I’m back from a two week blogging hiatus as I worked 12 days straight, culminating with a 4:30am office arrival on Friday and a 12 hour marathon work day. Does anyone realize I am preggers?!
More importantly (or rather disconcertingly), my work has banned personal email and social meda. Hugely painful, especially since I’m not one to go for walks or take lunches. It’d be nice to take a break from work and check out my blog or Twitter feeds, but I’m unable to access Gmail, Bloglovin, Hootsuite, Pinterest…with more sites added to the restricted list every day. I tried to listen to an NPR podcast and that was blocked too. Totally ridiculous!
Now that I’m 34 weeks and in the home stretch, I’m starting to freak out about how laissez-faire I’ve been about the baby’s arrival. We haven’t taken a single class. The carseat hasn’t been installed. And there’s still a ton of shit we need to buy.
But I have managed to read the following:
I consider Expecting Better required reading for any pregnant woman. The author, Emily Oster, is an economist and professor at my alma mater University of Chicago. During her own pregnancy, she decided to get to the bottom of what pregnant women really should and should not do. You know how medical professionals will spout out all these things you’re not supposed to do: no caffeine, no alcohol, no sushi, etc. I love how she debunks a lot of myths about what’s not safe by intelligently analyzing the research.
Here are a few of the book’s key insights:
“It can take up to 9 months to resume your normal menstrual cycle after going off the pill, but there are no long-term effects on fertility.”
“There is no good evidence that light drinking during pregnancy negatively impacts your baby. You should be comfortable with 1-2 drinks a week in the first trimester and up to 1 drink a day in the second and third trimesters.”
“Epidural is very effective pain relief. But it increases the chance of some complications for the mother. Greater use of instruments (forceps or vacuum in delivery), greater use of C-section…, greater use of Pitocin in labor, greater chance of low maternal blood pressure,…increased chance of fever during labor.”
I encourage every pregnant woman to read the book so that you can be thoroughly informed about what you can/can’t do for 9 months!
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Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth and The Business of Being Born documentary both advocate natural childbirth. While they’re very propaganda-ish, I wanted to be inspired as I am not one to shy away from pain. If I can run marathons with absolutely no training, I can birth my baby without pain medication!
I actually prefer to be delivered by a midwife in a pool of warm water, but Dean is absolutely against it. That’s not to say I’m going to be a martyr, but I’m only saying that my preference is the natural route. We’ll see what ultimately happens. Whatever is best for the baby.
I’m really curious what an OB has to say about The Business of Being Born because it really paints the American health care system in a very bad light. It shows OBs automatically doling out drugs to induce labor to get women out of the hospital in a hurry.
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If I know the 5 S’s, am I all set to take care of my newborn? I read The Happiest Baby on the Block book, then rented the DVD to watch with Dean. Looks easy enough. Hope it all helps!
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Now I’m turning to you. What were your favorite pregnancy resources? Books, videos, classes? Let me know. I’d love to hear your advice. Please comment here on my blog (versus Facebook) so that everyone can see.
Take a look at my previous pregnancy questions and how readers responded:
I loved The Happiest Baby video. It REALLY helped us.
Totally read The Happiest Baby on the Block and What To Expect, too. When I was pregnant. I will tell you the Happiest Baby had some great insight for me, as Emma had colic, but still didn’t truly prepare me for just how hard it would be to take care of a screaming baby for hours on end and the techniques no matter how could proof they were didn’t always work. Bottom line some of the stuff worked some of the time, but not all the time. And each baby is truly different (my first and second were totally night and day). But the truth is I am so very excited for you and just can’t wait now!! 🙂
Baby 411 was our favorite “should I be freaking out or is this normal” resource. Sending you lots of positive energy for the wait, wonder, and worry home stretch.
The car seat is huge. The hospital will not let you take the kid home without it. Also, the hospital will give you a lot of free samples.
I read a couple of things but no one baby is the same. I went on the view if you give them some food, some water and a lot of love things will turn out ok.
Awesome resources indeed 😀 Why are they blocking stuff from your work? Yikes I’m not sure what I’d do (other than excessively use my phone) if outside links were blocked on my network. No bueno! Hope you’re doing well Catherine 🙂 Enjoy the last few weeks -Iva
My favorite pregnancy resource was probably the worst one – going to Babycenter.com and reading birth stories!
So many things can go wrong, yes, but so many things go right.
That was the only thing that calmed me.
Anyway! Getting so excited for you.
I had gotten as a gift “my mommy wears combat boots” written by a community activist that covered topics like raising a kid gender neutral and other atypical parenting topics. I appreciated the alternative perspective. I loved the babycenter app and website as it gave daily things to think about and do. The only things we prepped in time were the car seat, a changing station with shelf, and going home outfit. We did decide on cosleeping and disposable diapers in advance.
I think the only book I read what was What to Expect When You’re Expecting. I don’t remember any of these but then again I started having babies almost 17 years ago. I don’t know if these were around then. I think everyone is different and there is no right or wrong answers. I have friends who did home births with midwives, friends who wanted pain meds, and friends who did it without.
I think I read like one book (what to expect), but I read a lot of material online and took a childbirth class. second pregnancy, zero books. 🙂
Having to go the full day without being able to check in on the blog and social media would drive me nutty too!
I’ve given my work computer a virus from viewing blogs more than once. We got new virus protection software yesterday. Woo Hoo I hope it works. My company hasn’t blocked any sites, but I do feel really guilty doing personal stuff on it now. I bought a kindle, but haven’t brought it to work yet. I go into withdrawal if I haven’t looked at my Feedly in more than two hours. Just ask my husband he thinks there is something wrong with me.
As to pregnancy books, In Debora Spar’s book Wonder Woman she disses on What to Expect When You Are Expecting because she thinks the book doesn’t give an accurate picture of giving birth. I was going to write a post and ask my blog readers if they agreed or not, I may still.
Oh gosh. I didn’t have any official resources, can you believe that? I only had my gut feel and although I heard stories from other women who already gave birth, I was still under the impression that every birth is unique from the rest. I gave birth through normal delivery without any medication so it was painful in every sense of the word. I do hope though that you find the best for you! 🙂
I think the book Expecting Better sounds really interesting. I think there are a lot of myths and misinformation about what pregnant women can and cannot do. I like the fact that someone has taken the information and looked at it critically.
Take it easy with the work, please!!!! I’m sure there are a million things that need to be done before you start your maternity, but your health should come first. No more marathon work days, Catherine! 🙂
Also, that book on pregnancy definitely sounds interesting–especially debunking all of the myths. I always wondered about drinking while pregnant. Have you tried it? Personally, I’m a big “glass of wine a night” kind of girl… I would be so worried to do this while pregnant but I had a friend who allowed herself a glass or two a week of wine while she was in her third trimester. I guess everything in moderation?
My old office decided to go the old school route and remove all of the cubicle walls to look at our computer screens. Talk about lack of privacy! I’m a documentary freak and never wanted kids until I watched the business of being born. Now that you bring it up it is a little biased.. Mmmmm something to think about. I’ll be buying expecting better for sure. It seems like the author is a very knowledgeable and empowered woman that I can trust.