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Natural Birth
legaleagles
member
Three weeks to go and haven't been practicing
legaleagles
member
DH and I took a bradley class with every intention of being the best students. Then we bought a house and moved about 2 weeks ago. We've been working feverishly to get the nursery ready and unpack the rest of the house. We haven't been doing anything to get ready for labor - not practicing our relaxation techniques, not doing perineal massage, don't have my bag packed, nothing. And now I'm a little panicked.
I had all these plans to start EPO and raspberry leaf tea, but I can't even find all my notes.
Please tell me we have some time (I mean I could go into labor tomorrow, but probably wont) to refresh ourselves if we make a committment.
And as far as EPO and tea - what doses should I be taking and how often?
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Re: Three weeks to go and haven't been practicing
congrats on the purchase!
i would stop working on the house and work on your preparations for labor instead. the house can wait, labor won't! newborns sleep 16-20hrs/day the first few weeks. you should be sleeping much of that time too, but you'll have time to get things orderly. and if you are planning to keep baby in your room for a little while, the nursery can also wait!
you can start taking 500mg of EPO orally now. you can insert the same amount vaginally beginning at 38 weeks. mixed reviews on doing this though. i did. i figured it wouldn't hurt.
you should drink several cups of RRL tea/day. i added a little peppermint and honey to mine.
set aside an hour a day to practice your relaxation techniques and talk about labor preparations. putting your bag together shouldn't take more than 30 min to do.
good luck, mama!
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
I'm leaving work early today and will pick up the EPO and tea and start those up.
I've got my list together for the bag and we'll plan to pack it this weekend (and install the car seat).
I emailed DH and we'll start reviewing the techniques each night. The house can wait - and my ILs will be in town for way too long and I'm happy to delegate some tasks to them.
The baby will be with us in our room for a while and we're picking up a cosleeper from a friend on Sunday.
I think I may have just needed a little pep talk - so thank you for that.
it's so easy to get caught up in life and then you look up and CRAP! baby is on its way! great that your ILs can help with the house. delegating house chores was not something i was comfortable wtih, but i got better at it with #2. LOL!
talking about the techniques is almost as good as actually practicing them. you can also visualize them any time! creating that image in your head and seeing it over and over again helps build neural pathways --- it's almost as good as if you'd actually done it since the brain then recognizes it as an action rather than a thought.
one of my regrets from my first labor is not spending enough time preparing for labor (the other was not having a doula), which ended in c/s. i made up for it by being super prepared the second time!
my other advice is to find time to sleep and relax in these last few weeks. work from home, if that's an option, as much as you can. walk 30min a day, especially in the last week...helps to drop the baby and get baby in an ideal position for easy labor. walk even if it puts pressure on your cervix and is a little uncomfortable...you are most likely shortening your labor if you are feeling that much pressure on your cervix.
and finally, don't forget to talk to your baby and have a discussion about how you want labor to go. your baby can hear you!
Thank you so much for the tips, I really appreciate it!