mama monday: week 30

One would assume that after having whined and complained openly and publicly while we waited to become pregnant that the very least I could do was to blog as frequently about the process of pregnancy once acquired.

But second trimester has come and gone and, for reasons unknown even to me, I didn't feel the urge to post.  Not.  One.  Post.

I guess I was having fun just...being pregnant.

No other excuse.  But now the air is crisp and the leaves are turning and I feel, as I do ever September, the urge to hand in assignments in a timely matter.  School's back in session.

Baby Gaz is growing strong and wiggling near constantly.  Andrew and I read somewhere that babies at this stage sleep 95% of the time.  WHERE ARE THESE BABIES WHO SLEEP 95% OF THE TIME?  Our baby missed the memo.

Here he is, our little butternut squash!

In other news, we attended and just finished 12 weeks of birth classes which were absolutely incredible. We can not recommend the Bradley Method (also known as the "Husband-Coached Childbirth" method) strongly enough to any pregnant couples who are looking to take classes.  At first, we thought 12 classes (two hours each) seemed excessive but now that we've completed them we realize it was just barely enough time to cover all the topics necessary for childbirth education: labour coaching, nutrition, and exercise to name a few.  We genuinely feel well prepared for Baby Gaz's birthday in November!

September also marks a slew of baby showers which arrive just in time since we have been holding off on purchasing too many items ourselves to prevent the Multitudinous Equipment Stockpile Syndrome (MESS) in Baby Gaz's already cozy (read: small) nursery.  Over the next few weeks I'll be posting all about Nursery Makeover 2011: second trimester also came with record-breaking creativity and energy that had me refinishing roadside finds and making multiple trips to Value Village in search of SOMETHING I HAVE IN MY MIND, OK?  STOP ASKING SO MANY QUESTIONS.

Happy September and thanks for visiting after so many months of incommunicado!

mama monday: kangaroo care

Last night we went to visit our friends, the Boergers, which included some serious snuggle time with their adorable 3 month old son, Noah.

Since the weather here in The Great White North has been akin to this:

And I haven't felt truly warm since mid-October, it was a treat to sit down on a couch with a sleeping newborn and steal some of his toasty-warmness.

It reminded me of an New York Times article Andrew sent me a few weeks back on something called "Kangaroo Care".  Kangaroo Care started as a solution to overcrowded and under-budgeted hospitals in Columbia.  Without the money to provide for enough incubators, doctors began bundling newborns, including premies, to their mothers' - skin on skin.  The drop in infancy mortality was so significant that medical communities in more "developed" nations began to take note.

"The babies stay warm, their own temperature regulated by the sympathetic biological responses that occur when mother and infant are in close physical contact. The mother’s breasts, in fact, heat up or cool down depending on what the baby needs. [...] Feeling the mother’s breathing and heartbeat helps the babies to stabilize their own heart and respiratory rates. They sleep more. They can breastfeed at will, and the constant contact encourages the mother to produce more milk."

Although most of our medical approach to pregnancy and childbirth, including incubation, is for the safety and well-being of mother and child I wonder if we miss the forest for the trees.  Having just spent the last nine months (or eight, or seven...or, in some cases, five) gestating in their mom's womb, which is nine months longer than they've spent in any other environment, wouldn't being close to her be the most natural transition?

It makes me think of how fearfully and wonderfully made we are and how much creativity goes into the birth of a new person.  And how those people grow up and become scientists, doctors, researchers and New York Times bloggers who can tell us incredible facts about childbirth.