Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Home Birth: I'm Amost Due!

My husband took my "pregnancy picture" on a family visit to our local Botanic Gardens almost 2 weeks ago.

I am so excited to be so close to having the new baby! I've really been nesting and thought I'd share a little of what I've been up to in regards to preparing for our home birth. This link on home birth preparation given at the Mothering.com forums really helped me a lot. This is baby #6, home birth #5, and water birth attempt #2.. This is the first time I actually feel really prepared! I've always left things for the last minute in the past and have hated that. Especially with a growing family, I wanted to feel more prepared and not leave things so chaotic. I will be taking 2 weeks bed rest (as best as possible) after the baby is born, so a bit of preparation is important. I'm 37 1/2 weeks and here are a few things I've done and still need to do: (I post this for myself as a checklist, but also to share ideas if you want them too)

Done:
-Got a special mothers blessing from my priest for a safe labor and delivery.
-My husband took my "pregnancy picture" for our new baby's keepsake.
-Did some mental preparation for labor by watching some home water birth videos, re-watched "The Business of Being Born" on Netflix, read certain parts of the book "Birthing from Within (the parts on laboring because some of the other stuff is a little too"out there" for me!), praying and asking God for strength during labor and for a smooth delivery of a healthy baby, and giving myself a little "speech" I can tell myself during labor: " I CAN do it, I WILL do it, I AM doing it" and then looking forward to saying, "I DID it!"
-Finally bought a co-sleeper! This is child #6, I wish I would have done it before!
-Collected all necessary birthing supplies (pool, liner, chux, towels, trash bags, Smooth Transitions herbal tincture by Wish Garden Herbs etc..)
-Made a basket with the first items necessary for the baby (clothes, diapers, etc..)
-Have a basket in the fridge and in the pantry with items I can drink and snack on during birth and labor (In the fridge: Cheese sticks, yogurt, etc. In the pantry: Protein Bars, Smart water, trail mix, Boxed soups, etc..), plus my lavender essential oil and organza bag of loose lavender buds to help me during labor!
-Have a basket with peri squirt bottle, maternity cotton pads to put in the Depends for post partum.
-Have my "laboring outfit" hanging and ready, which is just a wrap around towel cover with straps and Velcro opening/closure.
-Have my post partum cotton nursing gowns ready and hanging.
-Made a "Post-Partum" basket for myself. I lined a pretty box with tissue paper and filled it with Mothers Milk tea, Sitz bath and muslin bags, a bag of yummy Sundrops, a box of thank you cards and a pen, lanolin, and a Catholic mothering book called Grace Cafe. It was fun doing this as a little post-partum gift to myself.
-Wrapped a little gift of tea, chocolate, and bath salts for my midwife, and a little gift of chocolate for her apprentice, each with a Thank you note ready to be filled out.
-Bought ingredients and disposable baking pans for making meals to freeze.
-Have a box with organic instant oatmeal containers as a quick breakfast for everyone at home at the time of birth. Have a basket with bagels, English muffins, and cream cheese in the fridge for this purpose as well.
-Went over to a my comadre's house to learn about cloth diapering.
-Scrubbed and cleaned the fridge and put everything in containers and baskets. Have you figured out that I am a container/basket freak?!
-Have done a lot of de-cluttering in the home.

Still Need to Do:
-Still more de-cluttering! Mary and Joseph lived simply and we try to strive for that as well. It is so much more peaceful that way, and I believe we can just enjoy life and the children more without worrying so much about STUFF! This is an ongoing task in our lives!
-Finish making and freezing meals.
-Set up the home school classroom so the children can know follow the idea of "a place for everything, and everything in its place", even while I'm on bed rest. Set up a guide for some work they can do during this time as well.
-Mop the house, set up the laundry room with labels and baskets for everyone so as to make my bed rest time easier on everyone.
-Hopefully my husband will be done remodeling our main bathroom by the time baby is here! It's hard just having one available toilet with a family of 7 going on 8!

There are lots of other little things I'd love to get done, but alas, I am very satisfied having gotten all of the things above done, with not too much more I feel is necessary to do. In the end, the baby will come whether or not the laundry room is organized and I will just say, "The heck with it!". We are blessed to have a new life joining us, and I will try to enjoy every minute of my new baby's presence within our family. It all goes by too quick to worry about other detail.

Have any of you had a home or birth center birth? How did you like it? Is there anything special you did to prepare?

4 comments:

  1. Muchas bendiciones Susana! Que tengas un parto lleno de bendiciones, salud y paz. Te admiro por tener una familia tan grande, ser organizada y tener tiempo para bloguear.
    Big hugs!
    Evelyn

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  2. Whoo hoo! You go girl! Looks like your ducks are forming into a nice row! I have never been so organized before having a baby. But I've also never given birth at home. Babies are so amazing, and it's so special to have the time with them when they're tiny! I get more emotional every time I have a baby, and I'm only on 3. It must be super special to have 6! God bless!

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  3. Congratulations!! God bless you on your labor and delivery!!

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