We started the week with a tour of the Family Birthing Center at St. Charles Hospital where we'll be giving birth. The facility seemed nice and it was just what I'm hoping for. Private rooms each with a rocking chair and private bathroom, including jetted tub that I can use in the early parts of labor (not for water birth) and a shower, balls/peanuts, a couch for dads to nap, adjustable beds to accommodate all different positions. And there's no maternity ward; babies room-in with moms. They also encourage initial skin-to-skin contact for the first 1-2 hours to help stimulate the first breastfeed as well as bonding; they encourage breastfeeding too. They don't even take measurements until I'm ready. And apparently they do aromatherapy with essential oils; interesting. I felt pretty excited about it.
At this point, I would like to go into labor/delivery with the intention of doing it naturally without medical intervention (unless it's absolutely necessary). I read some articles on lamaze.org and felt excited about getting to experience all the pain and struggle and joy and reality of childbirth, though I'm so glad I don't have to view it at the angle I've seen some birthing videos; honestly it gives me the heebie-geebies and I almost can't watch the baby crown, etc; can't believe I'm going to do that. But billions of women have done this for thousands of years; I'm curious what (some) have experienced (I know every birth is different). I want to discover the limits of my body, or lack of limits, and its possibilities. I want to feel present. Plus, since I broke my arm, I figured childbirth couldn't be nearly as painful as having the bones in my arm snapped/shattered. I'm just so curious and excited about the process. I'm hoping it works out that way.
Here's how baby is doing at 21 weeks: Baby now weighs about three-quarters of a pound and is approximately 10 1/2 inches long — the length of a carrot. It may feel like he's practicing martial arts as his initial fluttering movements turn into full-fledged kicks and nudges. Baby's eyebrows and lids are present now.
Otherwise my week was slammed with preparations for my last conference before baby in Phoenix AZ. Some aspects were a bit hectic to put together and all week, I just felt exhausted at the end of each work day. Matt is so wonderful though and one evening, I came home from coaching to find he'd prepared salmon (which he does AMAZINGLY; it's so delicious), acorn squash from our garden and... asparagus! I was shocked-- THREE different colored foods on the same plate! Including something green! Who IS this guy ;)
In Phoenix, my boss Paul and coworker met me there. Usually we just take a taxi from the airport to the venue, but we first saw limos, and they were only $8 more than a taxi so Paul decided we should ride in style. It felt a bit silly; I haven't been in a limo since a friend's wedding. Plus, the limo driver took us to Talking Stick Casino instead of actually taking us to our venue; weird. Also funny that I've actually BEEN to Talking Stick, in May with Dad et al (it's smoky; I disliked it). Fortunately for us, one of our coworkers had flown the night before so she could check on some packet/bag prep work, and the decorator had setup our registration set 6hrs early, so when we showed up onsite, Stef had already done most of our setup work.
The event itself was similarly pretty easy; no real issues. It's just always such long days; we opened registration at 7am, which means we were down there at 6:30am, and we closed at 5:30pm. And I'm used to napping around 3pm every day so it was challenging to stay awake. Luckily for this event, people mainly check-in on the first morning (since it's only a two-day conference) so that's the whole rush. But because our registration set is in such a primary area, we end up being an Info Desk, so we get interrupted every 1-2 mins, which makes it a little hard to concentrate on other work. The first evening, I had a really nice dinner with my boss and coworkers; I enjoy the people I work with a lot, and my boss is an interesting guy with all kinds of stories. Our second night, there was a reception so we just hung out for a long time enjoying the guitarist and the free food. Joe and his girlfriend were nice enough to drive all the way out to this resort where my event was (about 45 mins from where they live) to take me to dinner. AND they gave us our first Celtics gear for baby! Matt was stoked!
The last day, Friday, we finished our work, packed up and had just over an hour before we needed to go to the airport, so we all sat by the pool, still in business casual but it felt nice. It was sunny and about 80-85'; it was actually a bit hot in the sun after a few minutes... or maybe it's just because I'm pregnant that I felt a bit overheated. My lucky coworkers drank margaritas; I had a fruit shake :) And for a whole hour, it actually looked like vacation!
