32 Weeks - Morning Sickness?!?!

So I was under the impression that morning sickness was either experienced at the beginning of your pregnancy or throughout all of your pregnancy, but I wasn't aware that you may have it in the beginning and then not again until the 3rd trimester! As I noted in some of my very first posts, my morning sickness during the first trimester was felt, but really wasn't that bad (other than the fact that it wasn't only limited to the morning and seemed to pop up several times over the course of the day). Just as lots of women experience, the morning sickness faded in the 2nd trimester and I felt great! Now, for the past couple of weeks I've once again started not feeling all that great as I'm waking up in the mornings. The nausea tends to go away after a shower and some breakfast, but it's definitely there as I lay in bed after I wake up. Again, it's really nothing to complain about, but I don't remember this happening with Madeline.

We had another great check-up with our Midwife this week - baby is still head down and the heartbeat is right where it should be! Madeline always loves listening to the heartbeat :-) This appointment was fairly short. We talked about the great experience we have had at our hypnobirthing classes and asked how familiar the hospital staff is with this method. Cheryl felt that there wasn't a lot of experience, but that the method was known and accepted. She likes the idea that we plan on having a sign on our door to let people know before they come into the room - she thinks it will really help set the tone in the room :-) Next time, Matt plans on coming to the appointment and perhaps getting the opportunity to go over our birth preferences with Cheryl.

Our hypnobirthing class ended this week and we just can't say enough positive things about it. I think that both Matt and I are very confident that we can have the natural birth experience that we are so hoping for. We will continue to prepare at home using all the things that we have learned and plan to go into our birth experience with a relaxed body and an open mind.

Baby Frantz is very active and loves to wake up in the middle of the night for "dance parties". It's amazing how active the little one is at 2 and 3 AM :-) The movements are still pretty forceful and mainly felt on my upper right hand side - just where they should be!

Week 31 - We're in Position!

There are a few things I forgot to mention last week... one was that CNM Cheryl told me at our last appointment that Baby Frantz is already head down!!!! This is the best news! The last time around we ended up with a cesarean because Madeline was footling breech, but Cheryl is sure this one is head down. Since there really isn't enough room for baby to flip from head down to feet down, we should be in the clear for the VBAC we've been hoping for!!!

Another thing I forgot to mention is that I've been feeling reflux for the past couple weeks and it doesn't seem to be getting any better. Most of the time I just feel it at night when I go to bed, but it has also been known to show up when I'm doing yoga (must be all of those funny positions!) Again, it's really not that bad and definitely something that is pretty easy to deal with :-)

I spent the earlier part of this week in New York at a conference for work. The amount of time on my feet and the not-so-comfortable bed meant a few more aches and pains, but I'm hoping that an extra dose of Yoga should help :-) In fact, yesterday I got to go to my prenatal yoga class and then Madeline and I went to a Tots Yoga class! She had a blast doing positions that imitated all of the animals she knows... a dog, cat, cow, lion & frog. She especially loved reaching all the way up to the sun to get some energy and then laughing as she flopped forward to the ground. We've been bicycling with our feet in the air every day since!

Today we met with one of our 2 possible doulas, Gina. We went over all of our expectations and hopes for Baby Frantz' birth day. She was wonderful to talk to and had some really good advice. We feel more comfortable with her each time we meet and we're sure we've made the right decision! This week our other possible doula, Beth, is coming to our hypnobirthing class with us - we think it will be great to have her there with us :-)

That's about it for this week!

30th Week - Very Encouraging visit!

We had another prenatal appointment this week and it was another very good one! Baby Frantz' heartbeat was just over 160 and mommy's blood pressure was lower than usual (106/61) :-)

CNM Cheryl was just wonderful again this week. I told her about the book I am reading "Gentle Birth Choices" and explained some of the things about gentle birth that I was learning. She said that she had never read this book in particular, but that she knew of the author and was going to add it to her list of books to look into. We also talked about our hypnobirthing class. She was very encouraging and said that she has always been amazed by families committed to using this method.

We went over some of our questions about how we are wanting our labor/birth to progress and she was very supportive. In fact she had several amazing birth stories from last week... she had 7 births in the last 5 days and 6 of them were completely natural - no interventions or medications! She said she hadn't had a run like that in quite a long time, but loved every minute of it and was so glad that her stories were so inspiring to us. We had a great conversation and seem to connect more and more with every visit. She's completely on-board with us wanting no interventions and said that she knows we can do it - she said can "see it in my eyes" :-) I'm looking forward to seeing her more often, as our appointments are every two weeks now!

As far as aches and pains go, not much has changed... still some back pain in the mornings, but I'm hoping that getting back into the yoga routine this week will help!

29th Week: Birthing Classes

Not a whole lot to report this week, but Baby Frantz has had the hicups more and more lately :-) My second session with the chiropractor really seemed to help more with my back pain. She also suggested a prenatal massage so, I called my wonderfully talented cousin who owns her own massage business, Therapeutic Body Massage. I went to her this afternoon for my very first massage ever. I could tell that she found quite a few knots and really worked on breaking them up - I'm looking forward to feeling the results over the next few days! She also suggested that I come back in a few weeks and I definitely will :-)

Matt and I also started taking a birthing class at Blooma - Hypnobirthing.

***Yes, this is our second child, but because I did not experience labor with Madeline (who presented footling breech and was delivered via cesarean) this will be a totally new expereince for both Matt and I - we're trying to learn as much as we can :-)***

Sooo, Hypnobirthing does not mean that I will be hypnotized during the birth, but rather helps develop a meditation/relaxation routine before going into labor. Our instructor is great! She is a registered nurse at a local hospital and has so many wonderfully inspiring stories of women managing and truly loving their birth experiences. She shares an abundance of information on the birth experience and what you should expect so that you are not scared or aprehensive before your big day arrives.

The first class was great and I've really enjoyed learning everything I can with Matt right by my side learning everything right along with me. I've never been much of a "meditaor", but I really want to try... Anything that may help us on our journey to a natural birth is worth taking a better look at!