Yeah baby!!

 

Preparations

About two to four weeks left to go before the newest little Fowler arrives. His head has moved down my pelvis and according to my lovely midwife, he is down up to his ears. His body is curling along my side so I've been instructed to walk on all fours as often as I possibly can to turn that little body around.
With the baby moving down in the last few weeks, one experiences what is termed a "lightening"...suddenly I can breathe easier again and walking doesn't leave me half as puffed as it did a few weeks before! Lovely sensation...besides the fact that the average loo-visitation has doubled in regularity :/
Walking on the beach last week, the tide came in incredibly quickly and Russell and I had to make a run for it or get completely soaked! I haven't had a run in AGES and ended up having a contraction right there on the beach! Poor baby was probably very confused with all the commotion :)
After some Arnica drops I was as right as rain again.
We figured we better get everything ready just in case he comes earlier than planned.
This is what I have in preparation for our home-birth: (I apologise if this is too much information for some readers, but I just found it fascinating how much I didn't even think about before considering a homebirth!)

1. Two birthing mats
2. A biodegradable placenta box to bury placenta in
3. Homeopathic drops to help with common conditions during and after labour
4. A birth pool (which Russ so gallantly tried out this weekend)
5. A puke bucket with a lid (Apparently you can't get away without one!)
6. Loads of maternity pads
7. Ice packs
8. Ice to suck on
9. Cheap shower curtains and old sheets to place on the carpet (to avoid messes)
10. Rubbish bags
11. Loads of towels
12. Snacks and juices
13. Lovely music
14. A bowl to catch placenta in
15. A Swiss ball
16. Hot water bottle
17. A written out birth plan
(Our midwife is bringing sterilized scissors, a clamp for the cut cord etc)

If anyone has any other ideas of what might come in handy, please let me know! :)

Here are some pictures of Russ trying out our birth pool. It takes about 20 minutes to set up and I can imagine another 20 to fill up...should have plenty of time though, once labour starts.

Making a birth mat

I feel very passionate about our baby being born in the safe, quiet and calm environment of our own home.
Planning a home-birth often gets met with two kinds of responses: either with disbelief (and entangled with a great amount of fear and anxiety) or with admiration.
For me it has never been a conundrum; I do not see why something as normal and natural as birth should be met with such fear, hype, impatience and often unnecessary medical interference. A good 7 years ago, a good friend and colleague of mine in Namibia told me that in her tribe, the labouring woman walks into the veld, squats, delivers her baby herself, buries the afterbirth and walks back to the village with her new baby. No big deal. Just another reason to be happy and celebrate life. This story will always stick with me.

I made the decision to have a home-birth long before I conceived and luckily educated myself very well on what it entails during the early stages of my pregnancy, so I did not get swayed or affected by the strong opinions that came from all directions.

Now we are almost there! Next week our Bambino will be 9 months old and we will be be expecting him throughout June. (Here in NZ, "to term" is considered anywhere between 37 and 43 weeks)

I am blessed to have had a healthy and normal pregnancy thus far. I feel very calm and confident about my body's ability to birth this little boy at home, whenever he is ready to come.
Of course I am keeping a very open mind about it, and if there is any feeling during labour that the baby or myself are in danger, we'll zip over to the hospital in a flash; but this option is really only for a genuine emergency. 

But I get carried away! The point of this post was to show you how to make a super easy and super cheap birth mat! Birthing at home means that there are many things that you need to think of and prepare for, and a birthing mat, even if not used during actual labour, is one of those things that is essential to have beneath you afterwards when you relax with your newborn to protect your couch/bed/carpet.

I spent a total of $3 on the two mats I made, as all of the materials (with the exception of the $3 shower curtain from the bargain shop) are things that one has at home.

You'll need:

Two old towels

A stapler

Scissors

Newspaper

A cheap shower curtain

 1. Cut the shower curtain, leaving a lip big enough to fold over the edge of the towel.

2. Cover the shower curtain with newspapers. Stack a few layers; the idea is to make it as absorbent as possible.

 3. Place the towel over the newspapers.

 4. Fold the edges of the shower curtain over the newspapers and towel.

5. Staple the edge of the shower curtain onto the newspaper/towel layer. Make sure that the sharp little edges of the staples face downwards!

6. Fold the corners in and staple.

7. This doesn't take more than 10 minutes.
A finished Birthing mat!

8. The back of the mat.

Some lovely days

We are supposedly in winter, but Wellington still has the occasional stunning summery days. Russ and I make full use of these by attending markets, walking beaches or just sitting and enjoying the sun. This last Saturday was one of these special days. The video is of this puppeteer at the waterfront market who does portraits of little children with her "artist" puppet. So cute and the kids loved it! I love the eccentric actions of the puppet...you can see the girl pulling the strings is really into her character :)
Enjoy!

Two very happy bodies soaking up the sun...

Happy times...

My belly at 34 weeks.

Not too long to go now!
Russ was awesome and industrious with the camera today and set it up to get some shots of Bambino before he is born...I doubt whether my belly or boobs can get ANY bigger! I feel like a baby whale at the moment; albeit a very happy and content one :)
Hope you enjoy the shots...