~ Pregnancy reading: The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding: My grandmother was a devoted La Leche League group founder and leader for decades. I assumed that that meant that she breast-fed her children, but it turns out, she was so devoted to the movement precisely because she received almost no support or instruction in breastfeeding and breast-fed only half of her children, and then only for a couple of weeks or a month. She lent me the book that the La Leche League women gave her and signed for her upon her "retirement."
Which is to say, it's very dated, but also delightful--the 70s really permeate the book, from the photography, to the hippy dippy writing (things like, "if you normally don't wear a bra, you probably won't need to wear one while you're breastfeeding" and "exposing them to the sun can help prepare your nipples for breastfeeding").
Also, you can't get more anti-scheduling the baby than this book: it claims that you should feed the baby, especially at the beginning, anytime he wants to be fed. (The ideological nature of all of these systems for bearing and raising children is continually amazing to me. I mean, even this seemingly anti-ideological, do-what-seems-right-to-you approach really preaches feeding the baby at every moment and holding him whenever he fusses.)
28 weeks:
~ The baby flipped and went head down. And then started kicking my ribs. I guess, at this point, he still may flip some more, but it's reassuring to know that he can flip, for when it's time. I think I'm noticing some hiccups, too.
~ Francisco texted me, after I told him that I was on a ferry: "So the boy went on his first boat ride!" He also told me that one of the things he misses most since we're apart this week is feeling the baby kick.
29 weeks:
~ Becoming parents together is incredible. I swear Francisco likes me better than ever now that I'm having his baby (he claims that it's me who has changed--that I let him treat me better than I used to). There's loads of anxiety, but there's also a gradual coming to love someone we haven't even really met. I feel sort of bad that, when Francisco and I are apart, I still get to have the baby with me. Tonight Francisco told me to "tell Baby Leopard that his dad loves him too."
~ I think I've said it before, and I'll probably say it again: the birth center where I go for prenatal care and where I hope to give birth is very affirming. They make you feel like the healthiest, most on-track pregnant person ever.
~ Just realized that I'd been absent-mindedly taking a men's multivitamin with my fish oil instead of a prenatal vitamin for the last week or so. Oops. Francisco: "Good thing we're having a boy."
~ I've never panicked from the electricity going out before last night: it was very hot and humid and I was wondering how I was going to make it without our air conditioner. Thankfully, our electricity came back on after about twenty minutes. The bad news: This is the second outage since we moved in just over two weeks ago. It seems like it might be a recurring problem in this area.
~ My favorite part of pregnancy is all the ice cream.
~ Earlier in the pregnancy, I thought about it as "we're expecting," which described what I was feeling pretty well. Now it seems inadequate. We're not expecting some vague, unknown entity. We're preparing to welcome Baby Leopard--we know his sex, his name (more or less), and we even have a picture of his profile on our fridge (I say hello to it every time I walk by). It makes it easier, too, to think about going through the pain of labor--the fact that you're doing this for someone you're already getting to know and love, not for a perfect stranger.
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