Baby updates

I have already said this before but I have to keep relearning it – the Internet propagates half-truths, oversimplifications, and fear, when it comes to pregnancy and babies.

I was not sleeping well for a while because I was desperately trying to sleep on my side all night as the Internet (and baby books) would have you believe is the only right thing to do after the twentieth week of pregnancy. There is suggestion that sleeping on your back is always bad for you, and bad for the baby, and increases the risk of stillbirth. So of course I was doing what I was told (by the Internet) and trying to sleep exclusively on my side. But it wasn't working, and was just leading to bad sleep as I was anxiously trying to control my behavior while unconscious.

So I decided to look up some of the actual studies on the matter. There are very few, but what is suggested is that back sleeping is an additional risk factor for stillbirth when other risk factors are already present. What is also suggested is that this risk comes in "late pregnancy," and I am clearly still somewhere in the middle. I do find being on my back to be uncomfortable sometimes, and will roll onto my side, but the majority of the night I am on my back no matter what I do. So at this point I am going to once again ignore the advice of the Internet in favor of what my doctor says (which is that if I need to roll over onto my side I will just do it, but she said this a while ago and I thought maybe that particular advice had expired), and try not to stress about it. Since making this decision I have had two reasonably good nights of sleep.

On Thursday evening we went to a garage sale that advertised having tons of baby stuff, and indeed they did. We ended up making our first furniture-type baby purchase – a bassinet on a frame with wheels that I can wheel around the house. I expect that this is where the baby will have naps for the first few months, and since I won't be able to carry the baby as easily as some parents can, the wheels (which do lock so that the bassinet can't roll away) will be a big help. We thoroughly cleaned it yesterday, and now it is ready to go. It's sort of exciting and at the same time terrifying starting to think about how real this is, and really how soon the baby will be here!

Also very exciting is that Jeff got to feel the baby kick for the first time yesterday. I was sitting on the couch yesterday morning feeling lots of baby movement, and noticed that I actually saw my belly move from the outside. I had Jeff put his hand on my belly and sure enough he felt a kick. Also, as of this afternoon I am feeling the movement/kicks on both sides of my belly when before I was only feeling it on the left. My right is the side of my body that has numbness and reduced sensation and I wasn't sure whether I would ever feel anything on the right. But the baby is definitely getting stronger, as I am starting to feel it a little bit on the right as well.

On Tuesday we are leaving for a week in Ottawa, where we will each attend a conference and also have a good bit of time to visit friends. So if I don't post next week, it is because we are having a good time visiting with two of Jeff's best friends, their partners, and their toddlers :-)