Thursday, October 4, 2012

Goals Before Baby: The home stretch



We're definitely in the home stretch of pregnancy and feeling pretty prepared for d-day. Labor can come at anytime now! Looking back, here was the initial list and the updated checking-in list. Final updates are below in green and all notes are new.

- Pack hospital bag
Everything is packed except for my clothes. I can't decide on what to bring. I also need to write a formal last minute packing list. 

- Start drinking Red Raspberry Leaf Tea and taking Evening Primrose Oil. Also dates and pineapple!
I've been drinking RRLT for a few weeks now, but I've been a chicken about taking EPO because I didn't feel ready. I'll probably start taking EPO this week now that I'm done with work and have almost everything ready. I've made sure we put pineapple in all our smoothies lately. Planning to make some date-based energy chunks. 

- Buy up the rest of the baby gear we need.

- Make and freeze a treat for nurses and midwives 
I'll probably make some extra date energy chunks

- Gift for doula
Stumped. Any ideas?

- Start getting massages now that its covered under insurance 
Appt. made for next Wednesday.

- Car seat installed and checked
Installed and checked by the Carseat Lady. She was great!

- Get a hair cut
Appt. made for next Tuesday.

- Pack the diaper bag!
We're going to need it at some point ;)

- Research how to and write a birth plan
The process was much simpler than I anticipated. Our midwifery gave us a template to fill out that was very basic and essentially just a few check boxes with two lines to write in any special requests. I learned that a lot of what I thought I was going to have to fight for on the birth plan is already standard procedure for the midwives (immediate skin-to-skin bonding, no episiotomy, no hep lock/IV fluids unless truly necessary). Papa K and I both feel like we're in really good hands and have little to worry about.

- Make a labor plan—Who to call, where to go and when

Update: List with contact phone numbers made and also an email group created for the "She's here!" email.

- Research what to expect and prepare for right before, during, and after labor (the weird/gross stuff)

- Find a kick-butt doula
Update: Our last prenatal visit was on Wednesday. Details coming in Monday's post.

- Meet with our financial advisor to come up with a new budget (we won't do this until we have more clarity on what our income will look like this fall)
Update: We won't meet with our Christian financial advisor to come up with a budget until after the birth and we have settled into a routine. We also plan to find someone to advise us on our investments and more of that grown-up stuff shortly down the road.

- Choose a cord clamping method 
Update: We are going to do delayed cord clamping as the first priority and cord donation as the second. We hope to get it just right so we can do both. I was told that we can delay about three minutes and still have enough cord blood to donate. Although the whole thing seems kind of out of our control, so we'll just go with the flow. This wish is listed in the birth plan.

- Cloth wipes. Make them? Buy them? 

- Best cloth wipe solution (just water?) 


- Figure out what to use for wipes before we start cloth diapering

- Become a master of cloth diapers
Done and done (as much as we can master the art without a baby)! Cloth diaper class through Parent Trust was a total win and though I already knew most of what we talked about, Papa K left feeling super confident is his ability to cloth diaper and how awesome it is. I definitely learned a few new helpful tips myself.

- Prep cloth diapers
We didn't really learn this in CD class, but I was told to just visit the manufacturers website and they will have prep instructions there. I'll cross this off the list, but I haven't prepped them yet. We won't start using them until a few weeks after she's here anyways.

- Learn how to clean the cloth diapers 
I feel pretty confident in how it all works now. Still need to purchase a detergent, but it will probably be either Country Save or Charlie's based off my research. I was happy to learn in CD class that although I void the warranty of most of the diapers by doing so, I can put the shells in the dryer. Hallelujah! She said she dried her stash that lasted two kiddos and they held up just fine. She also pointed out that it would be really difficult to get some styles to air dry without getting really mildewy in our Seattle climate, which is exactly what I was thinking.

- Find best cloth diaper safe diaper cream
Update: I thought that coconut oil would work, but the instructor at our CD class said that it likely won't heal a rash. The best method to avoiding rashes is keeping the "environment" super dry with a talc-free powder. She suggested just using cornstarch with every changing if baby is prone to rashes. I still want to find or make a CD safe diaper balm. Another option is using regular rash cream, but putting a piece of flannel in between the baby and diaper to protect the diaper from the cream. I've heard Earth Mama Angel Baby and Motherlove both have decent cloth diaper safe balms. 

- Elimination Communication! 
We were supposed to go over it in our CD class, but never did. So bummed! I'll have to just look into it myself.

- Choose which baby body products we will use
Coconut oil for dry skin. I did a ton of research on baby soaps and was feeling confident in just using lavender Dr. Bronner's castille soap, but I bought some to try it out on my skin and find it too drying and kind of irritating in various places, especially my face. I was given some of these Everyday Shea products (wash, shampoo and lotion) and am really excited to try them out—they smell wonderful and are a super local company. I also have a small bottle of Dr. Bronner's Baby castille soap, which claims to more moisturizing than their standard formula that I will definitely try.

- Post birth: skin-to-skin contact—how long? eye ointment? vitamin k shot? 
Talked about this in our Centering notes here.

- Placenta delivery options and what to do with it after
Wrote about it here!

- Questions to ask a midwife: Will baby stay in the room with me at all times? Can cleaning/APGAR happen during skin contact time? How/when will we go over my birth plan?

- Research methods for not tearing

- Learn more about episiotomies


- Find a pediatrician
Found one! Dr. Carol with the Kids Clinic in north Seattle. It's a bit farther from our house than is ideal, but she seems like the best fit. I have a meet and greet with her on 10/8. We will use the Swedish West Seattle children's clinic as a back up option in last-minute situations where we can't get in to the Kids Clinic. I have a couple recommendations for great Drs there, but probably won't do any formal meet and greets.

- Line up postpartum help (meals, cleaning)
We set up a meal sign-up using Mealbaby.com for our friends and family to come visit postpartum. Not going to worry about cleaning too much. I will try to keep the house tidy from here on out so we start off in good shape.

- Prepare a freezer full of healthy "body healing" meals
Started making these awesome freezer burritos. Also made a batch of our favorite chili. I have veggie lasagna, pizza, veggie pot pies, and coconut milk curry tofu on my to-do list this week.

- Make a hospital bag packing list—should include snacks for postpartum

- Crib bumpers. Probably not, but do I need breathable ones?

- Familiarize myself with what will happen if I need an emergency c-section

- Read Hypnobirthing
Update: Not sure I'm going to get to this, but I'm thankful I've learned a bit through Centering.

- Read Ina May's Guide to Childbirth
Update: Planning to skim it again to get myself pumped!

- Paint nursery

- Finish nursery
I still need to find art for the walls and cover a handful of throw pillows with new fabric. Otherwise it's pretty much done! Will post a nursery tour soon.

- Plan a "Babymoon"
Portland babymoon vacation photos posted here.

- Have a postpartum exercise plan and potentially sign up at a gym this fall
Update: Still need to look into our two local gyms and decide on one.

- Labor playlist
TBD

- Labor verses
We've started gathering a few every night. Planning to put them in a document that Arthur can read from during labor. I will post the list eventually.

- Pre-register at the hospital so we don't have to fill out paperwork during labor

- Choose a rocker 


- Find a nursery dresser

- Start baby registry 

- Finish baby registry 


- Sign up for birth classes

- Find 100% cotton cloth washcloths
Update: I got some Thirsties cloth wipes as part of a shower gift and think they are going to make awesome washcloths. They seem way too nice to wipe poop! Still have my Ikea 100% cotton ones in the stash too.

- Circumcision or not (if LB is a boy)?


Need to catch up?

Pregnancy Posts:

Weekly Updates:


3 comments:

  1. Good job! As far as a diaper balm, I was talking to another cloth diapering momma in my area and she recommended the grovia magic stick. I ordered it with our diaper stash we just got and it seems really nice, smells good too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for the tip! I'll definitely check it out.

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  2. Hi Kelsey! Have you thought if you'll allow your baby to have vitamin k shot?

    ReplyDelete

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