Pregnancy Update

Warner was messing around with the camera the other day and said "Mom let me take your picture" this was the result. This is as close as I'm probably going to get to maternity pics.

Well October has come and gone, which means that we are now entering the month of big changes around the Brown household. In less than 24 hours I will kiss goodbye my 20's, in hopefully less, but possibly more than 19 days I will give birth to our fourth child, and in 24 days my little Liv will turn 7. 

I'm 37 weeks pregnant, and I feel 

happy

tired

blessed

peaceful

stressed

hot

hungry

and loved. 

It just depends on the day really, but overall I feel an increase of energy and the nesting phase has begun. If I can get a little nap in during the middle of the day I am especially sweet and good tempered. 

I have had odd cravings this pregnancy. My cravings come and go and have varied throughout this pregnancy.  One week I'll crave olives and I will seriously go through a whole jar in one week. Another week it's balsamic vinegar, and I will have it on a salad everyday for 10 days in a row before I move onto something else. For a couple weeks it was dipping graham crackers and milk. Not too healthy of a craving unfortunately but I couldn't resist dipping the double cracker into that white creamy goodness, and then biting the soft, soggy whole-milk soaked cracker. Mmmm. Savory. The one craving that has been constant through my whole pregnancy is chewing ice. I know it's horrible for my teeth and for anyone within an ears distance of me, but I can't help it, I have to crunch and crunch and crunch. I'm not anemic, I just like to crunch. It's like it relieves all the tension in my body and releases happy hormones or something. 

One odd side effect of this pregnancy is that Jaron's breath smells like carbon-monoxide to me. It is the oddest thing. I can't handle it. Even after he has just brushed and flossed his pearly whites, if he is within like 2 inches of me I have to roll over and breathe different air. Maybe he has taken up a new habit that I am not aware of. I'm joking. I'm joking. I blame it on the hormones not him. 

We all feel so excited for this baby to join our family. We are grateful to be having a little girl, though we would have been happy to have a boy too. I'm so happy that Liv is going to have a sister. I can't imagine life without my sisters.  

We have been spending most of our Saturdays organizing and finishing up household projects that have been undone for months now.  We have been spending most of our nights cozied up in our bed once the kids are down with our books about natural childbirth. I have learned so many great coping techniques that have already proven themselves worthy tools for overcoming or managing pain in my life. The power of visualization for example, of taking myself to a happy place in my head, when I'm experiencing pain or stress seems to work so well for me. As most pregnant women do I suppose, I find my conversations with my girlfriends revolving around pregnancy and childbirth. Everyone around me has been so supportive of my desire to go natural and have been buoying me up with great advice and making me feel like I really can do this.  

At my last doctor's appointment I was tested for Group B Strep. I was super bummed when I found out my results were positive. How on earth am I supposed to have a natural labor whilst hooked up to an IV. Furthermore, my desire to have a drug free labor is pretty much nullified if our new little baby has to be pumped with antibiotics.  After doing some research I have found some safer and better options than antibiotics for treating Group B Strep. I have been proactive with my health and have been taking probiotics, kefer, kambucha, and just generally trying to eat an alkaline diet.  I'm pretty sure I've probably nipped this one in the bud so I'm going to insist I be retested. Hospitals are not huge fans of naturopathic remedies for Group B, so even if I insist on them I will have to stay in the hospital for a longer time with the baby so that they can watch the baby to see if she is healthy. When I found out I was Group B strep positive, I was pretty close to ditching the whole hospital birth and finding myself a birth center, but I think I will just be assertive and stick with the hospital. After Olivia's traumatic birth it just makes me feel better to be there for my birth.

I have contractions all the time, so my gut feeling is that this baby is going to come early, but after having three kids, I know that is a very potentially dangerous assumption to have.  So I'm going to trick my body into thinking the baby is coming late that way I cover my bases. But I still won't be the least surprised if this baby comes early. 

I'm rambling.

I'll stop now. 

Good night.