Things I wish I had done differently during this pregnancy and birth:
1. I wish I had done my bellycasting sooner. I had everything on hand and had planned on doing the bellycast some time during the 38th week. Well, that obviously did not happen!
2. Ditto on taking artistic pregnancy pictures. I have weekly pictures of my growing belly, but nothing more aesthetic.
3. Next time, I will be more pro-active in treating my perineum and vaginal area after the birth. I had some pretty serious swelling and pain, and I realize now I should have started ice packs and warm herbal baths right away. I didn’t do any of these things until the fourth day after the birth.
4. Made sure our camera was on the right setting (5 megapixels). It was on a very low resolution when Eric snapped the picture of me and Zari immediately after she was born. I am sad because it is too grainy for anything but a very small print. I don’t suppose there’s a magic way to remedy this...anyone?
Things I am very glad I did:
1. Read Jack Newman’s Ultimate Breastfeeding Book of Answers about 2 times from cover to cover, and watched several video clips on his website. I firmly believe that educating myself before the birth enabled breastfeeding go without a hitch. Knowing exactly what a good latch looks and feels like, and how to get it right, made all the difference.
2. Bought a fetoscope. Eric and I enjoyed listening to the baby’s heart beat, and when I had occasional “hmmmm, I haven’t felt the baby move in a while” moments, I could reassure myself that the baby was fine. The best $13 I ever spent. I didn’t use it all during labor though, nor was I planning to. The thought crossed my mind once, but as the intensity mounted, I didn’t think of it again.
3. Had a 12-day "babymoon" before I allowed any visitors (my mom) to come. It was a magical time, with just me, Eric, and the new baby. We spent most of the time upstairs in our master suite. Eric brought the laptop up, and we ate our meals on my sewing table. Church members supplied most of our dinners during that time, so Eric only had minimal cooking duties. Then, right when I was starting to feel a little stir-crazy, my mom arrived. It was perfect.
Ditto on number 3 in the first section...I too waited until about day 4 to even pay attention to that area. I had done some herbal stuff though as a precaution but I didn't look or do anything really proactive until day 4.
ReplyDeleteI also didn't take many artistic belly shots, though I did paint my belly like a pumpkin for Halloween and there are pictures of that.
On the picture of you and Zari, how many DPI is the photo and what are the dimensions in pixels?
768 x 1024 pixels
ReplyDelete300 pixels/inch
it makes an okay 4x6, but anything bigger really looks pixellated.
Email it to me at hothorrorharlot at AOL dot COM and I'll see what I can do. I have to do a lot of photo work with much less to work with for clients all the time so it's worth a try. =)
ReplyDeleteI'm jealous that you got near 12 days of food. Our ward has a 3 meal limit. It's nice of them to pre-determine our needs, huh?
ReplyDeleteWell, I think the reasoning is that if someone got 10 meals and someone else got 5, there would be some issues of jealousy, but still.