8 More Weeks

We've entered week 32 and I have to say, Joe was right. The closer we get to the due date, the more anxious I find myself. Can I say it is a bad anxiety, probably not. The anxiety helps me to get my act together and start getting things ready for the baby. I think both Mimi and I are feeling it, the pressure I mean. This week, she has been really concerned about getting the baby room ready and things around the house are a bit of a mess right now. We've made it a point this weekend to work on the baby room, so these are my plans for this Saturday. We almost got into a fight, or maybe at least we had a small tiff the other night because I got upset that she was telling me to do this and that. I on the other hand, wanted to rest after coming back from a baby class lecture. I gave back some attitude, and then we sort of parted ways for a bit that evening until dinner. I think after dinner we calmed down and joined together again. I am sure the stress is there, but how can we work together to address the stress of having a baby. I know my job is to provide and make life as easy as possible for her now. I need to keep this in mind and be thinking about what needs to be done for the FAMILY.

I really need to commend Mimi for carrying our baby girl. I love her more and more because I see the sacrifices that she makes to bring our baby girl into this world. Each week, there seems to be at least one night where she wakes up to use the bathroom and is unable to return back to sleep. This can be from 3:00 am to 6:00 am, and she wakes up at 7:00 to get to work by 8:00. If that was me, I would be a zombie the entire day, with a bad attitude, and just wanting to nap all day long. She goes to work, will come home and even cook since I've been getting back later. She endures heartburn and a reduced stomach size, which means she cannot eat as much as she would like to eat. She continues to abstain from sushi or alcohol, which is something she would like after giving birth. She will still go out and do things even though it is tiring to carry the extra weight of the baby. She does not complain that much. She feels itchy because the skin on her belly is stretching. She feels pain when the baby kicks at times. I could go on and on about how many ways pregnancy has caused a measure of discomfort, but she bears it for the sake of our baby girl. I think this is an example of sacrificial love that God describes. It is really the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.

We've decided to try a little study on our baby girl. I'm sure that this study has been done in the past, but being the psychologist I am and the researcher that Mimi is, we're going to try this on our girl. We've selected several CDs that consist of classical or soft music that the baby will eventually use to sleep with. The reasoning is this. The baby is currently in the womb which is the safest place she will be. She is feeling the warmth and security of the womb. She has hearing now, and is becoming more and more attune with our voices. She will actually have voice recognition by the time she comes out of the womb. So our thought was to play these various CDs while she is in the womb and start making the neuron connections of this music with being in the womb, therefore, helping her to feel safe and secure to sleep once she is born. We play 15 minutes of the music every evening, placing some headphone directly to the belly. We change the selection around in order to provide us parents with the most variety so that we ourselves don't get tired of the same music playing over and over. The beauty of this experiment is that we can use this music where ever we go. This can be in the car, at home, on the plane, going for a walk. We have a special section of our ipod set up with just baby songs. I'm realizing now that we're going to need a music player where we can plug in our ipod for the baby's room. Maybe I can add that to our registry. In any case, I'm really excited to see how this experiment works with our baby. I wonder if there are any other experiments we can try.

So dreams has been an interesting part of this pregnancy. In the beginning, I dreamed that we were having a baby girl before we knew the sex of the baby. Sure enough, we found out we were having a girl. This past week, I had a dream about the baby coming early. She came about a month early and she was the size of my hand. She literally fit in the palm of my hand. On top of that, she was born and was not breathing. I remember screaming to her to breathe, just breathe! She eventually started breathing, but that dream felt so real. I woke up a little jostled over the whole experience. I know it was just a dream and it was probably my unconscious anxiety speaking to me. At the same time, it was a dream that I honestly wish I had not had. When one month before the baby is due arrives, I'm going to remember this dream and try not to let it get the best of me.

Finally, I wanted to talk about these baby classes that I've been attending that the county sponsors. Since Mimi was not able to attend, I went by myself. It was a little weird since I was not the pregnant one but I was there. There were other fathers to be there, but they were there with their spouses. In the end, I was really glad that I went because it gave me an idea of what to expect leading up to the birth, the labor and delivery, and after the birth. It really is amazing just how much there is to know about bringing a baby into this world. It is also a good thing that know that this has been going on for centuries so our bodies know what to do and how to handle it. There is so much information that I got, I cannot recount it all here in this blog. Maybe I can put it all together into a book of my own. Ha ha, wouldn't that be funny. I was able to speak a bit about post partum depression since I was the mental health professional in the crowd. That was pretty cool.

So that is about it for where we are now. It has been an incredible learning experience and with under two months to go, we're in the home stretch. We constantly pray to God for continued healthy development of our baby girl and we trust in Him that his work will be made perfect in her.