Henry’s (and Halia’s!) World

Another favorite pregnancy read of mine is “Gentle Birth Choices” A Guide to Making Informed Decisions About: *Birthing Centers *Birth Attendants *Water Birth *Home Birth *Hospital Birth, by Barbara Harper, R.N.

Amongst other things is included a beautiful prayer that can be used when labor starts or during labor that I’ve recorded and uploaded to my MP3 player so I can listen to it when labor starts.

Ok I know, the two really have nothing to do with other, but I needed a break from my paper “Gunshot Wounds (could there be any more depressing paper topic in 90-degree weather and 37-weeks pregnant?!? lol).

Any who 3-weeks ago we embarked on our baby shopping spree picking up baby’s play yard and i absolutely love it! Hubby actually found it, not only is easy to break-down and put-up for easy transport, but at 20-weeks I have faithfully played classical musical from my MP3 player every night for baby, and this play yard comes equipped with an MP3 outlet, which I am so excited to try out to see how much calming it does for a fussy baby.

Our next big item was finding a compatible stroller for my Chaperone Carrier and we decided to go with the Baby Trend Snap-N-Go and love the sleekness of it to take up as little space as possible,

and finally we got a tub which unfortunately is only available at Babies R Us, but well worth the drive, it grows with baby and that is a convenience I am sure any parent will appreciate.

Now for my list of must have items for baby’s first aid kit;
* Baby nail clippers or blunt scissors
* Cotton balls
* Baby thermometer
* Bulb syringe/nasal aspirator
* Medicine dropper or spoon with measurements
* Petroleum jelly and sterile gauze
* Infant acetaminophen (Tylenol)
* Antibiotic cream
* Saline nasal drops
* Baby gas drops
* Disinfecting hand soap

In a big way!
I thought i had done pretty well preparing the older siblings for the new addition due in 4-weeks, apparently I missed something because Henry decided to take a rock and scratch the entire side of the family van :0.

Looking back at all I’ve done maybe he could be suffering from overload? He has been to most of the prenatal appointments and ultrasounds, but this past Saturday we spent a better part of the day purchasing the big ticket baby items (play yard/bassinet, stroller) and while we were mindful to pick up gifts for each of the kid’s I assume it was all a little too much for him to take.

Unfortunately I missed the last sibling class at my local hospital and the next one starts after baby arrives so I did a search of books that can be easily obtained from my local library, and hopefully that will have his cooler head to prevail.

“A Baby for Max,” by Kathryn Lasky and Maxwell Knight.
“Alligator Baby,” by Robert Munsch.
“A Place for Ben,” by Jeanne Titherington.
“Arthur’s Baby,” by Marc Brown.
“Julius, the Baby of the World,” by Kevin Henkes.
“The New Baby,” by Mercer Mayer.
“Will there be a lap for me?” by Dorothy Corey.

And a wonderful site to check out for prepackaged sibling gifts, check them out;
http://www.babygiftstation.com/Siblings-Gifts-s/41.htm

I received a Chaperone infant carrier to review and while I like the added safety features, I was not too crazy on the idea of paying $299 for the accompanying stroller. This may still be a good deal for those who can afford to purchase both the carrier and stroller provided you can show receipts for both, you’d qualify for a $100 rebate, but since I received my carrier free I am ineligible to participate.

So taking into consideration that the matching stroller would not be available till after I deliver in August (price aside), I was thrilled to find other brands of equal or greater quality that are compatible with the seat, these include;

* Baby Trend Snap-N-Go (with straps courtesy of Baby Trend)
* Chicco Cortina
* Graco Quattro Tour
* Maclaren Techno XLR (with infant carrier adapter frame and strap courtesy of Maclaren)
* Peg Perego Pliko P3

Most of these brands can be found at your local Babies R Us and other establishments that specialize in infant gear but most importantly you get a “feel” for how the system works as opposed to relying on pictures to tell the story.

I had my weekly appointment with the chiropractor today, and it was great getting adjusted this late in pregnancy when at this point you feel like a disjointed rag doll. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that my chiropractor is certified to perform the Webster Technique, which is actually a pediatric chiropractic technique, that is used on pregnant women to help open the pelvis in preparation of labor, and for getting breech baby’s to turn around, by concentrating on a pregnant woman’s ligaments in the uterus being more tense than on the other, which can cause the uterus to be “torqued”.

So far so good, baby has been down since 30-weeks, and is comfortably engaged in my pelvis, so I have no doubt it will not be moving up to my chest again, but it is comforting that my chiropractor is certified and has been performing this technique which I know is working since I can even feel the difference especially with the increased pressure when doing yogic squats.

Here is a great link that lists chiropractors that are certified to perform this technique, if nothing else, getting adjusted helps so much with the aches and pains common in pregnancy.

Find a Pediatric Chiropractor for your Family

On a kind of a sad note, I was having a pretty strong contraction with pressure in the perineum when my 4-year old son Henry comes bounding in for a good night hug and kiss, and I was so scared he’d hit my stomach that I grabbed his thumb and unknowingly squeezed it, but immediately realized what I was doing and apologized, but he said it didn’t hurt so I may have caught myself before I really hurt him, but it did have me worried for a second.