Bonus:  33 Weeks Pregnant

My next baby will be here in a few short weeks and I am feeling the anxiety.  I don’t have a baby bath tub, or enough swaddling blankets.  I have to pull out all of those fun things like burp cloths and my handy Nose Frida (no bulb syringe here, this thing works great!).  I also need to get a new dresser to hold enough clothes for 2 children.

What I won’t be preparing: bottles.  Won’t use them.  Pump: probably won’t be using that either, though I may grab it in a moment of engorged desperation.  Nursery: baby will be either sleeping next to me in bed or next to our bed in our Hushamok hammock.

What I hope not to prepare: a hospital labor bag!  I will find out very soon if homebirth is a possibility for us.  Since the MMA (Midwifery Modernization Act) passed and Certified Nurse Midwives have the right to practice homebirths in the state of NY without a signed practice agreement with an OB, there is hope.  The only foreseeable block is that my potential midwife already has a mom due at the end of October and she also wants to take some time off that month.  If she can get coverage from one of the other midwives in Ithaca then I should be good.  The next hurdle would just be meeting with her and making sure I am comfortable with her.  It looks like my insurance does cover homebirth, at least 70%.  NY State does have a law stating a woman has the right to choose her birth setting and doctor and insurance must cover it.  Strange that NY is great for Homebirth in terms of insurance, but it took so long for homebirths to be practiced without the legal tape and hoops.

Besides my obvious reasons for wanting a homebirth, the main perk would be not having to scramble for childcare when I go into labor.  Living far from friends and family is very hard, and even harder when you need to leave your house in a relative hurry with short notice.  Grandma’s are good for that, “friends” are not.  Especially those with jobs and children.  I would still want to have someone come to help with Fletcher depending on the time.  But at least he wouldn’t have to pack up and come to the hospital with us, which is what I am afraid of.

If things don’t pan out then I will be ok, but only because I do love my current midwife.  She is caring and competent and will make my birth experience as close to a home birth as possible.  I would actually be sad to lose her if I get my homebirth.  I only wish she could deliver me at home!

Pregnancy wise, this has been a breeze compared to my first.  With my first I weighed close to what I weigh now before I even got pregnant.  And I kept gaining.  I had constant hip pain very early on.  It hurt to walk up and down stairs.  I ran out of breath, my Gestational Diabetes had me on far fewer carbs than I can eat now, and I was generally pretty miserable.  These days I forget I am pregnant.  While I am beginning to experience trouble sleeping and some hip pain at night, during the day I am comfortable.  My GERD has settled down thanks to my Gestational Diabetes diet and I stopped taking any medications for it besides the occasional Tums.  I do have to pee a lot but I don’t think there is a way to avoid that at this point.  I am also getting a little lazy.  My floor hasn’t been mopped in a couple of weeks!  The only reason it isn’t coated with crumbs is that I have a Roomba.

I am getting more and more excited about meeting my next son.  I am also starting to dread the impending loss of sleep that I have only recently started getting.  I am afraid two children will kill me, especially since the one I have keeps me busy enough.  Still, I will be happy to have him here with us!

We got back from Texas on Sunday.  It was a long day which began at 3:30 am and lasted until 5:30 pm.  2 flights and a 1.5 hour car ride home.  I am lucky that my son is a great traveler and has always been great on the plane.  We visited my husband’s grandmother.  She is having good days and bad days, but unfortunately she doesn’t have a lot of time left.  She was so happy to see my son.  Out of all of her grandchildren he is the only blonde one, hence his name “The Golden Boy.”

We packed for this trip in less than an hour but I still made sure to bring my cloth diapers.  We were staying at family’s so we had easy access to a washer.  I packed fairly light.  Usually I have 20+ diapers, this time I only took 8 diapers, but 10 total since one was an All in Two.  I tried grabbing All in Ones or diapers with inserts that agitated out.  This made laundry easier, so insert to stuff or hunt for.  In case you are interested, I took:

(2) Tots Bots Easy Fits

Drybees Hybrid AIO

Best Bottom with 3 inserts

Smartipants

Bum Genius Organic AIO

Bum Genius 3.0

Thirsties Duo

I didn’t pack detergent because I knew Kim from Rockin’ Green was based in San Antonio.  Speaking from previous experience, no ordinary detergent will do in the mineral heavy, hard water in Texas.  I had repelling issues last trip.  I wanted to buy some samples of Hard Rock for the trip and I did.  I didn’t have any issues and that was wonderful!  It was also a lot of fun to meet Kim, someone I have interacted with for a year or so on twitter.  I am seriously still in awe of what an amazing business woman she is because her company has exploded!

Other than visiting our family, some of whom came from North Carolina, and of course the others who live in Texas, we did the usual touristy stuff.  We took Fletcher to Schlitterbahn and he loved it!  We did some shopping and a lot of eating!  In fact, my OB appointment to check in on little Shrimpy was today and the P.A. said “Looks like your baby had a growth spurt.”  Yeah, we will say it the nice way and not, “Looks like you ate a crap load of tacos in Texas.”

While I was gone I had zero internet access, unless you count my iPhone.  Grandma’s house doesn’t have the internet!  I still have a lot of playing catch up to do.  I was supposed to send out the Operation Fluffy package last week but that will have to come this week.  I hope this will convince Ellen to put cloth diapers on her show.

Thanks for sticking around and waiting out my absence.  I will fix the Katydid video review as soon as I can as well!  Here are some pictures from the trip!

Grandma and Fletcher

Fletcher and his "Cuncle" Leroy