Yesterday's Excitement

There are lots of things you hear while pregnant. There is advice about your health; don’t drink or smoke, don’t eat sushi, eat your fruits and veggies, drink lots of water. There is advice about how to raise the baby; don’t hold it too much or you will spoil it, breastfeeding is best, use glass bottles. There is advice about advice; remember, free advice is worth what you pay for it.



Your girlfriends who have been there before you will also offer up advice; get an epidural, the last three weeks are the worst, you need a (insert whatever is the newest and greatest thing here), you don’t need a (insert whatever is the newest and greatest thing here). They will tell you about weight gain, butt spread, gas and vaginal discharge.


And then there are mountains of books, about pregnancy, birth, nutrition, funny ones, serious ones, ones for new mothers and ones for new fathers. With all this information floating around I didn’t really think anything about pregnancy would surprise me…until yesterday.


Yesterday morning I woke up, went to the bathroom and saw blood. Bright-ish red blood. Covering the toilet paper! I wiped again, and more blood. At this point I was trying not to freak out. I went back into the bedroom, woke up Brian and told him we needed to go the hospital. So, at this point, we are both now wide awake at 6 am.


I called the doctor’s office and talked to the doctor on call who asked some questions and then assured me that nothing was wrong and to just come in for my appointment today as scheduled. She said that I passed the mucus plug and it probably just broke a capillary when it came off. I was still worried.


When I went to the bathroom later, there was still blood and some was dripping in to the toilet. That was not making me feel better and my appointment was not until 10:30!! I didn’t know if I should be excited because this baby might actually come out or if I should be worried that something is wrong.


I called a friend to get her advice and she also said that it was normal.


We decided to go ahead and pack the last minute things into the suitcase and put it in the car, just in case. We did that. We took the trash out and took the cans to the curb (Friday is trash day) and put the car seat in the car. We cuddled/ watched TV for about an hour, then took showers and got ready for the appointment.


As it turns out, nothing was “wrong”. I guess it is what is called the Bloody Show. It is mostly defined as: a stringy mucous discharge tinged with pink or brown blood. Tinged…HA. It would have been nice to know it could be that bloody and still be “normal”.


It was a freaky morning but a few good things came from it; we got a practice run at getting ready, we had the chores for the day done by 8 am and we know that the process has started (I was one centimeter dilated)…there will be labor starting at some point. :o)

Shiva Rea’s Prenatal Yoga aka ex-sail

I borrowed Shiva Rea’s Prenatal Yoga DVD by Gaiam from friend. And basically I think it sucked.

There are a few reasons I didn’t like this DVD, one being that I expect the people walk you through the poses. For example, they say, out loud, something like, now exhale as you start to bend forward, reaching your arms toward the floor. I don’t like to have to watch the screen every second to be able to keep up. How do they expect you to follow along when some of the poses require you to be in a head down or sideways position that doesn’t lend so well to looking at the TV screen? (Duh.)

But the main reason I didn’t like this DVD is because the lady says exhale as if the hale part was spelled sail. Ex-sail. OMG, it was soooo annoying that it was all I could hear. Blah, blah, blah ex-sail, blah, blah, blah EX-SAIL. Could. Not. Take. It.

It did have three different levels to account for different trimesters and as far as I could tell the poses were fine, nothing hurt when I did it. But I will point out that I was so sick of listing to the lady talk that I fast forwarded a lot of the DVD.

I don’t know if they have a prenatal DVD but I would recommend the Yoga Zone DVD’s over any other. They are great. They talk you through every pose telling you where you should feel what and giving you lots of variations, easier and more advanced. And they don’t make you feel bad about where you are, quite the opposite in fact. Even some of the instructors can’t go as deep into some poses as others who are doing the poses with them. The music isn’t funky and they don’t have that ‘I’m so cool (and better than you) because I am a yoga master and I can make my studio look and sound new-age-y. ‘ (I hate that. I will stop watching something if I get even a little of that vibe.)

I own the Yoga Zone Ultimate Collection and I think it is the one the best things I have ever purchased.

In Two Weeks

Last night Brian looked at me and said, “You know what? In about 2 weeks we could have a baby.”

I said, “Yes…”

“In two weeks, we could be parents.”

And I thought…I am failing to see the revelation here. :o)


It must be weird to have all of this hit at once. I mean, I have had a reminder that this event is coming for the last 9 months. I know that men don’t have the same luxury.
I have read that, for men, it becomes “real” once they see the baby. That must be hard. Really. Your whole life is different in like 3 seconds. That seems like a reason to faint to me; not the goo or blood or any of that…mostly just the thought that this is real and now everything is different. That might take my breath away or make me lose blood flow to my extremities.
I have to admit that it is a weird thought that the hospital will let us just take a baby home. And then it is going to be there…forever.

Some questions for today

I have a few random questions that just need to be "let out", so here goes...


It is possible to not pee my pants EVERY time I sneeze? 
Why did that start now?  Three days ago I was fine.
Why do so many people assume that I am going to cut my hair once the baby arrives?
Is there some sort of Mommy memo that I didn't get?  Is short hair the standard Mommy do?
When will this cold go away?  And will my nose fall off?
Is it possible to get any work done with all the dirt in my house staring at me?  (I have already cleaned out two drawers in the kitchen, only two more and a bunch of cabinets to go.)
Did anyone else know that we had so much junk in those drawers?  And if so, why didn't anyone tell me?
How many cheap wine openers does one family need?
Are my wine glasses getting lonely?  (Dear wine glasses: it isn't you, it's the baby.)