Archives for June 2011

This past week was incredibly exciting, productive and emotional. It began last Saturday with a 6-hour Prepared Childbirth Class at the hospital where I’ll be delivering. Oh, and did I mention that my mom, sister and mother-in-law were in town? Unfortunately, JB and I had to ditch them for most of the day, but they managed to entertain themselves just fine.

I was hoping I’d leave the class feeling more confident about giving birth than when I entered but watching the dated videos of partially naked (and underage?) women squirming and moaning freaked me out more than anything. They all looked SO uncomfortable. Yes, I suppose now we know the technical stages of labor, but I’m still not emotionally prepared for it!

On Sunday the 12th, two wonderful friends threw me a lovely, intimate baby shower. From the flowers and the decorations to the food and the favors, every detail was perfect — and perfectly me. I received such thoughtful gifts from my family and Omaha friends, and the baby is well on his way to having everything he needs to start his brand new life. There’s definitely more to say about the shower, so I’ll recap and post photos later this week.

I saw my doctor on Tuesday and learned I was now 3cm dilated but still 75% effaced, but she still thinks I’ll have the baby closer to my due date. I also had blood drawn to have my platelets counted. In April I was told that my platelets were on the low end of normal, so I’m now having them checked at my weekly appointments. At 35 weeks, they were at 107,000. At 36 weeks were, they dropped slightly to 104,000. We need them to stay above 100,000 because, if they don’t, I may not be able to have an epidural if I want one. Think big numbers for me, friends!

Unfortunately, the week ended on a very sad note. Friday night I learned that my hairstylist, an amazingly talented and kind woman, died tragically early Thursday morning. She did my hair Wednesday evening for our maternity photo shoot, and it’s hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that I was one of her very last clients. She was the only person who thought I was having a boy before we knew the sex of the baby, and the last thing I said to her when I was leaving the salon was that I’d bring the little man with me at my next appointment. I’m so shocked by her death that I’m not even sure what else to say…except that every time I look at our maternity photos, I’ll know I’ll be thinking about her.

{self-portrait taken at 36 weeks, 5 days}