wondering if I can breathe this baby out

Throughout my pregnancy I’ve always looked at least a month earlier in my pregnancy than I am. Maybe its cause I’m tall and have a long back – who knows, but the baby always weighs and measure correct for her dates even though my tummy looks small, so I don’t worry even though the occasional stranger will gasp when I tell them how far along I am “you’re so small!”. Just today a shopkeeper asked if I was ‘sure’ when I said I was 35 weeks. The weight is definitely starting to pile on, and at 35 weeks our little girl is 5lbs 8oz. I can’t believe it, she weighs more than monkey #1 did when he came out at 36.5 weeks.

I had an ultrasound on Tuesday and all was fine. I must admit, it was a bit freaky to know that this little girl is already growing at a faster rate than Preston. Hmmm…the technician said as long as monkey #2 didn’t come early I would be back for another ultrasound in a couple of weeks. Really? I’m not sure if it’s because I missed out on those final weeks of pregnancy with Preston or because I am birthing in the US where everyone in the healthcare sector seems to double and triple check their work – but I only had 2 ultrasounds throughout my entire healthy pregnancy with Preston in New Zealand. The last one was at 26 weeks.

So I’m wondering, will I be able to breathe this baby out the way I did Preston? Imagine I go back in a couple of weeks and the ultrasound shows the baby is weighing 10 lbs and has a head the size of a cantaloupe. I’m not sure this kinda news wouldn’t cause me a bit of distress. No wonder women opt for c-sections before they even get in the delivery room. To each his own I say, but I don’t really want to know what I’m working with on the big day in terms of weight. Let’s just get through it and celebrate that I did it after.

I’m hoping to go as natural as possible with this birth. I’ve been reading up on Hypnobirthing and Big Monkey has been helping me with self-hypnosis, breathing and relaxation techniques. I’m hoping if I set my intention and be prepared as I can be, then that’s all that I can do.

With Preston, my midwife said I ‘breathed him out’. Apart from nitrous oxide, massage and support from Big Monkey and breathing techniques was how I managed pain. I’m hoping that minus the nitrous, I should still be able to get through the grunting and pushing. What do you think? Maybe I breathed Preston out cause he was just a squidge over 5lbs, or maybe it was because I’d been practicing Bikram Yoga up until about 3 weeks before I gave birth. In any case, the circumstances are different, and this baby is definitely going to be bigger.

I wish I’d had the opportunity to take a Hypnobirthing class, but hey why not teach myself self-hypnosis with the help of the ‘official’ book and Google…bigger goals and questions than this have been achieved and answered through Google, right?