Monday, May 25, 2009
Thursday, May 21, 2009
8 month Baby Belly
Tomorrow, we have our second 4D sonogram, so check back for pictures of our baby girl tomorrow night!
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Music for Gianna
We recently started playing Gianna classical music and lullabies via our Bellysonic. She really loves it! When I first place it on my stomach, she starts moving all around excitedly. After her initial excitement, she is mostly still and listening, but I get a few jabs here and there.
When I take the bellysonic off to use the bathroom, or help someone that walks in at work, she kicks because she wants her music back on. It's SO cute. I have to tell her, "Mommy will put it back on in a minute, I have to do something really quick." Then she will calm down. She gets so excited every time I put the music back on for her.
I have noticed she really likes these 2 songs when they come on:
Tchaikovsky- The Nutcracker- Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies
Petzold- Notebooks of A.M. Bach- Minuets 4 and 5
When they come on, she starts moving around happily. She has only been listening to the bellysonic for 2 days, and she already knows which songs she likes the most. She is such a smart baby.
I think the one by Tchaikovsky is particularly funny b/c it is called "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies". Her favorite nursery rhyme is called " The sugar plum tree", and the other story she really likes is called "The Dinkey Bird", which also mentions Sugar Plums.
Maybe she likes Sugar Plums, or that will be one of our many nicknames for our sweet baby Girl?
They say to stop playing it closer to your due date. I suppose that's because you don't want the baby to get too comfy in there, with her music, and then decide to hang around in the womb longer. Haha!
HypnoBirthing
Jebo and I have planned to have a drug- fee labor, as I mentioned before. For those of you that think I've lost my mind, here is a little info on Hypnobirthing, the method we will be using to birth Gianna:
"Comfort is not a word often attributed to childbirth, but as Marie Mongon writes in HypnoBirthing. A Celebration of Life, "When the mind accepts the belief that without complication, birthing proceeds naturally, no pain exists and no pain is experienced.' In other words, if a laboring mother's mind is free of fear, pain can be reduced or even eliminated.
Mongan developed HypnoBirthing in 1989, based on the pioneering work of English obstetrician Grantly Dick Read. Dick Read postulated a fear tension pain feedback loop between a woman’s mind and body that produces oxygen deprivation in the uterus and painful, inefficient contractions.
By relying on her natural instincts, he claimed, a woman might short circuit the loop and experience childbirth calmly, comfortably and safely. In five two and a half hour classes, certified Hypnotherapist (who often are doulas, midwives or nurses, too) teach women how to gain control over their minds, bodies and emotions.
Participants, accompanied by their husband or partner, learn that the birthing muscles work better when the body is relaxed and practice visualization, self hypnosis and relaxation techniques to achieve deep relaxation. A pregnant woman might be instructed to imagine how she wants her labor to feel.
If she wants the experience to be like snow falling gently on her fare, for example, her partner might stroke her arm while she visualizes this sensation. The stroking is intended as a reminder of what the mind is suggesting to the body. Then, during actual labor, the practice is replicated to help coax the mind into a fearless state, permitting the muscles in the uterus to relax and work without stress.
Even the vocabulary used by HypnoBirthers redefines birth in a more positive way. According to Mongan, babies are birthed, not "delivered" like pizzas. The word "surge" replaces the word "contraction." While contraction means tightening and shrinking, surge connotes the opposite the rush or flow of something.
"I felt pressure during my surges, but no pain" says Napper, who gave birth to a daughter, Caitlin, after 18 hours of labor. "The best part was that my baby was alert. She wasn’t stressed at all ' "
Studies have shown that hypnosis during labor can reduce pain, complications and length of labor.
Source:http://www.lightparty.com/Health/BetterBirthing.html
"Comfort is not a word often attributed to childbirth, but as Marie Mongon writes in HypnoBirthing. A Celebration of Life, "When the mind accepts the belief that without complication, birthing proceeds naturally, no pain exists and no pain is experienced.' In other words, if a laboring mother's mind is free of fear, pain can be reduced or even eliminated.
Mongan developed HypnoBirthing in 1989, based on the pioneering work of English obstetrician Grantly Dick Read. Dick Read postulated a fear tension pain feedback loop between a woman’s mind and body that produces oxygen deprivation in the uterus and painful, inefficient contractions.
By relying on her natural instincts, he claimed, a woman might short circuit the loop and experience childbirth calmly, comfortably and safely. In five two and a half hour classes, certified Hypnotherapist (who often are doulas, midwives or nurses, too) teach women how to gain control over their minds, bodies and emotions.
Participants, accompanied by their husband or partner, learn that the birthing muscles work better when the body is relaxed and practice visualization, self hypnosis and relaxation techniques to achieve deep relaxation. A pregnant woman might be instructed to imagine how she wants her labor to feel.
If she wants the experience to be like snow falling gently on her fare, for example, her partner might stroke her arm while she visualizes this sensation. The stroking is intended as a reminder of what the mind is suggesting to the body. Then, during actual labor, the practice is replicated to help coax the mind into a fearless state, permitting the muscles in the uterus to relax and work without stress.
Even the vocabulary used by HypnoBirthers redefines birth in a more positive way. According to Mongan, babies are birthed, not "delivered" like pizzas. The word "surge" replaces the word "contraction." While contraction means tightening and shrinking, surge connotes the opposite the rush or flow of something.
"I felt pressure during my surges, but no pain" says Napper, who gave birth to a daughter, Caitlin, after 18 hours of labor. "The best part was that my baby was alert. She wasn’t stressed at all ' "
Studies have shown that hypnosis during labor can reduce pain, complications and length of labor.
Source:http://www.lightparty.com/Health/BetterBirthing.html
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Mothers Day 2009
When I got to work on Friday, I was surprised to see these beautiful Mothers Day flowers on my desk:
Today we had a leisure morning, and then we met up with my Mom for brunch at Kilroys, one of our past-time favorites. We took some pictures together this afternoon, but our flash drive crashed, so the pictures we took at brunch were all lost. Boo! I had to improvise and take one of myself. Ha!
Gianna in my womb on Mothers Day. 7 months, 3 weeks. I can hardly believe we are ONE week away from the 8 month mark! Before you know it we'll be holding our sweet baby girl in our arms!
Happy Mothers Day to all the mothers and mothers-to-be!
Today we had a leisure morning, and then we met up with my Mom for brunch at Kilroys, one of our past-time favorites. We took some pictures together this afternoon, but our flash drive crashed, so the pictures we took at brunch were all lost. Boo! I had to improvise and take one of myself. Ha!
Gianna in my womb on Mothers Day. 7 months, 3 weeks. I can hardly believe we are ONE week away from the 8 month mark! Before you know it we'll be holding our sweet baby girl in our arms!
Happy Mothers Day to all the mothers and mothers-to-be!
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
30 Week Update
We are officially 30 weeks pregnant today!
It's hard to believe that we have 10 weeks or less to go before Gianna is here. Jebo and I are SO excited and can hardly wait to meet her!
They say right now Gianna weighs around 3 pounds, and will gain around .5 pounds every week until she is born. I am feeling the pressure now in my pelvic bones from the added weight and I feel sore every time I stand but once I move around a bit it fades.
When I get out of bed now, I have to "roll" out. I can still sit up straight and use my stomach muscles if I need to, but I prefer to not put any strain on my body since my back has been a bit sore. My weekly pre-natal massages have really helped with my back though. I'm SO blessed to be able to get those every week!
I bought a book called Hypnobirthing http://www.hypnobirthing.com/ , that teaches mothers to think of labor pain differently. Women who use this method have shorter labor times, and say they feel hardly any pain. I was shocked at our childbirth class last week, to learn that I was the only woman there planning to have a natural birth. Everyone else has either already planned their C-Section, or have no doubts about having an Epidural.
I am shocked that most of these mothers have not done their research on the negative effects of an Epidural on their baby. They say it negatively effects the breastfeeding, the bonding, the baby's alertness etc. No Thanks. I'll pass on drugging Gianna while she's trying to come down the birthing canal. At that point I will have gone 9 months being careful of what I put in my body, and I don't plan on screwing up at the last minute.
Last night we read Gianna her bedtime stories and Bible. Afterwards, Jebo laid his head on Gianna and started talking to her and listening to the sounds in my stomach, when he got kicked in the head two times by Gianna. It was so funny. He would jump away from my womb and look at me all bright eyed and say "Hey! She kicked me!" Then he would put his head right back for some more action. She already has him wrapped around her little sweet fingers. So cute! She is going to be a "daddy's girl", and he will be a "daughters daddy". Ha!
Our Bumbo chair came this week, along with the cover from Etsy. When I put the cover on and showed the chair to Jebo he got all giggly and said it made him want to squeeze the invisible baby in the chair. He was looking at the chair, but picturing Puddy in it and wanting to squeeze her. (Puddy is our nickname for Gianna. Like Puddy in your hands.)
As I mentioned a few days ago, I read a book recently that gave me the idea to start a mommy diary for Gianna. The purpose of it is to tell her all about Daddy and I and how I feel while pregnant with her. Then after she is born, I will write in it all the time so she can read about our lives together when she was a little baby.
I would have loved to have had something like that to read when I was older, if my mom had documented my childhood in a diary.
Jebo also wants to start making videos of us talking to her before she is born, videos of me pregnant, and us together while I'm pregnant so we can have a little time capsule of memories for Gianna. We'll just have to be sure to keep up with it, and do it for our future children as well so they don't feel slighted. It's so sweet how my husband is even thinking of all these cute ideas to carry out for Gianna. I suppose having a little girl will bring out the sap in him. Haha!
We love you Gianna!
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