30 Weeks!

Today I am 30 weeks pregnant. And today...I feel HUGE. I go through phases where I get used to my huge belly, and then I'm pretty sure Mira grows overnight and I feel enormous. This weekend I was used to my big tummy and feeling pretty "small" (in relative terms), but this morning I woke up a rhino. Interesting phenomenon. When I was walking up the stairs at work this morning one of my co-workers commented that I look exhausted. Nope, just huge. It takes more effort to get up the stairs these days, but I keep taking them because I know the exercise is good for me and for little Mira. Research has been done showing that when a woman exercises during pregnancy her baby is the same birthweight as babies whose mothers don't exercise, but babies of moms who exercised were more lean (less fat). Yes, that is a good thing, even for a baby.

This weekend I was feeling overwhelmed about EVERYTHING. It feels like there is so much to get done before the baby arrives, yet I find myself wishing the time away because I can't wait to meet her! Since finding out I was expecting, I have had the desire to have a natural childbirth...no epidural. But last night I was feeling overwhelmed about that thought and finding myself thinking it would be easier to just have an epidural. I have friends who have gone natural and are glad they did. I've been asking questions about what type of childbirth classes they attended. I know someone who used the Bradley technique and a friend who used HypnoBirthing. I was talking with Abe last night about my anxiety. He had some good points, that I need to decide what I want to do and stick with that plan. Good idea. So, that means I need to research some of these methods so I feel prepared for the experience. I reserved two books at the library, one on the Bradley method and one on HypnoBirthing. I'll read them and decide which I want to do. Abe is a little leary about HypnoBirthing because in his little research he did yesterday it sounded to him like hypnosis. I'm not about hypnotizing myself for any reason, so it will be interesting to read the book and see what it says.