I’m 23 weeks along and part of me can’t believe things have flown by so fast. At the same time, it feels like the past few weeks have gone crawling by!

Physically I’m feeling very good. I feel tired and definitely need my naps. Getting up on time in the mornings is challenging on most days. But otherwise I feel really great. I’m eating well, doing regular prenatal exercise (yoga and belly dance), and I feel like I’m doing well with staying low-stress. I can’t complain at all, and I’m definitely loving the little baby belly I have.

I certainly “feel pregnant” now. I’m also having a little pelvic girdle pain starting up. Wearing the Prental Cradle certainly makes a difference with that, so I’m wearing it every day. Sitting on a birth ball rather than a chair helps a lot too. Unfortunately our new kitten popped my birth ball. So I have to get a new one and I think I’ll close it up in our closet at night! Maybe that will keep it safe for awhile :p Think I’m going to shop for a heavy-duty model too!

Baby’s Health

Our baby is nice and healthy from what we can tell at prenatal appointments. We did choose to have a 20 week anatomy scan, and all looked good on that. I like having it to check over baby and, well, frankly I love seeing my baby on the screen. This little one gave us an excellent scan with lots of wiggling, flips, and acrobatics! At the end of the scan baby fell asleep snuggled into the placenta, which was also very cute.

We’ve nicknamed this little one “Riceball”. When our ultrasound technician did measurements of Riceball’s legs/feet Scott covered up my eyes so I wouldn’t see any gender-revealing areas. I’d really wanted to be surprised with this baby and that’s the only big thing I was feeling ambivalent about with the ultrasound. Our tech was very cooperative, though, and made it easy for me to enjoy the scan and not see any critical parts 😉

Baby Preparations

I’m not really in “nesting mode” yet, I don’t think, though I am enjoying getting the house and van organized. Speaking of van, we got a bigger van to accomodate our growing family!! That actually relieved a lot of stress for me because we had a hard time finding a good passenger van. We got a great one and I’m excited to add in a little baby seat in a few months 🙂

I’ve been building up a bigger cloth diaper supply bit by bit, and I’ve gotten a new little “top hat” style potty for Riceball’s newborn days. I’m also planning out some layette items to sew for the baby. I really enjoy sewing for my babies, so I’ll do so for this little one even though I don’t actually need any new baby items! I can’t wait to be EC’ing and cloth diapering a newborn again!!

Childbirth Thoughts

Now that we’re in our new house, have gotten through the ultrasound, found a van, and I’m getting baby things little by little, I find myself thinking about the birth more.

Scott and I will definitely work through the Pink Kit resources again — the entire kit, and especially the Internal Work and Breath, Language, and Touch information, has been so helpful to us.

I’ve also decided that I’m going to work through the entire Hypnobabies course. The materials have been revised since I initially reviewed it for the site, which is a good reason to look back through. I really like the Hypnobabies tracks, so I’m eager to really work through the program this time and plan a birth from that angle.

I know Hypnobabies recommends not using other methods that use conventional terminology or mention coping with pain (which the Pink Kit does)… but I feel like the Pink Kit skills are too vital to leave out of birth preparation. The Pink Kit skills are not focused on pain relief, they’re focused on getting baby out. Since Hypnobabies seems opposed to other methods because they emphasize pain relief (and Hypnobabies teaches you to prepare for easy, comfortable birth), it seems like focusing on the opening and baby decent skills of the Pink Kit doesn’t interfere with Hypnobabies preparation for a comfortable birth. Maybe I’ll tackle this issue more as I get deeper into each course.