31 Down, 9 to Go

Well, as you can see from my latest belly shot and it's caption, we had a major growth spurt these last five weeks or so. I looked at that picture after Jeffy took it, compared it to my 6 month belly shot and sorta freaked. No wonder I feel like I'm rolling out of bed like a beached whale.

As of yesterday, I am 31 weeks pregnant, that equates to 7 months on the nose. I can go anywhere from 6-10 or 11 more weeks. I'm down to counting on my fingers how many more weeks I have to go.

Childbirth classes continue to go well. The first week, we learned a little about relaxation. This week, we actually started learning some breathing as well as 'non-verbal touch' communication. The non-verbal part comes from Jeffy, not me. To simulate contrations, our teacher had us hold a handfull of ice for 60 seconds while we did breathing and swaying and while our partners did the massage thing. We also got to watch a couple of birthing videos. One was on the three stages of labor and birth (early labor, birth of the baby, birth of the placenta). When we got to the placenta part of this one, I had a really hard time dealing with it - flashback to last October, Jacob was still in his sac and attached to his placenta when I was holding him. My therapist told me that it would hit me when I least expected it. This was one of those times. It's been a rough week in that arena. I've been thinking about Jacob a lot.

The other video was following a woman through labor and to the birth of her child. The coolest part about that one was that during her early labor, she and her husband were walking around Wash(ington) Park in Denver. (For those of you who don't know, that's where I grew up.)