We had a doctor’s appointment this morning, which involved our first ultrasound. We’ve been trying to avoid as much of the medical birth industry as we can, and do things as naturally as possible (see the Bradley Method), but we decided to do an ultrasound anyway, and I must admit that it was pretty fascinating to see it moving around in there. It looks like it’s probably going to be a girl. yay!
I also stumbled upon a ticket for today’s playoff game between Minnesota and Oakland. My boss had a couple tickets but his friend got sick so he had an extra, which meant a half day off of work for a baseball game. Unfortunately, the Twins lost the game, but I still got my first taste of live playoff baseball, which was a blast (though the sheer volume of the noise in the dome left me with a bit headache).
Good days. I love ’em.
Hypnobirthing (or some derivation thereof) worked very well for my wife and I. We were able to have a childbirth without any epidurals, etc. I would highly recommend that you look into it (and don’t be put off by the “hypno” ;)).
Out of curiousity: are you planning on a hospital delivery or a home birth? Both of my kids were born at home with a midwife attending, and it was great to be in our own environment and not have to fight off doctors and nurses. And just being able to sleep in our own bed and eat our own food right after the birth is really nice too.
One really great thing was that my son was able to see his little sister when she was about 3 minutes old.
We seriously considered a home birth, but because of a variety of factors (including the fact that insurance won’t cover the cost of a midwife or any birth expenses outside of a hospital birth), we’re currently planning to do the birth in the hospital. It seems to be fairly good about supporting ‘natural birth’, but it’s still a hospital. Depending on our experience, we’ll certainly be considering a home birth for the next one. I agree that it would be very nice (and less stressful in a lot of ways) to do it in a comfortable and familiar place.