A 50 Mile Hike?

29 weeks

Naaaaaaaah, I didn't do one. But I do know of some ladies who participated in marathons and triathlons while pregnant. Instead, I'll stick to Crossfitting for 20 minutes (just lost my full back squat @ 30 weeks) most days in my basement and eating right which has been a bit of a challenge to get back to after being left with so many desserts and non-paleo snacks post baby shower. Not that I've been anything close to 100% (more like 75%) this pregnancy but my poor poor knees can't take very much more weight, particularly when hiking down hill.

31 weeks

Somewhere along the way I read that giving birth is like hiking 50 miles energy expenditure-wise. AMAZING! This puts it in terms I can really wrap my brain around. I did an 11 mile hike on the Kalalau up and down the ridges of the Napali Coast with 25lbs on my back in a single day. Other than that I don't have much to compare it to, I haven't even done a 14er in a couple years! I can’t imagine doing 50. And to think, they hardly let you eat or drink anything if you're in the hospital...juuuust in case you have to have a c-section because the drugs they gave you to speed up the process totally messed up the natural cascade of hormones that make birth a completely safe and effective method of increasing the population 90% of the time.  When I think of doing a 50 mile hike with all its accompanying painfulness, I sure wouldn't be all drugged up for it. It would ruin the pace, drastically decrease the safety of the activity and it would ruin basking in the full and pure glory of reaching the summit on my our own. That's my birth plan in a nutshell.

Melissa came for another home visit and she is pleased with Jaxen's orientation (not to say he still can't move around before the very end) but he was (R)OA, occiput anterior which is the easiest, fastest, least painful position for birthing. (Lately he's always kicking away at my placenta and stuffing that big ol' bum of his up into my rib cage...ow.) If you, for example, have an occiput posterior baby you get a lot of back labor and it is usually prolonged and difficult. Since he still may move around between now and birthday, I'll be starting OFP exercises and postures around mid-May to make sure he stays OA for birth.

This is great! I feel like I'm learning so much by using a mid-wife where as a doctor would never give you information like this. I belong to a first time Moms Facebook group (over 100 women all due in June) and there is a HUGE chasm of knowledge between the few of us who are using a midwife vs. those who are seeing an OBGYN. In fact, the major perk of waiting until 30 to have a baby is all the time I've had to accumulate all this great information. With information so readily available these days, I can't imagine why anyone would NOT want to stuff their brain until it is explosively full of every type of baby related knowledge that's out there!

<---- Speaking of good information...9 weeks to go! Have you read Magda yet? This is what we're doing. Time to get on board.
  
 

ALSO...Can't wait to put this DVD into use (warning: may be difficult if you don't have a good ear for sound.       ----->

Now that we have most of the necessary baby items, it's time to turn attention to Jaxen's room. So far it's been painted and all the closet organizer features implemented as well as a dresser installed. The scrabble art I made is even now up on the wall! This weekend's project is to get those dinosaurs painted! When that's finished, I'll blog about it with some photos.

See you in two weeks!

And now, my our moment of Zen:

My favorite place on Earth.

  “…If you give a young child a peaceful beginning, the child develops a natural rhythm and then later he can grow more easily into adult life. You have to respect and trust a healthy, normal baby’s inborn capacities, his natural desire to learn. You do not have to do more. What infants need is the opportunity and time to take in and figure out the world around them.”   

~ Magda Gerber