Besides having crazy weird dreams and now weighing 117 lbs (I gained 4 lbs in 2 weeks?!), pretty much everything still feels the same.  Same dry skin as 2 weeks ago (but not nearly as bad as 1st and 2nd trimester) - this is just normal dry skin - not the flesh eating sort that makes you want to just rip your skin off.  My entire body is slowly just plumping up, and if I were a cow I’d be worried.  Basically, I’m feeling really good this past week.  Today, I actually had a burst of energy and was able to clean up and vacuum L’s room and put together her toddler bed (yippee!  I can now mark THAT off the list), bake 2 loaves of bread - one whole wheat and one whole wheat banana bread), and wash a load of clothes.  So, those things are finished and I feel rather accomplished, thankyouverymuch.

A friend of mine hooked me up with a HUGE stack of birth books to read so I’ve been quite busy with those.  I know the technicalities of it all, as I’ve been here before, but I love reading the different approaches and mindsets for birth.  I’ve read some very hippy books as well as some not-so hippy books.  I’ve read books that suggest you moo like a cow during labor (which I totally plan to do, by the way) and others that focus on hypnobirthing (something I may use PART of to help me in certain stages of my labor).

My favorites so far are definitely:

Ina May’s book

The Birth Partner by Penny Simkin, P.T.

Birthing From Within by Pam England and Rob Horowitz

Basically, Ina May is just really cool and would possibly make me consider heading to her “farm” to have this baby…except not.  But, the idea was entertained in my head, and that means something.  (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, Ina May is a midwife and she has this “Farm” where women can come and give birth in close proximity to doctors and such, but they stay in these cabins and go for completely natural.)  The Birth Partner is supposed to be for Steven to read, but I’m basically reading it and then giving him the cliff notes.  Right now, I’m loving that it’s one of the few books I’ve found that actually TELLS you how to deliver a baby in an emergency setting.  Not something I want to have to know, necessarily, but would be really cool to print out the info to have in the car and house…on hand.  It also has all sorts of other information, although some of it is a little bit dated (but not too bad).  The third book, Birthing From Within combines art and creativity with preparing for labor so I obviously LOVE this one.  One of the authors actually teaches her own classes (which this book is based off of) and I think it’d be super great to be able to attend those.

Anyways, those are 3 that I’d completely recommend - regardless of what TYPE of birth you are going for…whether you want a completely sterile hospital birth or you want to go all crunchy granola and do it at home.  Good stuff.

Welcome back!