The day started off a bit hectic for me, as I promised a coworker that I would make her cookies and I completely forgot the night before even though I had plenty of time. I think I set my alarm for some time before 8am, but ended up ignoring it and going back to sleep. I finally woke up at 8:15 and realized I had to shower, get ready for work, make cookies and be to work by 9:30! I literally ran out of bed and found a pre-made sugar cookie mix in the cupboard, whipped it out, and began stirring as fast as possible. I was mildly disappointed that I couldn't make the cookies form scratch, but at least I had an alternative this late in the game. I also didn't have any cookie cutters so I was standing there, with my hair a mess, cutting little hearts out of the dough with a butter knife! It's a great mental image, I know. I put those in the oven and bolted into the other room to get dressed because now I knew I wasn't going to have time to shower. I sprang back into the kitchen, pulled the cookies out and put them on a plate and stirred up another batch but was too lazy to make hearts again so these were large circles made from the rim of a drinking glass and little squares I cut quickly with the knife. After throwing those in the oven I ran in the other room to finally fix my mess of hair, I pulled my boots and coat on as quickly as possible and flew back to the kitchen in time to take them out of the oven, toss them on a plate, wrap it in tin foil and zip out the door. I was so exhausted from MAKING COOKIES. And I'm sure the whole time the baby was thinking, "Damn, I've never felt Mum move this fast before!"
Needless to say, I was nine minutes late to work. At least I wasn't late enough to get in trouble for attendance. I'd say I made pretty good timing!! I split the batch of cookies in half and brought one plate to work with me and left the other (shown above, and don't mind the slightly burnt corners you see peeking out..) on the counter for Ashton for when he got home from work. Don't worry, I did cover them so they didn't get stale. :P
Ashton and I both had to work on Valentine's Day, but luckily it wasn't terribly late. I got out at 5:30 and was home by 6, and arranged two red roses next to the cookies on the counter. One from me and a tiny one from baby. Although Ashton was out at 4:15, I was still waiting around until almost 7:30 for him to get home!! :( I didn't know what to do with myself so I ended up doing all the dishes, and eventually pulled out a bag of chips and salsa because my appetite got the best of me. He's lucky I didn't start on that plate of cookies before he got home! He finally arrived and brought me a single long-stem rose that I love. ♥
We then made the yummiest burritos for dinner (whole wheat wrap, rice, black beans, jalepenos, pineapple, pepper jack and mozzarella daiya cheese, tofutti sour cream, and mango salsa), and Ashton's sister and her husband stopped by shortly after that. We decided to stay in for the night and later on we ended up falling asleep to one of my Ghibli favorites, Castle in the Sky.

I hope you and your special someone enjoyed your Valentine's Day as well. ♥

It all started on Monday morning when I FINALLY got in touch with my Maternity Support nurse after two weeks of missing each other's calls. I'm so glad we finally spoke, as we had quite a long and involved chat! We reaffirmed my decision to deliver at Brigham and Women's Hospital and went over what that entailed. She said I must transfer my prenatal care over to a practice that is affiliated with B&W, and to do so as soon as possible because sometimes it is difficult to transfer prenatal care at this point and certain practices don't accept new patients who are already in their third trimester. And so the search began.

I googled around for what must have been hours, until I found the perfect practice to continue my prenatal care with- Dorchester House Multi-Service Center. They literally have everything I want: a midwife that will see me for every appointment from now until birth (instead of the doctor hopping I was doing with Dedham Medical- I saw 3 OB docs and a midwife there) and will be able to accompany me to B&W to deliver my baby, a pediatrics doctor who will also come to the hospital before I am discharged to establish a relationship with me and my baby and set up our first appointments together, optional group prenatal appointments (like a mini support group of mum's that are all due around the same date), a facility that is actually slightly closer to travel to, complete coverage by my insurance, AND they regularly work with patients who are looking to transfer their prenatal care! So I called Dorchester yesterday morning and have a prenatal registration appointment next week with a nurse for initial interview questions and then will set up my next set of appointments with my new midwife so my prenatal care won't be interrupted! :)

Unfortunately all of this means I somehow have to "break-up" with Dedham Medical. I actually feel bad about having to tell them I won't be continuing my prenatal care with them and asking to transfer my patient file over to Dorchester. It literally feels like a terrible break-up. I hope they don't take it too terribly!

To add to the excitement, Ashton and I went on a maternity tour of Brigham and Women's Hospital on Monday night. It was quite a rush actually being in the hospital and seeing all of the different rooms and floors that we would be traveling to in just 10 weeks. I watched the online tour video and almost decided on not going in for an in-person tour since it isn't necessarily recommended, but I am so glad that we did. It gave me peace of mind knowing exactly where to pull the car up (we drop the keys off for valet parking!) and actually see the front desk to check-in at and know where I will be wheeled off to next. Our tour guide told us about the triage room (where we might have to wait if we arrive too soon and I'm not far enough along to deliver yet), and showed us a labor and delivery room where we remain for 2 hours after delivery, a postpartum care room where we stay for the next two days, the nursery where the baby will only go if she can't be with me for medical reasons, and the waiting area for visitors that aren't one of my three support people (three support people are allowed to enter and exit the labor and delivery room and postpartum care room at any time, everyone else is considered a visitor and can only come to the postpartum care room between 1-8pm). She expressed the importance that the hospital places on immediate skin-to-skin contact between mother and child and also recommends breastfeeding as soon as possible (we will be visited by a lactation consultant soon after birth too). I will admit, I actually got really scared when we finally entered the labor and delivery room. Just looking at the hospital bed terrified me. I tried imagining myself laying in it and I felt my body get stiff and my eyes fill with tears. I'm so glad we left to continue the tour soon after that because I didn't want to have a meltdown in front of all the other couples there. How embarrassing! Overall, I loved the facility and agree with the practices that they recommend, I'm happy that my new midwife will be there throughout my birthing time, and am confident that everything will go smoothly.

ONLY TEN WEEKS!!!!! :)

Hypnobabies!

As I was researching different approaches to natural unmedicated childbirth I came across information about water births, home births, doulas and midwife deliveries, hypnobirthing, acupuncture or acupressure, massage and hot/cold therapy, visualization techniques, and much more. I am obviously giving birth at a hospital and while I would actually LOVE to have a water birth, it is not offered at Brigham and Women's (maybe next time! haha). But I do really want a midwife there and to prepare for labor and delivery I have decided to try out a program called hypnobabies. It is similar to hypnobirthing in that they both rely on self-hypnosis techniques, but it has it's own home study course and preparation methods. The home study program involves five weeks of listening to meditation-style hypnosis tracks every day and then rotating through each of the topics again from the end of the course until birth. I decided to try this method because I used to meditate a lot in my spirituality class in college and really loved it and miss it. I find it relatively easy to calm my mind and enter a meditative state to relax. I also love that the program helps women embrace the parts of pregnancy, labor, and delivery that are commonly feared by empowering us with knowledge and assurance that all of these aspects are natural. They even change the terminology to be more comforting- "pressure waves" or "birthing waves" instead of "contractions", "birthing time" instead of "labor", etc. I know the idea of this hypnobabies program might not be everyone's cup of tea, I'm actually really excited to see how it goes. I'm starting it this week to finish by my 35 week mark and then do the rotation until I give birth. I really think it will help put my mind at ease about anything I am fearing and help to keep me relaxed during my birthing time. :)

30 week update.

How far along? 30 weeks.
Total weight gain? 20 lbs.
Stretch marks? I think so, on the bottom of my boobs. :(
Best moment this week? Switching my prenatal care from Dedham to Dorchester, going on a maternity tour of the hospital at Brigham and Women's, and setting up a time to see an apartment tomorrow (fingers crossed!).

This week's to-do list:

1. Continuing to work on Roo's block set.
2. Speaking with my landlord. (The guy seriously NEVER gets back to me!)
3. Seeing an apartment tomorrow with Ashton and hoping all goes well.
4. Contacting my insurance company about breast pump options and cord blood banking options and notifying them of my change in prenatal care.

Hopefully I can continue to be productive to make it through the weeks ahead. Baby will be here before I know it! :)