A Few Last Pregnancy Thoughts

• Usually I drink raspberry tea, or as in the past few pregnancies, took red raspberry leaf capsules, to promote uterine toning and effective contractions.  This time, however, I tried something new after someone left a comment on my blog recommending it.  I tried a tincture of herbs called "Gentle Birth Formula" by Mountain Meadow Herbs, although I bought mine from amazon.  I started drinking 1/4 tsp. in a little bit of water at 35 weeks. For the first week, I only drank it before breakfast, but for the other weeks, I drank it before all 3 meals.  I would say it was at least as effective as the raspberry leaf (which is one of the herbs it does contain), and I did go into labor myself, so that was huge, although I know that was also a direct answer to lots of prayer!  I kind of think the end contractions were easier to deal with after I drank the really, really strong raspberry tea that I used to brew when I went into labor, though.  I wished I could have done that before driving to the hospital this time, but alas, I never got any raspberry tea bags for this pregnancy.  Still, I would recommend trying the tincture.  It was somewhat expensive--4 ounces for $30.00 plus $6.40 shipping--but it did last the whole 5 weeks.  
• The past few pregnancies I have had a terrible time with my arms falling sleep at night, no matter how I slept.  It was so annoying!  But sometime earlier this year (I can't even remember exactly when!), Bob and I were out, and I bought a new pillow at Bed, Bath, and Beyond--one of those fancy "side-sleeping with special gussets" pillows.  It has been WONDERFUL!  And my arms did not fall asleep once this pregnancy.  I should totally have spent actual money on an actual nice pillow years ago!  I was honestly surprised at how big a difference it made, although I shouldn't have been.
• Back in June, when I reviewed all the various pregnancy workout DVDs I used, the last one I reviewed, "Fit Mommy-to-Be Prenatal Yoga with Hilaria Baldwin" was definitely the dvd I used least often, except when I was having back or hip problems.  I liked it, but it just didn't feel like it was a very good workout.  Well, fast forward to the last few weeks of pregnancy--I started doing it a lot more often because I was uncomfortable, and the stretching felt soooo good.  Also, I knew from all my previous pregnancy research on places like spinningbabies.com how important it is to move your hips asymmetrically to get your baby into a good position, and the hip-opening segment is FULL of asymmetric stretches, which felt absolutely wonderful.  I did that workout last Wednesday--and lost my mucous plug Wednesday night.  I did it again on Saturday--and had made progress by the time I had my appointment Monday. So I definitely recommend this workout dvd, even if just for the last few weeks of pregnancy, to get the baby into a good position and help your hips/pelvis open up!  Also, I really kept up with chiropractor appointments towards the end of this pregnancy, and I think that did help as well.  
• I still think it is funny what doctors for each pregnancy have really emphasized.  With Drew, there was such focus on my blood clots, which happened 20 years ago, and I had to wear those horrid self-inflating ted hose during labor.  I hated those things with a fiery passion!  This time?  No one mentioned blood clots at all.  Ever.  The whole pregnancy.  No ted hose during labor, either!  
• I am so thrilled to not be pregnant now!  I feel so much better now, 2 days after delivery, than I did the whole month before.  My hips and pelvis feel great!  The place I am sorest is my left lower forearm, where my IV port was--it's so swollen and painful, and I have to guard it from Micah and Drew hitting my forearm and jumping on it.  Otherwise, I'm good!  The last few weeks of pregnancy were rough, and I'd be glad to not do it again.  In fact, I think I am just running out of gas for all things pregnancy related.  Towards the end of labor, I kept thinking about how done I am.  I thought, I could do this for someone else, like as a doula--I know what to suggest!  But for me--I'm done doing it!  Like Elizabeth L. said, this is a younger woman's game, LOL!  One of the hardest parts, I think, was the mental stretching the whole time of dealing with high school/college stuff at the same time as dealing with pregnancy stuff.  And how things just keep going, now that we've had the baby--there's not a real time of rest, where we all just stay home or anything.   I am really enjoying being able to sleep on my back though! 
• Funny story--Nathan had his interview with his USNA blue/gold officer Wednesday night.  It was rainy, and he had a bit of trouble finding the guy's house, so he was about 15 minutes late and felt under the gun a bit when he went in.  The guy asked how many siblings he had, so Nathan told him he was the oldest of 10.  The guy then asked how old his youngest sibling was, so Nathan said she had just been born that morning . . . the guy had definitely never had that answer before!  LOL!  The interview went really well after that.  Nathan said it was more like a conversation than an interview, and the guy even had played rugby at USNA!  Too funny though.