Twelve weeks...I am so thrilled to be a third way through this pregnancy already. This has by far been the best pregnancy I've had. Usually I am sick 24 hours a day....this time I've had a couple of bad days, but for the most part I'll get sick and it will pass within a half an hour or so. Chuck thinks it's because I was healthier to start this time.
April of 1995 found me sick with malaria for the second time ( I contracted it in Brazil). I went to three different doctors, all of whom provided me with antibiotics and refused to test me for malaria. The test is a simple blood test looking for a parasite, but all three doctors figured the chances of me having malaria was too remote to bother testing me (though I don't know why- since I had the disease nine months earlier). My parents were up visiting and took me to the emergency room when my temperature reached 106.7. I had already been sick for weeks at the point. They did the blood test at the ER, confirmed malaria and sent me home with the proper medicine.
We were married a month later and I was pregnant before our honeymoon was over. I had lost weight due to the malaria and was still weak...that pregnancy began a nine year journey of being pregnant, nursing, or both...without a pause. It's no wonder, I suppose, that I was always so sick during my pregnancies
This time I went four years between pregnancies. I have not had malaria nor been nursing a baby. I'm starting fresh, and it feels good.
I am so looking forward to having this baby in the summer. No bundling him up for the cold, or worrying about the house being warm enough. I hope to finish school by June 1st...that will give us three weeks to cook meals for the freezer and get everything ready for the baby. Then I'll have the summer to recover and establish a new routine before school starts up again.
Adalia, Judah, Tilly and Enoch have been busily sewing toys and knitting hats for this baby. We have a basket in our living room with felt balls, beanbags and hats, all hand stitched with love by his/her older siblings.
To answer a few questions....yes we are planning a home birth and the cloth diapers will be brought out. In order to keep things as uncomplicated as possible, we use cloth during the day and disposable at night and when we are out. I'm not up to dealing with poopy cloth diapers in the middle of the night...or at church :)
A friend suggested I have Adalia take an on-line doula course since she is so interested in nursing... and I am looking into that. Any suggestions?
