It's interesting that there's an article about Men's role in childbirth. My husband, usually laughy and jokey and such a dork, was a rock for me when my daughter was born. He reminded me to breath. He rubbed my back. He didn't sit down or eat or even go to the bathroom for like eight hours straight... when I asked him about that later he didn't even know how he managed to pull that one off.
I'm a book reader, and read up on lots of labor techniques, but he's really not so I'm glad we took that hospital class. When I was actually in labor everything I read went out the window. I was doing whatever Marc and that nurse told me to. The simple stuff sounds so simple... breath deep, make low moaning noises, relax between contractions... but I seriously needed to be reminded of that stuff! My huge list of 100 affirmations for people to say to me during birth never did get pulled out, because I didn't need anything that complicated, I just needed my husband telling me to breath. To be honest, he could have told me to paint the hospital walls blue and I would have gone along with that, I was in no place to make decisions.
In pregnancy news, I think by this time the novelty of being visibly pregnant is starting to wear off, which is bad because there's a good chunk of time left to go. I was having the same conversation with five strangers a day... it went like this:
Random person: Oh, are we expecting?
Me, trying to copy enthusiasm even if it's hard work: Yessss.
Random person: When are you due?
Me: June 11.
Random person: Do you know what it is yet?
Me: A girl.
Random person: Have you picked out a name?
Me: Nope, we're pretty determined to wait until she's born.
Random person: You must be so excited!
Me: Yessss.
And by that time I could usually find an excuse to run away. Incidentally, I tried shortening the conversation a few times, they'd ask the first question and I responded with, "Yup, mid-June, girl, no names yet, we're pretty excited." But that was unfortunate because then they didn't have anything to ask and just blank-stared at me, not knowing where to go. They don't ask, "So what else are you up to?" or anything. Because when you're pregnant you're apparently not supposed to be up to ANYTHING but incubating.
This week's articles
Month Week Day Article 7 31W,0D 217 Uterine contraction 7 31W,1D 218 Frederick Leboyer 7 31W,2D 219 Postpartum depression 7 31W,3D 220 Sibling 7 31W,4D 221 Caesarean 7 31W,5D 222 Angelique du Coudray 7 31W,6D 223 With Women
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