Office Baby Shower

My friends and co-workers surprised me yesterday with a baby shower. My boss first had a meeting with me in a meeting room to distract me. Once we were on our way back to our desks she said wait one sec and opened another meeting room door and SURPRISE! It was so nice of everyone to think of me and baby. I got some beautiful flowers and gifts and TWO yummy cakes! But I must admit I turned bright red with all eyes on me. I kept telling people to sit and relax!

Luckily my friend took some pics so these are also the latest belly shots. Tomorrow I start my 34th week. Yikes!

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Happy Chinese New Year to all those who celebrate! We went to Chinatown on Sunday with friends and had some mighty fine dim sum. Afterwards we walked around in the freezing cold watching dragons, crazy people with confetti bombs all over the place, throwing snaps and looking for a place to duck into to warm up with coffee and dessert. The streets were a mess with confetti laden icy slop. We decided to head back home to relax and thaw out as I was exhausted and ended up playing some good games of Wii tennis to finish off the night.

Best of all is my Baby Monkey will be born in the Year of the Pig. Not just the pig, but the Year of the RED FIRE PIG /GOLDEN PIG! A lucky year indeed, as I am also a decendant of the Pig Year and have always felt like luck was on my side. Now I know why! Can't wait for my little piglet to make his/her entry into the world in another 2 months or less!

First born, first served

Took a pic last night for my Sis. I really feel as if I'm getting bigger by the day. And Baby Monkey really feels like a litte human moving around inside now. I love to see my belly move around-so cool. 31.5 weeks now. Whoa!

We took the hospital tour (Lenox Hill) last Saturday and loved what we saw. There were about 15 other couples there, I didn't expect such a turnout. When we were in the waiting room awaiting the tour there were two couples with their newborns preparing to go home. Very exciting to see how happy everyone was. The tour was about a half hour and we were shown the labor/delivery room which was beautiful. It felt almost like a hotel room. Nice wood floors, low lighting, nice view out the window, TV, baby bassinet/warmer next to bed. It just all seemed very calm and serene, not at all what I expected. I can't believe that is where it will all happen. Unless of course I end up getting a c-section. They didn't show us that room :-/ I guess I always thought the L & D room was this bright, cold unwelcoming place. We didn't get to see the recovery rooms as they were full but I peeked in and they seemed fine also. We definitely want to try for a private room as I doubt I'll be in the mood to share with someone else. But as the nurse told us, everyone wants a private room and it's first born, first served. It's extra money and not covered by insurance, but I've heard it's well worth it. I've just heard bad things about shared rooms-other patients babies crying all night, family coming in all the time, messy bathrooms. But I guess it depends on who you share with also. We'll see what we get.

We then moved on to the nursery. Wow. Lots of babies. Tiny little babies! I became very emotional upon seeing them all, and the new ones being wheeled in, or ones being wheeled out by their parents. Such a beautiful sight. So small and fresh and delicate. And to think we will be there in two months or so. Unbelievable.

We definitely want to keep the baby in the room with us and that is encouraged which we were happy to hear. In all we were very impressed with what we saw and heard and feel confident we made the right choice in hospitals. We will see after the event takes place if this is the case!

Birth Class

David and I started childbirth prep classes this week. It's a 5 week course and we will be going every Monday from 6-9. The first class was great. We went over the three stages of labor and what the signs of pending labor will be. Finally David is learning about the labor and birthing process. I had tried to get him to read books and watch things on TV but he was never really into it. But now he was taking notes like crazy and asking questions and said he learned a lot! I learned some things too, although most of it I already knew from my reading, web site, chat rooms and baby shows on Discovery Health. But I'm sure in future classes we will both have a lot to learn.

I did leave the class feeling confused though. Confused if I have chosen the right OB, the right hospital, the right birthing method. No, I won't say I want to go au natural as I know the pain will be something beyond anything I could ever imagine, but I do want to be as close to natural as possible. Mainly, no epidural (I hope) and definitely no C-Section (unless a true emergency arises). I'm starting to panic a little as the NYC C-Section rate is a ridiculous 40%. All the Maternity Ward shows aren't helping me much either as it seems EVERYONE gets a C-section for a variety of reasons, some of them which don't seem valid to me. But the instructor of our course really made me think that there are other ways to really gain control of my birth and that I have more options. I think the key thing that scared me is once you arrive at a hospital they start a 'clock' on you. Basically they want you to dialate 1cm per hour. If not they could introduce intervention methods that I'm not sure I want. I've always felt that I have to do what they say, but I realize now I do have options, and I'm so glad David is taking notes because when I'm in pain and out of it, we'll have two of us to remember these options and whether or not we want to go an alternative route. So this weekend we are taking a hospital tour to see what their protocols are and get a feel for the place. We also plan to discuss our birthing plan with our doctor when we see him again in two weeks and make sure we are on the same page. I'd hate to change doctor's at this stage, but the instructor told us there are so many women that do change after taking the class as they reevaluate what they really want and realize they won't get that with their current OB/hospital. Hopefully it won't come to that. I doubt it will. I know ultimately it's having a healthy baby that is the priority.

Ugh, so confusing. Maybe I should move to Nambia and have my baby ala Brangelina.