I’ve always liked watermelon, I mean, who doesn’t? If you actually know someone who doesn’t like watermelon, I want to know who it is.

When I was little we’d always have watermelon seed spitting contests to see who could spit the farthest. Funny thing, though, I can’t even find a watermelon with REAL seeds anymore. Only the seedless kind around here. Easier to eat, but no contests!

I thought that my watermelon craving was only due to my pregnancy. Apparently, I was wrong. Here it is, watermelon season again, and I JUST CAN’T STOP EATING WATERMELON!

My friend Diane posted this great idea: slice watermelon, cut out with cookie cutters, and freeze on a popsicle stick. I can’t wait to try it!

The good thing is that it’s good for me! Live, fresh fruit. I can’t go wrong. This article tells all about what’s so great nutritionally about it. And if you want to know why it’s actually a Pregnancy Superfood, check out my blog post on it from last year.

Good thing that it’s inexpensive. Unless you buy one of these square ones, sold in Japan, for $100.

Happy Summer!

Everything went according to “plan”. She was born the very day we hoped to have her (for a variety of reasons), the beginning of the 38th week of pregnancy, the morning after a restful Shabbat. The birth was at home, and went perfectly. Labor was just a few hours, and the delivery was done in the water. It was all quite amazing.

Now I’m dealing with the exhaustion, the emotions, the new challenges that each unique baby brings. Yes, I’ve done this four times before. But I’ve never done it with this baby.

She’s worth every moment.

A short while back, I posted about using a schedule for children home during the day to help keep chaos away.

I haven’t been doing it. I’ve been stumbling around, my big belly and discomfort being my “excuse” for not organizing my thoughts, or my time, even a little. It’s not been worth it.

My children are misbehaving. A lot. I’m yelling. A lot. And I’m becoming one of “those” moms who can’t wait for her kids to go back to school. I don’t want this.

So, I think I can at least manage some of those tips, even if I am not doing the full schedule. The following seems to be the things that I can do now:

Separating them into pairs for playing. Group play of more than 2 seems to consistently meltdown into either arguments or wildness that I just can’t handle.

Assigning them activities to do separately. Example: one does a puzzle (he may choose one), one builds with Legos or K’nex, etc.

Not letting them do chores together. They always fight or fool around.

Therefore….reserving group free play for the exception, not the norm. Yes, they have it, a few times a day. Just not all day long.

That’s about all this pregnant mama can muster right now. Soon enough, a little bundle of joy will be everyone’s focus. We’re so excited!

This time, I mean something entirely different……THE BABY TURNED! HER HEAD IS DOWN!!!
Thumbs up, as in, “fantastic.” Head’s down, as in: her head is down. Capish?

I am so excited that she’s finally decided to go along with the program.

While she was turned the wrong way, I did some research and found http://www.spinningbabies.com/. It was very helpful and gave me lots of information as well as recommending the exercises/positions I tried, like the inversion I showed as a video example in one of the last posts. Some of the information on baby position I got from this picture that I borrowed from them. The caption above this picture is

I didn’t know this. I’ve heard of “posterior”babies that give you lots of back labor. That’s when the baby’s occiput (the back of the skull) is facing your back, so you see the baby’s face as it comes out, instead of the back of the head. It’s a little harder and usually more uncomfortable to push this baby out.

The ideal baby position is LOA, “Left Occiput Anterior”. This means that the baby is lying along the left side, with the occiput facing the mother’s front (not posterior).

I believe that my little princess is in that ideal position, but I am not sure. At least her head is down, though.

If your baby is head down, but in one of the other positions, SpinningBabies has some exercises/positions that are supposed to be helpful for getting the baby to move. I am going to rest and trust that all is well unless I get an indication of something otherwise.

If at all up to us, we would like to have our baby one week from yesterday, on August 16th. Don’t laugh, we’ve chosen a delivery date in the past, and it worked just fine.

I’ll keep you posted!

From a very soon to be mama of 5.

Duh.

I can’t believe that since the year 2000, every woman with a breech baby gets cut open. They thought it was safer. I am so glad that it’s finally being concluded that it’s not necessarily true.

But there are still 2 main problems.

First, and this is the smaller of the two, not everyone agrees with this yet. But, I think it will come soon.

The bigger problem lies with the short-sightedness of the medical community.

Nobody has regularly delivered breech babies naturally for so long, that nobody knows how. They don’t get trained to do it. So, even those who might be willing have no skill. Some do, and have, but it’s a small group. And depending where you live, there may be laws against it.

Here in Israel, it is illegal to have a breech delivery at home. So the midwives won’t do it; they’d lose their licenses. And they haven’t been trained for it, anyway. The only option for someone like me (if my baby doesn’t turn) is to go to the hospital. At the hospital, they want to automatically cut me open, and not even try to deliver naturally. I can choose a hospital where they have more doctors who do deliver breeches, and refuse a C-section, and pray that they will not automatically cut.

But it’s a crappy position to be in.

If I lived in many other places, especially in Europe, there would be midwives who would be happy and confident to help me birth this baby at home, as I’d like to.

For now, I’ll keep going to the chiropractor and hanging upside down. And pray that she turns.

Here’s the link to the article from Canada: http://bit.ly/6Cb3k

I just came from my ultrasound where I found out that this girl of mine (who is indeed a girl, I did find out) is now completely Breech. No good.

I’m going to begin inversion exercises. And continue going to my chiropractor for the Webster’s technique (see video on my last post). And I’m also going to find a Chinese Medicine/acupuncturist and go. I’m not looking forward to that one. I tried acupuncture once and hated it. But it’s certainly better than the alternative.

Here’s the inversion technique I will try. I’m not looking forward to it, either.

I’ll let you know how it goes…

Last week I went for a checkup to find that the baby was lying in a somewhat transverse position.

This is a true transverse lie. The baby is going side-to-side instead of up and down. A baby in this position cannot be delivered vaginally. It would have to move into a better position, or be delivered surgically. I don’t think I have a true transverse baby; she seems to be more oblique.

This is an oblique position. The head is at least in the right “hemisphere” (down). This baby still needs to move before coming out, but it’s a lot closer.

One is the Webster’s Breech Turning Technique, performed by a chiropractor. I had this done 2 times last week, and on the third visit, my legs were completely balanced, so he didn’t perform it.

I have been diligently trying to discern the baby’s position, but I really can’t tell. So, I’m going for an ultrasound in just a little while to see what she’s up to.

I’ll let you know!

And I just found out some great news. Watermelon is not only delicious, it has special qualities which make it a great pregnancy food. Apparently, watermelon:

Eases Heartburn
Reduces Swelling
Helps Morning Sickness
Alleviates Dehydration
Contains Minerals That Help Third Trimester Muscle Cramps
Contains nutrients important for the development of baby’s brain, vision, nervous, immune systems, and more.

Is high in Lycopene, an antioxidant which increases the skin’s SPF (besides all the other great things that antioxidants do). Who doesn’t want that during the summer?
Lycopene also reduces the incidence of preeclampsia by 50%.

I’m enjoying my second bowl of the day right now. Eat up!

This information came from an article on FitPregnancy. Here’s a link to the full article:

http://tinyurl.com/kmzcd4