The Bump Chronicles- week 23

This has been a week of mixed perceptions, some people comment on how big I am while others say that I look small for being 5.5 months.  All I know is that I’m bigger and by my petite precedent that’s huge, lol.

Then again, I seem to be doing ok on the weight gain thing and for a change following an “expected pattern” (that may change after midwife appointment update next week)

I have transitioned from being eternally hungry, bottomless pit wanting to eat everything in sight and having to exercise self restraint to a reduced stomach capacity in which I was shocked that I couldn’t come close to eating half of my second moderately sized plate at Golden Corral last night and felt so full that looking at other people’s food was making me nauseous. So smaller portions, more often, that works for me… until it’s time to sleep.

This was how I woke up this morning….

Baby: ::tap, tap, tap:: “mommy”, ::tap, tap, tap:: “mommy”, ::tap, tap, tap:: “mommy” (if you’ve seen ‘The Big Bang Theory’ and know how Sheldon knocks on door it’s funnier)…
me: “Yes baby?”
Baby:“never mind”
me: …… zzzzzzz

Baby: ::tap, tap, tap:: “mommy”, ::tap, tap, tap:: “mommy”, ::tap, tap, tap:: “mommy”
me: “yes baby?”
Baby: “I guess it can wait”
me: …… zzzzzzz

Baby: ::tap, tap, tap:: “mommy”, ::tap, tap, tap:: “mommy”, ::tap, tap, tap:: “mommy”
me: “yes?”
baby: “let’s go eat french toast!”
me: “where’s your snooze button?”
baby: ::strong kick on bladder”
me: “ok, I’m up, I’m up!”

And no, I didn’t eat french toast, I think baby Fox was just trying to lure me out of bed with food and boy was I hungry…

I actually do enjoy most of these kicking encounters provided I’ve already gotten some sleep. My workday is usually so fast paced and action packed that I rarely notice baby Fox move even though I know he/she is working just as hard. I have developed a new enjoyable habit of taking some time after work each evening and just sit and feel while watching tv, reading or just hanging out on the couch, when baby Fox is particularly hyper I’ll grab daddy Fox’s paw so he can feel. I like that he can finally feel baby Fox’s dancing.

This morning I woke up to an ABC News article about how C-Section rates have hit record highs and now 1 in 3 babies is born by C-section, it’s sad that this is no longer treated as an emergency procedures and in many cases is elective and pre-scheduled and even when declared an emergency it’s not always medically necessary but rather convenient.

It just reaffirms my decision of planning for a homebirth with no medical interventions. I know that I can’t escape a C-section if it’s medically necessary and I have made peace with that, but I like having the choice of avoiding being pressured into it otherwise because I’m not laboring fast enough according to some outdated chart on how long it “should” take or the doctor is getting ready to go on vacation or ::insert lame but true excuses why doctors push c-sections here::.

On brighter news the same website had another article about how homebirths are on the rise. Yes, they’re still a statistically minute portion of all births but it is encouraging to see other women reclaiming their power and reconnecting with their body’s ability to birth without epidurals, forceps and scalpels if there are no complications.

And on more commentary….

Lenore Skenazy from Free Range Kids perfectly sums up my feelings on the whole ZOMG SLINGS ARE DANGEROUS!!! thing:

“Perhaps you read the other day that now even baby slings are regarded as “risky” by the Consumer Products Safety Commission. This because, over the course of 20 years, there have been a reported 13 baby sling-related deaths.

It is really hard to write “death” in any story about children without sounding cavalier when adding, “Does that really mean a product is risky?” But still, that’s what I have to write. The odds are so overwhelmingly good for babies in slings — fewer than one death a year — that to label a product like this “dangerous” is to label doing almost anything on earth dangerous. In 1999, 624 people died falling off of furniture. So is sitting on furniture risky?

I worry, too. In fact, I worry that we worry so much we have lost all perspective and are afraid of our own shadows. And especially our baby’s shadows.”

Everything is dangerous to some extent or another, heck, breathing can kill you if you don’t do it right. I’m an advocate for safe and conscious use of things instead of fear mongering because a few didn’t research, read the warning labels or instruction manuals. Then again, I guess that works for me because I’m known for researching things, reading manuals cover to cover (and anything with print on it) so your mileage may vary.

So why does this week blog seem more controversial than usual? Not sure, it can be in part that as a former political/environmental/human and animal rights activist I still have to vent and channel my opinions from time to time and since this is my new subject of study it is only logical that it will become my new activism.

The other things worth writing about in this week’s report are of a more internal thought process nature that have not yet been converted properly to the written word and don’t know if they will. “If they do expect a future post opening up about sensitive stuff like few have seen before.”

Meanwhile I’ll leave you with a pic that I just HAD to put on a t-shirt…. (and no, that’s not baby Fox)