the epidural, which is another reason I need to keep moving and maintain my fitness level up to some minimal standard at least.