Week 34

The beginning of this pregnancy found us always looking at the growth of babies at each week. Hands, fingers, bone growth, brain development etc... Now nearing the end, as baby development is less intense I find myself looking at other landmarks along the pregnancy. Some of the things that crossed my mind were survival rates if born at 25 weeks, 30 weeks etc. Now that we are nearing the countdown, (well, almost), I am excited for week 36 to roll around because that means I would be able to have the baby at the Campbell River Hospital which is only a 9 minute ferry ride away. Any earlier and I would be flown away to Victoria, Nanaimo or Vancouver! Once we reach 37 weeks, I will be considered full term and will be able to have a home birth as planned. Our midwife is not legally allowed to do homebirth on our little Gulf Island; our plan is to have the baby at Janet' and Case's house (Jordan's mom and partner) in Campbell River.

I am feeling prepared and ready to give birth. 9 months is a good amount of time to prepare. To contemplate, to grow and learn about babies - its enough time to explore parental options as well as personal education and career options. Of course you can never fully plan anything - you need to go with and adapt to whatever comes your way, but its good to figure some things out, its good to visualize what it is you want and therefor strive for it. I don't care that I may come across as 'over the top', but I have thought about such 'basic' things as to co sleep or not, crib or not, vaccines or not or some, to buy or not, cloth or plastic diapers, communication, attachment, socialisation, intelligence - all baby stuff really. I have grown fascinated with these things. Did I ever think I would be like this 5 years ago? Babies and all?? No way.

But I do know that I am the type of person who will get interested in something and then fully immerse myself into it until I am full satiated. That's why I have sometimes felt that journalism would be such a fulfilling career - to immerse oneself and learn all you can on a subject and then write about it. That's the dream though and I am sure in reality the job wouldn't always be quite so adventurous (like the poor reporters who have to write/report on the progress of the BC Stadium roof coming up....ugh).

Offspring is a lifelong adventure. I look at our parents and they are not only still parenting( in a different way of course), they are also grandparenting!

So in these months of growing a baby, I have also been loading my mind and senses with new things. Its been really enriching. I am how I have always been, a thinker, never an extremist. I like to hear all sides and let things sink in. I make my own decisions and I am always confident in them because I have taken the time to think them through. Regardless of any ones opinion. Jordan is very similar and I think when it will come to parenting, we will have a good time together.

I haven't mentioned anything about our prenatal classes on this blog yet. Many months ago we began to look into different types of classes and we decided on Hypnobirthing. The name really conjures up all sorts of funny images and I don't know if I like the name (that could be my preconceived ideas of what hypnotherapy is). We are nearing the end of our 8 weeks of classes - once a week in Courtenay - we are the only ones from 'up island' who have taken the course. Our instructor is also pregnant and the other couple we took the class with were about 6 weeks ahead of us. It was a really good learning experience and I felt that it was even more interesting because the other father to be was a young doctor whom we had some great discussions with (and his wife as well).

Basically Hypnobirthing included attending several classes with Jordan where we learned a variety of exercises, from relaxation and breathing to visualization techniques. We also received a few CD's to listen to at home. It doesn't sound so different from other prenatal classes out there - except for the homework. The idea is to learn to get yourself into a deep state of relaxation where you are totally receptive to new information. Your partner feeds you information on pain and fear release if necessary. The idea is to have drugs in labour - but drugs that the body naturally produces. If you are filled with fear during labour, other natural drugs will be released that actually make you more tense and open to discomfort. Knowing as much about your body and the process of birthing should really eradicate any fears - after all, birthing is supposed to be a natural process like any other bodily function.

I know it is still winter, but after a walk along Rebecca Spit last weekend, I got into the mood to do some gardening. It turned out that many Quadra Islanders had the same urge as me that weekend! The season of rebirth will soon be arriving...