All Things Natural: 30 Weeks & Whole30

Now 30 weeks pregnant, we're starting to prepare to do things naturally around here...

First the latest photo though...  Baby Kissinger looking good, weighing in around 3.5 lbs and 36 cm long.  Everything looking very "nice" as my doctor put it!

I'll have one more visit with my doctor at 36 weeks and then I'll start going weekly to the hospital until the baby arrives.  Which brings us to our first "natural" item:

Natural child birth!

From what I've gathered so far -- when I arrive at the hospital (it's about 20 minutes from our home), I'll go to a room with my assigned midwife, a birthing ball, essential oils, and possibly a tub for a water birth.  Apparently some form of an epidural is available here, but they aren't the norm and definitely aren't encouraged.  The midwives will help me through my labor and the on-call doctor will be present for the delivery. 

This will *hopefully* be my first natural child birth, so I am starting to mentally and physically prepare.  Brian and I took the 10-week course for The Bradley Method of Husband-Coached Natural Childbirth when I was pregnant with Ellie, but that went about as well as him trying to teach me how to drive a manual car.  That ended with with one of the TOR Sisters teaching me to drive instead, because I found it much harder to yell at a nun ;)  This time around, I'm hoping that with the expert midwives encouragement - and Brian's loving presence from the sidelines - I will have this baby naturally.

I'm reading Ina May's Guide to Childbirth and just ordered Penny Simkin's The Birth Partner.  I'd love to find an English/German speaking doula in the area, but not sure if that will become a reality.  (I hear the midwives are so great here though, that a doula really may not be as necessary as it would in the States).  I'm open to hearing any encouraging natural birthing stories - so feel free to share with me!!      

30 weeks

Our second natural item is eating more naturally, so during Lent we're embarking on the "Whole30" eating program.  The goal is to eat natural, real, unprocessed, nutrient-dense food!  So yes to meat, seafood, eggs, vegetables, fruits, and natural fats.  NO to sugar, alcohol, grains, legumes, and dairy.  It is safe to do Whole30 while pregnant, I may just be doing more mini-meals instead of 3 large meals with no snacks.  I'm pretty nervous about no sugar and no pasta - but psyched to do it for the health of the baby.  The program's motto is: "It's not hard.  Don't you dare tell us this is hard.  Beating cancer is hard.  Birthing a baby is hard.  Losing a parent is hard.  Drinking your coffee black. Is. Not. Hard."  So it looks like I'll be doing at least one hard thing in the coming months...

But when we start Whole30 it'll be Lent, so good time to sacrifice.  However, due to the fact Brian is in Italy with the students during the first couple days of Lent, we'll be officially starting on the first Sunday of Lent.  We'll finish before our anniversary, Easter, my birthday, Francis' birthday, Brian's birthday and the baby's due date - which are all in a two-and-a-half week span!!

Again, any encouraging Whole30/eating naturally food stories - feel free to share!  

This week we did some healthier grocery shopping and tried out a few Whole30-approved recipes including these yummy stuffed peppers.  (Um but yeah, I totally ate my second pepper over pasta the following day for lunch - followed up by a few chocolate chip cookies...so I've got some work to do!)

Finally, in the category of natural things, remains Francis' hair.  I've continued to trim his bangs when it gets in his eyes - but other than that, his beautiful, natural curls remain intact :)

Have a great day!  Oh, and naturally, God bless!