Wings...or How to Survive the Last Few Days Before birth

"He gives strength to the weary, and to him who lacks might He increases power. Though youths grow weary and tired, and vigorous young men stumble badly, yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary." Isaiah 40:29-31

And so, this is my passage for the week. I have 4 more days til due date and nothing energizes me or strengthens me to the task like the Word of God. You can do all the spa days you want, but when it comes to brass tacks, nothing quite beats reading His Word aloud to myself. In 10 minutes max, I feel my spirit soar and my mood lift and totally refreshed for the coarse ahead. This has got to be the secret to my success, because at this point I feel like I could go quite a bit more, yet the due date is less than a week away. The only restrictive thing would be, I would have to wear mumu's for the rest of the time since none of the clothes seem to hide my belly anymore.

In the meantime, the house is ready for labor. I have out the "birthing ball" which is just a pilates ball we hide in the attic. It's great for sitting on pre-birth and getting the baby to descend in the pelvis. It's also very relaxing in birth. I have herbs out....for transition and for afterpains. I have the baby outfits out, my outfit for after the birth, and a chucks pad for the bed. The bed is funny. The midwife wants you to make the bed with one set of good sheets, one plastic sheet, and on top a set of yukky sheets. After the 2cd birth, I just got a pad from bed bath and beyond-it's about 3 foot square and holds tons of liquid with a waterproof backing. That sucker has been awesome for birth, prenatals, and for when the kids wet the bed. If they do wet the bed, (it's pretty rare), but if I'm too tired to do much, I grab a chucks pad and they sleep on that.

Anyway, cloth diapers are out. I ended up with a miyo baby hammock, that's in the bedroom. My frozen condoms are in the freezer, aloe and witch hazel in the fridge (favorites for healing). Gatorade is on hand along with lots of bottled water. I usually make cookies for the midwife, but this will be too fast for much snacking. Birthing combs are by the bed and my finger is poised over the hot tub buttons to get it warmed up. Is that all? Hope so.

Oh yeah, I hate disposable pads. I use them for a day or two, then I turn to cotton. My photo on this blog are some of my homemade cotton pads. LOVE these! You can google luna pads or cotton menstrual pads and there are lots for sale out there. What I do after the birth is put a dark bucket of water by my toilet. As I soak my pads, I throw them in the wet bucket and then this gets sloshed into the washing machine every couple of days. The pads I made have a holder that buttons around the panties and then removable "liners". If it's a heavy day, I can use two liners, if it's light, I use one. So I have lots more liners than holders. Like my cotton breastpads, I really enjoy these.

O.k. So, the house is ready, I'm ready, and God's strengthened me for the task. So looking forward to meeting this one!