Thursday, June 5, 2008

nesting, strep b, lamaze

Well I thought I was missing the nesting gene, but I think I actually have a little bit of nesting in me after all! It has been so fun to wash all the new baby clothes and think about the arrival of our little guy. Aaron and I have pretty much rearranged every room and cleaned the place top to bottom, but with us, all our art projects, and two dogs, big cleanings are needed regularly!

In other news, I got the call from the doc about the Strep B test (I swore she said I'd hear next week but I guess I was mistaken). Anyway, bummer is I tested positive. Ick. Makes me feel dirty or something, but I guess it's a very common bacteria that lives in the intestines and sometimes the vagina. In any given perfectly healthy woman it may be present at one time and absent at another. They test around 36 weeks to see if it is likely that the bacteria will be present during birth. If it is, there is a possibility of infection in the newborn. So to prevent the infection, they give you a dose of penicillin. There is of course a lot of debate as to whether it's better to use these antibiotics or not, so I find myself hopping either side of the fence depending on which article I read. Consequently, I will just go with the doctor's orders.

And we had our second lamaze class tonight. I don't know if I want to continue taking these classes!! First part was alright, we did some somewhat awkward but ok ice-breaking exercises. Then we watched a video that discussed the stages of labor and showed some parts of a live birth. Man, the placenta is huge! No wonder bellies have to be so big to hold the baby, placenta, and all those fluids. Anyway all that stuff was good to see, but the second half we started breathing exercises. It was so awkward!! She played this really strange instrumental cd of songs like Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star while we were all lying down on gym mats in the dark and she told us to concentrate on the music. Then we had to start these relaxation exercises where couples faced each other, breathing in and tensing a body part, and breathing out and relaxing. Ok, that all sounds fine, but she starts by having us tense up our face muscles. SOO Aaron and I are lying there facing each other listening to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, breathing in and scrunching up our faces into weird frowns or big grins and we're NOT supposed to laugh??? Well, I lost it in a giggle attack while everyone seems to be peacefully practicing just like they are supposed to. I felt like I was a 12-yr-old school girl or something. I don't know. I finally regained my composure and Aaron and I struggled through the rest of the exercises, trying to keep our cool. But she says things like "if you didn't bring a focal point, focus on your husband's nose"... I dunno... this lamaze class might not be for me. Next week we do the hospital tour which I'm excited for so we'll definitely go to that, but I don't know about the last two weeks. Seems Aaron and I might do better coming up with our own relaxation techniques...

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Liz, it's sooooo soon now! I just wanted to tell you how happy I am for you. Also, I was GBS positive as well. I think it's something like 80% of women are. Nothing to worry about too much, and if taking the antibiotics will make you less worried while you are in labor then that is a great choice and it sounds like your doc thinks so, too. I also opted to take antibiotics for it, but it turned out that my labor was too short for it to matter. C'est la vie! I am thinking of you and I would LOVE to get in touch, especially if you have any questions or want to talk birth. Much love to you!