2001-12-14
Yesterday I went and picked up some stuff from one of B's partners' houses; he and his wife have a two-year-old and were eager for us to borrow some baby stuff to get it out of their house. Among other things, I got a swing and--this will really come in handy--a breast pump. One of the $250 electric ones I'll need when I go back to work. She told me she wasn't sure how much more life this one had in it, but if I saves me having to buy one for a short while, that will still be nice. (Though if the sale of the house goes through, we'll be considerably less strapped for money.) Between the borrowed stuff and the gifts and the tag sales, we've spent very little on this kid so far. But boy is the house cluttered.
So, anyway, nothing's really up or new. Oh, Beulah the Doula called tonight to see how I'm doing. She seemed to have listened to what I said the last time we talked; she said she'd done a little research into the procedures at the hospital where I'm delivering and learned that some of the labor and delivery nurses there work specifically with women who are with the family practice I'm with. Yes, I told her, I know that, they self-select so that those interested in less medicalized birth end up with the women who want them. "That's really neat!" she chirped. "I'm really looking forward to this!" So maybe my words penetrated a bit.
Today I talked with this woman I know from work; she runs the California facility of our company and had a kid a year ago. She's been really interested and fun to talk to throughout the pregnancy. I figured she knew all the tricks but I told her one I picked up from the teacher of our childbirth class that she hadn't heard. For the first few months, the teacher had her baby sleep in a bassinet beside her bed (that's what my friend did and what I'm kind of planning on doing as well). During the night she'd bring him into bed with her to nurse and at first, when she returned him to the bassinet, he'd cry. Somehow she figured it had to do with warmth, so she tried putting a heating pad in the bassinet while she nursed him and it worked like a charm.
Today I bought a heating pad. I was at Walmart, a really skanky Walmart (though we live in the country, the part of town to which we are nearest is a pretty low-rent part of town). Still, they had an extensive infant section, with all kinds of breastfeeding accoutrements that could come in handy. I bought a little baby grooming kit because I've heard you sometimes need to cut the nails right away to prevent them scratching themselves and I bought a digital thermometer. It was kind of fun. I also went to Radio Shack and got a cable to connect our portable CD player to our boombox so we can listen to CDs in the hospital. Next I need to go through and pick out which CDs to bring.
It's all starting to feel more real. I printed out our birth plan (not really necessary but can't hurt) and a list of phone numbers and email addresses of people to notify once we have news. We've been stocking up on food and other supplies we won't want to have to go out for.
Thinking about what to bring to the hospital kind of reminds me of planning for a long road trip--gathering the music, the snacks, comfortable things to wear. I guess it is the same idea. Kind of a one-way trip, though.
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