04.07.06
My dog keeps runnning into our neighbours yard
I am hungry. I am hungry when I wake up, starving when I go to bed, and ready to eat about every hour in between. I weaned myself off nighttime eating a couple years ago in an attempt to be healthier (and skinnier), but this nighttime hunger thing has won. I ate a banana before bed last night (actually I got out of bed to go eat it) because I just could not sleep. I have been waking up on average three times a night to pee, and usually the three oclock pee is accompanied with some fierce hunger. Last night the banana fought it off until six. What is ok to eat ni the middle of the night, though? Yogurt was my first thought, but that would leave me with that raunchy taste in my mouth come morning. The banana worked last night. My preggo friend said she would have a low fat granola bar with peanut butter on it. Steve suggested drinking water to which I laughed and said three pee breaks a night was enough for me.
We went to our childbirth class last night. There were some sterotypes, the IVF couple who are getting induced in Toronto, the couple who had some miscarriages before this baby, the handful of us going with midwives, and the couple who knew alarmingly little. We split into mommy and daddy groups to answer some questions, at which point it was pretty obvious that two of the women have their heart set on epidurals, since they said they wanted one at 3 centimetres. During our group discussion, one woman looked at me and asked if I was going to give birth without medication. I said that I was going to try, and the expression on her face was a mixture of fear and thinking I was insane.
We practiced some breathing techniques, which felt a little silly sitting on a couch facing Steve in a room full of pregnant couples. The instructor told us to tense up a part of our body so that our partners could massage it to help us relax. I tensed up my face and barred my teeth to make Steve laugh, but it turns out half the class (including the instructor) was watching us and all burst out laughing. He he he oops. Also made the class laugh when we were talking about early labour and I decided to share the gem of advice that my midwife gave me, and that was to take a bath, have a glass of wine and try to have a nap. Turns out some people feel really strongly about wine and pregnancy (mental note, do not bother to mention those times you had sips and, heaven forbid, a small glass of wine with supper) and even the instructor asked me who my midwife was and made a joke that the baby would be relaxed when it was born. To which my mental reply was, Not any more so than if you have morphine during labour. Maybe I am crazy, but why is it not ok to have a glass of wine but it is ok to pump your system full of morphine or Demerol to manage your pain? Those drugs cross your placenta and the baby receives them. I am not knocking taking drugs for pain management during labour, but I am planning of having that damn glass of wine.
Other than that, the classes were mostly repetition of things I have already learned, although I am still not clear on the whole walking epidural thing. I asked what the difference was between the two and the instructor said that they were the same thing just some women can walk after an epidural and some are bed-bound. Which sounded suspicious at best to me and I think that really, she just was not sure.
It is finally Friday of a long week (Daylight Savings does this to us everytime), and I am looking forward to the weekend, next week being short, and Liam coming for Easter. I think we have a date scheduled for tonight, maybe Chinese food and a movie, and hopefully this cold that Steve has been fighting off all week finally breaks and leaves him alone. He has been stuffy and snorty and snoring and breathing heavy and exhausted all week, although insists he is not actually sick. Whatever. He sounded better this morning, despite the hawking noises he was making into the sink as he shaved (gag) and when I asked if he was feeling better he told me that he had felt fine all week except one day, he just gets tired easily. I took that as a yes.
wunderwuman at 10:16 a.m.