Yays: As I have said over and over again, girl is an active little thing. BUT, she is big enough and strong enough that I can feel her. As in I can tell where her body is and actually push in on my belly and feel her body. As in I can feel HER, not just her movements.
Nays: Its been another week of triple digit heat, which means I am house bound for the most part. Generally, I like to be outside as much as possible, but that is just not healthy right now. So I an feeling a little house bound. AND I think I am starting to get varicose veins in my feet. No veins are popping out yet, but I am having some major soreness. Between the heat and my feet, I've been spending a lot of time on the couch with my feet up.
Happenings for the week: We hired a doula! A doula is essentially a professional birth assistant. Her job is to provide physical and emotional support during labor. She will not take Seth's place during the birth. Rather, she will act as an additional support system and be a part of our birth team. We decided on a doula mostly because of the associated positive outcomes. Dona International (the biggest training and certification body for Doulas) cites shorter labors, decreased complications, reduced pain, less use of medical intervention, greater parental satisfaction with the birth, and much more.
The woman that we have hired is fantastic and very experienced. She has attended over 50 births, with roughly half of those being water births. She owns her own birthing tubs and will supply the tub, as well as take care of set up and take down. We will meet with her several times leading up to Ella's birth to talk about our birth wishes and she will teach us relaxation techniques. We will call her once we go into labor and she will hang with us until after baby arrives and provide breastfeeding support right away. Lastly, she will check in on us about a week after the birth. During that time, she will deliver a letter about the birth that she has written to Ella and a disk with any pictures that she takes during the birth. We are pretty excited to have this checked off our list and look forward to starting to prepare for the birth.
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