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Eloise's Diary Entries Diary Navigation: Choose A Diary Entry -------------------- Latest Entry: 12/2/99 -------------------- 11/28/99 11/24/99 11/20/99 11/17/99 11/10/99 11/3/99 10/26/99 10/20/99 10/13/99 10/6/99 10/4/99 9/28/99 9/15/99 9/9/99 9/2/99 8/26/99 8/19/99 8/5/99 7/30/99 7/16/99 7/6/99 5/14/99 5/14/99 5/7/99 4/27/99 4/15/99 4/8/99 3/25/99 3/20/99 3/19/99 3/18/99 3/12/99 3/9/99 3/4/99 -------------------- Eloise's Introduction

October 13, 1999

34 weeks OR 6 weeks to go!!

Well, I’m happy to say the tiredness is starting to ease up a little. On my midwife's recommendation I’m taking a higher dose of iron supplement every day, instead of every second day, and maybe it’s having an effect. I’m still pretty sluggish but it’s not unbearable any more. And the aching in my hips and legs has also eased a little. Although I think I was close to the truth when I said it felt like a crow-bar was slowly stretching my hips apart – I now have the first signs of stretch-marks – little pink lines not on my belly as you would expect, but on my hips! They have literally stretched!

After my concerns last week about preparation for labour I’ve been chatting to a few girlfriends about the whole business. One friend suggested I have an imaginary ‘special place’ lined up that I can get hubby to help me visualise in between contractions during labour. Some imaginary place that helps me relax between the onslaught of contractions. Hers was about being in water, with the sun shining on her, etc. etc. So I’m having a good long think about that. I haven’t got a special place lined up yet but it does sound like a good idea.

Other than that I’ve been thinking about sleeping arrangements. This same girlfriend, as well as my husband’s sister, both swear by having the baby sleep in bed with them and hubby at night. This girlfriend had her son in bed with her for five months, before he happily moved into a cot, and my sister-in-law had her youngest daughter in bed with her for two years, before she moved into her own bed in her own room.

These advocates of the ‘family bed’ claim the baby sleeps longer without waking, that it’s easier and less demanding during night feeds, and that their babies were more peaceful and content as a result of sharing the ‘family bed.’ I read a brilliant article about it and how babies tend to cry at night because they wake up and find themselves alone. If they wake up and can see, hear, smell and feel adults near them, then they tend not to cry – unless they need a feed, that is.

Still, hubby and I look at the size of our double futon bed and shake our heads, wondering how we’d fit an extra body in – even though it’d be a small one – considering we already fight over the little space we seem to have. And we’ve both heard that even though babies are little, they can be pretty aggressive bed-hogs when they share your bed. But hubby seems to like the idea of taking the bubby into bed with us, being a very affectionate man who is very keen on bonding with the baby, and I tend to think it might just be a brilliant idea. It makes logical sense to me that a helpless little baby wouldn’t want, like, or understand being left alone to sleep. In the end, the argument from the article that swayed me the most went like this: “It has always seemed cruel to me to put a tiny baby in a crib in a dark room alone. She or he is completely helpless and terrified at being abandoned. In evolutionary terms, a baby that is alone at night is at terrible risk from predators and the environment. Babies do not know what century they are born into.”

I hope it doesn’t sound like I’m preaching here. I don’t mean to, and I know this issue can raise some pretty fierce debate amongst the ‘experts.’ It’s just one of the many things we parents-to-be have to contemplate and consider, and it seems to me that it’s often pretty hard to know what the right thing to do is. All I know is that I want a healthy, content, hopefully easy-going baby who is happy and peaceful and secure. And I’m prepared to be pretty open-minded about achieving that end.

Well, it’s all food for thought on the road towards becoming a parent.

Until next week,

All the best to you and yours,

Eloise – still deep in thought.