29 weeks!

I'm home today not feeling so great so I thought I'd take a few minutes in between naps to update our blog. 

We're officially in the home stretch.  Only 11 more weeks to go!  I just can't believe we only have 11 more weeks to finish preparing for the arrival of our baby girl.  For those of you that know me well, you know I am not a procrastinator and love checking off a to do list quickly.  Well, I am starting to panic with the amount of things we have left on our to do list before the baby arrives!  As usual, Deric and I have spread ourselves thin with projects, especially Deric, and there's just not enough time in the week to get it all done!  Deric has been working at a rapid fire pace to renovate our master bathroom, but because of this the nursery is still a big mess, currently a storage room for all of my music therapy stuff.  I really just want to get in there myself and lug all of my things to the basement and get the room painted; however, I know full well that I can't lift all of that stuff, shouldn't be painting, and I just don't even remotely have the energy for it.  So, I just have to sit patiently and wait on my sweet husband.  I still have a few more things to sew for the nursery to, but again I need Deric's engineering brain to help with some of the measurements since I'm not using a pattern.  So again I wait. Poor Deric, he's in high demand.

Somehow over the last few weeks we've managed to fit a Northside tour in and a childbirth preparation class this past weekend.  I started to feel under the weather Saturday when we headed to our class so I wasn't quite as excited about it as I had been but none the less we had a great time and learned a ton of information.  I had no idea, there were so many different positions and things to do to help with labor pains.  I also had no idea that there were other pain relief options besides an epidural.  We left the class feeling far more informed than before.  Going into the class, we had planned on an epidural delivery.  Most of our friends that have had babies have had epidurals and at one of my first doctor's appointments they just asked if I wanted one or not, without much explanation of other options, so I of course said that I wanted one.  Well after hearing about side effects of an epidural and other pain options if needed, I think we've decided to attempt to go the natural route.  I've gotten a lot of feedback on classes we should take, what we need to do such as switching to a midwife, hiring a doula etc.  Honestly, it's been a bit overwhelming looking at all the options now with a natural childbirth.  After praying about everything, Deric and I feel a peace about staying with our current doctor, reading a book on the Bradley Method and Hypnobirthing and even possibly a book on Lamaze and giving it a go with just those resources.  We just don't have the budget to spend on any more classes and I think switching practices at this point and trying to add another person to the equation would really stress me out more than I need.  We'll just see what happens and if I end up needing an epidural because the pain is unbearable so be it but we're going to give it our best shot to try the natural way first.

We're having record high pollen levels here in Atlanta.  I thought that's what was causing my coughing and congestion over the weekend but yesterday and today, I woke up without a voice and some body aches.  We're hoping the rain that's coming tonight and tomorrow will wash this pollen away and I'm hoping that by the weekend, I'll start to feel like myself again.  I'll try to post some more pics of the growing belly soon when I'm feeling a little better.