Happenings

So, what's the happenings, you might be asking. Well, for starters, there are three weeks left of school and six weeks left to this pregnancy. Oh my.

Next, we bought some powdered Ch@rlie's Soap for our diapers. I'm experimenting with it using our own clothes because I have a phobia of powdered detergent stemming from my days I lived in England and they mostly used powder. Since I was a dumb American and accustomed to liquid, I always put too much powder into the drum and the soap residue was always all over my clothes. But..I think I get it now. I was using waaaay too much!

We had our breastfeeding class. It was good. Mostly things we knew, some we didn't. The teacher was a bit scatterbrained as well as a little bit sexist since she claimed men burp babies differently from women. Apparently, men burp babies by holding them like a puppy, face down, while women tend to put the baby over their shoulder to tap the back gently. I guess I fell into this stereotype since I automatically threw the semi-life-like breastfeeding babydoll right over my shoulder as the men put the babies in their laps or, yes, even held them like dogs.

It led me to wonder if the presence of a lesbian couple is ticking off the other couples in the class. Our instructor only says "partner", not husband. Even the couples will correct themselves and adjust their language to "partner." I guess I don't feel bad about it or anything, since we are taking the class in one of the gay-friendliest little cities in this whole big country, not to mention in a state where I am legally married to my wife. If you're uncomfortable with "partner," move out. I don't sense any discomfort from any of the other couples in the class so maybe I'm just being paranoid. I am, after all, the only female partner in the room!

Breathe in....

...And breathe out. Our birthing class focused a lot of relaxation tonight, helping baby mama through contractions with massage, breathing, etc. Then we learned about drugs. Quite possibly, if this is even possible, the epidural sounds more frightening than natural childbirth. I think S. felt the same way.

This post is really a reminder to myself to just OMMMMMMMM......really, try it. It feels great! Or just scream, or sigh, or moan. Any noise to relieve stress. The vibrations in your chest do relieve tension--it's not just a hippy-dippy yoga thing! Ommm on this weekend, everyone!

Busy and Sniffing

How could it have been over TWO years that we've been writing this blog?! That is insane. I was vaguely thinking that we had missed our "blogiversary" and I was right. Oh well--many, many, many things going on in our lives, so many so that even blogging has seemed to take a back seat. I think we have something happening nearly every day of the week until baby arrives. That is just not right. I'm hoping Memorial Day weekend, when we're supposed to be planting our garden, will be a relaxing one--you know, after my sister's graduation and S.'s 10-year college reunion are over with!

I will leave you with a lovely 32-week belly shot. S.'s favorite flowers to sniff are lilacs, and the baby likes them, too!

This n' That

Well, many things going on, mostly boring, but I felt I needed to write a new post before you'd all written us off as lazy bloggers. Plus, at this stage of the pregnancy, no news for long stretches can be worrisome. So! In a nutshell and quickly, since we're off for the weekend:

1.) We've started childbirth classes and we're the only queer couple. This is fine, except last night the "birth mothers" got together in a small group and the "partners" in another, and since I was obviously the only female partner, I felt more than a little awkward. Luckily the men all seemed kind of too shy to talk much, so I did the talking for them.

2.) We went to our first Annual Town Meeting (ahh, New England!) on Monday. Suffice to say it will probably be my last. It was an eye-opener, though. Many people are unhappy funding public education to the regional school district and were unsupportive of public education in general. As two public ed. teachers, we were seething but kept our traps shut lest we make the meeting any longer. It made us think, do we really want to raise and school our kid in this town?

3.) Our awesome NY friend, also S., who now lives in CT, is throwing us a baby shower tomorrow. And..

4.) Tomorrow is S.'s (my S.) birthday. Happy happy day, my lovely, on your last birthday before baby comes into our lives. I love you and wish you many happy returns!

Laundry?!

When I see my future with my baby, I see....laundry. This is mostly because we are doing cloth diapering and I know we'll be doing a load of nasty diapers pretty near every two days or so, in addition to dirty clothes, burp cloths, etc. Our one dilemma, though, is that we are really torn about what kind of detergent to use with the diaps. Powdered? Liquid? We do have a front-loader washer, if that makes a difference. I am casting a net out to cloth diapering mamas to ask what works best, what their laundry routine is, etc. The whole diaper pail thing is stumping us, too. We scored a $20 Simple Human slimline trashcan that we love, but will it keep out the stink?

So many questions--and I know we'll develop our own methods as time goes on, but I at least want a starting point. Suggestions?!

Have you noticed..

I am 30 weeks pregnant. Making me 3/4 of the way finished with pregnancy, nearing the end. gulp. It's starting to feel very real. Real as in, I'm going to have a baby. My own baby. I have approximately 10 weeks left. 10 weeks goes by fast. Really fast. Um, we haven't even started birthing classes - next week thank goodness! And at the rate we've been going here in blogland - it could be less then 10 weeks.